Customer Reviews

The Spanish Bride: A Novel of Catherine of Aragon

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ms. Gardner's story "The Spanish Bride" is a well-written story that will sweep the reader back to Tudor times under the rule of Henry VIII. With her vivid way of writing the reader is gifted with a peak at a time past.

Catherine of Aragon comes to England in 1502 with her ladies, which include Estella de Montoya. With big expectations they both take their proper places in the royal households. By 1527 Catherine has married Henry at his request and has failed in her duty as Queen by providing a male heir for the crown. Estella returns from the north after the death of her English husband. She takes her place beside her friend just as Henry puts her aside in order to pursue his own agenda. Through it all Estella stays by her friend even when it becomes dangerous. She deals with her own problems as she finds a growing attraction with Piers Hilsey. With the dramatic backdrop of political and emotional issues Estella and Catherine stay strong and live life by their own terms. Will Estella be able to find her own happiness while standing by her friend?

This is a wonderful read if you are truly a fan of the historic fiction genre. Although at times this story is dark and a bit gloomy, it is well worth the effort to pick up. Ms. Gardner has not re-written history but instead created a story around true historical events and people. This is a rich tapestry of facts and historical detail.

Seemingly, writing a novel about piggy Henry (my special name for Henry VIII -- yes, I am biased and proud of it) and his six unfortunate wives has become very much the thing of late. So that the question of whether or not there really is a need for any more such novels becomes a legitimate question. I think that if an author possesses an interesting notion on how to handle this oft told tale(s), then she (or indeed he) should go for it. Laurien Gardner seems to possess such a take: by telling the story of each of these ill fated women via the voices of intimate friends. And in the very first installment of this series, "The Spanish Queen," Catherine of Aragon's (Henry VIII's first wife) early years in England, before she became Queen of England, and the last few years of her life -- whilst Henry was trying to end their marriage -- is told via the memories of Catherine's maid of honour, Estrella de Montoya.

The novel opens in 1501, with the arrival in England of a very young Catherine of Aragon, and her household (which, of course, includes an equally young Estrella de Montoya). Catherine is to marry the heir to the English throne, the sickly Prince Arthur. Her mind filled with tales of Arthurian knights and chivalry, Catherine is sure that she and her young maids of honour will meet and marry young English gentlemen that embody the very stories she has devoured. It is a time of great promise and much rejoicing. But all to soon, things come to a crashing halt, when days after their much celebrated wedding, Arthur dies, leaving Catherine a widow with no future. Abandoned and treated quite cruelly by her father-in-law (the tight-fisted and insecure Henry VII), Catherine clings to the promise made that she will marry Arthur's younger brother, Henry, when he is of age. In the meantime, she and her loyal maids must contend with the fact that they are growing older and that the splendid matches that were promised have come to nothing. As the years pass and their prospects shrink, the ladies must decide whether or not they should return to Spain unmarried or whether they should gamble with the vagaries of fortune and remain in England...

I've always had a soft spot for Catherine of Aragon (and for Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves), so that "The Spanish Bride" was quite the enjoyable read for me. Especially since, instead of rehashing old ground, Laurein Gardner wisely sticks to two periods in Catherine's life -- her early years before she became queen, and the last few years when things became quite precarious for her. Focusing on Catherine's faith in God and fate, we see how, in the early years, this faith allows
her to cling to the belief that all will turn out as she hopes, in the face of the obvious indifference of her father (Ferdinand of Spain), the petty cruleties of Henry VII and duplicities that members of her entrouage practise. We also see how this faith keeps her going, even as it is tested (in the later years, by her spoilt and idiotic husband and his bullying cronies. Framing and complimenting all this, are the experiences of Estrella de Montoya's, as she faces a life of probable spinsterhood, poverty and loneliness -- a life quite devoid of the romance that she had expected it to possess. If "The Spanish Bride" comes across as a bit of a gloomy book, I would still encourage potential readers to pick it up -- it is a very well written and very compelling read. I thought that the author did a wonderful job in making both the women in this novel, Catherine and Estrella, real and accessible. In "The Spanish Bride," Catherine comes across as something a whole lot more than the pious, shriveled wife that many historians and certain novelists portray her to be. And I liked that immensely. A quick and absorbing read, full of ambiance and atmosphere, I'd recommend "The Spanish Bride" to anyone looking for a good historical novel to read.

