Just Kira’s Weblog

WOW. Philippa Gregory has become my favourite historical fiction author. I am very, very, addicted. After reading ‘The Virgin’s Lover’ and ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, I thought there were no more of these books. But turns out I was wrong. ’The Constant Princess’ is about Henry the Eighth’s first wife Katherine of Aragon. ‘The Boleyn Inheritance’ was about Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. And they were really sad. =_=

Before I go on, I should warn people that history is one of my passions. And I have a specific obsession with the Tudors (which started LONG before they decided to make it a TV series that I have not seen. T___T)

Anyways, I had no idea that Katherine was the younger sister of Queen Juana of Spain. I had just found about her from reading ‘Scroll of Seduction’ so it was quite interesting to read from different points of view. I also didn’t know that Katherine Howard was Anne Boleyn’s cousin. This only served to cement my perspectives here though.

All this time I was constantly changing ideals on who was the evil person here; first I felt sorry for Anne, then I thought she deserved it and felt sorry for Katherine and Mary Boleyn. Same thing with Mary Tudor and Elizabeth- wavering allegiances. I know I shouldn’t be basing my opinions on Hist.Fic. but oh well. 

Then I read ‘Scroll of Seduction’, and ‘The Boleyn Inheritance’ and I realized something. The women were pretty much faultless (well ok some of them were ambitious.)

But I think that most of the time, women were powerless and basically manipulated by the men, which was saddening as a reader because I could feel the increasing sense of helplessness as the stories of these women progressed. At first I could tell myself “Oh, this character was really stupid; she should have just done this, or not done this.” Yes, there were some cases that these women could have handled better; but it would have been useless in the end. In that world, surrounded by those ambitious men, those women were nothing but pawns.

Just lookat what happened to Juana of Spain when she had had enough of being a pawn tried to rebel; Her own husband (who apparently loved her) and her own father declared her crazy and sane at his whim. They locked her in a tower for most of her life.

I developed a sene of admiration for all of these women in the end, no matter how they ended. Katherine of Aragon was a brave woman, and a true queen. Even after her love was taken from her she managed to accomplish her goals. But I couldn’t help thinking that what a difference it would have made if it had been King Arthur and not Henry. But of course, then we wouldn’t have Queen Elizabeth.

Even Anne Boleyn was set up by the male patriarchs of her family along with her sister who somehow managed to escape the fate of her sibilngs. But she was ambitious and that was her ‘fault’. Katherine Howard was a 16 year old who was similarly set up. But today she would have been the equivalent of Paris Hilton, so it was obvious that she couldn’t last as a queen.

Anne of Cleves was the smartest of the lot. She agreed to lie and become the king’s sister in order to save her neck. And she managed to do what she wants to do rather than be manipulated. Yay.

But that’s how it was back then, so I guess not much point in complaining. But I still wish I was born back then, no matter how bad it was..as long i wasn’t royalty : p

I hope I haven’t given away too much, haha.