The King's Secret Matter by Jean Plaidy

Synopsis

The personalities and intrigues of the English royal court are brought to vivid life in this tale of Katharine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. The twelve-year marriage of Henry and Katharine has declined from an idyllic union into an uneasy stalemate.

The king's love for his aging queen has grown cold, and he is angry with her failure to give him the heir to the throne he desperately wants. When the seductive Anne Boleyn arrives at court, the king is captivated by her dark beauty and bold spirit, and becomes obsessed with his desire to possess her. With his chief advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, the king devises a secret plot to declare the marriage with Katharine null and void. But Katharine refuses to surrender to his wishes and fights desperately to retain her title and safeguard her daughter, Mary.

My View

The fourth in the Tudor series and I really start to feel for Katherine in this one, I loved the scenes of Mary with her mother, Katherine and how she doesn't want to be parted but, after a while she does seem to come across very clingy and also a tad annoying (I haven't read an awful lot about Mary Tudor so will have to soon!).

There seemed to be a lot going on in this instalment and I did find certain scenes rather drawn out in places, this being the final instalment in the Katherine trilogy I have to say I was not overly impressed I still did not get any involvement or feel I could get to know the characters (although of course we know much about the characters from history).

I have heard some say that Jean Plaidy's Tudor books can be a little dry and I would have a tendency to agree with that.