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Julia
Fox
SISTER QUEENS: THE NOBLE, TRAGIC LIVES OF KATHERINE OF ARAGON AND JUANA, QUEEN OF CASTILE Publisher: Random House/Ballantine Publication date: 1/31/2012 Pages: 480 ISBN-10: 0345516044 Reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com 12/31/2011 Would you recommend this book to other readers? Yes. * * * * * review: Isabella Queen of Castile and Leon (1451 -1504) and her husband Ferdinand King of Aragon (1452 - 1516) had five surviving children: one son and four daughters. Two other pregnancies miscarried. Of these five children of the royal house of Trastamara, author Julia Fox in SISTER QUEENS (2012) highlights Katherine (1485 - 1536) Princess of Aragon and her older sister Juana (1479 - 1555), Queen of Castile. The children and grandchildren of Queen Juana of Castile were plentiful, starting with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his younger brother Ferdinand, important within the Hapsburg Dynasty, who succeeded Charles as Emperor. For over two centuries the downline of Queen Juana were important European rulers or their consorts. Queen Juana's younger sister Katherine, wife in succession of Arthur Prince of Wales and Henry VIII, King of England, produced only one living heir, Mary Tudor (1516 - 1558). Marrying at age 37 her cousin Philip, son of her nephew Emperor Charles, Mary Tudor (Queen Mary I of England 1553 - 1558) produced no living heirs. Philip became King of England, with no right of succession if his wife produced no children. Mary briefly restored England to unity with the Papacy, a unity quickly undone by her half-sister Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Juana of Castile was called "the Mad" during her lifetime. Her mental disorders, largely discounted by subsequent historians and author Julia Fox gave a pretext to three power-mad, ungenerous men in succession to rule her kingom in her name, her Hapsburg husband Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, then her father King Ferdinand of Aragon and finally her son Charles V. They kept her a virtual prisoner. Julia Fox gives perhaps three times as much space to Juana's younger sister Katherine (who like their mother Queen Isabella also had English royal blood through John of Gaunt). Although only a consort, Katherine was regent of England while Henry VIII was waging an early war in France. To her goes much credit for the decisive defeat of Henry VIII's brother in law King James IV of Scotland at the battle of Flodden Field (9/11/1513). Both Queens were cruelly misused by their male relatives and both died isolated from their people. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/books/436741199.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 01/01/2012 name of review: Queen Katherine Defeated the Scots. Queen's Juana's descendants ruled Europe for over two centuries. rating: * * * * * review: Given the steady fascination that the English Tudor Dynasty holds for American readers and movie goers, it is not suprising that of her book's two royal SISTER QUEENS, author Julia Fox gives three times the attention to Katherine of Aragon (mother of Queen Mary Tudor) as to her older sister Juana, Queen of Castile. Yet royal women's value is often preserved in the descendants whom they produce. And in that respect Queen Juana ("the Mad" as she has come down in history) trumps Queen Katherine. Queen Katherine had one surviving child, a daughter, Queen Mary Tudor, who died without surviving issue. Furthermore Katherine was only a Queen Consort (to King Henry VIII). By contrast Queen Juana was a ruler in her own right and her offspring were among Europe's rulers for over two centuries. Juana and Katherine were among the five children of the formidable King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile (patroness of Christopher Columbus). The two girls were present January 2, 1492 when the last Moorish ruler in Spain surrendered the city of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella. This was the culmination of centuries of "reconquista" as successive Catholic rulers of Spain steadily pushed the Moors back into Africa. The fall of Granada was a major international news event. It was also related to creation of the Spanish Inquisition and coerced conversions or emigration of Spain's Jews and Muslims. Later Princess Katherine made the pomegranate (Spanish granada) part of her royal emblem. SISTER QUEENS is filled with fascinating detail, but does not overwhelm by sheer volume. Two incidents stick with me: --
(1) the worst
defeat
that Scotland ever had from England was the Battle of Flodden Field
(9/11/1513) when Katharine of Aragon was Regent of England,
while husband Henry VIII was achieving virtually nothing warring just
across the Channel in France;
There is very little
to criticize in SISTER QUEENS. It relies on well known historical
sources and earlier historians, making no secret thereof. The author
highlights key incidents in the sisters' lives and embeds them firmly
in their time and the mindsets of their royal family. A very, very good
read.-- (2) in 1520 Castile was in an uproar. Son Charles V, ruling in his imprisoned mother Juana's name, was out of Juana's kingdom, far to the north picking up his new Imperial Crown. Rebels liberated Juana. With one stroke of a pen, Juana could have ended her son's tyrannous, illegal, usurped rule. Ever the supreme family loyalist, Queen Juana refused and the rebellion subsided. Nonetheless, Charles kept his mother locked up. -OOO- http://community.cafelibri.com/reviews/d/UserReview-Julia_Fox _SISTER_QUEENS_THE_NOBLE_TRAGIC _LIVES_OF_KATHERINE_OF_ARBON_AND_JUANA _QUEEN_OF_CASTILE-74-1789949-218157-Queen_ Katherine_Defeated_the_Scots_Queen_s.