A widowed Elizabeth also returns with her children, and petitions the new King Edward IV for the return of her lands. A defeated Margaret is forced to flee to France, and Jacquetta returns to Grafton manor.
Margaret becomes Queen Militant and raises armies to fight in her husband's name, including an army of Scots to fight the Yorkists, which makes her even more unpopular with the people. When the King eventually awakens, the country is plunged into civil war between Lancaster and York led by Richard of York. After the King slips into a coma, Jacquetta is a constant companion to the pregnant Queen and remains by her side for the next few years. Margaret becomes frustrated with her husband and when she eventually becomes pregnant, it is strongly implied that the baby has actually been fathered by Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset. They rely heavily on the advice of favourites and lavish wealth and titles on them, including Richard and Jacquetta. Soon after their marriage, however, the royal couple become increasingly unpopular and there are several uprisings. Once Jacquetta and Richard are forgiven and allowed back to court, the pair become close companions of the young king Henry VI and his new French bride Margaret of Anjou, a kinswoman of Jacquetta's. Exiled from court in disgrace, Jacquetta and Richard soon have their first child, Elizabeth. Returning to England, they marry in secret before the king can remarry her to someone else. She and the Duke's handsome squire Richard Woodville realize that they have fallen in love and become lovers. He later dies and leaves Jacquetta a wealthy widow at 20. On their wedding night, however, the Duke explains that he wishes to keep her a virgin so that she may use the powers of her family in their purest form in his alchemical experiments seeking the ability to turn iron into gold. Three years later at age 17, Jacquetta is given in marriage to John, Duke of Bedford, the uncle to King Henry VI and the English regent in France. Jacquetta befriends Joan of Arc, who is a prisoner at her uncle's castle, but later watches in horror as Joan is burned at the stake by the English-backed church. Plot įourteen-year-old Jacquetta, whose noble family claims descendance from the water goddess Melusine, learns the secrets of her inherited powers from her great-aunt Jehanne, the Demoiselle of Luxembourg. The novel serves as a prequel to Gregory's The White Queen (2009), the story of Elizabeth's reign as Queen consort of England. The story is narrated by Jacquetta of Luxembourg, mother of Elizabeth Woodville, and covers the reign of the Lancastrian King Henry VI. The Lady of the Rivers is a 2011 historical novel by Philippa Gregory, part of her series The Cousins' War.
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