Philippa Gregory Reading Order: the Plantagenet and Tudor Novels

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Read Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet and Tudor novels in historical order, and start with The Lady of the Rivers, the story of Jacquetta of Luxembourg that opens in 1430. That is the order Gregory herself lists on her official website, and it carries you from the Wars of the Roses to the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her newest novel, Royal Witch (October 2026), is set even earlier, so it now makes a second possible starting point.

Every book in the series can also be read on its own. Gregory’s website says so directly, and each novel follows a different woman, so you will not be lost if you pick one up out of sequence. The order matters more for the bigger picture: the same families, feuds and claims to the throne run through all of them.

The Plantagenet and Tudor novels in historical order

The series used to be sold as two separate sets, the Cousins’ War books (Wars of the Roses) and the Tudor Court books. The publisher now groups them as one series, the Plantagenet and Tudor Novels. The table below follows the reading order on philippagregory.com, with Royal Witch placed first because its story begins in 1420. Where a book’s end date is not stated in the sources we checked, the table gives the year the story opens.

#	Title	Narrator or focus	Years covered	Published
1	Royal Witch	Eleanor Cobham	Opens 1420	2026 (October)
2	The Lady of the Rivers	Jacquetta of Luxembourg	1430–1464	2011
3	The White Queen	Elizabeth Woodville	1464–1485	2009
4	The Red Queen	Margaret Beaufort	Opens 1453	2010
5	The Kingmaker's Daughter	Anne Neville	Opens 1465	2012
6	The White Princess	Elizabeth of York	Opens 1485	2013
7	The Constant Princess	Katherine of Aragon	Opens 1491	2005
8	The King's Curse	Margaret Pole	1499–1541	2014
9	Three Sisters, Three Queens	Margaret Tudor	Opens 1501	2016
10	The Other Boleyn Girl	Mary Boleyn	1521–1536	2001
11	Boleyn Traitor	Jane Boleyn	Opens 1534	2025
12	The Boleyn Inheritance	Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Jane Boleyn	1539–1542	2006
13	The Taming of the Queen	Kateryn Parr	Opens 1543	2015
14	The Queen's Fool	Hannah Green, a fictional court fool	1548–1558	2003
15	The Virgin's Lover	Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Amy Dudley, William Cecil	Opens 1558	2004
16	The Last Tudor	Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey	Opens 1550	2017
17	The Other Queen	Mary, Queen of Scots, Bess of Hardwick, George Talbot	Opens 1568	2008

A few books overlap. The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker’s Daughter tell much of the same Wars of the Roses story from three rival households, so the dates cross back and forth. The Last Tudor opens in 1550, earlier than The Virgin’s Lover, but follows the Grey sisters into the 1570s, which is why Gregory’s own list places it after the Elizabeth and Dudley novel. Some other published lists swap those two. Either way works.

The same novels in publication order

1. The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
2. The Queen’s Fool (2003)
3. The Virgin’s Lover (2004)
4. The Constant Princess (2005)
5. The Boleyn Inheritance (2006)
6. The Other Queen (2008)
7. The White Queen (2009)
8. The Red Queen (2010)
9. The Lady of the Rivers (2011)
10. The Kingmaker’s Daughter (2012)
11. The White Princess (2013)
12. The King’s Curse (2014)
13. The Taming of the Queen (2015)
14. Three Sisters, Three Queens (2016)
15. The Last Tudor (2017)
16. Boleyn Traitor (2025)
17. Royal Witch (2026)

The first six, all Tudor Court books, came out between 2001 and 2008. Gregory then went back a generation to the Wars of the Roses for the Cousins’ War novels, starting with The White Queen, before returning to Henry VIII’s wives. After an eight-year gap she came back to the Tudor court with Boleyn Traitor, which her website describes as her first return to the Boleyn family in more than a decade.

Historical order or publication order: which to pick

We recommend historical order for most readers. The novels are about one extended family over roughly 150 years, and reading them by date lets each book set up the next. You meet Jacquetta before her daughter Elizabeth Woodville becomes queen. You see Elizabeth of York married to Henry VII before her son Henry VIII starts collecting wives. Characters who are children in one book are rulers or victims in the next.

Publication order has one real advantage. It shows how Gregory’s writing developed, and it starts with The Other Boleyn Girl, the book that made her name and the one most people already recognize. Readers who already know the Tudors well sometimes prefer to follow her own path through the material.

There is a middle route too. Read the Wars of the Roses books in historical order (the first six in the table), then move to the Tudor books in historical order. That keeps the story straight without requiring all seventeen titles in one sequence.

