Philippa Gregory's Tudor Court 6-Book Boxed Set (62 page)

At Arthur’s request I told the greatest lie a woman has ever told, and I will tell it to the very grave. I am an Infanta of Spain, I do not give a promise and fail to keep it. Arthur, my beloved, asked me for an oath on his deathbed and I gave it to him. He asked me to say that we had never been lovers and he commanded me to marry his brother and be queen. I did everything I promised him, I was constant to my promise. Nothing in these years has shaken my faith that it is God’s will that I should be Queen of England, and that I shall be Queen of England until I die. No one could have saved England from the Scots but me—Henry was too young and too inexperienced to take an army into the field. He would have offered a duel, he would have chanced some forlorn hope, he would have lost the battle and died at Flodden and his sister Margaret would have been Queen of England in my place.

It did not happen because I did not allow it to happen. It was my mother’s wish and God’s will that I should be Queen of England, and I will be Queen of England until I die.

I do not regret the lie. I held to it, and I made everyone else hold to it, whatever doubts they may have had. As Henry learned more of women, as Henry learned more of me, he knew, as surely he had known on our wedding night, that it was a lie, I was no virgin for him. But in all our twenty years of marriage together, he found the courage to challenge me only once, at the very beginning; and I walk into the court on the great gamble that he will never have the courage to challenge me again, not even now.

I walk into court with my entire case staked on his weakness. I believe that when I stand before him, and he is forced to meet my eyes, that he will not dare to say that I was no virgin when I came to him, that I was Arthur’s wife and Arthur’s lover before I was ever his. His vanity will not
allow him to say that I loved Arthur with a true passion and he loved me. That in truth, I will live and die as Arthur’s wife and Arthur’s lover, and thus Henry’s marriage to me can be rightfully dissolved.

I don’t think he has the courage that I have. I think if I stand straight and tell the great lie again, that he will not dare to stand straight and tell the truth.

“Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, come into court,” the usher repeats stupidly, as the echo of the doors banging behind me reverberates in the shocked courtroom, and everyone can see that I am already in court, standing like a stocky fighter before the throne.

It is me they call for, by this title. It was my dying husband’s hope, my mother’s wish and God’s will that I should be Queen of England; and for them and for the country, I will be Queen of England until I die.

“Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, come into court!”

This is me. This is my moment. This is my battle cry.

I step forward.

Author’s Note

T
HIS HAS BEEN
one of the most fascinating and most moving novels to write, from the discovery of the life of the young Katherine to the great question of the lie that she told and maintained all her life.

That it was a lie is, I think, the most likely explanation. I believe that her marriage to Arthur was consummated; certainly, everyone thought so at the time It was only Doña Elvira’s insistence after Katherine had been widowed, and Katherine’s own insistence at the time of her separation from Henry, that put the consummation into doubt. Later historians, admiring Katherine and accepting her word against Henry’s, put the lie into the historical record where it stays today.

The lie was the starting place of the novel, but the surprise in the research was the background of Catalina of Spain. I enjoyed a wonderful research trip to Granada to discover more about the Spain of Isabella and Ferdinand, and came home with an abiding respect both for their courage and for the culture they swore to overthrow: the rich tolerant and beautiful land of the Moslems of Spain, el Andalus. I have tried to give these almost forgotten Europeans a voice in this book and to give us today, as we struggle with some of the same questions, an idea of the
conviviencia
—a land where Jews, Moslems, and Christians managed to live side by side in respect and peace as People of the Book.

A N
OTE ON THE
S
ONGS

“Alas, Alhama!,” “Riders gallop through the Elvira gate . . . ,” and “There was crying in Granada . . .” are traditional songs, quoted by Francesca Claremount in
Catherine of Aragon
(see book list below). “A palm tree stands in the middle of Rusafa,” is by Abd al Rahman, translated by D. F. Ruggles and quoted by Maria Rosa Menocal in
The Ornament of the World
(see book list below).

The following books have been most helpful in my research into the history of this story:

Bindoff, S. T.
Pelican History of England: Tudor England
. London: Penguin, 1993.

Bruce, Marie Louise.
Anne Boleyn
. London: Collins, 1972.

Chejna, Anwar, G.
Islam and the West: The Moriscos, A Cultural and Social History
. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.

Claremont, Francesca.
Catherine of Aragon
. London: Robert Hale, 1939.

Cressy, David.
Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the LifeCycle in Tudor and Stuart England.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Darby, H. C., ed.
A New Historical Geography of England Before 1600
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Dixon, William Hepworth.
History of Two Queens
. Vol. 2,
Anne Boleyn
. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1874.

Elton, G. R.
England Under the Tudors
. London: Methuen, 1955.

Fernández-Arnesto, Felipe
. Ferdinand and Isabella
. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975.

Fletcher, Anthony.
Tudor Rebellions
. London: Longmans, 1968.

Goodwin, Jason.
Lords of the Horizon: A History of the Ottoman Empire
. London: Vintage, 1989.

Guy, John.
Tudor England
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Haynes, Alan.
Sex in Elizabethan England
. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1997.

