Juana of Castile and Katherine of Aragon were both daughters
of the renowned monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, the
backers of Columbus and creators of a united Spain. Most people have heard of
Katherine because she was the first wife of Henry VIII of England, who he divorced
and by doing so created the Anglican Church, in defiance of the Catholic Church.
Juana is far less known, even though she was on paper a ruler of a far larger
country; as her brothers all died before Isabella and Ferdinand did, she was
the ruler of Spain. But they both found themselves mistreated and usurped from
their thrones by the men they loved and trusted.
Katherine failed Henry VIII by not producing a male heir. The
English people loved her, and she was a good queen- while Henry was off
fighting in France, Katherine organized the Battle of Flodden Field, wherein
the English forces defeated the Scots. Juana was hot tempered and given to
sulking when she didn’t get her way; she frequently chose hunger strikes as a
way of communicating her frustration. Sadly, this enabled first her husband,
then her father, and finally her son to brand her as insane and shut her away,
her imprisonment handled by abusive jailors.
We know in fair detail how Katherine lived and what happened
to her because she wrote copious amounts of letters, many of which have
survived. Juana was not allowed to do this, and so we know almost nothing of
her life in prison. This creates a problem for the book: the author tries to
give equal time to both women, but, because of lack of sources, takes to
speculating on how Juana felt or what she said. If this was historical fiction,
this would be just fine, but it’s not suitable for factual biography. Not only
is it speculation, but it’s filler in an attempt to even the wordage. Other
than that, I have no problem with the book; it gave me a look at Katherine that
is different from what I’ve had before. She wasn’t the stodgy hausfrau that
most biographers of Henry portray her as; she was young and beautiful when they
first met, she was very well educated, and she ran her household- and the
country- very well. Juana was just as well prepared to rule and was blocked
from ever doing that. Was she “mad”? She possibly had some manic traits or the
like, but from what little we know from people who spoke with her during her
imprisonment, she spoke calmly and reasonably. A four star book.
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