The Virgin's Lover (Tudor Court, Book Six): Philippa Gregory

"Elizabeth I has ascended to the throne of England, a position she has waited and schemed for all her life.  She is surrounded by advisers, all convinced that they know what would be best for the country and certain that a young woman cannot form political judgements.  Elizabeth feels that she can rely on just one man:  her oldest friend, Robert Dudley.  it is soon plain that he is more than merely a friend.  In a house in the countryside waits a very different woman, Amy Robsart -- Robert's wife.  She has no taste for life at court and longs for the day when her husband will return home and attend to his family.  She has loved him since she was a girl, but now they are adults she hardly sees him.  Meanwhile, the pressure grows for Elizabeth to marry, for it is unthinkable that a queen should rule on her own.  Elizabeth's preference is clear, but he is unavailable.  But what if the unthinkable were to happen...  Philippa Gregory blends passion, personalities and politics in this stunning novel of the Tudor court and a country divided."

This installation in Philippa Gregory's Tudor Court series took me a bit longer to read than I thought it would (and I'm not entirely sure why).  I very much enjoyed and appreciated the way in which Gregory tied together all of her prior books (even The Queen's Fool, which focused on the life of a fictional character to insert the readers into the time period and give them a better "insider's" view of Mary and Elizabeth, as well as the time period).  Readers were introduced to Robert Dudley in The Queen's Fool.  While I liked his character there, I found him to be very different in this book - perhaps because the readers are given insight into his mind and machinations instead of a rather biased opinion from a besotted young girl (i.e. Hannah from the book prior to this).  Knowing what I know about the real Robert Dudley (being the British history buff that I am), I found this portrayal to be very interesting and fairly in-line with what I know of him.  I struggled a little bit more with the portrayal of Elizabeth I; maybe because I've seen her presented as a powerful, self-sure woman in a man's world so many times over in both fiction and non-fiction.  This specific portrayal and her character quirks were also introduced in The Queen's Fool, but this book really made them evident.  I understand that Elizabeth was still a young woman when she took the throne, but I have long had such a high opinion of her as a queen that this was occasionally difficult for me to swallow (perhaps this is why it took me so long to read?).  Amy, on the other hand, was the character who garnered all of my sympathies.  I didn't care for her at all in The Queen's Fool, where she was portrayed as irrational, clingy, and borderline-insane (granted, this also came from the point of view of a very young woman (Hannah) who fancied herself in love with Amy's husband).  Maybe she seemed more sane and pitiable in this book because we got to see things from her point of view (I wonder if the difference was intentional on Gregory's part because what madwoman really sees her own madness?).  The amount of loyalty, devotion, and love she felt for Robert regardless of his faults and incessant slights against her - his veritable abandonment of her - was truly heartbreaking.  Gregory's artful juxtaposition of Elizabeth and Amy - two very different women in love with the same man - was extremely well done.  This is, I believe, what made the book a worthy read.  There was still a great deal of politics and religious issues, which - though necessary - made the reading a touch dry at times; however, I will say it did not get quite as dry as The Taming of the Queen (the amount of religious information in that book made it a bit of a struggle at times).  I will have to say that The Other Boleyn Girl is still my favorite of all of Gregory's books.  I can absolutely appreciate the common threads and characters Gregory was able to weave into this series (I especially enjoy seeing Mary Boleyn's daughter and granddaughter in this book).  My disclaimer is this:  The Other Boleyn Girl can be a standalone read for almost anyone, but that is not the case for the rest of the books in this series.  The time period becomes more and more complex and, to understand the subterfuge, familial relations/rivalries/interplay, and have any chance of grasping the politics and religious turmoil, one must read all of the books in this series.  This is not for everyone.  Be prepared to delve very deeply into English politics, policies, and religion(s) - yes, that plural was intentional - when reading these books.  I don't want to scare you away, but simply make you aware that not all of the books in this series are as easy to read as The Other Boleyn Girl...this book included.  I recommend this book as a must-read for the series (it's very interesting to see so many things converge), but I didn't love it as much as others (though I will say I liked parts of it much better than some of Gregory's other books).

The Queen's Fool (Tudor Court, Book Five): Philippa Gregory

“A stunning novel set in the Tudor court, as the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth is played out against a background of betrayal, conflict and passion.  The savage rivalry of the daughters of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth, mirrors that of their mothers, Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.  Each will fight by any available means for the crown and future of the kingdom.  Elizabeth’s bitter struggle to claim the throne she believes in hers by right, and the man she desires almost more than her crown, is watched by her ‘fool’:  a girl who has been forced to leave her homeland of Spain, as a Jew fleeing the Inquisition.  In a court where truth is wittily denied and lies are mere games, it is the fool who can speak plainly:  in these dangerous times, a woman must choose between ambition and love.  Elizabeth will not make the same mistakes as her mother.”

