The White Princess episode 3 recap: ‘Burgundy’

Lizzie gives birth to a son and becomes queen, as Jasper Tudor attempts to make peace with Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, in this week’s episode of The White Princess. 

The White Princess episode 3, “Burgundy,” opens with Elizabeth “Lizzie” of York giving birth to what her husband Henry VII, the first Tudor King, and his overbearing mother, Margaret Beaufort, are hoping is a boy to give him a rightful heir to the throne as a way to temper the threats from his wife’s royal house.

Cecily goes to fetch Margaret as her sister is writhing in pain, but the king’s mother is busy spying on her son outside as he sees his envoy off to Burgundy, led by his Uncle Jasper and his stepbrother, Lord Strange.

Bishop Morton insists that Jasper might not be the best man for the diplomatic effort as the Duchess, Margaret of Burgundy, only knows Jasper as a “man of war.” But the king has already made up his mind up, mostly as a way to keep him separated from his mother, who he suspects is secretly in love with her former brother-in-law.

Image Credit: Starz

As Margaret rushes to Lizzie’s side, the soon-to-be-queen cries to her cousin Maggie that she “doesn’t want him to come out” because she fears the baby will be cursed. It’s revealed later in the episode that she and her mother put a curse on whoever sent for her brothers to be killed in the tower by stopping their male line. Therefore, she fears that her son will die due to Margaret’s alleged actions (Details on the longevity of the couple’s first-born are easily googleable).

Lizzie screams for her mother, who’s locked in a tower writing a letter to her sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, the sister of two former kings, urging her to wage war against Henry in honor of her dead brother and nephews, as well as the York heir Edward “Teddy” Plantagenet, who’s being kept in solitary confinement by Henry in the Tower of London.

Bishop Morton has denied Lizzie’s request to have her mother sent to her out of fear that she has ill wishes for the Tudor heir. Meanwhile, back at the palace, Margaret helps Lizzie push the baby out, though the entire time she’s only discussing the prospect of birthing an heir for Henry “to save him from his enemies.” After several deafening screams accompanied by excruciating pain, the baby is born, and to everyone’s relief, it’s a boy!

Unsurprisingly, Margaret requests that they immediately put the child in her arms. She soon rushes to tell Henry that Prince Arthur has been born. Lizzie and Henry share a tender moment together as she holds their baby in her arms in bed and he sees his son for the first time. “You are radiant,” he even tells his young bride after describing Arthur as “perfect.”

Lizzie wisely seizes the opportunity to ask to see her mother, and as soon as Henry leaves the room, her cousin reminds her to tell him to release her younger brother Teddy from the tower since she’s held up her end of the bargain.

Image Credit: Starz

We then get our first glimpse of Burgundy and Margaret’s majestic Palace of Mechelen. The Duchess receives two dueling letters from the king and Elizabeth Woodville, one suggesting peace and the other war.

News of the pending arrival of Lord Strange and Jasper Tudor has reached Margaret, who makes it clear that she’s not taking orders from anyone, including Francis Lovell, who has sought refuge in her court after failing to kill Henry in York. She does, however, pledge to be a thorn in Henry’s side, but won’t commit to battle, much to the chagrin of Francis, her mother Cecily and her stepdaughter, Mary.

Back in London, the Dowager Queen Elizabeth meets her grandson and quickly shoos away her daughter Cecily to remind Lizzie that her new son is not her own, but “belongs to the throne,” while Margaret Beaufort listens intently from outside the door.

While Arthur’s birth cements the union between Tudor and York, it’s clear that the rivalry between Margaret and Elizabeth will continue as the new grandmother’s trade barbs in the hallway. The king’s mother maintains that the heir to the throne of England is all Tudor and not York, while Elizabeth reminds her that there’s no guarantee he will one day sit on the throne despite his lineage, providing her two sons as examples.

We’re then taken back to Burgundy to witness the envoy’s arrival. Once inside, Jasper and Lord Strange survey the palace grounds, with the former explaining that it’s the women that hold most of the power in their current location, including Mary, the only child of the late Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who’s now married to Maximilian, the eventual Holy Roman Emperor, though it’s said that Margaret ruled the Duchy even before her husband’s death at the Battle of Nancy.

