The Forbidden Queen

Or follow me on Twitter:

@anne_obrien

I also have my own blog where I write about history in general and what I am investigating in particular. Or anything historical that takes my interest…

http://www.anneobrienbooks.com/blog/2012/11/katherine-swynford/

Read all about it…

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

2     Questions for your reading group

4     Inspiration for writing

The Forbidden Queen

6     And After…

8     Further reading

9     Travelling in Katherine de Valois’s footsteps

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

12   Author biography

14   Why I write

15   Q&A on writing 20 A writer’s life

22   A day in the life

23   Top Ten Books

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR READING GROUP

1.     What do you think of Katherine? What appeals to you about her and what doesn’t?

2.     Apart from Katherine, who is your favourite character in the book and why?

3.     What influence did Katherine’s childhood have on her as a young adult? To what extent do you consider our adult characters to be formed in these earliest years?

4.     Katherine was described as ‘tall, fair and beautiful.’ Yet history has written her off as the archetypal ‘dumb blonde.’ Do you, from the decisions she made and the way she responded to influences at the English court, think this does justice to Katherine?

5.     After Henry’s death, Katherine is left with no role to play, her part in the childhood of her son is restricted by those placed in authority over him and her. How does Katherine react? What would you have done in a similar situation?

6.     Shakespeare wrote a wonderful love scene for Katherine with King Henry. Do you think that the evidence merits it? If not, why did he do it? Can we forgive authors for writing their own version of history?

7.     What is your feeling about Henry V’s relationship with Katherine? Could she have done anything to improve it?

8.     Katherine lived though a period of bloody warfare and yet seems untouched by it. Can we excuse her for this, even when the war is between the two sides of her family, English against French? Would we expect her to have more sympathy with her disinherited brother?

9.     Katherine’s relationship with Edmund Beaufort was at best foolhardy, at worst politically dangerous. Can we have any compassion for her? Is her falling in love with Owen Tudor just as foolish and lacking in judgement?

10.   Do you consider that Katherine deserved the punishment and restrictions inflicted on her by the Duke of Gloucester and the Royal Council?

11.   In what manner does Katherine’s character develop when she falls in love with Owen Tudor? Is she a better or worse person? Does your reaction to her change throughout the novel?

12.   What do you think of Owen Tudor? Is he hero or villain? Did he fall irrevocably in love with Katherine, or merely use her to improve his own lot in life?

13.   At the end, faced with impossible pressures, Katherine retires to Bermondsey Abbey. Could you have done the same in similar circumstances?

INSPIRATION FOR THE FORBIDDEN QUEEN

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine de Valois because although history records her as being very much a fairy-tale princess—fair and beautiful and greatly loved by King Henry (indeed contemporaries believed them to be the perfect couple)—the historical evidence did not quite stack up for me.

But why not? Their love story in Shakespeare’s Henry Vis legendary. On his betrothal Henry ‘kissed her with great joy’ and on the day of their marriage he is said to have looked proud and emotional, as if he were ‘king of all the world.’ As well he might, of course. By marrying Katherine, Henry would take possession of the kingdom of France, without having to waste one more drop of English blood in battle.

But their marriage—lasting only a little more than two years—is a sorry tale of absence. Katherine’s honeymoon was spent on campaign. Back in England Henry went on royal progress, only taking Katherine with him for part of the journey. As soon as she was pregnant he left for France to renew the war. They only met once more, briefly in France, and Henry never saw his son. Dying, Henry made no attempt to contact his beautiful wife.

So what sort of relationship was it? I had to find out, just as I had to discover if Katherine truly was the weak, manipulated young woman who appears between the pages of history books. It seemed to me that there was far more to say about this youngest of the French Valois princesses. After Henry’s death, Katherine fell into a dangerous relationship with Edmund Beaufort. And then there was her scandalous marriage to Owen Tudor when she quite deliberately married below her station, Owen being no more than her servant.