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Historical person
1486–1502
Arthur, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and the first Tudor heir to the English throne. In 1501 he married Catherine of Aragon, strengthening the alliance between England and Spain, but died at Ludlow only a few months later, probably from an infectious illness. The later dispute over whether the marriage had been consummated became central to Henry VIII’s attempt to annul his own marriage to Catherine.
Arthur is a major figure in Philippa Gregory’s The Constant Princess and in Alison Weir’s Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen, both of which imagine Catherine’s brief first marriage and the promises or secrets that may have followed it. Because contemporary evidence about the couple’s private life is sparse, novelists have considerable freedom. Their interpretations directly shape how readers understand Catherine’s later resistance to Henry VIII.
Series
Queens of the Tower follows the historical courtier Joan Vaux, later Lady Guildford, through the first Tudor reign. Joan serves Elizabeth of York and observes the private household behind a monarchy still threatened by rebellion and uncertain succession. The Lady of the Ravens covers Joan’s earlier service and…
All books in this series
All books in this series
The Plantagenet and Tudor novels form a chronological sequence of connected but independently readable stories about women near the English throne. They move from the Lancastrian court and the Wars of the Roses through the rise of the Tudors, Henry VIII’s marriages, the mid-Tudor religious crisis and the…
All books in this series
The Tudor Saga follows the dynasty from Henry VII’s insecure victory through the marriages of Henry VIII and the reigns of his children. The novels place queens, courtiers and claimants at the centre of religious change, diplomatic marriage and the succession crises that transformed sixteenth-century England.
All books in this series
Standalone books