I didn't even bother to finish this book and skipped some of the chapters. Basically, it jumps back and forth in history from before Catherine married Henry VIII and their divorce. There was nothing about WHEN they were actually married. Furthermore, the book should have been titled "The Spanish Maid of Honor: A Novel of Estrella de Montoya." It was more about Estrella than Catherine. The book seemed to be written from Estrella's point of view but not written in the first person. I haven't read the other books in this series and I don't plan to. Bummer.

Catherine of Aragon moves to England in the year 1502 with Estrella Montoya, one of her ladies. She moves in with royalty and marries Prince Arthur, one of Henry VII's sons. Catherine is a romantic, dreams of the castles and happy endings she's read in books. But things don't turn out that way for her. After Prince Arthur dies, she thinks her life is over, and her father-in-law doesn't make things easier for her. Catherine feels she may have a chance to marry Henry VIII, and when she does, the heartbreaking marriage makes her wish she had returned to Spain instead, especially after she is unable to produce an heir. And this is all seen through the eyes of Estrella, her most faithful lady-in-waiting. There are various twists throughout the novel.

This is such a heartbreaking story. My heart goes out to Catherine and I hate Henry VIII after reading this novel. What those poor wives of his must've gone through with him! Catherine's story is the most moving and she is more compelling to me than Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. I also like Estrella. She is so loyal, so loving to her queen that she risks Henry's wrath just to be there for her. We also get a back story of Estrella and a love story of her very own. She does put aside her own interests to look after Catherine and I enjoyed that part of the story very much. The one thing I don't like is that the constant story setting changes get a bit confusing and annoying at times (you'll see what I mean once you read the book), and that is why I take away one star. But all in all, this is a wonderful fictional account of Catherine of Aragon that doesn't take much detours from the actual events and is still told in a way that interests the reader without sounding like a biography. I heard that Laurie Gardner is a pseudonym and that the novels under the aforementioned name are written by various ghostwriters. No matter what the case may be, The Spanish Bride is one of the most enthralling biographical-historical novels I have read in quite a while. I highly recommend this along with Katherine by Anya Seton.

This is the story of Princess Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry the 8th of England as told by one of her Spanish maids, Estrella. The story bounces back and forth between the tense time of waiting for Catherine's marriage to Henry and the equally tense time during the dissolution of the same marriage. Gardiner does a very good job of showing Catherine's plight in a believable manner and stays true to the historical character herself. She hasn't embellished the tale because it doesn't need it; Catherine's life was a series of highs and lows that were often more astonishing than any work of fiction. The character Estrella shows us the strain of waiting in poverty for Henry to finally marry Catherine and Estrella's own longings are realistically portrayed for the times.

A minor quibble includes the timelines of the book not flowing seamlessly as they move back and forth; it almost becomes jarring at times to see how things turn out and then be returned to the beginning. However, it is a unique way to present the story of Catherine by showing the tragedies bookending her life. One more minor quibble is the "romance" of Estrella with a member of the royal household which doesn't ring true even though Estrella was under duress from the continued plight of her princess. Still, overall this book is a good representation of the first wife of Henry and is an easy, accessible tale. I was impressed by the author's research of history and her ability to weave a good story around those facts. Recommended.

As with the other books in this series the author is definitely not writing for students of history, nor is she concerned with the facts as related to the wives of Henry VIII, or indeed of the man himself. This book, like the "Boleyn" series written by Phillipa Gregory is strictly for entertainment purposes. No one who reads this book (or any of the others) should believe they are being given historical facts relating to any of the characters whether real or imagined. This is a "fun" book written simply and told in a style that is easy to understand and relate to in our time. For those whose interest in this subject has been piqued I would reccommend reading David Starkey's "SIX WIVES", the Queens of Henry VIII.

