Book Shopping, Day Fifteen
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner joined my towering to-be-read pile because Juana of Castile, the last queen of the title (she was the last monarch of the house of Trastámara) was my own Barbara of Austria’s grandmother. Who would not be curious about this intriguing woman, sister of the better-known Catherine of Aragon, wife of Philip the Fair of Austria (who could ever trust a man who is called “Philip the Fair,” anyway?), and ultimately in her own right Juana I of Castile, Juana la Loca, Joanna the Mad?
We enter into Juana’s life when she is just thirteen, an exquisite child at a Spanish court which for her lifetime has been little more than a series of military camps while her parents, Fernando and Isabel, drove the Moors out of Spain and created a united nation. She is married off to the Habsburg archduke Philip sight unseen, for political advantage—the usual fate of princesses at the time—but falls passionately and jealously in love with him. Poor Juana. Philip proves to be a philanderer, which is bad enough. (Supposedly Juana attacked one of his mistresses with a pair of scissors, slashing her face and cutting her hair.) Worse, he wants her throne for himself. Gortner’s Juana is proud, willful, high-hearted, and trapped—not so much mad as understandably driven to extremes of love and hate.
Royal secrets, opulent intrigue (the best kind), passions and poisons, love and death—this is my favorite sort of book. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner is available at Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Borders, Amazon, and of course your favorite independent bookstore.
