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The Merry Monarch Wife The Story of Catherine of Braganza A Queens of England Novel Jean Plaidy 9780307346179 Books

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The Merry Monarch Wife The Story of Catherine of Braganza A Queens of England Novel Jean Plaidy 9780307346179 Books

The modest, sheltered Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese princess of a small country, became the arranged bride of the winsome, womanizing king of England. Her country needed the shelter of powerful England to protect them from invasion from their much larger neighbor, Spain. From England's viewpoint, the almost bankrupt treasury needed the large dowry promised by the Portuguese Queen Regent, Catherine's mother. As long as the marriage arrangers promised that the bride was neither horribly ugly, deformed, or in some way repulsive, Charles II, the Merry Monarch was willing to accept the princess as his bride in order to save his country from bankruptcy. The arrangement of the marriage took quite a long time. In the meantime, most of the dowry money was spent warding off the threatened invasion from Spain. Catherine was given time to mature, and instead of being a young teenager as were many young royal brides of arranged marriages, Catherine was actually 24 years old, almost too old for marriage by the customs of the times.

When the English fleet finally arrived to conduct their new queen to her bridegroom, Catherine's mother was forced to reveal to the horrified princess that instead of hard cash, the ships would be filled with grains and spices from Portugal and a smart Jewish merchant would be on board to sell the merchandise in England, thus hopefully to come up with some of the promised treasure. After a difficult sea voyage, Catherine and her ladies-in-waiting finally arrived on English soil. The Merry Monarch did not meet the ship much to Catherine's dismay. Little did she know that the delay was due to his trying to pacify his latest mistress who was not happy with the marriage of her lover. Realizing that her Portuguese style of ugly, figure-masking, stiff dresses and fantastic hairstyle was not going to make her a success in her new country, Catherine succeeded in getting a dress that was made in the figure-revealing English style, and letting her hair hang loose as was the mode among the English ladies of court. She shocked her Portuguese chaperon and ladies-in-waiting, but Charles II, ladies' man that he was, found her acceptable. She was no dummy and insisted on a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony before starting the honeymoon. Albeit small and held in secret, her demand was granted, and then she was swept into a storybook honeymoon held in one of the palaces of southern England.

In spite of the fact that the discovery had been made by his ministers that the dowry had been sent in grains and spices, Charles did not let that damper his ardor for his new bride and did not blame her in any way for the problem. England gallantly defended their new ally against the threats of Spain. and soon Portuguese independence was assured for at least many years. Catherine had been told by her mother of Charles' scandalous reputation, but she as well as the others in Portugal excused his behavior as that of a young bachelor sowing his wild oats and assumed that he would put all this behind him once he was happily married to his lawful wife. Catherine had even been told the name of his mistress-in-chief, a beautiful, highly-sexed woman with the morals of the proverbial alley cat. She had been told to snub this woman and have nothing to do with her. All went well until Charles presented Catherine with the list of names of the English women he had chosen to be her new English ladies-in-waiting to replace the escort she had brought with her from Portugal. At the head of the list was the name of the despised mistress. From there unravels the storybook marriage. Seemingly Charles would have moved heaven and earth to please his bride, but he would not remove the hated name from the list.

The story winds its way on from there. Charles was possessed with a magnetic personality as well as a tall, strong physic, and although his strong facial features were not considered to be handsome, he was beloved by all levels of English society except probably the minorities, the Catholics and the Puritans. Charles father, Charles I, had been forced to lay his head on the chopping block some 12 to 15 years previously. Discontent had arisen from the fact that his strong-minded, aggressive French wife, Charles II's mother the Queen Henrietta Maria, had made public her goal of converting the whole country, not only her husband and children, back into the fold of the Catholic church. Charles I seems to have been a good, trusting soul but was led to his execution although his wife and all but one daughter escaped to Europe. That unfortunate child died in England of illness before plans could be carried out for her escape. Henrietta and her youngest daughter, Minette, were received at the French court and lived there as "poor relatives" while 15 year-old Charles wandered around Europe as a king without a country, and Puritan Oscar Cromwell was Lord Protector of England. A Puritan life-style was legislated into law in England. Upon Cromwell's decease, the country was ready to call for their king, and Charles II, was restored to his throne, bringing most of his family with him. Released from the laws of the Puritans, England went wild. Into this decadent scene arrived Catherine of Braganza with her strict Catholic upbringing.

How did she cope? Did she produce an heir to cement the Stuart posterity? What happened to her after Charles died? Who followed Charles II to the throne? You will learn all this and more in this well-written book that is truly a page-turner.


