Philippa Gregory

Historical Background : The Constant Princess (Pt. 1)

In the Author’s Note, you mention that The Constant Princess was one of your “most fascinating and most moving novels to write.” How so? What first sparked the idea to write a story about Katherine of Aragon?

I admired the Katherine of the historical record when I was researching for The Other Boleyn Girl. Her courage and determination when she was neglected and then abused by her husband Henry and his lover Anne was striking, and her courage in survival was moving. I knew then that I would want to write both about her and her daughter Mary. I wrote about Mary in The Queen’s Fool and knew I would want to write about her mother.

In your previous novel, The Other Boleyn Girl, Katherine of Aragon is a peripheral character. At the time you wrote that novel, how much did you know about the first wife of Henry VIII?

I think, like many people, I became familiar with Katherine after her arrival in England so I knew a little about her life with Henry and then a good deal about the divorce and the start of the Reformation. What I didn’t know until I came to research for this novel was the history of Spain, her parents, and of Katherine as a Spanish princess, the daughter of a newly-united kingdom. That has been fascinating.

How has history remembered Katherine of Aragon? How do historians account for the question of whether or not she and Arthur consummated their marriage?

I think Katherine is one of the most provocative characters of the period, readers feel very strongly either in favour of Anne Boleyn or in favour of Katherine, and historians throughout the centuries have tended to take sides also. In general, people tend to remember Katherine as the old wife replaced by the young and glamorous lover, and it has been a great joy to write a book which shows Katherine in her youth: as the young and glamorous princess that she was.

As regard the consummation question, it is fascinating to see how historians have tried to believe Katherine’s version of events. She was highly regarded by the Victorian historians who tended to believe that a woman so spiritual could not tell a lie. The actual events – the public bedding, and the records of the time, suggest without doubt that the marriage was consummated.

It says much for her personal charisma that she could state the contrary and people should believe her at the time, and that her lie should carry weight for centuries. I think most modern historians now believe that the marriage was consummated but as far as I know, I am the first to tackle the question of why she should tell the lie.

Why did you choose to structure the book as you did—ending with Katherine’s victory over the Scottish and then jumping forward in time sixteen years to the concluding scene in which she attends the papal legate sitting? What parallels can be drawn between these two pivotal moments in Katherine’s life?

I didn’t want to go into the years of Katherine’s defeat, partly because I have dealt with that period in The Other Boleyn Girl, and partly because I wanted to present a new picture of Katherine: as the woman she was when she was in her prime, at her ascendant.

I thought that the battle of Flodden was the fulfillment of her education and destiny, and that her walking into court to defy Henry showed her at her greatest moment of personal power. I wanted to honour those two moments of triumph for her. I do believe that the moment in court when she stood up to Henry and he, with every reason to defeat her, could not even speak, is a real pivotal moment in Tudor history.

Continue reading on Historical Background Pt. 2 Page.