Tomorrow night on the White Queen we head towards coronations and christenings.  Being gorgeous and landing a king is one thing, hanging on to him is another however much in love he might be.

Rule number one for any queen was to start producing babies.  It had been a big problem for the English royals in the century before Elizabeth and Edward took over.  Richard II had ruled for twenty two years and married twice but there was no one to succeed him and his cousin, Henry IV, stole his throne.  Henry had a stable of sons and daughters but his eldest boy, Henry V, had had just one son before his early death.  And that child, Henry VI, had just one son as well, Edward.

All Elizabeth had to do was produce boys and lots of them and she would hold all the cards.  It will be interesting to see how The White Queen tackles this because it took the new queen almost two years to have a baby - not helped by hubby being away on a regular basis fighting to keep his throne - and it was a girl.   She didn't produce the longed for male heir for five and a half years - by which time Edward was fighting for his throne again. 

Historians argue this shows a real love for the queen by the king - after a series of girls he could quite easily have asked for an annulment as the marriage was so secretive and with plenty of questions raised over it already.  But he kept his queen and she kept her bargain with three sons born to the royal couple in time.

Later episodes will feature them - and the tragic story of the Princes in the Tower.  But for now, the question is why the White Queen kept her crown when she took so long to have a boy.