Tags : The Merry Monarch's Wife: The Story of Catherine of Braganza (A Queens of England Novel) [Jean Plaidy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Charles II is restored to the English throne, and his court is lively and even scandalous. The country is eager for succession to be clear and certain: The next king will be the son of Charles II and his queen,Jean Plaidy,The Merry Monarch's Wife: The Story of Catherine of Braganza (A Queens of England Novel),Broadway Books,030734617X,Biographical fiction,Biographical fiction.,Catherine,Great Britain - History - Charles II, 1660-1685,Great Britain;History;Charles II, 1660-1685;Fiction.,Queens - Great Britain,Queens;Great Britain;Fiction.,1638-1705,Catherine,,Charles II, 1660-1685,ENGLISH HISTORICAL FICTION,England,FICTION Biographical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Sagas,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Historical,GENERAL,General Adult,Great Britain,Historical - General,Historical fiction,History,Queens,United States,historical fiction; historical; tudors; biographical fiction; historical romance; royalty; british history; european history; alternative history; literary fiction; elizabeth i; henry viii; english history; medieval; 19th century; 18th century; love story; drama; tudor england; historical fiction books; historical fiction novels; fiction; fiction books; england; tudor; biography; anne boleyn; mystery; war; richard iii; marriage; adventure; wwii; renaissance; love; family; friendship; shakespeare; victorian; plantagenets; royals,historical;historical fiction books;historical fiction novels;alternate history;historical fiction;fiction;novels;fiction books;historical novels;books fiction;books historical fiction;england;romance;tudors;royalty;historical romance;tudor;marriage;elizabeth i;drama;henry viii;mystery;british history;love;war;wwii;family;medieval;literary fiction;friendship;computer programming;ada lovelace;renaissance;shakespeare;american revolution;french revolution;victorian,of Braganza, Queen, consort of Charles II, King of England,,FICTION Biographical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Sagas,Historical - General,Fiction - Historical,1638-1705,Catherine,,Charles II, 1660-1685,Great Britain,History,Queens,of Braganza, Queen, consort of Charles II, King of England,,English Historical Fiction,Fiction,Historical fiction

The Merry Monarch Wife The Story of Catherine of Braganza A Queens of England Novel Jean Plaidy 9780307346179 Books Reviews

Again Plaidy captures the readers immagination with her view of this sad little queen. The life of one of England's more tragic queens comes alive in this book
An interesting woman living at an interesting time.
Jean Plaidy is one of my favorite authors, and that's why I like her historical novels.
It's about History, England, Regency, and a lot of King's and Queens'
I love that book about Catherine Braganza

Thanks a lot for your assistant to get that book.
This was definitely another one of Jean Plaidy's great book, although I did find some repetitive phrases. I definitely enjoyed her view and love for her King no matter how many loves he had beside her.
What a great read. I must admit I do like Jean Plaidy, sometimes she misses, but mostly her books are enjoyable. What I like about Jean Plaidy is that she does not give acclaim to herself (or did,I should say) that she is a historical now it all. She writes entertaining historical novels with dashes of fact piled in. Her writing is vibrant so it is easy to picture the times that she is writing about. I really enjoyed reading about the Stuart era (Restoration period), it was insightful. A great 'Weekend Read'.
The author assumes a first-person telling that is appealing and engaging. In doing research for a performance of Queen Catherine, I found useful information, stories, drama, and human love.
I really enjoyed this book. Behind Henry VIII, Charles II is my favorite monarch. I've read his story from the point of view of three of his main mistresses, and both his nieces, Mary and Ann. I'm not sure why it took me so long to come around to Carthine, but it was certainly a very different look at the most licentious court England had seen in quite some time.

Catherine's mother started planning a marriage between her daughter and Charles from the time Catherine was a little girl. England was under the puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell at the time, but she was certain that someday the monarchy would be restored, and when it was, her daughter would be the one to join Portugal and England which would help to drive Spain away from attacking the small country. Catherine gew up dreaming of a romanticized version of Charles, and couldn't wait for the time to come when she would leave for England...very unusual at the time since most royal Princesses dreaded leaving their homeland to marry a strange Prince from a far-away, unfamiliar land.

Catharine's mothers intuition proved correct, and at the ripe old age of 23 she finally sailed to England to marry her dashing King. One thing that surprised me was Ms. Plaidy mentioning very pointedly that Catherine did NOT get married by proxy in Portugal, when in fact she did. In Lisbon on April 23, 1662. This would have been to assure that during the journey from Portugal to England, there would be no doubt that she was the Queen of England, and married to King Charles II.

Upon Catherine's arrival, the dream she had built up was quickly shattered, and reality set in. She truly did love Charles, but she was very surprised to discover that he kept mistresses...and a lot of them (over the years). It took her awhile before she learned that she would never be the only woman to hold the heart of the King, but once she truly accepted him for who he was, they loved one another very deeply. Charles was extremely protective of his little Queen...he would not tolerate his mistresses speaking ill of her, and he refused to divorce her once it became apparent that she would never give birth to a son.

