The White Queen (TV series)

The White Queen is a British television historical drama series for the BBC, based on The Cousins' War series of three interwoven novels — The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker's Daughter — of the 16 Plantagenet and Tudor novels by Philippa Gregory. The first episode premiered on BBC One on Sunday, 16 June 2013 in the UK.

The drama is set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses and presents the story of the women involved in the long conflict for the throne of England. It starts in 1464; the nation has been at war for nine years fighting over who is the rightful king of England, as two branches of the Plantagenet family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, contest the throne. The story follows three women — Yorkist Elizabeth Woodville, (Rebecca Ferguson), wife of King Edward IV; Lancastrian Margaret Beaufort, (Amanda Hale), mother of the Tudor King Henry VII of England; and Yorkist Anne Neville, (Faye Marsay), wife of the Duke of Gloucester, King Richard III — all who manipulate events behind the scenes of history to gain power for themselves and their families. Elizabeth Woodville is the protagonist in the 2009 novel The White Queen, with Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville the focus of the novels The Red Queen (2010) and The Kingmaker's Daughter (2012), respectively. All three characters appear in the three novels that make up the television drama.

The final episode of The White Queen aired on 18 August 2013 and the drama was released on DVD and blu-ray discs the following day. Two days later, the BBC confirmed that The White Queen was always planned as a mini-series that would not be returning for a second series. However, there were two Anglo-American co-production sequels with The White Princess in 2017 and The Spanish Princess in 2019, both broadcast on the US television network Starz.

The White Queen was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards and a People's Choice Award.