About the Book
With Spain now united, Ferdinand looks to his daughters to further his ambitions. All too often, his wife Isabella finds herself torn between his brilliant plans and her love for her children.
During the last years of Isabella’s reign, the sovereigns witness as events strike at the heart of their family. Tragedy follows tragedy – the infanta Isabella a broken-hearted widow; Juana, driven to madness by her husband’s philandering; and the sorrow of parting with young Catalina, destined to become Katharine of Aragon, wife to Henry VIII and Queen of England …
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘One of the country’s most widely read novelists’ Sunday Times
‘Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity’ Guardian
Fiction
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This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781446427132
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Published by Arrow Books in 2008
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Copyright © Jean Plaidy, 1961
Initial lettering copyright © Stephen Raw, 2008
The Estate of Eleanor Hibbert has asserted its right to have Jean Plaidy identified as the author of this work.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
First published in the United Kingdom in 1960 by Robert Hale and Company
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The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099513544
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Book
Title
Copyright
Praise for Jean Plaidy
About the Author
Available in Arrow Books by Jean Plaidy
I: The Royal Family
II: Ximenes and Torquemada
III: The Archduchess Margaret
IV: The Marriage of Juan
V: Tragedy at Salamanca
VI: Juana and Philip
VII: The Queen of Portugal
VIII: Torquemada and the King of England
IX: Isabella Receives Christobal Colon
X: The Birth of Miguel
XI: The Court at Granada
XII: The Fate of the Moors
XIII: The Departures of Miguel and Catalina
XIV: The Wise Woman of Granada
XV: The Return of Juana
XVI: Juana the Mad
XVII: Isabella’s End
Bibliography
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘A vivid impression of life at the Tudor Court’
Daily Telegraph
‘One of the country’s most widely read novelists’
Sunday Times
‘Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama’
New York Times
‘It is hard to better Jean Plaidy … both elegant and exciting’
Daily Mirror
‘Jean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the
past with such rich complexity’ Guardian
‘Plaidy has brought the past to life’ Times Literary Supplement
‘One of our best historical novelists’ News Chronicle
‘An excellent story’ Irish Press
‘Spirited … Plaidy paints the truth as she sees it’
Birmingham Post
‘Sketched vividly and sympathetically … rewarding’
Scotsman
‘Among the foremost of current historical novelists’
Birmingham Mail
‘An accomplished novelist’ Glasgow Evening News
‘There can be no doubt of the author’s gift for storytelling’
Illustrated London News
Jean Plaidy, one of the pre-eminent 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.
For further information about Jean Plaidy reissues and mailing list, please visit
www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/jeanplaidy
Available in Arrow Books by Jean Plaidy
The Tudors
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, the Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King’s Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St Thomas’s Eve
The Sixth Wife
The Thistle and the Rose
Mary Queen of France
Lord Robert
Royal Road to Fotheringay
The Captive Queen of Scots
The Medici Trilogy
Madame Serpent
The Italian Woman
Queen Jezebel
The Plantagenets
The Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of the Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
The Hammer of the Scots
The Follies of the King
The French Revolution
Louis the Well-Beloved
The Road to Compiègne
Flaunting, Extravagant Queen
Isabella and Ferdinand Trilogy
Castile for Isabella
Spain for the Sovereigns
Daughters of Spain
THE ROYAL FAMILY
Catalina knelt on a window-seat looking out from the Palace to the purple slopes and the snowy tips of the Sierra de Guadarrama.
It would soon be Easter and the sky was cobalt, but the plain stretching out before the mountains was of a tawny bleakness.
Catalina enjoyed studying the view from the nursery window. Out there the scene always seemed a little frightening. Perhaps this was because she, who had seen bitter fighting outside Granada when she was a few years younger, was always afraid that her parents’ rebellious subjects would rise again and cause distress to her beloved mother.