The teaser for this book does not really do it justice; it makes it seem as if the book is more about Elizabeth than anything else, but this is not true.  The book is told from the point of view of Hannah Verde (or, Hannah Green), daughter of a secretly Jewish printer and bookseller, after she is brought to the court of the young Edward IV only a short while before his premature death.  In a series built upon historical facts, Hannah represents a deviation from this technique.  She has a gift of “the sight” and, essentially, has premonitions and sees angels.  Following one of these visions, Hannah is brought by Robert Dudley to court as his little spy.  Without detailing the progress of the book in too much detail, Hannah’s loyalties are a very complex mixture of devotion, girlish love, admiration, and familial responsibility.  She “changes hands” several times throughout the book from Robert Dudley to Queen Mary, then to Elizabeth, and back and forth, back and forth.  It is a great device to capture important details from all sides without having to use an omniscient narrator.  The reader only knows as much as Hannah knows.

The parts of her story where she switched households between Mary and Elizabeth were interesting; I enjoyed the insights into their characters.  However, I think the most interesting were the bits where we saw Hannah’s betrothal to Daniel and everything that follows after it becomes too dangerous for her Jewish family to stay in England.  I believe Hannah is a supremely strong individual – I cannot imagine surviving what she does.

All of the plots, the scheming, the subversion that we know of the Tudor court from Gregory’s previous books remain in this one.  I think the structure of this book was a wise way for Gregory to incorporate the stories of these half-sisters instead of creating two separate books that would have had a great deal of overlap to the point of being detrimentally repetitious.  I particularly enjoyed the portrayals of Elizabeth and Mary from Hannah’s eyes.  I could absolutely see notes of Katherine of Aragon in Mary (especially the passion with which she loved her husband – for those of you who have read The Constant Princess, you know that Katherine calls the passion of the women in her family their curse) and both Henry and Anne in Elizabeth (in Elizabeth’s easy Tudor confidence and her ability to get what she wants from others).  I didn’t, however, see much of them as they were portrayed in The Taming of the Queen.  Perhaps because that one was told from the point of view of Kateryn, a woman who was determined to love the girls and their brother as if they were her own?

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book.  It was an easy, interesting read.  Hannah’s story was extremely interesting and it served to broaden the world far past the limitations of England’s shores.  Gregory did an excellent job on this book.  Though it strays from the format of her other books in the series, it is definitely worth the read.

The Taming of the Queen (Tudor Court, Book Four): Philippa Gregory

“Why would a woman marry a serial killer?

“Because she cannot refuse…

“Kateryn Parr, a 30-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father, who has buried four wives – King Henry VIII – commands her to marry him.

“Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces:  the previous queen lasted 16 months, the one before barely half a year.  But Henry adores his new bride, and Kateryn’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as regent.

“But is this enough to keep her safe?  A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own.  But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry’s dangerous gaze turns on her.  The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy – the punishment is death by fire, and the king’s own name is on the warrant…

“From an author who has described all of Henry’s queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last:  a woman who longed for passion, power, and education at the court of a medieval killer.”

I have obviously been on a bit of a Philippa Gregory kick, haven’t I?  I just love the Tudor era so much that it makes it easy for me to pick up yet another book set in this time period.  Gregory’s easy writing and captivating characters are, once again, at the heart of this book; however, I will say that I struggled with the amount of religion in this book.  I am so impressed that Kateryn was the first woman to publish in English (I believe it was a book of prayers or psalms, if memory serves me), but the sheer amount of theological discussion and preaching was, at times, enough to make my eyes glaze over.  Granted, this could just be because I, personally, can only deal with a certain amount of religion in a work of fiction before I can’t take it anymore.  This could be completely different for another reader with different interests.  I am fully aware that so much of Henry VIII’s reign revolved around religious doctrine, practices, laws, teachings, etc. (I’ve written papers on it and done my share of reading non-fiction materials on the subject), so I understand the importance of Gregory including this in the book, but it sometimes slowed down the story and the pacing.  While I thoroughly enjoyed Kateryn as a character and sympathized with her struggles and her lost love, this story was my second least-favorite in this series (one step above The Constant Princess).  The most memorable moment was the revelation of the official portrait used on the cover of the book.  I recall reading about the portrait somewhere, but I had long-since forgotten.  To have it revealed in the book was gut-wrenching and very interesting – I don’t want to give anything away!  I also loved how hard Kateryn worked to bring Henry’s children together.

