The Constant Princess - Likewise Book Reviews

"Philippa Gregory upends the usual explanation for Catherine of Aragon's claim of virginity despite several months of marriage to Henry VIII's older brother Arthur. In Gregory's retelling, Catherine and Arthur are ardent and devoted teen lovers, but when Arthur realizes he is dying he persuades Catherine to claim their marriage was never consummated, so she can wed Henry and rule England as foreordained. Much is made of Catherine's creepy sense of manifest destiny, and the seeds of her religious fanaticism were clearly sown early. I don't quite buy Gregory's theory, but it's cool to see Catherine as a passionate young woman on a mission as opposed to the aging, spurned wife we see in most Tudor fiction. And her conversations with her spoiled, pre-teen brother-in-law Henry are hilarious."