Review: Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

Queen's Gambit
By: Elizabeth Fremantle
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0306-0

Review:

Born into the powerful and religious-reform minded Parr family, the Queen's Gambit opens with Katherine facing the death of her second husband, John Neville. As a supporter of the Catholic Church, and bitterly opposed to Henry's first divorce and subsequent sacking of the wealth and power that had long attended the Catholic faith in England, Baron Latymer's efforts to later reconcile with the king cost both him and his family dearly. The unspeakable horrors Katherine and her stepdaughter, Meg, endured at the hands of Catholic rebels who held them hostage in an attempt to regain Latymer's support birthed within Katherine a passion for the Protestant faith and its tenets, such as the accessibility of the scriptures to all the faithful. Years later, his health failing, Latymer begs Katherine to end his suffering and using her extensive knowledge of herbal medicine, she complies -- and the burden of her secret sin and subsequent widowhood sets her life on a trajectory she never imagined, one where guilt and compassion, faith and fear war within her for prominence. Against all desire and expectation, Katherine gains the attention of the now-single king and is faced with a choice -- hold fast to thwarted dreams or acquiesce to the king's desires, and use her new-found power to change her land and in so doing perhaps atone for her secret sins.

I've always been rather fascinated by Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII -- because of all the women joined to that volatile, larger-than-life figure in marriage, she alone survived. For her debut novel Elizabeth Fremantle examines the life of this extraordinaryand oft-times controversial woman whose intelligence and passion not only enabled her survival in Henry's court, but arguably left an indelible mark on the rulers to come, particularly her step-daughter, the Princess Elizabeth.

As perhaps one of Henry's lesser-known wives, Katherine has managed to avoid the scandalous notoriety that attached to many of her predecessors arguably by simple virtue of playing the game well enough to survive. Fremantle's Katherine is a sympathetic, multi-faceted heroine whose cool, seemingly unflappable regal demeanor masks passions, dreams, and a fierce intellect. Alternately told from the point-of-view of Katherine, her long-time maid and companion Dot Fownten, and friend and doctor Robert Huicke, Queen's Gambit is a fascinating portrayal Katherine the Queen, balancing the documented, public persona with an intimate view of the cost and heartache attendant on subsuming her personal desires to the greater call, the potential influence marriage to Henry placed within her grasp. It is therefore somewhat unfortunate that Fremantle opts to tell her story using third-person present tense, one of my least favorite narrative forms and I believe one of the hardest to successfully achieve. Fremantle comes close, but the awkward phrasing required of this form of narrative constantly serves as a "block," reminding the reader that they are an observer and thus prevented from becoming fully immersed in Katherine's otherwise fascinating life and world.

I loved Fremantle's decision to in part tell Katherine's story from the perspective of her maid Dot Fownten and doctor and confidante Huicke. Where in most fiction one would need -- or choose -- to invent a servant, Fremantle incorporates documented figures like Dot, adding an extra layer of authenticity to the narrative. As a woman who served Katherine from her days in Baron Latymer's household, Dot would be intimately acquainted with the queen -- and yet much remains unknown about Dot's own life, allowing Fremantle the dramatic license to explore the life of a member of the Tudor serving class. The result is a thoroughly engaging blend of fact and fiction, as Dot is a wonderfully realized character and sharp observer of her masters and their manners (or lack thereof). And I adored the manner in which Fremantle re-imagines Dot's real-life cross-class courtship and eventual marriage to court musician William Savage. And Huicke -- his insight, sensitivity, and loyalty to Katherine absolutely broke my heart.

Covering roughly five years, Fremantle keeps the action moving at a brisk pace despite the tendency of third-person present tense to slow the pace of the narrative. The novel's greatest strength lies in its exploration of the delicate, tense dance Katherine is forced to perform for the duration of her marriage. Recognized as a queen capable of swaying the king's views -- particularly as they related to religious reform -- Katherine battled pro-Catholic factions in the council and Henry's volatile, jealous temperament to win the king's favor, serving as regent during Henry's final French campaign and facilitating his reconciliation with daughters Mary and Elizabeth, seeing them restored to the succession.

Katherine's influence on Elizabeth is particularly interesting to consider here, in light of Fremantle's portrayal of the advances her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, made toward the princess while she resided in their care at the beginning of Edward VI's reign. While the full extent of this "relationship" may never be known -- particularly whether or not Elizabeth reciprocated Seymour's overtures -- Fremantle crafts this moment as a pivotal turning point in Elizabeth's youth, a critical moment wherein Katherine's betrayal serves as a potential seed for Elizabeth's later famously unmarried state. The tragedy of Katherine's one great passion being revealed as a selfish, womanizing fraud is wrenching to experience, but reveals once again Katherine's greatest strength -- her ability, even on her deathbed, to preserve the most intimate part of herself -- her desperate faith and hope of redemption.

