The White Countess - The White Queen
Elisabetta "Eliza" de' Medici is only 13 years old when she becomes one of the most important people in Europe. The death of her mother leaves her the heir apparent to the Duchy of Burgundy, and her father's inability to care for her after the death of his beloved wife makes her future uncertain. Many see the young Eliza as a pawn for political gain, but the strategic, smart, and compassionate girl is determined to make her own way in the world. Eliza is forced to confront reality however, when her father's parenting incapacity convinces him to send his daughter to England under the care of her great uncle, King Henry VI, and his wife, Queen Margaret of Anjou, where she is quickly made the heir to the throne by the childless couple. Doted on by the queen, and cared for by a distant cousin Jacquetta Woodville, Eliza comes to consider England her home and begins to love the people she will one day rule over. Everything changes just a few months later when King Henry falls ill with a serious illness. When the physicians claim insanity a new faction, one that is against her great aunt to the queen, take power. The new faction, the York's, quickly separate Eliza from the people she has come to consider her family as the king and queen are moved into virtual exile at Windsor Castle during his illness and Eliza is left in the care of people that she neither knows nor trusts. As Eliza is tossed into this complicated new world she must learn to navigate her feelings and decide her loyalties as her love for a certain York Earl and what she feels is best for the country, collide with the love of the family that she has known and the loyalties of her past.
