Her resistance against Henry’s demands and the conflict that ensued between her and Anne Boleyn placed King Henry VIII on the path to a destination he could never have foreseen. Arthur’s death proved devastating for his parents – his mother would die the following year after giving birth to the child that was conceived of their grief - and for Katherine, who was now to endure seven years of penurious widowhood before being rescued by her knight in shining armour, Henry VIII. But that is another story.

Alison Weir’s new series: The six things I’m most looking forward to discovering": http://www.royalhistorygeeks.com/alison-weirs-new-series-the-six-things-im-most-looking-forward-to-discovering/ Thanks to its sheer comprehensiveness and ambition,this six-book series looks likely to become a landmark in historical fiction." (The Times)The idea of writing a series of six novels about the wives of Henry VIII came suddenly to me as I was discussing another proposal with my agent. It was an obvious choice, for I have studied Henry’s queens over several decades, and published books on them, notably a collective biography in 1991, which I am now re-researching and rewriting. What we did learn though was that it wasn’t easy being one of Henry’s wives. In that role your main job was to give him a male heir – something which they nearly all failed at pretty spectacularly. As Alison said:

The Ring and the Crown: A History of Royal Weddings, 1066-2011 (co-written with Kate Williams, Sarah Gristwood and Tracy Borman) (2011) Renowned, bestselling historian Alison Weir reveals a warm, clever woman of great fortitude who rose boldly to every turn her life took. Katharine Parr deserves better than to be known just as Henry VIII’s sixth wife – the one who survived. And there’s no-one better placed than Alison Weir to restore her to her rightful place’ SARAH GRISTWOOD Alison Weir is the top-selling female historian (and the fifth best-selling historian overall) in the United Kingdom, and has sold over 2.7 million books worldwide. She has published seventeen history books, including The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Princes in the Tower, Elizabeth the Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII: King and Court, Katherine Swynford, The Lady in the Tower and Elizabeth of York. Alison has also published five historical novels, including Innocent Traitor and The Lady Elizabeth. Her latest biography is The Lost Tudor Princess, about Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. She is soon to publish Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, the first in a series of novels about the wives of Henry VIII. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces, and is married with two adult children.The primary driving factor of the Six Tudor Queens series isn’t actually the plight of Henry’s wives, the reasons that compel them to marry Henry or even the rivalries they must overcome to take the throne. Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen did not disappoint. It is very apparent that Ms. Weir did her research through the utilization of real letters and testimonies from that time. There was so much detail that it was easy to be transported to that life. You could not help but take Katherine’s side. Since Anne Boleyn was made to be quite the villain in this novel, I can’t wait to see what her side of the story is in the next book. A long read, but well worth it." (San Francisco Book Review) This brilliant series has brought Henry VIII’s six wives to life as never before. This novel will enthral and inspire, just as much as it will break your heart’ TRACY BORMAN

Alison Weir transforms Henry VIII’s much-maligned fourth wife into a woman of passion, courage and mystery’ Tracy Borman

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Henry's first Queen emerges as an intelligent, resilient woman who demonstrated considerable political ability. Alison Weir is in command of her detail and her handling of Katherine's misery and dignified response to her predicament is very touching." (Elizabeth Buchan, The Daily Mail) Saved from disgrace by the kindly Sir John Peche, Margery finds herself at court waiting on Queen Katherine. Little does Margery know that she is already a pawn in a game of power, irrevocably bound to the fall of the lady she will come to love as her mistress, Queen and friend. Alison Weir on Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen': https://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/blog/alison-weir-on-katherine-of-aragon-the-true-queen/ I did enjoy it – thoroughly. The great thing about Alison’s work, be it fiction or factual, is that it is always underpinned with her tremendously detailed knowledge of the characters and the period she writes about. Her research is impeccable. It is so refreshing to read historical fiction that gives such a confidently accurate picture of what happened and of the times in which it is set and which so sensitively invents only where necessary. And in this book she has coupled all this with a tender understanding of and genuine sympathy for this proud, much loved and honourable Queen whom Henry treated so badly. I was gripped start to finish." (Mavis Cheek) Katherine, a Spanish Princess, came to England to marry Arthur of Wales. But she ended up in King Henry VIII’s bed. For a time, Katherine was happy. She was Queen of England and her husband dearly loved her.

Katherine of Aragon' offers a lusciously sympathetic portrait of a spurned royal... a nuanced portrayal of Katharine of Aragon and those who surrounded her... Opulent... Weir's novel is, refreshingly, entirely free of cardboard­ cutout monsters. In fact, Weir is uniformly excellent at conveying the chaotic emotional give­ and­ take of the relationship. It is downright impressive how gripping Weir makes even the bleak final years. It's a story shot through with an ugly mixture of venality and hypocrisy, a dark passage through which Katherine carried herself with a nobility she clearly intended to speak well to posterity. Alison Weir's novel captures that nobility better than any biography ever has, and maybe in the end that nobility is a kind of mystery too." (Christian Science Monitor) A tour de force. If you think you know everything about Henry VIII’s last queen, you’re in for a wonderful treat – you don’t!’ SUSAN RONALDEven though Katherine’s story is introduced and explored extensively in ‘Katherine of Aragon’, the first novel in the Six Tudor Queens series, she makes several appearances down the line. Six Tudor Queens is the dramatic retelling of King Henry VIII’s affairs with the six women that shaped his reign. The novels are supposed to reimagine King Henry VIII’s most trying years from the perspective of these women whose lives he essentially ruined. Six weeks from home across treacherous seas, everything is different: the language, the food, the weather. And for her there is no comfort in any of it. At sixteen years old, Catalina is alone among strangers.