The Constant Princess

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It is doubtful that Catherine of Aragon cherished Islamic culture and she certainly did not regret her country's defence against the Moors.

It was interesting to see how a Spanish princess adopts to the court in England. During her early childhood and teenage years, Katherine's belief that her mother's (Queen of Spain) will is God's will was naive and a laughable matter but at a later stage she realized all that was just brainwashing. The tension between Catholics and Protestants will only get much worse after king Henry VIII's death, with even the more relatively tolerant monarchs such as queen Elizabeth I and king Henry IV of France get swaped up in the bloody religious conflicts of the time. Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. One-Steve Limit: Averted. There is more of a variety of names than its predecessors due to the focus on foreign royals with different naming conventions, but many characters still have the same names.Catherine is depicted as being an intelligent, strong-willed and determined woman. She is politically astute and very observant, and skilled at playing the game of court-life. She is a very religious woman and believes in piety and modesty. She uses her Catholic faith as a source of strength during difficult times. She is usually able to remain calm and dignified even during the most trying of times. She is unwavering in her opinions, stubborn to a fault and never surrenders. Catherine is also shown to be very compassionate, as she cares for the common people and works tirelessly to help the poor. She does, however, have a sense of entitlement and being 'above' other people due to her royal status and upbringing, though this was considered quite normal for the upper classes of the 16th century. Decadent Court: The Tudor court is potrayed this way, even more so then the Spanish and French royal courts. Awful Wedded Life: Meg, as the Scottish queen, is absolutely miserable taking care of her king's rowdy children that he refuses to round up or discipline, of which many are not even hers. The second season have this as well. Henry will dump Catherine for Anne Boleyn, and while they won't have any sons, their only daughter will be one of England's most powerful monarchs. But consequently, Spain will become one of England's rivals.

Marriage with Henry. While occasionally Catalina talks about her love for Henry, I never can buy it. She only rarely mentions her feelings to Henry, instead harping on her long-lost Arthur. I do appreciate how Gregory tried to let Catalina move on; I would have liked to see something more pronounced, where Catalina did more things for her love of HENRY instead of her love of ARTHUR. not what history tells us they are (e.g. Catalina being devout in RL vs Catalina worshiping Arthur in PG's world) Mary Tudor's portrayal here is definitely one of the more sympathetic ones, similar to her portrayal on The Tudors. Philippa Gregory's novels are known to portray the Catholic characters in a rather sympathetic light. That and most historians today reject the one-sided Protestant/Puritan propaganda portrayal of her as one-dimensionally and/or irredeemably pure evil. At Arthur's request I told the greatest lie a woman has ever told, and I will tell it to the very grave...He asked me to say that we had never been lovers and he commanded me to marry his brother and be queen...I was constant to my promise."Who is this woman, whose fame rests on her inability to produce a male heir for Henry VIII? In this book the author attempts to envision her life. Sure, Catherine has won and she and Harry are about to get married... but he suspects she's lying about not having had sex with his brother Arthur and she suspects he is lying about not having slept with her sister Joanna.

Gregory makes the broad sweep of history vibrant and intimate—and hinges it all on a bit of romance. She must hold on to all her faith and strength against the rude attentions of the king and the domination of the king's cold and hard mother Lady Margaret of Beaufort.Her relationship with most of the Catholic historical figures at the time was often sour, but that does not mean she did not care about them. She had a mostly good relationship with Cardinal Campeggio, which was mutal. She loved Thomas Howard as a member of her family. Parental Favoritism: Joanna claims that her brother John was their mother's favourite. Meanwhile, she claims to have been The Un-Favourite due to her atheism. This is, with a few little exaggerations, mostly Truth in Television. But you all know the *rest of the story* so I'll not rehash it one more time, I'm just here to discuss the reading experience. Whether or not Katherine and Arthur consummated the marriage or not is a subject of debate and despite my previous conviction that Katherine spoke the truth about it during "The King's Great Matter", I was willing to keep an open mind (kind of). However, I didn't buy into the twu wuv fowever between Arthur and Catalina, nor did I buy into Henry VIII's portrayal as a bit of an ignorant dolt with no business sitting on the throne of England,