Queen's Gambit is an engrossing, thought-provoking portrait of an extraordinary queen and the times in which she lived. Fremantle's affinity for the time period shines, particularly in her characterization of the "rougher" side of the time period via the character of Dot. She makes some bold assumptions regarding Katherine's life (i.e., the manner of Latymer's death), but no matter where one stands on such artistic license, Fremantle constructs a heady, thought-provoking mix of fact and fiction that will leave one hungry for more. Fremantle's entertaining and readable (despite the point-of-view choice! *wink*) portrait of Katherine's life marks her as an author to watch, and I cannot to wait for her follow-up, Sisters of Treason -- the story of Lady Jane Grey's younger sisters -- slated to release Spring 2014.

About the book:

Widowed for the second time at age thirty-one Katherine Parr falls deeply for the dashing courtier Thomas Seymour and hopes at last to marry for love. However, obliged to return to court, she attracts the attentions of the ailing, egotistical, and dangerously powerful Henry VIII, who dispatches his love rival, Seymour, to the Continent. No one is in a position to refuse a royal proposal so, haunted by the fates of his previous wives—two executions, two annulments, one death in childbirth—Katherine must wed Henry and become his sixth queen.

Katherine has to employ all her instincts to navigate the treachery of the court, drawing a tight circle of women around her, including her stepdaughter, Meg, traumatized by events from their past that are shrouded in secrecy, and their loyal servant Dot, who knows and sees more than she understands. With the Catholic faction on the rise once more, reformers being burned for heresy, and those close to the king vying for position, Katherine’s survival seems unlikely. Yet as she treads the razor’s edge of court intrigue, she never quite gives up on love.

*My thanks to Historical Fiction Virtual Tours for the review opportunity, and my apologies for being late with my review! I'm slowly but surely catching up. :)

Review: Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer

Patience, Princess Catherine (Young Royals)
By: Carolyn Meyer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ASIN: B007SNRYJC

Review:

Patience, Princess Catherine is Carolyn Meyer's YA retelling of Catalina of Spain's early years in the Tudor Court, her marriage, teenage widowhood, and subsequent years-long struggle to see her promised betrothal to her one-time brother-in-law, Prince Henry, realized. Framed by chapters where an older Catherine, victim of King Henry's attempts to see their marriage dissolved, Patience, Princess Catherine is a diary-like reminiscence of Catherine's arrival in England, interspersed with brief passages from Henry's point-of-view. 

Having just finished Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess, I sadly found this fictional retelling of Catherine's life sorely lacking. While Meyers does an adequate job sticking to the historical record in that Arthur is viewed as weak and sickly, his marriage to Catherine left unconsummated, facts alone do not a compelling story make. Meyers' incarnation of Catherine is curiously lifeless -- there is no suggestion of the vibrant queen who reigned at Henry's side for over twenty years, who fought for her marriage and position. Catherine here is immature, easily swayed, and -- thanks to the diary-like format of most of the novel -- frankly boring as there is no well-formed narrative, only a dry recitation of events punctuated by fictional insight into Henry's psyche. 

Given the inevitable tragic conclusion of Henry and Catherine's marriage, the insight Meyer's attempts to provide into Henry's youthful view of Catherine suggest -- in this context -- that Henry harbored a passion for his first bride. Whether or not this is in fact the case, Meyer's writes Henry with the voice of a man much older than ten years of age when the book opens. Not only does the tone feel off, but these passages in particular are riddled with distracting spelling and grammatical errors, with words misspelled, misused, or omitted altogether. 

Patience, Princess Catherine is a textbook introduction to Catherine and Henry -- the research is there, but these larger-than-life characters are stripped of their life and vibrancy, left colorless, pale shadows on the page. Between the characterizations, awkwardly-executed narrative, and abundance of distracting editorial mistakes, I was left rather underwhelmed by this offering in Meyer's Young Royals series. Hopefully, subsequent volumes in the Young Royals series will succeed in bringing history to life on the page in a more vibrant, engaging manner.

About the book:

England anxiously awaits Prince Arthur's betrothed--the Spanish princess who will be its future queen. But when Arthur dies not long after the wedding, Catherine of Aragon's fate becomes uncertain. Will the king and Catherine's parents arrange a marriage with Arthur's brother, Henry, or will she return to Spain a widow? Through all this turmoil, the young princess's resolve remains unshaken. She will one day be England's queen . . . no matter how long it takes.

Review: The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The Constant Princess (The Tudor Court #1)
By: Philippa Gregory
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN: 978-0-7432-7249-0

Review:

The youngest daughter of two of the most famous monarchs in Spanish history, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, Catalina, the Infanta of Spain, knew her destiny from the time she was three years old. Betrothed to Arthur, the Prince of Wales and Tudor heir, Catalina was destined to become the Princess of Wales and then Queen of England, carrying her mother's passion to defend the faith of the Roman Church to England's shores, securing a critical alliance and cementing a lasting peace between Spain and the newly-installed Tudor king, Henry VII. Though she has prepared her entire life to be God's anointed queen in England, Catalina finds herself ill-prepared for the emotional and physical adjustments her new life requires. Though she finds her intended attractive and harbors hopes for an affectionate union, those girlish dreams are soon dashed by the political machinations of the English court that put such pressure on her marital relations the young couple become even further estranged with little impetus to overcome their personal and cultural differences.

