MARIAN HORVAT has an interesting review at Tradition in Action of The Red Queen, an historical novel by Philippa Gregory about Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII. Ms. Gregory is a feminist revisionist. She “does not like the devout Lady Margaret Beaufort, and so she depicts her as a bitter, scheming and pharisaical woman who pretends to follow the “will of God” – so long as it corresponds to her own.” Gregory accuses Lady Beaufort of the murders of the famous sons of Edward IV, who disappeared while imprisoned in the Tower of London, an accusation which has no historical foundation.

Dr. Horvat writes:

From the novel’s opening, Gregory pretends to go into the mind of Margaret, attributing to her a feminist spirit in revolt against authority. She is presented as revolted against her mother, who denies her affection and only considers her a piece on the political chessboard to produce a male heir for the Lancaster line. She is pictured as resentful because as a girl she was denied a Latin tutor. She fumes because her lot is to be strategically “wedded and bedded” and she has no “choice”. In short, she revolts against the place of women in the home and society. It is also insinuated that her real revolt is against God and the order he placed in the universe.

Twice divorced Gregory instills Lady Margaret with her own feminist inclinations

She wants to be great, “chosen by God” like Joan of Arc and, and so she immerses herself in devotions and prayer. But her piety is pretense; she uses the will of God as a way to affirm her own will in all matters.

First, this depiction of the spirit of the times is all wrong. Gregory is imbuing the 14th century Queen with 20th century feminism. The woman’s revolution, however, did not exist in that time. Margaret’s seething anger at being a woman and denied a “career” and “choice” are simply ludicrous, invented by Gregory, who cannot imagine women could willingly submit to the authority of their parents, husbands and God.

Gregory imposes her own modern sentiments on her personage, presenting Margaret as a “victim” of a supposed chauvinism of the time. The author thus pretends that we can pity Margaret and “understand” her hypocrisy and self-righteousness, even if we do not like her.

—— Comments ——

Daniel S. writes:

You wrote:

Ms. Gregory is a feminist revisionist. She “does not like the devout Lady Margaret Beaufort, and so she depicts her as a bitter, scheming and pharisaical woman who pretends to follow the “will of God” – so long as it corresponds to her own.”

Yet again, more evidence that feminism is an ideology spawned from pure ressentiment (I prefer the French word here, as it carries a stronger meaning than its English equivalent). It is in no way life affirming and possessing any loftiness of soul. What is worse is that these feminist-nihilists, who hate the good, the true, and the beautiful, seek to drag anyone or anything that points to Transcendence down into the their hateful, accursed swamp out of malice and jealousy.

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