Why the jaded political statement to ruin the book?

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	• The Constant Princess (Boleyn) Philippa Gregory Touchstone, 2006 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 176 reviews view larger image
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Why the jaded political statement to ruin the book?

The author does quite well in telling the story of the young Infanta Katalina, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, betrothed at three years old to Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of England's Henry VII.
She knows she will one day be ruler of a distant cold land.

Her reception in England is rude and shocking as she is insulted by an arrogant and seemingly coarse King Henry VII, and married to the callow and awkward Arthur.
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.
After the death of Arthur, the ambitious Katalina aims to marry Arthur's younger brother Henry Prince of Wales against the opposition of the king (who had himself hoped towed Catherine) and the dowager king's mother Margaret.
The author does well in exploring the young Katalina's emotions and the power play in the English court.
the central themes are that Catherine's marriage to Arthur was consummated and Catherine kept this a secret in order to become Queen after Arthur's death.
This forms the base of the narrative. The truth is we will never know and historical novel writing is indeed about surmising and filling in the gaps.
What I disliked about the book was the political statement by the author who uses the novel to try to praise what she refers to as "the rich beautiful and tolerant culture of the Muslims of Spain."
The truth is that the Muslim Empire of the Moors was built on conquest and aimed to forcibly convert non-Muslims, treating minorities with a Dhimmi status (Ever heard of the slaughter in Spain by the fanatical Almohads?)
Whatever the case, this was not the time and place for the author to make a political statement about what she sees Christian bias and the need for accommodation with the Islamic world.
It is doubtful that Catherine of Aragon cherished Islamic culture and she certainly did not regret her country's defence against the Moors.
Why ruin the novel with this 21st century PC drivel about 'prejudice' against poor innocent Moslems and how Katherine realizes the wrongs of all of this and how the war against the Moslems by Spain is sooo wrong. The Spanish were fighting to get their land back from the Islamic Empire.,..hardly something to apologize about.
Clearly the author was trotting out the line so popular today that we shouldn't fight back against Moslems.
You wouldn't have got that sort of drivel in a histroical novel twenty years ago or before.

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Forever The Princess

I had just finished watching Showtime's production of The Tudors and found that I wasn't ready to say good-bye to King Henry VIII and his court. What better thing to do than to continue with the Philippa Gregory series, hence my picking up The Constant Princess. I know many readers here have talked about reading these books in their chronological order as opposed to the order in which the author wrote them. I chose to read them in the written order so this was actually the fourth one for me....The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover and now The Constant Princess.

While The Other Boleyn Girl concentrated on the Boleyn sisters and The Queen's Fool took us into Queen Mary's inner sanctum through the eyes of her "fool" Hannah and The Virgin's Lover explored Queen Elizabeth's reign, The Constant Princess takes us through the marriage of Queen Katharine and King Henry VIII as seen through Katharine's eyes. I actually find I prefer reading these books in the order the author has written them because I don't think I would have enjoyed reading about Katharine had I not already known what she went through in The Other Boleyn Girl (which still remains my favorite).

I felt the beginning half of the book was a bit tedious especially as Katharine reminisces about her life in Spain with her parents King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. These sections are all written in italics and usually, when I got to these parts, I found myself getting bored. Once she finally married Henry, the book took on a different spin and became a lot more enjoyable. I'm not going to rehash the entire storyline because so many other reviewers have already done so. I'm just here to give you my thoughts.

I love reading historical fiction but I also realize that there's some danger in doing so -- especially if the author takes liberties in reporting the history. If you're not familiar with the actual history, what happens then is that fiction sometimes becomes fact to the reader because you're believing what you're reading. Whether or not Queen Katharine lied to Henry about consummating her marriage to his brother Arthur is probably something no one will ever know to be true or not but, as far as Katharine leading an army to the borders to defeat the Scots is very questionable. However, it made for good reading and I'll probably always now think this truly happened exactly this way.

I just find it so amazing how much women had to do with some of the most incredible turns in history. Just to think that an entire kingdom was turned on its heal because of King Henry VIII's love/lust for Anne Boleyn which brought about the Reformation. It's just unbelievable to me how men will continue to be taken down in history by women. It's beguiling to say the least and it continues to this day.

So next in line is The Boleyn Inheritance which continues Henry's dalliances as he marries Jane Seymour, then Ann of Cleves and then Katherine Howard. Hopefully, by the time I'm done reading that, Showtime will be ready with Season 3 of the fabulous Tudor's production. If you're a fan of The Tudor family, I highly recommend you get your hands on these DVD's. That's my tip for the day. Enjoy!!

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Constant Princess

Loved this book....want to read more by Philippa Gregory. If you love historical novels, it's a very good read.

The Constant Problem of Being Married to Henry

This is the fictionalized story of Catalina, the first wife of Henry the VIII, and the one he was wedded to the longest, unless you buy that the marriage was fairly annulled.

