Book Review: The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

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WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, has been for centuries an enigmatic figure shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C. W. Gortner challenges the myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.

The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amid her parents’ ruthless struggle to unify their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.

Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Habsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything.

With brilliant, lyrical prose, novelist and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts ofFlanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era, and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.

THEMES IN THIS BOOK

CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER OF THE LAST QUEEN TO READ MY REVIEW AND SEE WHAT GRADE I GAVE IT.  YOU CAN ALSO WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK BY CLICKING HERE TO ENTER!

Guest Post and Book Giveaway! The Last Queen

I am so pleased and tickled that C. W. Gortner has agreed to do a guest post for me today.  He is also graciously giving away a copy of his new book The Last Queen.  To enter the contest leave C. W. a comment telling him why you would like to read his book.  I will have my review up tomorrow and trust me,  this is a must have!  I will draw a winner on October 3rd.  Good Luck!

Gortner has an M.F.A. in writing from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance.   The Last Queen tells the story of Juana La Loca who many people believed was insane.  Gortner’s story, however, told through Juana’s eyes, suggests that insanity was the pretense by which she held power and saved her country.

Who was Juana la Loca and why did I decide to write about her?

THE LAST QUEEN is the story of Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit the throne, and of her tumultuous relationships with her parents Isabella and Ferdinand and her fight for her throne against her husband Philip of Hapsburg. Juana is a legend in Spain, known as Juana la Loca— the mad queen. Her story has been filmed twice; there have been numerous biographies in Spanish throughout the years. But outside of Spain, she’s scarcely mentioned except as the sister of Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and as the mother of the Emperor Charles V. Yet her life was full of drama, intrigue and passion, certainly a life worthy of a historical novel.

I’ve always been fascinated by Juana. I was raised in southern Spain, and am half-Spanish by birth; in my childhood, I lived near the ruins of a summer castle that had belonged to her parents. Every school child in Spain eventually learns about Juana, for she is legendary. I was therefore surprised to discover that outside of Spain she’s little more than a footnote in history. Juana is a very significant historical figure, regardless. As the last queen of her medieval Spanish bloodline to inherit the throne, with her imprisonment Spain passed into Hapsburg hands. Eventually her maternal bloodline died out entirely and the Bourbons (distant French relations) took over. Moreover, she was a sovereign queen in that, like her mother Queen Isabella, she inherited the right to rule Castile alone, her power superior to that of her husband, who was titled king-consort. Juana also shaped Europe for generations to come through her children, each of whom held a prominent place among the royal houses of Europe.

When I decided to write a novel about her, the first thing I looked at was the implicit agreement among historians that she was unbalanced. This diagnosis felt instinctually misogynistic to me. I figured that, as with many women of power who have been misunderstood and maligned, there had to be more to Juana than we’d been told. Also, I felt that Spain as a whole wasn’t as widely recognized in the historical fiction genre as, say, England or France, and Juana truly brings the drama of the Iberian Renaissance to life. These facts set me on a six-year journey of research and writing to unravel the myth surrounding her.

My research methods were varied and time-consuming. I made a point of traveling to as many of the places where Juana lived about as I could. I consulted primary sources, such as chronicles, letters, and ambassadorial accounts of the era itself, which are usually found in libraries and special archives. Unfortunately, much, if not all, of this material reflects the writer’s viewpoint at the time; and in Juana’s case very few spoke in her defense. Of all the official documentation of the time, only the Admiral of Castile’s speech before the Cortes in Valladolid (recorded in their annals) shows an unwillingness to accept her as mad. So, with primary sources, I was careful to examine what was being said by whom, and whether or not that person had a bias. I also read a vast list of secondary sources, such as biographies and historical studies of the period. I even looked at 16^th century architectural planning, as the house where Juana lodged in Burgos has been converted into a bank and I had to recreate the interior from plans of similar period structures. And I studied costuming and customs, so I could recreate the details of the time. I even tried on a 16^th century Spanish gown, loaned to me by a Renaissance faire re-enactor, so I could feel the weight of it and know what Juana faced when trying to, for example, escape on horseback! 

Today we understand the effects of prolonged stress on the human psyche, but in Juana’s era no one even considered this as a possible cause for her alleged erratic behavior. And when I carefully considered each of these supposedly erratic events within the context of her circumstances, her behavior became not only reasonable but even justifiable. After much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that Juana was called ‘mad’ because she defied the conventions of her time. She fought against the role thrust upon her as a woman and refused to turn over her rights to her husband. Put simply, she became a threat. And when a woman acted the way she did to protect herself, the epithet of mad was never far behind.

What is remarkable about Juana is that she and her sisters were not raised to be sovereign queens. Their mother Queen Isabel had expected her son Juan to inherit Spain, and so her daughters were educated to be queen-consorts. Juana accepted this role at first. It was only after she became Isabel’s heir that she began to question it. She had a great love for her country and wasn’t about to let the Hapsburgs— one of Europe’s most rapacious families – convert Spain into one of their vassal states. Juana was both passionate and outspoken; she was at times outrageous in her defiance, but she never gained enough support to do anything else. Had she been able to, I have no doubt that like her mother before her she would have led armies. Still, her determination to hold onto the crown she had rightfully inherited posed a threat and being labeled for all time as the queen who went mad over love is perhaps the greatest injustice perpetrated on her.

That Juana has remained relatively unknown outside of Spain speaks to the efficacy of the slander campaign set in motion to discredit her. No one has called her sister Catherine of Aragon crazy for standing up to Henry VIII! But in Juana’s case, her opponents wanted everyone to forget or dismiss her as inconsequential, and, for the most part, they succeeded. Over the centuries, few questioned the legend of the mad queen, and so Juana faded into the past, a quintessential Spanish tragedy with no bearing on history.

I was certainly very surprised to discover her importance, her humanity, and her complexity; I found an extraordinary woman of courage who is quite contemporary in her struggle to balance life and duty, love and betrayal. I hope I have done her some small justice after so many years of silence, and I hope readers will enjoy reading her story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

THE LAST QUEEN is published in hardcover by Ballantine Books and is available at bookstores. Readers can visit me at http://www.cwgortner.com. My website has a tour of Juana’s 16^th century world and special offers for book clubs. I’m happy to send a signed bookmark and bookplate, too; just write to me at cwgortner@earthlink.net.  

Thank you so much for sharing this time with me!