Epitaph for Three Women

by Jean Plaidy

Book Overview

On the death of Henry the fifth, a nine-month-old baby is made King of England. Ambitious men surround the baby king, including his two uncles, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. Shrewd and clever,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399127828
• ISBN13: 9780399127823
• Release Date: December 1983
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Beginning of the End

This story is told in three parts from the points of view of three different woman, Joan of Arc, Catherine of Valois and Eleanor of Gloucester. All of these women have a very important part of play if their part of history. Many of us already know the story of Joan of Arc and Plaidy tells her story from the very beginning until her tragic end. She gives Joan a saintly face. You feel as if you know that Joan was visited by God and He told her to rescue France from England. You even find yourself rooting for France to win. You want to cry when she comes to her end and you feel bad knowing that she wasn't a witch. However there wasn't anything new here for me to learn about Joan of Arc, but the tale was very well told. Catherine of Valois is 100% human. Told to marry Henry V of England, the man who basically invaded and took her, it becomes something of a love match. She kind of glides through life at court with little care, but underneath has worries like any other woman of her time. She fears for her family, her husband, her son and eventually her second husband and resulting children. You find yourself hoping she'll be happy in the end in a time when nothing is certain. I read The Queen's Secret: A Novel (A Queens of England Novel) and that book was really an expanded version of this section of the book, and both are well worth reading. This is an often overlooked queen of England and it makes no sense that she should be. The third part of the book is focused on Eleanor of Gloucester. She's be the sinner of the book. There was nothing that I liked or admired about her in anyway and that's how Plaidy wanted it I guess. She's the bookend to Joan of Arc. I had no idea that she even existed before reading this book. She, and he husband Humphrey, schemed and plotted to rule England with some success, but nothing lasting and that is what one should be grateful for. She provides a lot of the intrigue for Catherine and the book and it was interesting to read about someone who wasn't royal.

The Queen, The Saint, and The Sinner

This is the first Jean Plaidy Plantangenet novel that I have gotten my hands on. Now I will deffinately go back and read all the novels in the series. This book has perked my interest. Ever since my first Tudor novel I have always wanted to learn more about the couple who started it all; The Welsh servant Owen Tudor and the widowed French Queen of England Katherine of Valois. A true life fairy tale romance that ended sadly. There is also Saint Joan of Arc. Being a female soldier in the US Army she is one of my patron saints (along with the Archangel Saint Micheal). I loved her story as well. Then there is Eleanor of Gloucester, the opposite of a Saint, but just as powerful in her own way, making her story just as intriguing. I never even heard of this woman before I read this book. I love it when I learn new details here and there while reading a great book from a great author. Jean Plaidy is and has been one of my favorites. I could not put this book down often. I even brought it too work with me, hiding in one of our ambulances to read it undisturbed. I finished it in one day. :-)

Three women...ambitious, virtous and serene.

Jean Plaidy never disappoints when she weaves her magic into the stories of long ago. Epitaph For Three Women is another of her fine works of art. Katherine of Valois, married to Henry V, is a new widow with a the young Henry VI to bring to the throne. While she lives contented she soon finds love with a Welsh squire by the name of Owen Tudor. She and Owen have such a pure love and they wed in secret, just before a law passes stating that no woman of nobility can marry below her rank. And Katherine is with child. Her dreams of happiness have finally come true, until her secret is finally out... Joan of Arc...Wow! What a human being! She had such devotion to God that He gives her a task: to save France from the English. And Joan (or Jeanette in her native French) does so with great strife and struggle. She was visited by St. Catherine, St. Margaret and the Archangel Michael who gave her strength in her times of utter despair. And even when the French King turned his back on her (after she led the French army in a battle to have him crowned in Rheims) she was still devoted to him in every way. She was soon captured by the English and burned at the stake as a witch. But they clearly burned a saint. All this before she even reached 20! Eleanor of Gloucester was just a peasant girl who had high ambitions. The Duke of Gloucester fell under her 'love spell.' Eleanor was a great believer in witchcraft and with the help of a certain 'witch' she was soon married to the most powerful man in England, aside from the King. Unfortunately, her ambitions would in the end bring on her demise as well as others around her. She never would bear the child she so longed for and her hopes of doing away with the young King would amount to nothing. Epitaph For Three Women is an exceptional piece of work. Jean Plaidy was a master at bringing the early 15th century to life and once again, I was swept away!

should be epitaph for 2 women and 1" just desserts"

This had to be the saddest so far of the Plantagenet Saga - even all the earlier story were sad nothing is as sad as Joan of Arc and Katharine of Valois. I did not know that the English was responsible for the death of Joan of Arc. She was surely a remarkable young woman and very important to the French people trying to win the war. Her life and death galvanized the French people. They couldn't lose after her saintly death. Shame on the English! The second woman was Katharine of Valois who was the widow of Henry the 5th. When Henry died his son Henry (VI) was only nine months old. Katharine was happy being able to take care of the baby King but of course one day as it is with all boy Kings they must go and be trained by men. It made Katharine sad but she had a good friend, the Squire Owen Tudor, who helped her get through it. Of course they fall deeply in love and get secretly married. They are left alone happy for a long time, long enough for them to have 4 children. When it was found out that Owen and Katharine were married, Owen was arrested and the children were taken away and Katharine was sent to a convent, supposedly for her health. She is so broken hearted that she eventually dies the same day that Owen breaks out of prison to come and get her. I cried for both women, it was so tragic. Now, the just desserts. The third woman was Eleanor of Gloucester who was married to Henry VI's uncle. He was second to the throne should Henry die without a heir. Eleanor was doing everything in her power to make sure that that was going to happen even going so far as seeking help from a witch and soothsayers. The witch and soothsayers eventually are arrested and the authorities find evidence that someone had hired them to help get rid of the King. It finally comes out that it is Eleanor of Gloucester - thus begins her downfall. All the accompliances are sentenced to death but because Eleanor is "royalty" she is sent away to a castle imprisoned for the rest of her life. Terrible for her because she lived for the intrigue and the Court. Hence, just desserts. This book was great, it can stand by itself but is better understood as part of the series.