But Catalina perseveres, and falls deeply in love with Arthur, who proves to be a dedicated prince and a promising ruler. The future the young princess was raised to believe her birthright seems secure, and the un-imagined gift of passion she feels for her young husband is a blessing that surely signals their union and marriage are highly favored -- until disaster strikes, and in the damp and cold Welsh climate Arthur falls ill and dies, but not before exacting a promise from Catalina that will change the course of her life forever. Demanding that she claim their five-month marriage was unconsummated in order to marry his younger brother Henry, and in so doing fulfill her destiny to be queen, and in so doing assume a position of power and responsibility that will allow her to fulfill their shared dreams for Arthur's rule. Devastated by her loss but determined to keep her word, Catalina embarks on a game of intrigue and danger that will cost her far more than she'd ever dreamed -- for to keep her promise she must find the strength within her to withstand the power plays and political machinations within and without her household that would seek to see her denied her birthright. But the girl who arrived on English shores an innocent will not be denied, and Catalina, daughter of kings, fights to achieve her destiny as queen of England and in so doing her constancy and passion leave an indelible mark on the pages of history.

After revisiting several Tudor-era films (among them Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age) I found myself wanting to explore more Tudor-set fiction, and so decided to try my first novel by the prolific Philippa Gregory. Katherine, the wife whom Henry VIII abandoned after over twenty years of marriage has always held a special fascination for me. She not only one of the wives to have survived Henry's mercurial temperament when it comes to women, but she never ceased fighting for her place, her rights, or denying Henry's right to have their marriage invalidated, a sacred promise she believed in and respected in spite of Henry's betrayal. While her life has always been marked by faithfulness and constancy in my mind, I have always tended to picture her as the middle-aged matron, failing to ever imagine her in the first bloom of youth, and how that vibrancy and the years she endured as a young widow must have marked her and informed her later decisions and beliefs.

Following Arthur's death, following the generally accepted historical record Catalina vowed she was a virgin, and therefore provided a dispensation from the pope was provided, as such was therefore able to marry her one-time brother-in-law Henry, when he reached his majority. Gregory, however, takes this one step further, by asserting that Catalina lied -- that her marriage to Arthur was in fact a marriage in word and deed, and the lie was therefore necessary to maintain her position as queen-to-be. Frankly, I've always thought it a little unlikely that her first marriage wasn't consummated, so I had no issue with this scenario -- nor does it, in my mind, invalidate Katherine's famously devout nature. At this point in her life, little more than a child, in danger of losing everything she was raised to be -- her very identity -- one can imagine that such a falsehood might be viewed as a matter of survival. Given how Henry treats Katherine after twenty-plus years of marriage -- setting aside the all important issue of the lack of a male heir -- I loved Gregory's idea that, once upon a time, a vibrant, loving marriage was within Catalina's reach. And if keeping a deathbed promise to her beloved Arthur meant securing a marriage with Henry at any cost -- it's a lie I can imagine was not spoken lightly or without great personal cost.

Gregory divides the novel between third-person narrative and first-person, italicized "diary entries" told from Catalina's perspective. The balance between third- and first-person point-of-view works less well than one could have wished -- I think Gregory would've been better served to stick with a third-person account of Catalina's life, as more often than not the italicized entries recap action already covered or are frankly too long for the italicized format. Whether or not you like Gregory's take on Catalina's early life, she's produced a highly readable, entertaining account of Catalina's first years in England. Gregory's succeeded in crafting a narrative that is evocative of the time period and a highly sympathetic portrait of a princess who, time and again, refused to be bowed by circumstance. Sure to provoke further interest in the time period and its heroine, The Constant Princess has dramatically increased my respect and admiration for a woman whose faith and constancy in the face of her marriage's dissolution is arguably the result of a lifetime of determination and dedication to her faith and principles.

About the book:

"I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known...and I will be Queen of England."

Bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces us to one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. Known to history as the queen who was pushed off her throne by Anne Boleyn, here is a Katherine the world has forgotten: the enchanting princess that all England loved. First married to Henry VIII's older brother, Arthur, Katherine's passion turns their arranged marriage into a love match. But when Arthur dies, the merciless English court and her ambitious parents -- the crusading King and Queen of Spain -- have to find a new role for the widow. Ultimately, it is Katherine herself who takes control of her own life by telling the most audacious lie in English history, leading her to the very pinnacle of power in England.

Set in the rich beauty of Moorish Spain and the glamour of the Tudor court, The Constant Princess presents a woman whose constancy helps her endure betrayal, poverty, and despair, until the inevitable moment when she steps into the role she has rehearsed all her life: Henry VIII's Queen, Regent, and commander of the English army in their greatest victory against Scotland.