Red Queen, White Queen

History remembers King Henry I as the monarch who never smiled after the loss of the White Ship, but his two wives have faded into an undeserved obscurity. This is their story--the story of Editha, the red queen, and Adelicia, the white.Editha, the headstrong daughter of a warrior and a saint, is forced into a convent during her girlhood but her love for Henry triumphs over all attempts to make her take the veil. Her marriage, however, marks not the end but the beginning of a long and varied career. Editha is haunted by the missing piece of an old chess-set, and the launching of the Nef Blanche marks the emergence of that white queen into a Court filed with the echoes of the red one.The relationship between the two queens reflects the struggle between the old barbaric ways and the more civilizing influences coming to bear upon the mingled races of Saxon and Norman.