Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett

Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett – The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII – a book I decided to review on 29 January, to mark the anniversary of her burial. I planned to go to Peterborough, but the commemorations were on Friday, thus it did not work for us. I enjoyed the book a lot.

The youngest child of the legendary monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) was born to marry for dynastic gain. Endowed with English royal blood on her mother’s side, she was betrothed in infancy to Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII of England, an alliance that greatly benefited both sides. Yet Arthur died weeks after their marriage in 1501, and Catherine found herself remarried to his younger brother, soon to become Henry VIII. The history of England-and indeed of Europe-was forever altered by their union. Drawing on his deep knowledge of both Spain and England, Giles Tremlett has produced the first full biography in more than four decades of the tenacious woman whose marriage to Henry VIII lasted twice as long (twenty-four years) as his five other marriages combined. Her refusal to divorce him put her at the center of one of history’s greatest power struggles, one that has resonated down through the centuries- Henry’s break away from the Catholic Church as, bereft of a son, he attempted to annul his marriage to Catherine and wed Anne Boleyn. Catherine’s daughter, Mary, would controversially inherit Henry’s throne; briefly and bloodily, she returned England to the Catholicism of her mother’s native Spain, foreshadowing the Spanish Armada some three decades later. From Catherine’s peripatetic childhood at the glittering court of Ferdinand and Isabella to the battlefield at Flodden, where she, in Henry’s absence abroad, led the English forces to victory against Scotland to her determination to remain queen and her last years in almost monastic isolation, Giles Tremlett vividly re-creates the life of a giant figure in the sixteenth century. Catherine of Aragon will take its place among the best of Tudor biography.

Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett

Details about the picture: pomegranate juice instead of coffee because pomegranate was her symbol
My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Walker Books
Year it was published: 2010
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): Biography
Pages: 448

About the author: Giles Tremlett is the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent. He has lived in, and written about, Spain for the past twenty years.
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