THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII

Author: Carolly Erickson ISBN: 0312352182 10/2006 HISTORICAL FICTION Publisher: ST. MARTIN'S PRESS
Time Period: Circa 1519 to 1548

Combining historical fact with intimate storytelling, Carolly Erickson brings the least known of Henry VIII's six wives to live in this page-turning drama. Catherine Parr attracted the king's eye, and though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the intrigue-filled snake pit of the royal court. She was a faithful wife. A loving stepmother. A nurse to the ailing king. But underneath Catherine's calm exterior, passions flowed—for education, religious reform, and the man she had to leave to marry the king...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

In this newest offering from Carolly Erickson, we are given a glimpse into the sumptuous, yet treacherous world of one of the most recognizable monarchs of England, as seen through the eyes of Catherine Parr, his last queen and the only wife to outlive him. It is a world steeped in underhanded politics and court intrigue, awash in religious corruption and superstition that nearly became Catherine's undoing.

A compassionate and learned woman, Catherine (or Cat) tells of the events in her life from her own viewpoint, beginning with her first memories as a young child in the retinue of Henry's first queen, Katherine of Aragon, to her last days heavy with child, abandoned and betrayed by the man she loved most. Married first to young Ned at an early age in order to escape marriage to an elderly noble, she married next a man who, though he loved her, wanted her more for his motherless child. When this second marriage ended in widowhood, she then married for the third time, Henry VIII, King of England, a man whose proposal she couldn't reject even though she was in love with another man. Finally, the fourth time she marries for love, to a man that will test her faith and common sense, and will ultimately result in her death through childbirth.

Erickson has done an excellent job with her storytelling, giving us not only a multi-dimensional portrait of a woman who seemed somewhat ahead of her time in both education and her religious opinions, but of a mercurial and temperamental king whose whimsical moods could decide one's fate in the blink of an eye.

Rich in detail and based upon real-life events, THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII is a quick paced, compelling and richly woven tapestry of characters who each played a part in the life of one of the more forgotten Tudor queens—a definite must read for any aficionado of medieval Tudor history.

Nancy Davis