The Constant Princess
by Philippa Gregory
List Price:
Our Price: $6.44
You Save: $18.51 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Philippa GregoryEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2005-12-06
ISBN: 074327248X
Number of pages: 393
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of The Constant Princess
Book Review: Thin, flat and boring
Summary: 2 Stars
I will admit up front that I am not a Philippa Gregory fan. True fans may wish to skip this review altogether. I do read a lot of history and historical novels about this period, and I was intrigued as I flipped through the pages and read about the confrontation between Katharine and Margaret Beaufort, Henry VIII's very powerful grandmother, who tends to be left out of accounts of this period. I was also glad to see a novel that dealt extensively with Katharine's earlier years.
I disliked The Other Boleyn Girl, but at least I didn't become as bored as I did by this novel. There are a few effective and historical incidents: Henry VII's gift of jewelry to assuage Katharine's homesickness, her refusal to state an opinion on going to Ludlow, her false pregnancy, etc. Gregory shows Katharine as the pretty young girl and shrewd woman she probably was. The beginning, at Granada and Gregory's revisionist view of Katharine and Arthur's marriage are both interesting and intriguing. For the most part, however, the book is entirely too interior, too focussed on the private and Katharine's very repetitive thoughts. Clearly, Gregory is partly trying to explain Katharine's adamant refusal to allow her marriage to be dissolved, but I don't need to be retold the same thing every tenth page. Too much is told and not shown: we are told of Queen Elizabeth's kindness to Katharine, but we don't see it. We are told that the Duke of Buckingham gave Katharine gifts of food when she was in dire straits, but we never see him showing up at her home. Moreover, since the book leaps from 1513 to 1529, the trial at Blackfriars, I hope the reader is familiar with The King's Great Matter, because there is almost no explanation here. I don't mind that the book ends here, there have been so many other books, but there may be some readers who have no idea what is going on. Maybe one could read the first two parts of the book, switch to The Other Boleyn Girl, and then switch back when it gets up to the trial, and then resume reading it after this.
One problem with the book is that except for the longing for a child, there is only ever one thing happening in Katharine's life at a time: from Fall of 1511 until 1513, for example, the only subject of the plot is the looming war with France and Scotland. This is the period when Katharine's dear friend Margaret de la Pole was created Countess of Salisbury, a title held by her Yorkist forebears (perhaps with Katharine's encouragement?). The book establishes Katharine's sad plight after Arthur's death, and then skips forward to Henry VII's death, leaving out such interesting events as the meeting of Henry with Katharine's sister Juana and her brother-in-law Philip. Katharine would later be involved in Henry VII's attempt to marry the widowed Juana (over the vehement objections of Ferdinand). It omits, except by allusion, the marriage of Princess Margaret to James IV of Scotland and the proxy marriage of Henry VIII's sister Mary to Juana's son Charles, as Philip and Henry plot to combine against Ferdinand. So much going on that could have been described, and we have endless repetitions of Katharine's belief that she is fated to be Queen of England! By skipping from 1513 to 1529, we miss Henry's bout with smallpox (very worrisome to the still childless Katharine, wouldn't you think?), the switch to an alliance with France, sealed by the marriage of Henry VIII's sister to Louis XII of France, accompanied by rumors that Henry meant to set aside Katharine and marry a French princess. Mary Tudor was a loyal friend to Katharine, and her dramatic secret marriage to Charles Brandon after being widowed (with Katharine perhaps pleading that they be forgiven?) is completely absent. Katharine nearly caused an international incident by persuading Henry to break his vow not to shave until he met Francis I of France. We miss the birth and rearing of Katharine and Henry's daughter Mary, the birth and ennoblement of his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, the rumors that he will replace Mary as Henry's heir. How can the life of Katharine of Aragon become so dull?
I am not bothered by the assertion that Katharine and Arthur's marriage was consummated - when her marriage to the future Henry VIII was proposed, the English stated in their petition to the Pope that it was, and the Spanish claimed that it wasn't. (The Pope was not amused.) I'm willing to accept the premise as the basis for the story. It really only mattered because Henry later made the ad hoc claim that the Pope couldn't grant a dispensation in that case. There was some controversy at the time of her marriage to Henry, and apparently there were flaws in the dispensation, but only Henry's desire to leave the marriage made these significant. Manoel of Portugal married Katharine's sister Isabel; when she died leaving him a young son, he married her sister Maria, and that marriage stood.
Yes, I know that Katharine was very pious, but so were Richard III and Margaret Beaufort - politics encourages convenient morals. And Katharine is supposed to have done this partly in order to continue the good works that she and Arthur planned, but we never see her generous support of education, her attempts to introduce new craft industries, etc. We never really understand why the English public supported her, no matter what Henry said about their marriage. In service to the vision of Arthur as Katharine's One True Love, Katharine's famous devotion to Henry VIII is discounted. I found Henry VII's coarse leering at Katharine tiresome and crudely written; I don't think there is any historical basis for it.
