Spending some page turning time with the Tudors

 

Even before the horrifying events of last Wednesday, I was already having the urge to read some historical fiction with a Tudor theme. Mainly Henry VIII,whose royal misdeeds have certainly made quite the mark on history.

When talking about novels featuring the Tudors, Philippa Gregory is always reliable to provide in that regard. Three Sisters, Three Queens features Catherine of Aragon and her sister in law, Mary but the main focus here is on Margaret, who become the Queen of Scotland but still never got over her deep rooted envy of her brother's celebrated wife.

Upon the death of her husband James(killed during a rebellion that Catherine had to command English forces against during Henry's absence), Margaret was made Queen Regent and planned to guide her young son to the throne of both Scotland and England since a male heir to that kingdom had not been produced.

Unfortunately for her, Margaret fell in love with a Scottish nobleman  and secretly married him, breaking what little peace there was among the ruling clans of the country. Having to flee in the dead of night without her children, she sought protection from her brother but even the pledged united front promised by him and Catherine can not keep Margaret from indulging in her impulses for instant gratification and power.

This is a book that I meant to read long ago but the time felt right recently, due to the final season of The Spanish Princess on Starz. A good portion of Margaret's story was well woven into the plot, showcasing the powerhouse personality that she was. While it would've been great to have Three Sisters, Three Queens be a miniseries on it's own, I am glad that some of this engaging book found it's place here:

As it happens, one of my Christmas gifts this year was part of Alison Weir's Six Tudor Queen series of novels.

 Anna of Kleve: The Princess in the Portrait gives the storytelling spotlight to Henry's fourth wife, a woman often overlooked by history. While her regal husband was allegedly disappointed in seeing the actual Anna over the painting version of her, she was someone with secrets of her own to keep and some of those were perhaps romantic in nature.

Even after her divorce from Henry, she was still caught up in the intrigues of the court and accused of making alliances against heiress to the throne Mary Tudor by favoring her younger sister Elizabeth. Nevertheless, she persisted in staying as much above the fray as possible.

While I'm still in the midst of the Catherine of Aragon novel in this series(yes, I did read the Anne Boleyn book first!), I am most keen to meet her Majesty of Kleve and share a literary song and dance with her indeed:

Meanwhile, I decided to treat myself to the next in line entry by Weir, Katheryn Howard: The Scandalous Princess.

Katheryn was the next to last wife who sadly shared the fate of wife number two. She was very young and carefree, set up by her ambitious relatives into this doomed marriage, hoping that she could give the aging king that male heir so desperately longed for.

Unlike her previous sister wives, Katheryn had no political savoy and pretty much threw caution to the wind in the love department. What she really loved about being Henry's queen was all of the perks that came with it(sort of a medieval mall chick if you will).

Granted, she wasn't very clever yet that did not mean that Katheryn deserved the tragic ending that she received. The fact that she really had no ill intent makes her demise all the more pitiful, if you ask me:

I also have the Jane Seymour book in this series and planning to do a reread of Philippa Gregory's The Boleyn Inheritance(which features both Anna of Kleve and Katherine Howard) at some point. The final book in Weir's Six Tudor Queens saga(Katherine Parr,aka She Who Survived) will be out later this year.

But why the Tudors now, you may ask? Well, for some reason, reading about a overly privileged ruler of a country who had multiple wives and a growing sense of paranoia just feels really relevant to our times as of now. To be fair, Henry VIII was far better educated and more charming than any modern day counterpart of his could ever hope to be.

To get a little real world here, what happened last Wednesday was history making in the absolutely worst sense of the term. Such an act of treason can not and should not abide. While it may take far too much time, I do believe that consequences will be handed out and that we will unite as one nation to make things right. However, justice must be served first.

Even reading fictional accounts of the Tudors show us the need for keeping those in power in check. Yes, it was a much different time period with a very different system of rule yet we are supposed to learn from the mistakes of the past.

While the terrors of the Tudor dynasty did lead to Elizabeth I and her amazing achievements, she was the last of that line. Perhaps that was for the best but if someone had done something other than the expected, who knows if the Tudors could have improved as leaders over time and continued?

I am no historian, just a reader of historical fiction. However, I do appreciate a good story and the Tudors certainly gave us that. I highly doubt the same will be said for those currently trying to undermine our democracy today. Hopefully, we will be spared the horror of a musical version of their high crimes-Henry VIII and the women in his life are far more engaging in that regard: