Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

Another wonderful book of historical fiction about Tudor England by Gregory! I regret listening to it instead of reading it, as the audio recordings are abridged, and I miss all the descriptive detail provided by Gregory. This book took a look at the childhood and early years of Katherine of Aragon - daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, married to Arthur, prince of England, who dies within five months of their marriage. She holds out until she can marry prince Henry, and only then it dawned on me that she was the first wife of the many wives of King Henry VIII.

As always, there were so many things that fascinated me about the historical facts and lives of the people of those times, which Gregory brings forth in such rich detail. Among them - Queen Isabella was an amazing woman, warrior and leader in her time. I need to read more on the conflict between the Spanish and the Moors. The Moors had a higher level of knowledge in healing and probably other things, which the Spanish lost when the pushed the Moors out of Spain. (When Katherine is forced to ask a Moor doctor for help to bear a healthy child, she has to fight an inner battle to accept his help.) When descendants of royalty are betrothed in their cradles, it leads to a strange non-courtship and husband - wife relations. The whole process of public bedding on the wedding night seemed strange. This can be a very ackward time for the couple, as Gregory shows in both this book and Earthly Joys. The importance of virginity and consumation of marriage is incredibly important in those days and a key to Katharine's story. The importance of bearing an heir, a male heir, is so great, that it is considered the main, if not only responsibility of the queen of England.

I liked that Katherine had learned the organization of war campaigns from her parents, so when Henry is ready to take off and do battle, she prepares the supplies needed, trains the soldiers, get the ships ready, etc. And while he is in France, she does her own battle with the Scots, defeats them, but doesn't destroy them and creates an alliance instead, insuring peace (at least for a while.) This is in sharp contrast the totally unprepared campaign described in Earthly Joys, where the King and Lord Buckinham set sail totally unprepared, without supplies, with great delays, at the wrong time of year, etc.

The book ends with Katherine walking into the court room proud and tall, though we all know that this is where Henry VIII will get permission to divorce her, and her life will change profoundly, but Gregory leaves her in that state of hope. (Listened May 2006)