Overall, this was an excellent realistic look into the court of Charles II. This is not the sex-filled gossipy mistress version, but the real story from a loving wife and Queen who came to this country from a very different place and just wanted to fit in. My only issue with the book, and why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, was the second half seemed much more rushed. There was a lot of 'As the years passed...', which would quickly fly over 3-5 years. It's almost like Ms. Plaidy realized the book would be way too long if she continued writing it in the same descriptive manner as the first half, so she cut back on the dialogue and descriptions dramatically in the second half. It didn't take away from the story too much, but some events were quickly told to us almost as an afterthought, instead of finding out how these events affected certain people. In the end though, I absolutely recommend this book, especially if you love Restoration England. Yes, the mistresses are fun, and their side of the story is always more exciting, but it's definitely worth the time to get to know the wife of England's Merriest Monarch.
The modest, sheltered Catherine of Braganza, Portuguese princess of a small country, became the arranged bride of the winsome, womanizing king of England. Her country needed the shelter of powerful England to protect them from invasion from their much larger neighbor, Spain. From England's viewpoint, the almost bankrupt treasury needed the large dowry promised by the Portuguese Queen Regent, Catherine's mother. As long as the marriage arrangers promised that the bride was neither horribly ugly, deformed, or in some way repulsive, Charles II, the Merry Monarch was willing to accept the princess as his bride in order to save his country from bankruptcy. The arrangement of the marriage took quite a long time. In the meantime, most of the dowry money was spent warding off the threatened invasion from Spain. Catherine was given time to mature, and instead of being a young teenager as were many young royal brides of arranged marriages, Catherine was actually 24 years old, almost too old for marriage by the customs of the times.

When the English fleet finally arrived to conduct their new queen to her bridegroom, Catherine's mother was forced to reveal to the horrified princess that instead of hard cash, the ships would be filled with grains and spices from Portugal and a smart Jewish merchant would be on board to sell the merchandise in England, thus hopefully to come up with some of the promised treasure. After a difficult sea voyage, Catherine and her ladies-in-waiting finally arrived on English soil. The Merry Monarch did not meet the ship much to Catherine's dismay. Little did she know that the delay was due to his trying to pacify his latest mistress who was not happy with the marriage of her lover. Realizing that her Portuguese style of ugly, figure-masking, stiff dresses and fantastic hairstyle was not going to make her a success in her new country, Catherine succeeded in getting a dress that was made in the figure-revealing English style, and letting her hair hang loose as was the mode among the English ladies of court. She shocked her Portuguese chaperon and ladies-in-waiting, but Charles II, ladies' man that he was, found her acceptable. She was no dummy and insisted on a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony before starting the honeymoon. Albeit small and held in secret, her demand was granted, and then she was swept into a storybook honeymoon held in one of the palaces of southern England.

In spite of the fact that the discovery had been made by his ministers that the dowry had been sent in grains and spices, Charles did not let that damper his ardor for his new bride and did not blame her in any way for the problem. England gallantly defended their new ally against the threats of Spain. and soon Portuguese independence was assured for at least many years. Catherine had been told by her mother of Charles' scandalous reputation, but she as well as the others in Portugal excused his behavior as that of a young bachelor sowing his wild oats and assumed that he would put all this behind him once he was happily married to his lawful wife. Catherine had even been told the name of his mistress-in-chief, a beautiful, highly-sexed woman with the morals of the proverbial alley cat. She had been told to snub this woman and have nothing to do with her. All went well until Charles presented Catherine with the list of names of the English women he had chosen to be her new English ladies-in-waiting to replace the escort she had brought with her from Portugal. At the head of the list was the name of the despised mistress. From there unravels the storybook marriage. Seemingly Charles would have moved heaven and earth to please his bride, but he would not remove the hated name from the list.

The story winds its way on from there. Charles was possessed with a magnetic personality as well as a tall, strong physic, and although his strong facial features were not considered to be handsome, he was beloved by all levels of English society except probably the minorities, the Catholics and the Puritans. Charles father, Charles I, had been forced to lay his head on the chopping block some 12 to 15 years previously. Discontent had arisen from the fact that his strong-minded, aggressive French wife, Charles II's mother the Queen Henrietta Maria, had made public her goal of converting the whole country, not only her husband and children, back into the fold of the Catholic church. Charles I seems to have been a good, trusting soul but was led to his execution although his wife and all but one daughter escaped to Europe. That unfortunate child died in England of illness before plans could be carried out for her escape. Henrietta and her youngest daughter, Minette, were received at the French court and lived there as "poor relatives" while 15 year-old Charles wandered around Europe as a king without a country, and Puritan Oscar Cromwell was Lord Protector of England. A Puritan life-style was legislated into law in England. Upon Cromwell's decease, the country was ready to call for their king, and Charles II, was restored to his throne, bringing most of his family with him. Released from the laws of the Puritans, England went wild. Into this decadent scene arrived Catherine of Braganza with her strict Catholic upbringing.

How did she cope? Did she produce an heir to cement the Stuart posterity? What happened to her after Charles died? Who followed Charles II to the throne? You will learn all this and more in this well-written book that is truly a page-turner.