Overall, I did like the book, but the weightiness of the religious aspect sometimes bogged down the story.  I understand what was trying to be accomplished, but it felt a bit religion-heavy for a historical fiction.  I think the point could have gotten across with a bit less of the details or sermons.  I will say that I did some research on Kateryn after finishing the book (she is probably the queen I knew the least about) and her story is very interesting, her life reached far past the date of her death, as did the consequences of her marriages (yes, that is plural – you’ll have to read for yourself to find out!).  She was an admirably strong, determined woman.  I hope I don’t give too much away when I say that I’m sorry her “happy ending” was not all that she hoped it would be.  I recommend this book as a necessary installation in this series, but – like I said – it was not my favorite.  It was probably the most suspenseful in the series, which is something to be said.

The Boleyn Inheritance (Tudor Court, Book Three): Philippa Gregory

“From the bestselling author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comes a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens. The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry has to take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. She has her own good reasons for agreeing to marry a man old enough to be her father, in a country where to her both language and habits are foreign. Although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, she senses a trap closing around her. Catherine is confident that she can follow in the steps of her cousin Anne Boleyn to dazzle her way to the throne but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, haunted by the past, knows that Anne's path led to Tower Green and to an adulterer's death. The story of these three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty is Philippa Gregory's most intense novel yet.”

This book was written in a style much closer to what I remember The Other Boleyn Girl to be than The Constant Princess.  The writing was captivating, lively, and easy to follow.  Her characters were interesting and the story was well-paced.  Again, I was reading these a bit out of order, but it did not matter all that much since I am already rather familiar with this period in British history.  This book takes place after the conclusion of The Other Boleyn Girl.  It was interesting to see what happens in the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s beheading; even more so to see things from the perspective of another character who had been in the background of The Other Boleyn Girl, Jane Boleyn - as well as the mentioning of names we recognize from The Constant Princess.  The Boleyn Inheritance was told from three different perspectives:  Jane Boleyn (widow of Anne Boleyn’s brother, George), Anne of Cleves (one of Henry VIII’s “lucky” wives, and Katherine Howard (a cousin of Anne Boleyn and another wife of Henry VIII).  Of the three, I think Anne of Cleves’ perspective was the most interesting.  I enjoyed learning more about her background and seeing her as something other than the what I had previously learned in history courses; that she was a woman so ugly and with such poor hygiene that Henry VIII could not bear to be married to her – though more historians are now in agreement that this was probably not the case.  I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her after seeing from where she had come and what she had to endure – of course, this is a work of fiction, but Gregory’s writing was so realistic and enthralling.  Jane Boleyn was interesting, too.  We learned very little about her in The Other Boleyn Girl other than the facts that she was married to George, Anne and Mary’s older brother (who was also executed), and she and the Boleyns did not care for one another – she was jealous of the Boleyn sisters’ close relationship with her husband and it is hinted that this led her to testify against them.  She was also portrayed as a bit of a sexual deviant (I am unsure how else to describe her creepy interest in the sex lives of others and her oft-described sexual appetite for her poor husband).  Her cold, calculating demeanor became unnerving in this book – something of which we caught glimpses in the second book in the series.  This really helped to bring the story to life and showed the ways in which women were expected to manipulate others and events in order to further their respective family’s aims.  This echoes The Other Boleyn Girl a bit in this fashion.  Katherine (Kitty) Howard’s perspective was interesting because I think Gregory did an excellent job of tapping into the mind of a teenage girl.  She’s very self-absorbed and believes herself invincible.  She sees only pretty things and lives in a materialistic world.  Surely nothing bad can happen to a pretty girl such as herself?  Her naiveté was well-written and believable.

Overall, the story was captivating, well-written, and very interesting.  I thought it was an appropriate follow-up to The Other Boleyn Girl and I enjoyed it a great deal.  At first, I thought the book was going to feel (forgive my language) half-assed because Gregory “couldn’t come up with enough material to devote a full book to each of these characters,” but this was far from what I experienced.  The pacing was good, the characters were interesting, and I would recommend this as a great installment in the Tudor Court series.

