Philippa Gregory's The Taming Of The Queen

Why would anyone knowingly marry a serial killer? In the most recent installment of Philippa Gregory’s Tudor Court series, The Taming of the Queen, the answer to that question becomes all too clear: because he is the KING! Kateryn Parr, the final Queen in the reign of Henry VIII, is the subject of this latest piece of historical fiction. Picking up shortly after the execution of Katherine Howard, King Henry’s fifth wife, this book introduces the world to the little known Queen Kateryn. With most of the attention given to the more eccentric and flashy queens like Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragón, little has been published about Queen Kateryn until recently. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is just as noteworthy as the more scandalous wives of King Henry. …show more content…
After involuntarily catching the eye of the king, she is forced to end her secret affair and marry a man old enough to be her father…A man who has notoriously buried four wives - King Henry VIII. Kateryn is fully aware of the danger she faces. She is attentive to the fact that the previous queen lasted only sixteen months, and the one previous scarcely half a year. As much as her logical reservations tempt her to quickly turn tail and run, she knows that her fate would be much worse if she did. In her mind, either way, she is a dead woman walking. She decides to accept the King’s proposal and marries him, much against her better