Where to start

For a full chronological read, start with The Lady of the Rivers. It sets up the Lancaster and York rivalry and introduces the Woodville family that dominates the next several books. Royal Witch comes earlier in time, but it is brand new as of this writing and Gregory’s own reading-order page had not yet placed it, so treating it as an optional prologue is reasonable.

If you only want to try one book first, two titles make sense. The White Queen was the first Cousins’ War novel to be published and is the basis of the 2013 TV series. The Other Boleyn Girl is the most familiar title in the whole series and stands well on its own.

Readers interested in Henry VIII’s marriages can go straight to the Tudor stretch: The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, Boleyn Traitor, The Boleyn Inheritance and The Taming of the Queen cover five of his six queens between them.

TV and film adaptations

• The Other Boleyn Girl (2003): a BBC television film directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, with Natascha McElhone as Mary and Jodhi May as Anne.
• The Other Boleyn Girl (2008): a feature film directed by Justin Chadwick, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Peter Morgan’s screenplay treated the novel as a broad guide and changed several plot elements.
• The White Queen (2013): a ten-episode series on BBC One in the UK and Starz in the US, drawing on The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker’s Daughter.
• The White Princess (2017): an eight-episode Starz miniseries based on the novel of the same name.
• The Spanish Princess (2019–2020): a Starz series in two eight-episode parts, based on The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse.

A note on history and fiction

These are historical novels, not biographies. Gregory works from the historical record but fills gaps with invention, gives private thoughts to people whose inner lives went unrecorded, and sometimes chooses one disputed version of events over another. Wikipedia describes The Other Boleyn Girl as loosely inspired by Mary Boleyn’s life, and The Queen’s Fool is narrated by a fictional character. Historians disagree with some of her interpretations. Readers who want to know where the novels depart from the record can check her author’s notes and a good nonfiction history of the period.

Philippa Gregory’s other series

The Plantagenet and Tudor novels are her best-known work, but not her only series.

• The Wideacre trilogy: Wideacre (1987), The Favoured Child (1989) and Meridon (1990). Her first novels, set on an English country estate in the eighteenth century.
• The Tradescant novels: Earthly Joys (1998) and Virgin Earth (1999), about the gardeners John Tradescant the elder and younger.
• The Order of Darkness series: Changeling (2012), Stormbringers (2013), Fools’ Gold (2014) and Dark Tracks (2018). A young adult series.
• The Fairmile series: Tidelands (2019), Dark Tides (2020) and Dawnlands (2022). Gregory’s website lists three books in the series and, as of October 2026, shows no announced fourth title.

Buying the books as a gift

The simplest gift is the first book in whichever order the reader will follow. For historical order that is The Lady of the Rivers. For someone who has seen one of the TV series, the matching novel is an easy choice: The White Queen, The White Princess or The Constant Princess. A first book is a low-risk way to find out whether the reader likes Gregory’s style before committing to seventeen.

For a reader who already likes historical fiction, a collection makes a larger gift. Boxed sets of the Wars of the Roses novels have been issued, including a four-book set and a six-book set that runs from The Lady of the Rivers through The King’s Curse. Many of these sets are UK paperback editions, so check the listing for the exact titles and edition before you order. You can search current sets here: Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War 3-Book Boxed Set: The Red Queen, The White Queen, and The Lady of the Rivers.

The novels are available in paperback, hardcover, ebook and audiobook. The two newest titles, Boleyn Traitor and Royal Witch, are published in the US by William Morrow. The earlier novels were published in the US by Simon & Schuster imprints, so the cover designs across a mixed set will not always match. If a matching shelf matters to the recipient, buying from a single set or a single edition is the safer choice.

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet and Tudor series?

Seventeen as of October 2026, counting Royal Witch. The series began with The Other Boleyn Girl in 2001, and Boleyn Traitor (2025) was the first new entry since The Last Tudor in 2017.

Do I need to read the books in order?

No. Gregory’s website states that all of her books can be read as stand-alone novels. Reading in historical order helps you follow the family connections, but each book has its own narrator and a complete story.

What is the difference between the Cousins’ War and the Tudor Court novels?

The Cousins’ War books cover the Wars of the Roses, from Jacquetta of Luxembourg to Margaret Pole. The Tudor Court books cover the reigns of Henry VIII and his children. The publisher now sells both under one series name, the Plantagenet and Tudor Novels.

Which book is The White Queen TV series based on?

The 2013 series draws on three novels: The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker’s Daughter. Its follow-ups, The White Princess (2017) and The Spanish Princess (2019–2020), were based on later books in the series.

Which book comes after The Other Boleyn Girl in historical order?

Boleyn Traitor, narrated by Jane Boleyn, opens in 1534 and continues the story at Henry VIII’s court. The Boleyn Inheritance, covering 1539 to 1542, follows it.

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