The Kingmaker's Daughter becomes her father's child

The White Queen, the Red Queen and the Kingmaker's Daughter are the three novels on which this TV series is based. And while the Kingmaker himself came and went without showing us why he was so important and powerful, his youngest girl this week made a king all of her own.  Anne the wimp, manipulated into marriage by daddy and left to die on a battlefield by mummy, turned into a terrifying monster of a wife who was determined to place a crown on her own and her husband's heads. 

What Anne wants, Anne gets - the Kingmaker's daughter made herself a queen this week

Anne Neville came into her own in this episode.  Sadly, it was so far removed from the personality she'd displayed in the last seven installments that it was like watching a different character.  Gone was the nervous, good hearted but ambitious girl of the show so far and in her place a strange Victorian governess who spent every waking moment pushing her husband to become king.  It was all very bizarre but ultimately far more engaging than the weeks of whining we've had to endure from Elizabeth.

Back to the action which all started with the moment we've all been waiting for - Edward and Elizabeth looked slightly older.  Hoorah!  After 19 years and endless wars, fights, children and weeping they aged. Only marginally but it was still a vast improvement on the 25 year old king and queen who have been marauding through medieval England without a care or a grey hair for the last seven weeks.  Elizabeth showed she was older by putting on a version of mum Jacquetta's woolly cardigan thing and trying out her bun hairstyle.  Edward got a rather shaggy beard and very heavy eye make up before retreating under a pile of furs to die.

 

Old after his time - at last Max Irons looked like a tired out king rather than a reality show pop star

Presumably someone remembered to bury Edward IV because within moments of the rather touching last scene between this conqueror of a king and his commoner queen, the epic fight for the English crown was on and the programme was running out of logic quicker than you can say 'prepare my best horses'.  Again.  The best horses were prepared a lot this week as people hurried all over England capturing princes and sending for ministers.  Richard called and recalled parliament every time he had dinner and the previously unseen Lord Brackenbury cropped up every five minutes with a set of knights in chainmail to arrest people, search buildings and throw fallen women onto the streets of London.

 

Lord Brackenbury is as confused about how he ended up in this episode as everyone else

While the sense of urgency and the rapid turn of events that swirled around the death of the king and the succession of his 12 year old son were well conveyed, by the middle of the episode no one seemed to have the slightest idea of what was going on.  Richard kept saying he only wanted to carry out his brother's wishes and make Prince Edward king before looking off to the side in a pantomime style grimace which may or may not mean he's up to no good.  He's certainly no good at plotting behind people's back as on more than one occasion he dismissed an adviser and stated his good intentions towards the boy king only to whisper something dastardly to his wife or mother while said adviser was still in ear shot.

 

Shifty eyes and overloud whispering - Richard, the would be king, was less than subtle about his ambitions

 

Richard and Anne don't look a day older than they did at the start of this - it must have been one of the benefits of being king and queen at this time, not ageing a second in 19 years.  But one character has aged and left us all wishing he hadn't.  Henry Tudor is now a man and looking almost as old as his mother, mad Margaret Beaufort.  But while Maggie's madness is channeled towards being king, Henry's hubris involved some bad play fighting in a forest and a rather scary conversation with uncle Jasper Tudor on a boat bound for England.  There's something unstable and frightening about this version of the first Tudor king and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the next two weeks.

 

 

Margaret's in for a shock when she meets her son again - he's older than her now



 

But this is history told through the women who lived it but who were trimmed from the official version all those centuries ago.  Elizabeth spent most of the episode in sanctuary arguing with another Elizabeth, her daughter who has been barely seen and heard until now but who needs to start building her part up as the end of the tale is all down to her.  And the appearance of this young girl started to make The White Queen herself interesting again.  This princess questions her mother's motives and even claimed at the end that the queen loves the crown more than her children.  A bit of grit and ambition is what this consort has been missing all the way through.

 

 

Elizabeth could be about to bare her teeth - and about time too

 

But it was Margaret who continued to steal the show.  It was pushing things to have her cropping up anywhere and everywhere but the way that she and third husband, Lord Stanley, are pulling strings to get her Henry on the throne is magnificent.  Amanda Hale and Rupert Graves are stealing this series from under the noses of every other character.  No wonder the Tudors ended up ruling England - no one would bet against Margaret on any day of the week.

 

 



My money's on Margaret - the mad mother made great strides in her plans to put her son on the throne of England

 

It's all set up nicely to examine one of the biggest mysteries in English history.  The princes are in the tower and we know they don't get out, at least not as Edward V and Richard, Duke of York.  But with enemies on every side, who do the uncrowned kings have most to fear from in The White Queen?

 

The White Queen is on BBC One on Sundays and starts on Starz on August 10th 2013.  All photos from the BBC.