The thing with historical fiction is that you have to read it with acceptance that a writer will make up or fill in that which she cannot know, railing against a writer for doing this when the book is labeled historical fiction is silly.

What we do now about Catalina is that she was the daughter of two strong rulers -- Ferdinand and Isabella. The royal upbringing taught her how to endure with dignity and the royal blood probably saved her life. History shows her to be a woman who again and again patiently accepted adversity and indignities for her belief that she was the rightful Queen of England. The book embellishes this trait, but the truth of it is well-represented in the history books.

Catalina came for a warm, sunny palace into a cold rainy land filled with strangers. She was widowed early, having married Henry's older brother, and then spent years in limbo while her father-in-law tried to see if she could do better than her for the spare who was now the heir. She was reduced to tatters, couldn't pay her staff, and had to sell her valuables, but she waited. And she did this when she was still a child, really.

Decades later her husband sought to deny their marriage, to have it annulled. He kept her daughter from her. She stripped her of her title, only allowing her the title of Dowager Princess due her for being his brother's widow. In seeking to take away her dignity he lost his own.

This is the historical truth and it's fascinating, but these facts alone don't make a novel, they don't honor the fact that this woman lived. What the book does is imagine what the flesh and blood woman would have been like, where did she get her resolve? Did she love Henry? Did she love his brother, Arthur? Did she ever doubt? Did she ever want to waiver? She'd denied her first marriage was consummated and Henry was eager to believe it until he wanted her gone. What the author does is give one theory on her first marriage that there would be no way to verify...

But that's okay.

It doesn't matter if Gregory is right, and it's doubtful that she was exactly right, because that ceases to be the point. We don't know and will never know what Catalina did or felt, but what Gregory reminds us is that she lived, and that she felt love for her countries -- Spain and England -- and that she was cast aside for no other reason than she hit menopause before producing a male heir for a man who'd become a petulant child. And that she deserved better than that, but that she knew that.

I like the historical woman and I liked the fictional version I met in the book, and I don't need to think that Gregory got her exactly right, because writing this genre seems pretty thankless. I can enjoy both the framework of history, as well as the made-up story.

The journey of the fictional woman was from a place of a well-indoctrinated child with many admirable qualities, but also the prejudices of her parent, to a place where she can question her past beliefs. There is no indication this is factually true, but was believable and interesting in the context of fiction.

When history buffs get angry at fictional elements in a book clearly marked as such, when they get wild-eyed because a writer doesn't support their pet theory, they harm the memory of the historical character more than help that memory, because they don't allow the person a chance to live again. They also insult the reader by saying they can't comprehend the difference between the truth and the make-believe parts. I'm sure there are confused people, aren't there always?

I recommend this story for history buffs, for people who enjoy women's fiction, and for those people who can handle both in one book.

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Katherine the Ignored

Constant Princess / 0-7432-7249-8

Everyone loves Tudor history, but we tend to only start paying attention when Anne Boleyn enters the scene. Gregory has put together a wonderful historical fiction which attempts to bring us the early years of Katherine. While a lot of historical detail went into the novel (for instance, Katherine is correctly portrayed as red-haired instead of the black-haired lady we usually see in television and movies), it is important to remember that the work is fictional, and not meant to be a history text.

Katherine's childhood and tutelage under her iron-willed mother Isabel is shown, and we are given a careful look into the character of Katherine. She is deeply religious, yes, but incredibly strong-willed and driven. She also understands that while her parents love her, she is their princess first (and thus a bargaining chip) and a daughter second. When her arranged marriage falls through by the tragic death of her young husband, she is faced with a choice - go back to Spain and accept the demotion from eventual queen of England to a minor Spanish duchess, or she can spin an audacious lie, namely that she is still a virgin and thereby eligible to marry the next English heir.

Gregory carefully notes the animosity against Katherine by the chilly royal family, and emphasizes the poverty in which Katherine was forced to live during the time between her husband's death and her eventual marriage to Henry. Henry is seen here as a spoiled child, who - upon becoming a man - is more than willing to leave the mundane affairs of rulership and budgeting to his older, more competent queen. We see the impetuous and careless cruelty that causes Henry to abandon his pregnant queen to seek the arms of someone else rather than accept a temporarily imposed chastity. And we also see, in his treatment of Katherine, a shadow of things to come - if he cannot appreciate his older, wiser queen, what hope do the other girls that will follow her have, should they prove to be wise as well?

The character of Katherine is sterling here, her lie a necessary evil to become what she feels God has destined her to be. We sympathize with Katherine the girl, beset by difficulties that she bravely tries to weather, and we fear for Katherine the woman, whom we know will be forced aside for a younger woman. For the first time, perhaps, we feel a sympathy with this lesser-known figure of the famous drama, and we understand that Katherine does not blame Anne, but rather she recognizes that her husband is an inconstant monarch who will one day betray her.

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