The Constant Princess

Publishers Weekly

As youngest daughter to the Spanish monarchs and crusaders King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Catalina, princess of Wales and of Spain, was promised to the English Prince Arthur when she was three. She leaves Spain at 15 to fulfill her destiny as queen of England, where she finds true love with Arthur (after some initial sourness) as they plot the future of their kingdom together. Arthur dies young, however, leaving Catalina a widow and ineligible for the throne. Before his death, he extracts a promise from his wife to marry his younger brother Henry in order to become queen anyway, have children and rule as they had planned, a situation that can only be if Catalina denies that Arthur was ever her lover. Gregory's latest (after Earthly Joys) compellingly dramatizes how Catalina uses her faith, her cunning and her utter belief in destiny to reclaim her rightful title. By alternating tight third-person narration with Catalina's unguarded thoughts and gripping dialogue, the author presents a thorough, sympathetic portrait of her heroine and her transformation into Queen Katherine. Gregory's skill for creating suspense pulls the reader along despite the historical novel's foregone conclusion. Agent, Melanie Jackson. (Dec.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Best-selling historical novelist Gregory returns to the world of Tudor England that she explored in books like The Other Boleyn Girl. This time, her subject is Katherine of Aragon, the 16-year-old daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Katherine knows from a very young age that she is promised to marry Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne, and she never wavers in her conviction that she will one day become queen. That determination is sorely tested, however, upon Arthur's premature death after two years of marriage. Although she loves her husband (a passion that is kept hidden from the court), Katherine agrees to his dying wish that he be declared impotent so that she can marry his younger brother, Henry, and eventually reign as queen. This fascinating portrait of a proud, intelligent, and passionate woman captures the political turmoil of the era; a secondary plot involving Katherine's single-minded filial devotion to her parents makes her an even more vulnerable and complex character. An excellent choice for historical fiction collections.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Gregory (The Virgin's Lover, 2004, etc.) is back in Tudor England to reimagine the reign of Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. Catalina, the Infanta of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand and warrior queen Isabella, was never meant for Henry. Instead, she was betrothed to Henry's older brother Arthur. A few months after their marriage, a political arrangement uniting Spain and England against France, Arthur dies, and Katherine is married off to the much younger Henry. That's the history of it-how Gregory fills in the gaps is pure romantic fiction. The best of the novel is the depiction of Katherine's childhood in Spain. Her early years were spent on the battlefield, as her parents drove the Moors from Spain, and later in residence at the Alhambra. When at 15 she makes the journey to England, she is shocked by the comparative barbarity of the people (though she admits that the luxuries she's used to-indoor plumbing, hospitals, good food-were introduced by the very people her parents have tried to exterminate). At first she dislikes Arthur, but the two fall in love and plan all sorts of progressive programs to improve England. On his deathbed, Arthur forces a promise from Katherine-tell the world the marriage was unconsummated, marry little brother Henry and carry on with Arthur's dreams. At first the lecherous king makes a play for his daughter-in-law, but Katherine holds out for ten-year-old Henry. After years of living in poverty, she finally becomes Queen. Of course, our Catalina is not destined for a happy ending, but the early years of her marriage to the devoted Henry are joyous. Some may balk that in Gregory's version, Katherine is responsible for defeating the Scots, others atthe unlikely p.c. epiphanies she has at novel's end-that the Moors are noble, and that war "will never cease until Christians and Muslims are prepared to live side by side in peace."Gregory makes the broad sweep of history vibrant and intimate-and hinges it all on a bit of romance.