Image Credit: Starz

In England, Margaret Beaufort is planning Arthur’s christening, which is to take place in Winchester ahead of Lizzie’s coronation. But Henry defies his mother once again by announcing that he will consult his wife about the decision. Ultimately, nearly all the palace travel to the christening except Lizzie and Maggie, including her mother Elizabeth, who serves as the child’s godmother.

But before they go, Lizzie broaches the subject of releasing Teddy with Henry. The king responds that he’ll consider it. In his absence, Lizzie and Maggie visit Teddy in the tower after Lizzie explains to her cousin that the curse she mentioned while giving birth will not hurt her young brother, though unbeknownst to her, her beloved uncle Richard III, who she allegedly had an affair with, is rumored to have ordered his young nephews to be killed in the tower, thus making the curse apply to the York line.

Meanwhile, in Burgundy, the Duchess Margaret seeks to avoid the men who were responsible for her brother’s death, while Mary involves Lord Strange in her children’s games. Margaret and Jasper eventually meet to discuss a peace-offering involving a potential alliance between the nations and the return of Burgundy’s trading rights.

Image Credit: Starz

But things end with Margaret fleeing in tears as she yells that Henry has lost no one in the war, unlike her. However, they later get along swimmingly as they discuss the prospect of peace, with Margaret nearly proposing marriage to Jasper, who’s been a bachelor all his life due to his time in exile with Henry.

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

When the king returns to London, he informs Lizzie that her mother was taken from the christening to a dungeon due to her involvement in the Lovell plot to murder him. The king also learned that she planned to put Teddy on the throne after his assassination, making it impossible to grant her request to see him released from the tower.

However, Lizzie instead focuses on her mother, pleading with Henry to put her in an abbey rather than keep her in a dungeon. Without giving her a straight answer, the king tells her to prepare for her coronation and swiftly walks away.

But we quickly learn that Henry heeded Lizzie’s request and sent her mother and her youngest daughters to live in an abbey where Lizzie sends a letter to her mother as a last-ditch effort to get Teddy released. But on the eve of her coronation, Lizzie unexpectedly bonds with Henry over having their respective mothers plan out their lives for them.

Henry goes on to admit that he’d be fine with her having a kindness or tenderness towards him if not love in the way that she felt for Richard, though he concedes that he doesn’t know if that would be enough for him as he’s never known true love before.

“What have they done to us?” Lizzie asks.

But he also realizes by looking into his wife’s eyes that she can’t promise him that she won’t plot against his life, which seems like one of the most basic requirements for any marriage.

It is becoming clearer, however, that Lizzie is developing more of a soft spot for Henry while beginning to question her mother’s motivations. In response to the letter, Lizzie is informed that her mother will be awaiting her visit on the day she is to become queen and asks that she send a letter to Burgundy to tell them to bring war against the Tudors. “How will that help Teddy?” she wonders.

After she’s officially crowned queen and sits upon the throne next to her husband, Lizzie rushes back to her quarters to ponder whether she should go visit the Dowager Queen, questioning how she can choose between her mother and her son.

Images of Elizabeth anxiously waiting for her daughter’s arrival are juxtaposed with scenes from Burgundy where Mary continues to toy with Lord Strange by engaging him in a horse race without informing him that she’s never been beaten before.

But tragedy once again befalls the Yorks as Mary is violently thrown off her horse as Elizabeth is simultaneously seen cursing the Tudor name for taking her eldest daughters away from her after she realizes Lizzie will not be paying her a  visit, accidentally shattering a small statue in the abbey’s chapel for dramatic effect.

Next: The White Princess Recap: Episode 2, ‘Hearts and Minds’

We then learn that Mary’s back is broken, and she soon dies to the immense distress of her stepmother Margaret, who swiftly kicks Jasper and the rest of his envoy out of the palace after her funeral, signaling that Henry and Lizzie’s worries have only just begun. Luckily the couple’s growing closeness may help them in protecting their son as we see Lizzie lovingly cuddle up to Henry in his bed as Arthur sleeps nearby.

The White Princess airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz.