With only minor changes this could be a five star narrative history. With name and setting changes a five star work of complex political fiction. Read as a psychological study of a lifetime containg biting lows and searing highs - five stars. Judged purely on the beauty of the writing, five stars. You get the picture. Will be studied as early 21st century literature in the future.
Wish I could find a particular passage centered on the river Thames as the court leaves for winter to show the spellbinding use of language. A particularly ominous conversation with Margaret Pole masterfully demonstrates the complex internal and external machinations.
Brilliant in making you feel what it was like to really live at the time, not merely be there as a set of eyes. This is done through all the senses of both commoners - some excellent scenes and prose in that respect, and as a member of the elite. Great when writing about food especially, such detail, you can almost taste the pies and mead!
This definitive trilogy strikes me like Game of Thrones for serious adults. I mean that in the best possible way, i am currently reading that series. A sprawling political thriller set in a distant yet familiar place, characters with such depth you feel as if you know and care about them despite their dark sides. Just without the fantasy tropes and foreshadowing, and with denser language and an assumption of a base historical knowledge of the period. I would not be surprised if elements and/or persons from this precise period were indeed templates for parts in Game of Thrones.