I began this wondrous adventure about a month ago, and due
to its immense length, and my book ADD, I have only just finished it.
Most historical fiction I have the propensity for picking up
usually has one or two characteristics which render it abhorrent to me; that
is, it is either historical smut: dramatizing any affair(glorifying it) and
filling the pages with gratuitous sex scenes, or, it is extremely secular. It
is secular in the sense that it is merely revisionist history; distorting what
happened in the past to make the events of the future seems not only
condonable, but that they are to be encouraged. I was pleasantly surprised that
this one had neither, and hence very much enjoyed it.
Except for the marvelous Anne Carrol books that educated me
on all things historical in my early youth, most history texts that I read,
even in highschool(supplemented with other books containing the true facts, of
course) were of the same metal as revisionist history. The picture they painted
of the great Katherine of Aragorn was an ugly one. The picture of Henry VIII a
glorious one.
Imagine my shock, that this book not only portrayed the
strength of character exhibited by Katherine of Aragorn, but also the
relativist and rationalistic thinking of Henry VIII. Besides its accurate
portrayal of the daughter of the great Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, it also
shows the beginnings of the young Mary, as well as her imagined thoughts and
feelings(based on facts), that showed nothing that would cause her to become the blood thirty villain she is often shown to be.
My favorite part of the book came near the end, when John
Fischer, Archbishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, Chancellor to the King, opposed both his false
nullity of his true marriage, and his placing himself as head of the Church in
England.
Overall, a great read, and I encourage anyone desiring a
good read(epic) to pick it up. It is over 600 pages, but that should not deter the enthusiast once they have delved into it.
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