I certainly wouldn’t, based on the stories of the two 16th century queens I’ve been reading about recently!
The first of our two queens is Juana of Castile, also known as Juana la Loca (‘the mad’), whose life is retold in fictional form in The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner. I think most of us will have heard of Juana’s younger sister, Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII who was divorced so that the King could marry Anne Boleyn, breaking away from Rome in the process. Juana’s story is less well known (outside Spain, at least) and less often covered in historical fiction, but just as interesting and tragic.
Juana is the third of five children born to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, whose joint rule has brought together the two Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. The King and Queen have arranged marriages for all of their children, in the hope of forming political alliances, and Juana finds herself married against her will to Philip, Duke of Burgundy, son of the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite her initial feelings, Juana quickly falls in love with her new husband – but her happiness doesn’t last long. The deaths of her elder brother and sister leave Juana as her parents’ heir and her relationship with Philip changes as a result.
Influenced by the scheming Archbishop Besançon, Philip sets his sights on taking the throne of Spain for himself and Juana finds herself betrayed and accused of insanity. Even as she discovers that the very people she should be able to trust want only to bully and manipulate her, she remains determined to fight for her throne and her country.
This is the first of C.W. Gortner’s books I’ve read and I will definitely consider reading more. I thoroughly enjoyed this moving and dramatic novel which took me through a period of Spanish history of which I previously knew almost nothing. There’s some beautiful descriptive writing which brings each of the various settings to life, from Granada during the Conquest of 1492 to the extravagance of the French court.
Gortner is a male author, if you’re wondering, and he writes very convincingly from the perspective of a young woman in this novel. Whether or not Juana actually suffered from mental illness is debatable; the point of view taken in this book is that the ‘madness’ developed as a result of years of stress and suffering – and branding her mad was a convenient way for her enemies to prevent her from ruling. I don’t know enough about her to say whether this is likely or not, but I did love Gortner’s portrayal of Juana and wished she could have had a little more happiness in her life.
Our second queen is Katherine Parr, sixth and final wife to Henry VIII, whose story is told in The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory. I hadn’t really intended to read this book as I find Katherine one of the less interesting wives and, having read several other fictional accounts of her life (including Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle and The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd), I didn’t imagine this one would have anything new to add. When I saw it in the New Books section of the library, however, I couldn’t resist reading it – and I’m pleased I did as I found it to be one of Gregory’s better Tudor court novels.
Katherine Parr (or Kateryn as her name is spelled in this book) could be seen as one of Henry’s luckier wives, outliving the King and managing to avoid both divorce and beheading, but this doesn’t mean that she was happy or that she didn’t fear for her life at times. By this stage of his life Henry is, shall we say, past his prime: Gregory describes (sometimes in too much detail!) his gluttony at banquets, his bodily functions and the smell of his ulcerated leg. Add to this his temper, unpredictable behaviour and obsession with his third wife, Jane Seymour, and you can see how difficult things are for poor Kateryn, especially as she has been forced to give up her secret love for Thomas Seymour.
Kateryn finds some comfort in getting to know her new stepchildren – Mary, Elizabeth and Edward – and restoring them to their places at court, and also in religious study. She welcomes preachers to her rooms (including Anne Askew, who was later burned at the stake) and as a result of this narrowly escapes death herself; she debates religious reform with her ladies and sometimes with the King himself; and she writes several books, becoming the first Queen of England to publish under her own name.
Kateryn is an intelligent and mature woman who has already been widowed twice before her marriage to Henry and she is able to tolerate her situation and handle the King’s whims in a way that a younger, less experienced girl may not have done. I liked her, but I felt that there were times when Gregory attributed words and actions to her that didn’t feel consistent with the way her character was being portrayed. This made me think that maybe she is more comfortable writing from the perspective of younger, livelier narrators.
This is an entertaining read and if you’ve never read about Katherine Parr before, it provides a good overview of her life and of the final years of Henry’s reign (events such as the sinking of the Mary Rose are covered in dramatic detail). I did prefer Elizabeth Fremantle’s Queen’s Gambit, though, and would recommend that book ahead of this one.
Have you read any other novels about Juana of Castile or Katherine Parr? Which are your favourites?
She Reads Novels 
I’ve never read any Phillipa Gregory but I keep meaning to. I have one (at least) in the 746. She is constantly being recommended to me though!
I would be interested to know what you think of Philippa Gregory. I quite enjoy her books, but she does seem to divide opinion!
I haven’t read anything related to these two queen, but after reading this review of both books I would like to. I like Phillippa Gregory’s writing style, but she goes on and on about where the court was when this and that and it tends to become tedious. I feel her books are unnecessarily long.
I own a book about Elizabeth I’s court by C.W. Goertner that I haven’t read; it is titled The Secret Lion. I believe is a mystery. I plan to read it at some point.
Yes, Philippa Gregory’s books do often seem to be longer than necessary and can start to feel repetitive. I usually enjoy them but sometimes they do go on forever! I hope you enjoy your C.W. Gortner book. 🙂
Hmmm, when I saw you were reading Gortner, I was hoping you had read more so that I could get your overall opinion. I have only read one (The Tudor Secret) and was not impressed, but I keep reading how good he is, which makes me think I just read the wrong novel. On the other hand, I have pretty much finished with Philippa Gregory. I used to love her (although her history can be quite questionable) but then thought I saw her novels growing more and more perfunctory, as if she was just whipping them off.
The Tudor Secret is one of his historical mysteries, isn’t it? I wonder if it’s written in a different style to his other historical novels? Or maybe I just enjoyed this book because I was so fascinated and moved by Juana’s story. I do want to read more of his work, but I’ll avoid The Tudor Secret until I’ve read some of the others first. As for Philippa Gregory, I find her books very uneven – she seems to write one or two good ones, followed by one that’s not very good.
You know, I can’t remember if it was a mystery or not. It was about a guy who was a servant to Robert Dudley, I think, and was being asked to spy. I’ll keep watching your blog and see what you think if you read another. I was reading Gregory in order, pretty much. Sometime during the Cousins War series, I decided that I had read too many perfunctory novels in a row, so I just stopped. I think it was at The Lady of the Rivers or the one before that. I enjoyed the first few of the Tudor series, although much of the history was just plain made up. Still, it was fun. I’m guessing I stopped reading her around 2010 or 2011.
I haven’t read any books about Juana but your post did jog my memory about a radio play on the subject that I once heard. I wonder if there is a Spanish tradition of historical fiction and if so whether she is written about there as often as her sister is in the UK?
That’s what I’ve been wondering too. Juana’s story is so fascinating I would be surprised if there aren’t at least a few Spanish novels written about her.
Are there any queens that have happy endings? Because it seems like most of the ones I’ve read about have disappointing, or sad lives. I would definitely NOT want to be royalty. But I like reading about them. 🙂
I can’t think of many who had happy lives, especially not the medieval/Tudor queens!
I haven’t read anything about Juana of Castile or Katherine Parr. I have heard of Parr and would like to more about her. While Juana is new to me but sounds fascinating. I definitely wouldn’t want to be queen either!
I enjoyed reading about both queens, but Juana’s story was particularly moving and fascinating.
Helen,
I nominated you at my blog for “One Lovely Blog Award” for which you have to post some answers to some questions and voila. Here is the link:
http://www.cpa-booksandmoviesreviews.com/2015/10/one-lovely-blog-award.html
Hope to see your answers if you decide to take part. Regards.
Thank you! Very much appreciated. 🙂