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com NOT REVIEWABLE as of 01/02/2012 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com/vine 01/02/2012 review title: Two Empires Plus England and Scotland Reflected through the Prism of two Royal Sisters rating: * * * * * review: Isabella Queen of Castile and Leon (1451 -1504) and her husband Ferdinand King of Aragon (1452 - 1516) cast dynastic shadows enduring and wide. Their marriage produced five surviving children: one son and four daughters. Of these five author Julia Fox in SISTER QUEENS (January 2012) highlights Katherine (1485 - 1536) Princess of Aragon/Queen of England and her older sister Juana (1479 - 1555), Queen of Castile. Queen Katharine of England bore Henry VIII only one surviving child, Mary Tudor who died in 1558 without issue. But her elder sister Juana, a ruling queen in her own right, gave birth to future Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I. And other offspring became royalty in Denmark, Hungary and elsewhere. Queen Juana of Castile, called apparently erroneously "the Mad," never exercised her ruling power for a single day. That was usurped successively by her Hapsburg husband, her Trastamara father and her son Charles. Only once might she have gained power: when rescued from captivity in 1520-21 by rebel comuneros. Had she commissioned them in writing to do her will, Charles V's rule in Spain would have ended. But she remained loyal to her family and soon Charles resumed her imprisonment. Queen Katherine of England comes across as a woman with the temperament to be a ruler (which she was only briefly as Regent in 1513). It was a towering achievement to bring England back into Catholic unity with the Pope in Rome. Had she lived another 20 years, the UK might be Catholic today. Juana, a real queen, may have been kept from exercising her power -- for very different motives-- first by her mother Isabella the Catholic, then Hapsburg husband, Philip the Fair, then her father Ferdinand of Aragon and finally by her son Charles V. When she had a chance at power in 1520-21 she dithered and did not take it. Much of the text of SISTER QUEENS touches on general European history of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. From the point of view of royal parents marrying off royal sons and daughters with an eye to national security, we gain a sense of what made Europe tick: Roman Catholic orthodoxy threatened by imperialistic Islam and the internal rebellion of Martin Luther, concern for trade advantages and new territories, the exploration of the Americas, widespread disease, crop failures, Renaissance education, music, jewelry, costumes and on and on. The broad historical sweep of Julia Fox is nowhere deep, but everywhere useful. It is kept grounded in believable reality by the author's focus on two royal princesses of the ancient Iberian family of Trastamara, their parents, husbands, children and grandchildren. A very fine, unabashedly unoriginal, popular history that needed to be told as a ladylike counterbalance to the seemingly never ending and all conquering Tudor Mania. A final comment in passing. -- On January second, 2012, just before
writing this my own review of SISTER QUEENS, I read the ten earlier
reviews already posted at amazon.com. I learned important things from
each and was powerfully impressed by three of the reviews. I don't
recall, however, any reviewers mentioning Shakespeare's KING HENRY VIII
for its powerful, very positive portrayal of Queen Katherine and
three-dimensional sketches of other players, Henry, Cardinal Wolsey and
others.
-- There is one curious bit of trivia that struck me, but which I don't recall previous reviewers on amazon.com mentioning. Author Fox says in Chapter 9 "Death of a Prince" that "There is a suggestion that Arthur succumbed to testicular cancer -- since the chronicler describes his illness as 'dryven in the singuler partise of him inward.'" Twenty-five years later, during divorce proceedings, Henry made a big issue of whether his older brother Prince Arthur had actually deflowered his bride, Princess Katherine, during their six months of marriage. In the notes to Chapter 9, author Fox attributes the testicular cancer notion to D. R. Starkey's SIX WIVES: THE QUEENS OF HENRY VIII (2004, pp 76f). If the teenage prince had testicular cancer, it would explain the claims of Katherine and her servant that husband and wife had never enjoyed full marital relations. Had Arthur given Katherine a child, especially a living son, even posthumously, that child, not, Henry would have become the rightful heir of the English throne. And what might his mother Katherine have made of him or her! In what it tries to do -- to deliver fast-paced, accurate, scholarly-based biography and history -- Julia Fox's SISTER QUEENS is a big winner. -OOO- http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Queens-Tragic -Katherine-Castile/dp/0345516044/ref=sr_1_1_ title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324561957&sr=1-1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com 12/03/2012 Review Title: Product Rating: PROS: CONS: BOTTOM LINE: aohcapablanca's Full Review: Recommended: http://www.epinions.com/reviews/Julia_Fox_Sister_Queens_ The_Noble_Tragic_Lifes_of_Katherine_of_Aragon_and_ Juana_Queen_of_Castile_epi =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (6) Open Library 12/22/2011 SISTER QUEENS
About the Book:THE NOBLE, TRAGIC LIVES OF KATHERINE OF ARAGON and JUANA, QUEEN OF CASTILE Published January 31, 2012 by Random House/Ballantine Books in New York' FYI: I have a pre-publication paper cover issue to review for amazon.com/vine TPK 12/22/2011 Table of Contents Preface
Genealogical Tables Map Note on Units of Currency PART I Isabella's Daughters PART II Wives PART III Widows PART IV Sister Queens PART V The Sky Darkens PART VI Adversity References and Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Map Credit Index The Physical Object Format Hardcover Number of pages 480 ID Numbers Open Library OL25129423M ISBN 13 978-0345516046 History Created 30 minutes ago · 2 revisions Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation 15 minutes ago Edited by T. Patrick Killough Added subtitle, table of contents (without chapters), number of pages. cover image. 30 minutes ago Created by T. Patrick Killough Added new book. http://openlibrary.org/books/OL25129423M/SISTER_QUEENS http://openlibrary.org/books/OL25129423M/SISTER_QUEENS http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/fox_sister.html |