Gregory tells us in her notes that she also wants to give a voice to the Moslems of el Andalus. She lays it on with a trowel. Katharine misses the privacy of the harem where woman can really trust one another and don't have to worry about their husbands cavorting with someone else(!?) Andalusia was a veritable paradise of refinement, learning and tolerance, her people pillars of virtue. Well, I've read that, but I've also read that the much vaunted tolerance was something of a myth, invented centuries later in order to shame Christian Europe into imitating it. I think she has seriously overdone it, and that sort of thing often backfires. I can only remember Jane Austen's assertion that pictures of perfection made her sick and wicked. In any case, if Gregory wants to give the Moors of Spain a voice, I suggest that she write a novel about them in all their human complexity, not simply tack them on as a romantic myth. Gregory says that el-Andalus has a lot to say to us as we struggle with tolerance and mutuality, but she never shows us how the Moors are supposed to have managed it.
Katharine's attitude towards the Moors is not so much ambivalent as cognitively dissonent. She alternates between calmly explaining their glorious culture and history to Arthur and becoming nearly hysterical at the thought of Moors. This erratic vacillation undermines one of Gregory's themes, i.e., Katharine learning to think independently of her parents. Katharine tells Arthur that the Spanish royalty are very much Arabs in private, have adopted, rather than adapted, Arab customs. This while they are destroying all the centers of learning and driving out all the uniquely competent doctors as minions of Satan. Even if they did indeed take a great deal from Moorish culture, I doubt that they would consciously see themselves as becoming Arab. One can understand that Katharine is enthusiastic about Englishmen joining a Spanish crusade against North Africa, but Katharine spends a fair amount of time worrying about the threats posed to England by the Moors. I think it would be pretty obvious that England's most pressing foreign concern was not likely to be an armada of the Barbary pirates appearing off the white cliffs of Dover. Ferdinand and Isabella's determination to drive out the Moors didn't cause them to neglect European politics.
I suppose that anyone who is a big fan of Philippa Gregory will want to at least try this. Those who like richly detailed recreations of the past and vivid imaginative constructions of historal people may be disappointed. Gregory's version of Arthur and Katherine's marriage is really the only interesting variation in this very familiar tale.
I recommend two much better novels by Norah Lofts: Crown of Aloes (Isabella of Castile) and The King's Pleasure (Katharine of Aragon). The young adult novel Patience, Princess Catherine: A Young Royals Book (Young Royals) by Carolyn Meyer is a much more vivid picture of her life from just before her departure from Spain to just after her marriage to Henry. The story is bookended by Katharine's defiance of Henry after his marriage to Anne Boleyn many years later, but the historical notes are better.
Summary of The Constant Princess
"I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known...and I will be Queen of England."Thus, bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. 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.
"They tell me nothing but lies here and they think they can break my spirit. I believe what I choose and say nothing. I am not as simple as I seem."
Widowed and alone in the avaricious world of the Tudor court, Katherine has to sidestep her father-in-law's desire for her and convince him, and an incredulous Europe, that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated, that there is no obstacle to marriage with Henry. For seven years, she endures the treachery of spies, the humiliation of poverty, and intense loneliness and despair while she waits for the inevitable moment when she will step into the role she has prepared for all her life. Then, like her warrior mother, Katherine must take to the battlefield and save England when its old enemies the Scots come over the border and there is no one to stand against them but the new Queen.
"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."
Raised on the battlefield and in the most beautiful Moorish palace in the world, sent to England alone at the age of sixteen to take her place in a court where she couldn't speak the language, and abandoned and forced to endure poverty after the death of her husband, Katherine remained a woman of indomitable spirit, unwavering faith, and extraordinary strength. Philippa Gregory brings to life one of history's most inspiring women and creates one of the most compelling characters in historical fiction.
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novelby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.28
Price in other shops:
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novelby Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops:
The Last Witchfinder: A Novelby James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Zorroby Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.03
Price in other shops:
The Hot Kid: A Novelby Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
Marchby Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Gates of Rome (Emperor 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earringby Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar Books and other products
The Other Boleyn Girlby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2003-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.46
Price in other shops:
The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The White Queen: A Novel (Cousins' War (Touchstone Hardcover))by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2009-08-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2004-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.78
Price in other shops:
The Red Queen: A Novel (The Cousins' War)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2010-08-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops:
The Other Boleyn Girlby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2004-11-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops:
The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2004-11-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.85
Price in other shops:
The Other Queen: A Novelby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2008-09-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2004-11-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
The Boleyn Inheritanceby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2006-12-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.05
Price in other shops: