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DESCRIPTION

While history books have favored her siblings’ legitimacy, squabbles, and eventual rule, Winter Crowns’ The Neapolitan Rose offers a fresh perspective on Beatrice Plantagenet, Queen of Naples. The only daughter of King Edward IV of England and Lianor of Portugal, Beatrice was the eldest of her siblings to survive to adulthood. After a childhood in a fractured English court, she was married to John Valois, the Duke of Burgundy. Their marriage was short-lived and produced no children. Three years after his death, in a shocking turn of events, the widowed Beatrice was married to young King Ferdinand of Naples. Their marriage produced several children and the crowning pillar of their reign was the unification of the Italian States. Letters unearthed from the historical archives in Naples reveal how the then-dowager Duchess of Burgundy pursued the young Neapolitan king and further correspondence with her son, King Ferrante II, makes it obvious just how much he depended upon her counsel.

PART I: CHILDHOOD

Birth

Family Life

Arthur’s Death

Notable visits to Portugal

Betrothal to John Valois, Duke of Burgundy

PART II: MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN BURGUNDY

Wedding Ceremony

The Duke and Duchess

Burgundian Politics

Death of Queen Lianor

Travel to England for King Edward’s Second Marriage

English Politics // Thomas Plantagenet’s Legitimization

PART III: RETURN TO ENGLAND

Death of John Valois

Queen Isabel’s Court

Family Life

The Lisbon Summit

Visit to Castile // Affair with King Alfonso

Battle of the Plantagenets // Harry vs. Thomas 

PART IV: QUEEN OF NAPLES

The Parisian Sanctification

Letters between Ferdinand and Beatrice

Betrothal

Wedding and Coronation

Neapolitan Politics

Italian Unification

Children and Family Life

Ferdinand’s Death // Beatrice’s Regency

PART V: RETIREMENT FROM PUBLIC LIFE

King Ferrante II

Leaving Naples

Life in Thomas Plantagenet’s Household

Death and Burial