Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen: Six Tudor Queens 1

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Katharine Parr deserves better than to be known just as Henry VIII’s sixth wife – the one who survived. Alison Weir, historian and author of the Sunday Times bestsellers Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession and Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen, paints a spellbinding portrait of Anna of Kleve, Henry VIII’s fourth queen. Consequently, it was made easy for Perkin Warbeck to gain access to Warwick, and before long, the two were discovered to have been plotting treason. Wary of rumours whispered by foreign envoys, he sends Susanna Gilman, royal painter and trusted friend, to Kleve to find out more about his chosen bride.

I want to seek out the truths that lie behind the historical evidence and, for this, fiction is a versatile medium because it offers scope to develop ideas that have no place in a history book, but which can help to illuminate the lives of these queens.

By 1497, though, he had been captured by Henry VII, who treated him remarkably leniently – until Warbeck escaped, when he was consigned to a grim prison in the Tower.

These novels have been praised for their meticulous attention to detail and the author’s ability to successfully convey perspectives that historical documents never fully fleshed out. For a woman whose life was shadowed my many tragedies, Katherine of Aragon has been strangely quiet in the afterlife.

Jane Seymour, who eventually replaces Anne as Queen, sees her story chronicled from her childhood all the way to her ascension to the throne. Anne adores watching the game of courtly love play out before her eyes, though she is not expecting to be thrown into it herself. The novels are supposed to reimagine King Henry VIII’s most trying years from the perspective of these women whose lives he essentially ruined.

There is an effortlessness to her writing that demonstrates the depth of her knowledge without it straining the storytelling. No one would have been more surprised than Henry, who had married six times and chopped and changed wives to get a male heir! It was a chilly Wednesday night as over 200 guests were lucky enough to gather in the Royal Chapel of the Tower of London to hear Alison Weir’s illuminating talk on the Six Wives of Henry VIII. Weir shows that her story is no less fascinating than that of the flashing-eyed woman who took everything but her courage and dignity.Alison takes you on an engrossing journey at Katherine's side and shows her extraordinary strength of character and intelligence. Arthur, the first Tudor prince, is raised to believe that he will inherit a kingdom destined to be his through an ancient royal bloodline. This is [Weir's] fresh approach to Henry's first wife, and a wonderful place to start for those unfamiliar with Katherine's story. If book one is anything to go by, Tudor lovers have much to look forward to from the remaining five in the series.