beautiful palace of the Alhambra, to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. With victory over the last of the expelled Moors, Years pass, and Catalina admits to herself that her actions are for her own interests as much as Arthur's. Out of all of Catalina's children, only Princess Mary survived, leaving the fate of England unstable. Harry had more mistresses, all of whom she tolerated quietly as Harry eventually grew bored of them all and were never a threat to her. But his latest mistress, Anne Boleyn, is the most ambitious and is trying to take her spot as queen. Catalina vows to keep her promise to Arthur and proudly decides to fight for her right as queen. The novel ends, with Katherine entering a court hearing about her marriage to Harry. Thomas More is brave, chivalrous, strong, intelligent, gentlemanly, talented, educated, helpful, and a loyal and loving husband and father. He is also ambitious, a social climber, supports retributive justice, anti-Protestant and a ruthless enforcer of heresy laws, persecuting Lutherans. He is more sympathetically portrayed here than in Wolf Hall, where everything good about him is twisted and phoney.

Death by Despair: Joanna claims to Catherine that their mother died of grief for their brother John, who died seven years ago. Truth in Television according to reports from the time. Externally Validated Prophecy: Elizabeth of York's dying prophecy that there will be no more Tudor sons if Catherine marries Prince Henry. Validated by Real Life. Oddly, Elizabeth's prophecy doesn't account for a son that was born after Henry and Catherine married: Henry VIII's son with Jane Seymour, Edward VI, who died at 15. The curse she and her mother cast, however, does account for Edward dying.NOTE: I'm no historian, so if you want to see how historically accurate this book is, you might want to seek another review. Good Girls Avoid Abortion: After getting pregnant from her lover, Rosa asks Lina for help. Lina gets her a potion to cause abortion, but Rosa can't bring herself to use it, instead getting assurances by her lover that he'll care for her and the baby. Splendid and sumptuous historical novel from the internationally bestselling author, Philippa Gregory, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon. The novel begins in 1491 Grenada as the Moors raid the military camp of Queen Isabella of Castile. The young Infanta Catalina watches with adoration as her warrior mother gathers her army and puts out the flames caused by the night raid. Upon her mother’s return, Catalina assures her mother that

I know that, at the time, Catalina said this, she was in despair, but I would have thought that a devout Christian would realize that earthly father =/= heavenly father (because the earthly father is DUH human and fallible!). There are ways to do the "God has forsaken me" without drawing this odd conclusion. The book started off all right, when the switches to Katherine's narrative were short and well spaced, but by the end I was nodding off at them and was praying for the book to end, and I'd only recommended it for PG fans only. If you are looking for a well rounded, historically accurate look at Katherine of Aragon I suggest you look elsewhere. Oh, and before anyone gets in a tizzy as to why this non-PG fan decided to read another, this is for a group read for the European Royalty Group at Goodreads. I expect lively discussions.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. Ascended Extra: Prince Harry, who wasn't born when The White Princess started (although he did get some notable scenes with Margaret Beaufort towards the show's end). Catherine herself can be considered this — she's mentioned in The White Princess and briefly depicted in it, and becomes the main character in The Spanish Princess. Gilligan Cut: One of Catherine's servants tells Lady Margaret that Catherine wants to arrive in London in a "special way." Margaret snorts "How does she want to arrive? In a gilded chariot driven by the horses of St. Mark's?" Cut to Catherine arriving behind Arthur's funeral procession (drawn by those very horses) riding a simple mule. The first part is credible. The author describes how Catalina, the child of Spain's powerful co-monarchs, could have developed a belief in her destiny. From this seed, Ms. Gregory builds the case for a steely purposeful woman who affects all the airs of the monarch she aspires to be and exudes its sense of entitlement. This is the attitude and the outlook she would have to have to endure her later abandonment.

Despite their flaws, I rather enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. But while I liked Catalina more as a protagonist than either Mary Boleyn or Hannah Green, I found myself more irritated and bored with "The Constant Princess" than I was for either TOBG or TQF. Daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, Katherine has been fated her whole life to marry Prince Arthur of England. When they meet and are married, the match becomes as passionate as it is politically expedient. The young lovers revel in each other’s company and plan the England they will make together. But tragically, aged only fifteen, Arthur falls ill and extracts from his sixteen-year-old bride a deathbed promise to marry his brother, Henry; become Queen; and fulfill their dreams and her destiny. Outliving One's Offspring: Henry VII and Elizabeth of York outlive their eldest son, Arthur. Meanwhile, Isabella and Ferdinand outlive their only son, John.While at Ludlow Castle, Arthur and Catalina make plans for their future reign as king and queen of England. "You are a tactician," Arthur tells Catalina during one of their conversations. "I wish to God I had your childhood and knew the things you know" (129). What tactics did Catalina learn as the child of two powerful monarchs? How does she put these skills to use in her rise to the throne? Katherine of Aragon (also known as Catalina) has known her destiny since childhood: to wed Prince Arthur of England. The daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, 16-year-old Katherine leaves behind her beloved home to forge a new life in a foreign land and take her place as Princess of Wales and, ultimately, Queen of England. Religion. Catalina was a devout Christian; here, she spends more time praying to Arthur and worshiping him beyond the grave. It's rather disturbing that she is still so obsessed with Arthur (after a mere 5 months of marriage!) that YEARS later, she is basically praying to him, asking him for help. I understand people mourn differently, people remember the dead differently, but this was just disturbing. And where was the religious Catalina from history? Also, this quote rather bothered me: Joanna of Castile. Subverted as it is revealed that Joanna's temperament stems from her mother abusing her, her father and husband trying to usurp her throne, as well as her husband's many affairs. 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.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” ( USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory comes the remarkable story of Katherine of Aragon, Princess of Spain, daughter of two great monarchs, and eventual Queen of England when she marries the infamous King Henry VIII.In Real Life, Anne Boleyn was a fierce and outspoken critic of the abuses going on in the Catholic Church and the excessive and sometimes violent policies of the Catholic Counter-Reformation at the time, but she was not a hardline Protestant as she is usually potrayed as. It is highly unlikely that she wanted to kill the Catholics at the Tudor royal court just because they disagreed with her. She was protecting Protestants who did not have freedom of religion in Catholic majority countries, but it is unlikely she wanted to take away freedom of religion for Catholics the way the Puritans and more fanatical Protestant fundamentalist/evangelical types did. Same Story, Different Names: Zig zagged. The Spanish Princess takes more creative liberties than the Tudors and Wolf Hall. It's also told from Catherine of Aragon's point of view, rather than King Henry VIII in the Tudors or Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. The ending was very rushed. I wasn't discontent because I knew how it all ended, but she cut off right after Katherine won the battle against the Scots. She then skipped to a time later in her life when Henry had strayed many times and eventually turned against her in court. She didn't even include the verdict or mention that she had a girl. Nada. It was like Gregory had had enough of the story and wanted to quit writing. Servile Snarker: When she's told that James IV speaks several languages, Princess Margaret declares that she "wishes him the plague in all of them!" Death by Childbirth: Like many woman before her, and in a case of Truth in Television, Elizabeth of York goes out in an incredibly disgusting and gruesome childbirth.