The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

★★★★★

"Your house's emblem should not be the white rose but the old sign of eternity...the snake which eats itself.  The sons of York will destroy each other, one brother destroying another, uncles devouring nephews, father's beheading sons.  They are a house which has to have blood and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy."

"Poor Mulusina, who tried so hard to be a good wife had to leave the man who loved her and go back to the water, finding the earth too hard.  Like many women, she was unable to fit exactly with her husband's view.  her feet hurt: she tried to dance to please him, but she could not deny the pain.  She is the ancestress of the royal house of Burgundy, and we descendants, still try to wake in the paths of men, and sometimes we too find the way unbearable hard.

Cousins' War #1 - The Lady of the Rivers