Loades, David.
Henry VIII and His Queens
. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2000.

———.
The Tudor Court
. London: Batsford, 1986.

Lloyd, David.
Arthur Prince of Wales
. Ludlow, Wales: Fabric Trust for St. Laurence, 2002.

Mackie, J. D.
Oxford History of England: The Earlier Tudors: 1485–1558.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.

Mattingly, Garrett.
Catherine of Aragon
. London: Jonathan Cape, 1942.

Menocal, Maria Rosa.
The Ornament of the World
. London: Little, Brown, 2002.

Mumby, Frank Arthur.
The Youth of Henry VIII: A Narrative in Contemporary Letters.
London: Constable, 1913.

Núñez, J. Agustín, ed.
Muslim and Christian Granada
. Granada: Ediciones Edilux, 2004.

Paul, John E.
Catherine of Aragon and Her Friends
. London: Burns and Oates, 1966.

Plowden, Alison.
The House of Tudor
. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976.

———.
Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners
. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1998.

Randell, Keith.
Henry VIII and the Reformation in England
. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993.

Robinson, John Martin.
The Dukes of Norfolk
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Scarisbrick, J. J.
Yale English Monarchs: Henry VIII
. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.

Scott, S. P.
The History of the Moorish Empire in Europe.
Vol.1. New York: AMS Press, 1974.

Smith, Lacey Baldwin.
A Tudor Tragedy: The Life and Times of Catherine Howard
. London: Cape, 1961.

Starkey, David.
Henry VIII: A European Court in England
. London: Collins and Brown, 1991.

———.
The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics
. London: G. Philip, 1985.

———.
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
. London: Vintage, 2003.

Tillyard, E.M.W.
The Elizabethan World Picture
. London: Pimlico, 1943.

Turner, Robert.
Elizabethan Magic: The Art and the Magus.
Boston: Element Books, 1989.

Walsh, William Thomas.
Isabella of Spain
. London: Sheed and Ward, 1931.

Warnicke, Retha M.
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn
. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Weir, Alison.
Henry VIII: King and Court
. London: Pimlico, 2002.

———.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
. London: Pimlico, 1997.

Youings, Joyce.
Penguin Social History of Britain
:
Sixteenth Century England
. London: Penguin, 1991.

   
Touchstone Reading Group Guide

The Constant Princess

Introduction

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, sixteen-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.

To Katherine’s surprise, her marriage to Arthur is a passionate love match as well as a political union. As the Prince and Princess of Wales, they eagerly plan for their future reign—until tragedy strikes five months into their marriage. Arthur falls ill, and before he dies the young prince extracts a vow from his wife. She is to marry his brother, Harry, and become Queen of England. She is to rule England in Arthur’s stead, fulfilling their dreams and her destiny. But to take the throne, Katherine must deny her true love and tell the world that she and Arthur never consummated their marriage.

The Constant Princess
is the story of a young girl who was raised to be a queen, the lengths to which she goes to fulfill a deathbed promise, and the crucial lie that changed the course of history.

Questions & Topics for Discussion

1. The novel opens in Granada, Spain, as five-year-old Catalina witnesses her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand, conquer the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain. What does this chapter reveal about Catalina as well as about her mother and their relationship? In what ways did having this portrait of Catalina as a child help you better understand some of her later decisions and motivations?

2. “I did not expect [Arthur] to be so handsome! He is so fair and slight, he is like a page boy from one of the old romances.” Why does Catalina’s romantic view of Arthur disintegrate after their wedding? How does their journey to Ludlow Castle—during which Catalina acquaints Arthur with some of the customs of her homeland—become the turning point in their relationship?

3. On his deathbed, Arthur asks Catalina to marry his brother and rule England in his place. What prompts Arthur to ask this of Catalina? Does Catalina promise Arthur for his sake or for her own? How does she justify telling the lie that makes it possible for her to wed Harry?

4. After Arthur’s death, Lady Margaret Pole suggests that perhaps God wills that Catalina accept her fate as Dowager Princess. “He does not,” Catalina responds. “I shall insist on what is mine. I know what is my duty and what I have to do.” Why is Catalina so certain that it’s God’s will she become Queen of England? Is this conviction a result of her faith, her upbringing, or something else?

5. How is Catalina used as a political pawn by her parents? What is your opinion of Isabella of Spain, both as a monarch and as a mother? Of King Ferdinand?

6. 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.” 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 and once she is queen?

7. When it’s realized that Catalina is not pregnant with Arthur’s child, her mother sends an emissary to escort her home to Spain. Why does Catalina, who was raised knowing it’s a princess’s duty to obey her parents, defy her mother and remain in England? Why is it so important to her that she not return to Spain? Are her reasons more political or personal?

8. Why does Catalina first accept King Henry VII’s marriage proposal and then refuse him? The king vows that Catalina “will regret the day she tried to lead me on as if I were a lovesick boy” and exacts revenge by betrothing her to Harry, though he does not intend them to marry. When does Catalina realize that she is being used as a pawn in the king’s scheme? Does she have any recourse other than to remain a “constant princess” for six years?