History was written by the men, but women played their own roles, if not more than the men.

Sisters of Richard III Plantagenet Daughters of York by Sarah Hodder is a non-fiction book that focus on three women who were players in the War of the Roses. Anne of York, Elizabeth of York (not to be confused with Princess Elizabeth of York, who became the Tudor Queen), and Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy were the sisters of two kings, aunts to (possibly) two kings, and great Aunt to a third.

Margaret of Burgundy is the more well known sister of the three, having been married by her brother Edward IV to the Duke of Burgundy, despite (or in spite depending on how you look at it) the wishes of the Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker. She advocated for the rights of York from afar, and when her brother Richard III was toppled at the battle of Bosworth, she took the charge against Henry VII, sending multiple (maybe even real) “nephews” against the king to restore York to the throne. She had a hand in the marriage of her step daughter, helped rule the duchy for many years, and held her own against the male rulers of the day. Both Anne and Elizabeth of York married nobles who were loyal to their brother Edward IV, and lived out their lives as players in his court and then that of Richard III, and then tried to survive the reign of the first Tudor king.

While this is not the fault of the author in anyway, it is hard to write a book on women on who there is not full documentation on their lives from start to finish. All three women were born in a time where woman were lucky to even have their death date recorded, and certainly not their birth. Many women have been lost to time, finding themselves recorded in history on a slat of stone with the date of death and their relationship to a man as the only proof they lived. And so, in writing a novel about these three women, it is inevitable that a majority of their stories focus on the men who their lives focused on. Hodder did a wonderful job with the material she had available, and the book does not read like some stiff history text book. She gives life to these women, and makes me want to know more about them.

Thank you so much to Pen & Sword Publishing and NetGalley for the E-ARC.

I love this period of time and loved reading more about the sisters of Richard III, the king who seemed to be cursed due to the lost Princes in the Tour. I enjoyed the well written and told story of his sisters as they went onto become well known women in history, powerful women especially Maggie who became Queen of Scotland - someone I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of.

A fanastic journey into the past with Sarah's storytelling of a period after The War of the Roses or the Hundred Years War before the Tudors came along.