I love historical fiction and anything about the Tudor period - for that alone I have to give the book 3 stars. Although easy and quick reading, the storyline jumped back and forth through time and if you're not paying close attention to the chapter headings (or are at least a little familiar with the history of Catherine and Henry) it's easy to get lost and confused. I also found the bulk of the story to be about Catherine's close friend, Estrella, and her lovelife. Catherine seemed to be an afterthought and a much smaller player in the storyline.
ON the whole, a good book and interesting reading, but certainly could have given Catherine of Aragon a larger role.

This book doesn't look like a historical novel - it looks like a tiny romance novel one would buy from Kmart. It also looked very like a historical romance by Anne Gracie that I had read, which was explained when I checked the publisher details and found that it too is published by Berkeley. So, as you can probably guess, the publishing standard isn't first-rate: it has tightly-bound pages, so that it's an effort to hold it open.

As for the story, The Spanish Bride is definitely not one of those long, impressively-researched, chronological, biographical historical novels, such as Margaret Irwin's Royal Flush and The Stranger Prince. It's pretty superficial and not at all chronological, since it flits back and forth between Catherine's years in England before her marriage to Henry VIII and her struggles with her husband from 1527 onward.

This might have made an adequate novel if it had dramatically and engagingly retold these events. In occasional scenes it does; the rest of the time, it's just not very interesting. And as another reviewer pointed out, at times it's really a novel about one of Catherine's Spanish maids, Estrella. Chapters 7 & 8 focus pretty heavily on her courtship by and engagement to an English suitor, to the point where it ceases to be `a novel of Catherine of Aragon' and becomes a novel about a fictional Spanish woman who happened to come to England with her.

If you don't want or expect too might, it might be worth reading. But don't look for historical accuracy. It contains some statements that show either a lack of understanding of the 16th Century or wilful misrepresentation. Eg, when Henry is trying to obtain the annulment in 1527:

"Catherine spoke highly of his [Thomas More's] defense of the church in the face of Henry's attempt at denigrating the authority of the pope" (p. 119) and "Their friendship now turned to a mutual support regarding what was to be done about the denigration of papal authority that was becoming rampant in England now that the king had an interest in it" (p. 120).

Henry VIII, who had been granted the title Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X only six years earlier, was NOT denigrating the authority of the pope at this time (except for suggesting that Pope Julius should not have authorised his marriage, since he believed it contravened divine law). He was appealing to Clement VII as the person who had the authority to annul his marriage! It was not until 1532 that Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals, which stated that decisions about the validity of marriages and wills reached in English ecclesiastical courts were final, and that appealing to a foreign authority (the papacy) to overturn the verdict was high treason. Even then, the Act of Appeals was passed with the condition that it would not come into effect for a year, giving Clement one last chance to grant the annulment and make the problem go away. David Starkey's Six Wives, which the author of this 2005 book presumably used as a reference, clearly explains that resistance to the Act of Appeals collapsed in April 1533 and it passed before Parliament was prorogued. But in 1527, all this was long in the future. If Henry really was "denigrating the authority of the pope" back in 1527, why the heck did he spend another six years trying to persuade that same pope to annul his marriage?

See what I mean? Don't look for history in this superficial historical romance. It's fitting that it's published by a romance publisher, since it contains as much romance as history. I have no objection to reading historical romances, but they generally use fictional characters as main characters, though real historical figures may appear.

