I
hope you enjoyed spending time with Catherine and Diego this
Christmas as much as I have! I love the holiday season, and the
Tudors certainly knew how to celebrate with their music, dancing,
feasting, and wassailing. I've also written several tales set in the
Elizabethan era, but not much about the reigns of her siblings, so I
loved delving deeper into this period.
I imagine that Christmas 1554 was one of Queen Mary Tudor's most
happy, and last happy, moments. She'd come through decades of
neglect and persecution to fight for her throne, combat the Wyatt
Rebellion, led by noblemen centered in Kent which protested against
the Spanish marriage and sought to dethrone Mary and replace her with
Elizabeth (which Catherine's father finds himself embroiled in), and
marry her kinsman King Philip of Spain. (Sources say she fell deeply
in love; his feelings were more doubtful, or should we say dutiful).
Now England was reconciled with the Catholic Church, and she was
expecting an heir.
Things were not so merry for very long. By summer 1555, the
pregnancy was known to be a phantom one—there was no baby at all.
King Philip left to wage war in the Low Countries, and Queen Mary
plunged into depression. She died in 1558, leaving the throne to her
despised half-sister Elizabeth.
But I imagine Catherine and Diego's story ends on a happier note.
They are loosely based on the true story of Jane Dormer and the Duke
de Feria, who also appear in our tale. Jane and her duke married
soon after Queen Mary's death, and she spent the rest of her very
long life (she died in 1612; the duke passed away in 1571) in Spain,
a patron of English Catholic refugees. I envision Catherine and
Diego, along with her parents, living in Andalusia, raising beautiful
children!
Catherine's mother, Elena, is also based on a real figure, Maria de
Salinas, Lady Willoughby, one of Catherine of Aragon's ladies who
came with her from Spain and married an English nobleman herself.
She was one of the queen's most loyal friends, defying orders to stay
away when Queen Catherine was dying alone at Kimbolton and rushing to
her friend's side at the end. Her daughter became the second wife of
the Duke of Suffolk, after King Henry's own sister Mary.
A few sources I enjoyed:
--Hugh
Douglas, ed: A
Right Royal Christmas
(2001)
--Maria
Hubert, ed: Christmas
in Shakespeare's England
(1998)
--Evelyn
Reed: Catherine,
Duchess of Suffolk
(1962)
--Simon
Thurley: Whitehall
Palace: The Official Illustrated Guide
--Allison
Sim: Food and
Feast in Tudor England
--Henry
Clifford: The
Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria
--Carrolly
Erickson: Bloody
Mary
(1978)
--John
Edwards: Mary I:
England's Catholic Queen
(2011)
--Harry
Kelsey: Philip
of Spain: King of England
(2012)
--Anna
Whitelock: Mary
Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen
(2009) and The
Marriage of Philip of Habsburg and Mary Tudor, and Anti-Spanish
Sentiment in England
(2009)
--Albert
J. Loemie: The
Spanish Elizabethans
(1963)
--Barbara
J. Harris: English
Aristocratic Women: 1450-1550
(2002)
Tudor
Christmas Tidings by Blythe Gifford, Jenni Fletcher & Amanda McCabe
Make
Merry at Court
…with
three Tudor Christmas stories!
In
Christmas
at Court
Sir John Talbot and Lady Alice’s secret betrothal must wait until
Henry Tudor claims the throne. Next in Secrets
of the Queen's Lady
the lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves is unexpectedly reunited with a
handsome—younger—diplomat at the palace’s festivities! And in
His Mistletoe Lady
Catherine seeks help from a mysterious Spaniard to free her father in
time for Christmas!
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About Jenni
Fletcher
Jenni
Fletcher is from the north coast of Scotland and now lives in
Yorkshire where she writes historical romance novels. She studied
English at Cambridge University before doing a PhD on Edwardian
literature & psychology at Hull. She has been nominated for 4
RoNA awards and won for Short Romantic Fiction in 2020. In her spare
time she loves baking and, of course, reading.
Social
Media Links –
@JenniAuthor
https://www.facebook.com/JenniFletcherAuthor/
About Blythe
Gifford
After
many years in public relations, advertising, and marketing, Blythe
Gifford started writing seriously after a corporate layoff. Ten
years and one layoff later, she became an overnight success when she
sold to the Harlequin Historical line. Her books, set in the 14th to
17th centuries,
typically incorporate real historical events and characters. The
Chicago Tribune has called her work “the perfect balance between
history and romance.” Blythe lives and works along Chicago’s
lakefront.
Website: www.blythegifford.com
Facebook
page: www.facebook.com/BlytheGifford
Twitter: www.twitter.com/BlytheGifford
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/BlytheGifford
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BlytheGifford/
About Amanda
McCabe
Amanda wrote her
first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring
all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra
class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest
subject...)
She's never since
used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards,
including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers'
Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice
Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Santa Fe with a
Poodle, a cat, a wonderful husband, and a very and far too many books
and royal memorabilia collections.
When not writing
or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel
souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't
cook.
Amanda also
writes as Laurel
McKee for Grand Central Publishing, the
Elizabethan Mystery Series as Amanda
Carmack, and the Manor Cat Mystery Series as Eliza
Casey.
https://www.instagram.com/amandamccabeauthor/
on Instagram
https://www.facebook.com/amandamccabebooks/
on FB, and https://www.pinterest.co.uk/amandamccabe/boards/
on Pinstagram!
