The Sixth Wife - The Story of Katherine Parr

Zusatztext “Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama.” — New York Times Informationen zum Autor Jean Plaidy, one of the preeminent authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century, is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. Jean Plaidy’s novels had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide by the time of her death in 1993. Klappentext Dangerous court intrigue and affairs of the heart collide as renowned novelist Jean Plaidy tells the story of Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's six queens. Henry VIII's fifth wife, Katherine Howard, was both foolish and unfaithful, and she paid for it with her life. Henry vowed that his sixth wife would be different, and she was. Katherine Parr was twice widowed and thirty-one years old. A thoughtful, well-read lady, she was known at court for her unblemished reputation and her kind heart. She had hoped to marry for love and had set her heart on Thomas Seymour, the dashing brother of Henry's third queen. But the aging king-more in need of a nurse than a wife-was drawn to her, and Katherine could not refuse his proposal of marriage. Queen Katherine was able to soothe the King's notorious temper, and his three children grew fond of her, the only mother they had ever really known. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a volatile tyrant, books were Katherine's consolation. But among her intellectual pursuits was an interest in Lutheranism-a religion that the king saw as a threat to his supremacy as head of the new Church of England. Courtiers envious of the Queen's influence over Henry sought to destroy her by linking her with the "radical" religious reformers. Henry raged that Katherine had betrayed him, and had a warrant drawn up for her arrest and imprisonment. At court it was whispered that the king would soon execute yet another wife. Henry's sixth wife would have to rely on her wits to survive where two other women had perished. . . . Leseprobe CHAPTER I Spring had come to England. There were marsh marigolds along the banks of the river, and in the royal park the saxifrage showed gold and green on the damp sweet-smelling earth; the buds were bursting open in the hedgerows; and the songs of the thrush and the blackbird filled the air. In his royal palace of Greenwich, his "Manor of Pleazaunce," the best-loved of all his palaces because it was his birthplace, the King was aware of the coming of spring. He was melancholy and he knew the reason for his melancholy. It was little more than a year since his fascinating but unfaithful wife had, at his command, lost her head. A whole year! It was a long time to be without a wife. The small eyes seemed to sink into the puffy face, the mouth grew prim, as he thought of all he had suffered at the hands of his wives. The first and second had deceived him; he had divorced one and beheaded the other; the third had died giving him his son; the fourth he had not loved at all and had lost no time in divorcing her; and the fifth—that faithless wanton, Catharine Howard—whom for the last year he had been unable to banish from his thoughts, had walked out to Tower Green on a February day of last year and laid her head on the block. This was an unnatural deprivation for a man to suffer; and, he reminded himself, if I am a King, I am also a man. And the remedy for his melancholy? A wife. The King must look for a sixth wife. Blustering March winds buffeted the walls of a mansion close to the Charterhouse Priory in the City of London. On one of the window seats, her tapestry in her hands—although she was paying little attention to the design she was working—sat a woman. She was small and her hair, which was fair and abundant, showed beneath her hood of black velvet; her gown of the same material was ric...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Jean Plaidy
• Editore: Crown Publishing Group
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 22.02.2005
• EAN: 9780609810262
• ISBN: 978-0-609-81026-2
• Pagine: 304
• Dimensioni: 132 mm x 202 mm x 17 mm
• Serie: Wives of Henry VIII; A Novel of the Tudors; A Novel of the Tudors; Novel of the Tudors
• Categoria: Narrativa > Romanzi