The Constant Princess (Tudor Court, Book One): Philippa Gregory

“Splendid and sumptuous historical novel from this internationally bestselling author, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon. We think of her as the barren wife of a notorious king; but behind this legacy lies a fascinating story. Katherine of Aragon is born Catalina, the Spanish Infanta, to parents who are both rulers and warriors. Aged four, she is betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and is raised to be Queen of England. She is never in doubt that it is her destiny to rule that far-off, wet, cold land. Her faith is tested when her prospective fahter-in-law greets her arrival in her new country with a great insult; Arthur seems little better than a boy; the food is strange and the customs coarse. Slowly she adapts to the first Tudor court, and life as Arthur's wife grows ever more bearable. But when the studious young man dies, she is left to make her own future: how can she now be queen, and found a dynasty? Only by marrying Arthur's young brother, the sunny but spoilt Henry. His father and grandmother are against it; her powerful parents prove little use. Yet Katherine is her mother's daughter and her fighting spirit is strong. She will do anything to achieve her aim; even if it means telling the greatest lie, and holding to it. Philippa Gregory proves yet again that behind the apparently familiar face of history lies an astonishing story: of women warriors influencing the future of Europe, of revered heroes making deep mistakes, and of an untold love story which changes the fate of a nation.”

(I originally wrote this review back in October of 2016 and am only now getting around to posting it!  Curse you grad school for killing off all of my free time!)  I chose to read this book after picking up The Boleyn Inheritance over the summer.  Yes, I am reading these books out of order, but it hasn’t ruined the series for me (probably because I’m such a British history nerd that I already know what’s going to happen, so I haven’t really spoiled the story reading them this way).  For those of you unfamiliar with the reign and private life of England’s King Henry VIII, then I strongly recommend reading this series in order.

I originally read Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl several years ago when the movie version came out in theaters.  I really enjoyed it because it was a refreshing point of view and the writing was extremely captivating.  That book is a far cry from the writing style in The Constant Princess.  There’s a very strange mixture of internal dialogue, odd use of quotations for thoughts instead of italicization, parts of the story felt slightly repetitive, and the characters were a bit too melodramatic for my taste.  It started off very interesting.  Caterina was strong and her background was fascinating.  I did not know all that much about Katherine of Aragon outside of her marriage to Henry VIII – the younger brother of her first husband, Arthur – and the subsequent dissolution of that marriage.  Few people realize how different Spain was from other great powers of that time period (I am familiar with that time period, so I was aware of it, but it was still very interesting and refreshing for me to read).  I flew through the book up until the point that (hope this isn’t too much of a spoiler) she and Arthur fall in love with one another.  It go sweet…like, sickeningly sweet…unbelievably sweet…annoyingly sweet.  “My love” was used so many times I found it almost unpalatable.  I get that these are young teenagers in the bloom of their first passionate “love,” but I did not care for it.  Gregory tried explaining it away by citing Caterina’s family history of boiling passions and debilitating depressions, but she cited it so often that that it became unconvincing.  The stories she told to Arthur about her homeland were interesting and colorful at first, but quickly became too numerous and started to feel somewhat repetitive.  I understand Gregory’s desire to deepen the story and create a rich background for Caterina, but it felt like too much.  This made the story drag on so much for me that I actually had to return it to the library because it was overdue!  It never takes me that long to finish a book!  I had to wait a couple of months to check it out again because other people were reading it.  I did finish it pretty quickly once I got it back in my possession (*SPOILER* probably because the story moved more quickly once Caterina was a widow *END SPOILER*).

However, I definitely appreciated what a strong female character Gregory created in Caterina.  I can only imagine that Katherine of Aragon had to be similarly tenacious and unshakable to overcome what she did to become the Queen of England.

As far as the writing style goes, I felt it was definitely not on-par with Gregory’s other books that I’ve read.  In fact, I don’t think I would be able to tell that it was by the same author who wrote The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance.  Those two have such similar writing styles that they’re clearly part of the same series.  The Constant Princess, however, felt inconsistent.  I often mistook internal dialogue/thoughts for actual dialogue (i.e. if a character was thought I must remain strong, it was written, “I must remain strong,” so you couldn’t tell whether or not it was part of the dialogue taking place).  Additionally, it was inconsistent.  A majority of the minor internal dialogue/thoughts happened in quotations, but some of it was italicized.  Then again, entire chunks of the story (meaning numerous pages at a time) were told from Caterina’s point of view and were completely italicized.  It all felt a little bit sloppy and was sometimes hard to follow.  Essentially, I enjoyed the story, but was not always impressed with the way in which it was presented.  It had some interesting history in it and blurred the lines between biography and historical fiction.

This was certainly not my favorite of Gregory’s works, but I am appreciative of how strong she made Katherine.  She was an admirable character.  The book actually made me want to reread The Other Boleyn Girl, and I NEVER reread books.  I will probably end up posting an updated review for that book because it’s been a few years since I last read it.  I am currently about ¾ of the way done with it, so be on a lookout for that update!