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Historical person

Catherine of Aragon

1485–1536

Catherine of Aragon was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the widow of Arthur, Prince of Wales, and the first wife of Henry VIII. She served as regent during Henry’s French campaign and celebrated the English victory at Flodden, but only one of their children, the future Mary I, survived infancy. When Henry sought an annulment, Catherine insisted that her first marriage had not been consummated and refused to surrender her title as queen.

Philippa Gregory’s The Constant Princess follows Catherine from Spain through both Tudor marriages, while Alison Weir’s Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen presents her long struggle from her own perspective. She is also important in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Historical fiction frequently contrasts her personal dignity and dynastic faith with Henry’s need for a male heir and the political transformation produced by the annulment campaign.

In non-fiction, Catherine of Aragon is discussed in Antonia Fraser’s Mary Tudor, Antonia Fraser’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Tracy Borman’s Thomas Cromwell, and Tracy Borman’s The Private Lives of the Tudors. In Antonia Fraser’s Mary Tudor, Fraser follows Mary from her position as the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon through the succession crisis of 1553, her restoration of Catholic worship, her Spanish marriage and the burnings that fixed her hostile Protestant reputation.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Catherine of Aragon

Battle of Flodden 1513 CE Henrician Reformation 1530–1547 CE

Series

Series featuring Catherine of Aragon (7 series)

The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels in Order

by Philippa Gregory 16 books 4.4

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

4.2

The Marwood Family Tudor Saga in Order

by Amy Licence 6 books 4.4

Beginning in 1527, the Marwood Family Tudor Saga follows the fictional Thomasin Marwood as she enters the court of Henry VIII during the king’s attempt to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Service to Catherine brings Thomasin close to the centre of royal politics, while her family…

4.5

The Tudor Saga in Order

by David Field 6 books 4.3

The Tudor Saga recounts the dynasty from Henry VII’s exile and victory in the Wars of the Roses to the final years of Elizabeth I. Historical rulers, ministers and royal relatives occupy the centre of the sequence, while fictional attendants and agents reveal how decisions at court affect…

4.4

Six Tudor Queens in Order

In This New Sepulchre

3.8

Isabella & Ferdinand Trilogy in Order

by Jean Plaidy 3 books 4.2

This trilogy follows Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon as they secure their crowns, complete the conquest of Granada and establish a united Spanish monarchy. The final volume turns to their daughters, whose marriages carried Spanish power into Portugal, England and the Habsburg world.

All books in this series

Castile for Isabella

4.2

Spain for the Sovereigns

4.2

Daughters of Spain

4.3

The Wolf Hall Trilogy in Order

by Hilary Mantel 3 books 4.4

The Wolf Hall Trilogy follows Thomas Cromwell from his early service to Cardinal Wolsey through his rise as Henry VIII’s most effective minister and his fall in 1540. Told largely through Cromwell’s perspective, the series reinterprets the Tudor court as a working political system shaped by patronage, law,…

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Wolf Hall

4.2

Bring up the Bodies

4.5

The Mirror and the Light

4.6

Tudor Saga in Order

by Jean Plaidy 11 books 4.0

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