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Not the death of her first husband Arthur, her parents refusal to pay the rest of her dowry or her inability to secure a betrothal to Arthur's younger brother, Harry.I'm a Gregory fan, for the most part. Her life is usually thought of as the First wife of Henry VIII, the woman set aside for Anne Boleyn, and the mother of 'Bloody" Mary I. Catalina's italicized thoughts take up pages and pages where before they book up a page at the very most. I really enjoyed Catalina/Katherine's thoughts and life as she journeyed from Spain to England.
A very enjoyable read. She was a much stronger woman that I would have previously given her credit for. All the odds are against her and her attitude, as well as Henry VII and his mother Margaret Beaufort are irritating.Her actual reign as Henry's queen is more interesting and gives a lot of insigt into a time I didn't know much about. She has known since she was three that in addition to being an Infanta of Spain she is the Princess of Wales and will one day be Queen of England. Nothing will stop her from claiming these titles that she see's as her birth right. The Constant Princess was no different. It was nice to see her young and in love, even if her first, love filled marriage is short.Her time waiting to become princess again is a bit long.
I'd been putting off reading The Constant Princess because Katherine didn't interest me as much as Henry's other wives/other historical women, but I'm glad I did pick it up. Catalina is daughter of two of the greatest monarch's Europe has seen. There are always things about her novels that make them slightly irritating, but that rarely effects the breakneck pace I read them at. Her waiting and scheming would be very irritating if you didn't know she would be successful.
Philippa Gregory is a great author. All of her books are a good read, and this one is no exception.
When Catalina arrived in England to meet her bridegroom Arthur she had very definite ideas about her duties to her new countries, ones that she quickly discovered were at odds with what her soon to be husband and father-in-law expected from her. Her skillful telling of ill fated Katherine's life brings life to this shadowy troubled time. A woman's role was to obey and provide her husband with many healthy children. Like her sisters Catalina was a bargaining chip, a token that would be used to cement a bargain to further her parents', Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, ambitions. The stories of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I are familiar tales in which Katherine's influence is felt but she herself is usually kept in the shadows, exiled off stage an on-going threat to Anne, a relationship their daughters will continue after their deaths.
From birth Katherine, known then as Catalina had been destined to be a player in international politics. Catalina studied statecraft by watching her parents drive the Moors from Spain, turning their country from an occupied land, an outpost of Islam into a world power and very Christian nation. Catalina's parents ruled their united kingdoms of Aragon and Castille jointly but in England women were wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of kings but even Queens did not rule. Gregory has her own theories concerning the relationship between Arthur and Katherine and Henry VIII's character that give the reader much to think about. This is the story of what happened before the events of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, the story of Henry VIII's first Queen, Katherine of Aragon.
To that end Catalina was betrothed while still a toddler to Arthur, Prince of Wales to establish an alliance between Spain and England. When circumstances conspire to prevent Catalina, now called Katherine, from fulfilling any of the roles she had spent her life preparing for she continued to struggle to live up to her perceived destiny of ruling Wales and England.This is an interesting tale of the life of Katherine of Aragon.
It's Ms. Truly an incredible story, well told, well researched it took me where I've never been before and I well enjoyed the trip and you will too. Gregory at her finest.
I was mildly entertained.Philippa Gregory began the novel with this premise: Katherine was a liar. Gregory argues that it would have almost impossible for Arthur and Katherine to not consummate their marriage-that Katherine would do anything to be queen. This novel fixed it alright. The Constant Princess did not. Would a devout Catholic lie to the Pope to stay Queen.I picked this novel up as part of my "The Tudors are over. Katherine of Aragon has been described as an extremely devout woman.
Well, Gregory theorizes that Katherine loved Arthur and that she lied about their sex life to stay the Queen of England. Would a incredibly devout woman do this. Okay, history lesson.Before she married Henry VIII, Katherine was married to his brother Arthur-the first heir to the throne. In this work, the princess is Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. Now I know why the show was so good-it was exciting, and it focused on exciting characters. Katherine was not exciting for me, not believable.
How could a woman who was so devout tell such a lie. You would assume that the woman replaced by Anne Boleyn would have been more exciting. How could she claim to be a virgin when she wasn't. Part of her infertility issues are now based on her extreme fasting and extremely long prayer times. I, for one, had a hard time reconciling her incredible faith with her amazing ambition.This novel left something to be desired for me. What am I going to do now." recovery.
We follow Katherine as a child, then a wife, and finally an outcast. She was allowed to marry Henry because she swore to the POPE that the marriage wasn't consummated. I was desperate to get a Tudor fix. Either way, I am in no hurry to read another one of her works. I don't know if it was because this Katherine didn't fit the image already in my head from The Tudors or if Gregory's work is just getting old for me. The Constant Princess follows in the same exact pattern as Gregory's other works-she focuses on a princess in the English court, lets us eavesdrop on the private thoughts of a public women, has some explicit sex scenes, and forces us to watch the woman's downfall.
Henry later used her first marriage to push her aside, and he blamed this fact on their lack of sons. The sections where her inner voice spoke where so boring that I almost skipped them entirely.Another thing that really troubled me in the novel, was the whole premise of the lie.
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