But then, as mentioned, there's as much focus here on Estrella de Montoya as there is on Catherine of Aragon. And it's not even well written - in some cases, the writing is disturbingly bad. Eg "It wasn't that she had given up hope, but anymore it was difficult to become excited about anything" (p. 162). I thought this was a typo ("anymore" in the wrong place), until I read "Anymore she wasn't certain from what she'd needed saving" (p. 210) and "Anymore, Estrella wearied of hearing how Prince Henry was so like the caballeros of old" (p. 245). On p. 172 there's even this: "The fall season was taking its toll on the garden, and the grass was damp and strewn with dead leaves." Don't Americans know that "fall" is their own word for Autumn, and that people in the 16th Century did not use it? Or do they know and not care? Adding "season" is very American as well; wouldn't most people just say "Autumn was takings its toll" or "Summer was taking its toll"? We know these are the names of seasons. The worst instance comes on p. 281, where the author has a sixteenth century person say it out loud: "The only recent event that has bearing on this happened last fall, and that was the death of my wife." Cringe, sigh, cringe ...

As with Elizabeth Norton's She Wolves, I couldn't read more than a chapter or two at a time without feeling almost dizzy. The writing isn't persistently awful, but it's not very good. And whoever the (ghost)writer is, I'll swear it's someone who normally writes romance novels, after reading this passage in which Estrella is seduced in a stable:

"With another devastating kiss, he reached behind for the laces of her overdress. Her cloak dropped to the stone floor. As her dress loosened, she hardly knew where she was anymore. She slipped her arms around his neck and marvelled at his broad shoulders that held her up as her knees weakened. He pressed himself to her, and she found his excitement for her both alarming and exhilarating. Though she knew he needed no encouragement, a whimper escaped her, for she felt helpless in the face of what was happening. She knew this was wrong, that it was a sin, but it was also the most hopeful thing to happen to her in years. Her entire body throbbed with the beat of her heart, like a great drum. Asking him to stop was out of the question."

And that's only a printable part (it gets worse). To reiterate: historical romance, not historical fiction. And not even particularly good historical romance at that.

In 1501 teenage Princess Catherine of Aragon accompanied by a small retinue to include her lady in waiting Estrella de Montoya arrives in England to marry King Henry VIII. The bright Catherine looks forward to her wedding day with the courageous monarch. By 1527 when she fails to produce the male heir, Henry does the unthinkable in the eyes of God and the law; he divorces his Spanish first wife to wed Anne Boleyn though his first wife does everything to stop him from tossing her aside.

This is an intriguing historical biographical fiction novel that rotates between the arrival and early happy days of the royal marriage to the bleak final moments when the King casts his foreign spouse, who desperately tries everything to save her marriage and regain her spouse's love, aside for someone else. The story line is seen through the eyes of the loyal Estrella who stands by her Queen though that risks the ire of Henry. By doing this, Laurien Gardner paints Catherine as an intelligent caring woman who suffers the humiliating stigmatism of divorce unheard of by her religion. English historical readers will treasure this deep look at Henry's first wife with his second coming up next.

Harriet Klausner

I really enjoyed the other books in the Tudor Women Series (A Lady Raised High and Plain Jane.) I didn't dislike the Spanish Bride, I just wasn't overly impressed with it. The book is much more about Estrella, a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon. It covers the time period when Catherine comes to England to marry Arthur up until the time of King Henry VII's death and then jumps forward about twenty years to the days that King Henry VIII is planning to divorce Catherine, in order to marry his beloved Anne Boleyn. The book, because it is told from Estrella's point of view, is more about Estrella's feelings and life. Princess Catherine came across to me as a cardboard caricature without much emotion, when we know that in real life, she was in fact a very passionate and strong woman. I believe if it was written in Catherine's point of view, we would see more depth with her character. The writer(s) of these Tudor Women books is/are very capable of successfully portraying characters as real and interesting people, however, I felt like the characterization of Catherine of Aragon in this novel fell flat.

I did, however, enjoy Estrella's story. As one other reviewer noted, I think if the title were different, I would have known more what to expect from the novel.

I was also disappointed that the story did not cover the "happy" years of Catherine and Henry VIII's marriage, the entire novel was a bit dark. I was glad to see that at least Estrella got her happy ending.