Scandalous Women

  ( Janet McTeer as Jacquetta in The White Queen ) If you have been watching Philippa Gregory’s THE WHITE QUEEN on Starz no doubt you are captivated by Janet McTeer’s performance as Jacquetta Woodville, Elizabeth Woodville’s mother.   Since the series starts when Elizabeth meets and marries the Queen, the audience is only privy to Jacquetta’s story through dialogue and her interaction with other characters.   Jacquetta’s story, however, is interesting in its own right.   Elizabeth Woodville would never have thought she could aim so high as to marry the King of England if she hadn’t had the example of her parents’ marriage before her. If a mere knight could marry the widow of a royal duke, brother and uncle of a king, then nothing was out of the realm of possibility. Jacquetta managed not only marry for love which was almost unheard of in the 15 th century, but she also managed to thrive and survive not only under the Lancastrians but under the Yorks as well. If th...

Lady Margaret Beaufort has always been sort of a cipher to me, not quite as knowable as either Elizabeth Woodville or Marguerite of Anjou.   Perhaps that’s because she was never a Queen, but the mother of a King. She wasn’t royal, although she was descended from royalty.   Her son, Henry Tudor, by rights, should never have become King. Margaret, with her deep faith, believed that it was always God’s plan that Henry should be king.   In the BBC 1/Starz miniseries, she’s played by actress Amanda Hale with a furrowed brow and a fierce expression.   In her only scene in the first episode, she wears a red dress and chastises Jacquetta Woodville for her daughter’s marriage to the Yorkist king.   Reading about her life, I found a much more fascinating woman.   Throughout her life, Margaret took matters into her own hands, whether it was finding a husband or safeguarding and protecting the interests of her son.   She was genuinely pious, extremely clever, and ...