The White Duchess - The White Queen

Westminster Palace, London, England, Summer 1460

In June Edward leaves us. It is the start of the summer and the greenest easiest month of the year. He kisses me and gives our daughters his love before he goes out on campaign. Both him and I have only recently turned 20 years old and yet with three children and another on the way we find ourselves fighting a war for our very survival. I wait anxiously in Calais before the best news possible arrives.

They land in Kent, which is smart. A decade ago the country was turned upside down by rebellion from a person who named himself as Jack Cade. His rebellion, which had been against the corruption at the king's court had been put down by a slaughter. The queen had requested that Kent be turned into a deer park and the people of the area had not forgotten her slight or the harvest of heads that she had ordered in revenge. They supply York with an army and then Edward, Salisbury, Warwick, Tudor, Brouchier, John Neville, Howard, and my old servant Baron Wenlock march towards London. Soon enough they are inside the city walls.

It is the best news that anybody can give me. Most of the lords, who have been receiving letters from me flock to the York standard, bringing with them their private armies and an amount of men that I could've only dreamed of a few months ago. Arundel, Kent, Pembroke, they all make their way to London in support. Even one of the Duke of Buckingham's sons, Robert, comes after his father announces that he shall not give the boy his inheritance and shall split it all on his three older sons. It is an injustice he cannot face and so his coat turns to York.

London gives us stability. We have taken back the English capital and in the bright side, we were also able to free Edwards mother, Cecily Neville and Warwick's mother, Alice Montagu, Who had both been forced to live in the city under constant surveillance by the queen. It gives us a look at power. Shows the world that we are yet again ready to fight for England.

Once London is secured I waste no time in Calais. I immediately gather my ladies as well as Anne, Margaret, and Claire and we make our way across the channel. When we arrive in London Edward says that the people cheered louder for us than they did for them.

"God save the Good Duchess!"

"Her Grace, the Duchess Elizabeth!"

"God bless the daughters of York!"

It is better than any of us could've hoped for. Then I receive news from the north from messengers I have paid but the Duke of York is planning to land with his son. 

And better yet, after that I receive a letter from Jacquetta. She tells me that the court is still in Coventry and that the queen has made the Duke of Buckingham commander of the kings armies while the king is taken out of his monastic retreat to fly to Royal standard, which flaps miserably in the wet weather of the Midlands. This time however, nobody desserts before I blow his truck because they cannot bear to attack the kings personal standard. No powerful lords abandon New York army this time. We are strong, and we are united. There will be no peace. It cannot be done. The York lords send personal messages to the king and the Duke of Buckingham intercept them, as if he were the kings private secretary and not the commander of his armies. I know that York will not settle for less than the queen being removed from a place of influence by the King and goodbyes replace in the bad ones which has led the country into unrest. The queen will also have no compromise. She wants to see us dead. She wants to see my daughter skilled and myself exiled or put to death.

"That will never happen!" My father declares after Queen Margaret since one of her threatening letters. "I'll have her body chopped into pieces and thrown into the river before she lays a hand on my daughter or grandchildren!"

"I've never seen you so angry father," I remarked to him.

"No fool has ever been so stupid as to threaten my family," he tells me sternly.