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124 Book Reviews
of the chapters by Jenny C. Mann and Catherine Bate, but the topic emerges again
and again throughout the whole book. By presenting different perspectives, Ovid and
Masculinity in English Renaissance Literature offers a multifaced and complex account of
a kind of masculinity that is as metamorphic as Ovid’s most influential poem, but that
so far has received considerably less scholarly attention.

University College London Massimiliano Riviera

Theresa Earenfight, Catherine of Aragon Infanta of Spain, Queen of England.

Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021. 266 pp. $34.95.
ISBN: 978-­0-­271-­09164-­8 (hb).

C atherine of Aragon was born on 16 December 1485, and was the last child of
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Centuries later, her sad fate inspires
writers and filmmakers. Unfortunately, the predominant scholarship that exists today
is intended for general audiences, and often lack detailed citation. This book, unlike
many previous studies, is not a novel and does not contain fictitious or dubious facts.
Theresa Earenfight’s accessible work is the first attempt in a long time at detailed
research, during which the author tried to discover reliable and valuable new facts
about the life of Catherine. The book comprises seven chapters, maps, footnotes and
a bibliography. The author begins the narrative with the pair of fancy chapine shoes
Catherine took to England. It is unusual to start the conversation with a piece of cloth-
ing that belonged to the Spanish princess instead of detailing her personality, but these
shoes and the way Catherine experienced them offer compelling and new insights
into her life and character. From here, the first chapter reviews the latest research on
Catherine, offers a description of her childhood, details new historical data testifying
to Catherine’s unusual appearance, and her image in the visual arts.
The second chapter explores Catherine’s life before her marriage. She spent her
entire childhood travelling with her parents and this had a great impact on how she
understood the world. Catherine’s parents represented one of the strongest unions in
Europe, and most European royal houses wanted to be related to the powerful cou-
ple. Catherine was promised to the English Arthur, Prince of Wales and son of Henry
VII. Since Henry came to power during the bloody War of the Roses, his position on
the throne was rather shaky, and he needed to strengthen the dynasty’s rights to the
throne. Therefore, the union of the young heir of the Tudor dynasty with a represen-
tative of the powerful dynasty of Trastamara was beneficial to the English.
On 2 October 1501, the Spanish ships with Catherine and her large retinue reached
Plymouth. In the third chapter, Earenfight examines Catherine’s arrival in England,
starting with Plymouth and ending with her solemn entry into London. From her
arrival in England, Catherine experienced a series of sad events, the first being the
death of her husband, Arthur, on 2 April 1502. Their short-­lived family life still gen-
erates many questions, arguments and speculation about whether their marriage was
consummated, debates that played a central role in her divorce.
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Book Reviews 125
The fourth chapter is devoted to Catherine’s marriage to Henry. As the author cor-
rectly notes, the marriage with Henry was another fateful event in Catherine’s life.
In the early years of the marriage, Catherine was the principal adviser to the king;
however, her inability to give the king an heir alienated Henry from her. The conversa-
tion moves smoothly from the life of a married woman to the next chapter, where the
author studies the rupture of their union. In these chapters, Earenfight emphasizes
how Catherine steadfastly accepted her fate. It is noteworthy that the author refers
to portraiture in the 1520s, which created the defining image of Catherine. Special
emphasis is placed on the fact that the divorce process and political games at court
did not change Catherine –­she remained a modest and faithful wife of the king, as
well as a caring mother, who paid special attention to Mary’s education. While this
image of Catherine is well-­known to scholars of the Tudor Court, few of Catherine’s
personal letters survive and Earenfight draws from new evidence, expertly tracing this
story through the material objects that Catherine left behind. Among these items are
chapine shoes and embroidered textiles from the collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum.
Chapter 6 addresses the life of Catherine after her divorce. By order of Henry,
Catherine was to be addressed as the Dowager Princess of Wales, which identified her
as the widow of Prince Arthur. Henry also prevented Catherine from communicating
with their daughter, Mary. Despite the circumstances, Catherine had loyal supporters
who protected her. Earenfight does not show Catherine as a sufferer and Henry’s first
victim-­wife, as is usually shown in studies, but instead seeks to rehabilitate her image
in history; in this chapter, Catherine is pictured as a proud and honest woman, similar
to the image of a Christian woman formed in the works of Luis de León and Juan
Luis Velez. She also appears as an ordinary person who worries about herself and her
daughter.
The final chapter sums up the useful and valuable research that went into this
study by once again reviewing Catherine’s life, and again turning the conversation
towards the fancy shoes that she brought to England. This book brings together dif-
ferent aspects of Catherine of Aragon’s life in the context of the political realities of
England in the first half of the sixteenth century. The author draws from an impressive
range of archival materials to report many interesting and little-­known (even com-
pletely unknown) facts. Books have described her life from different angles: from the
context of the king’s divorce, to her status as the first of Henry VIII’s six wives, as a
Spanish princess and daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, as the sister of Juana the
Mad, and so on. This feminist biography offers a valuable reappraisal of Catherine: by
tracing her life through the inventories of things that she owned and other archival
material, including lesser-­known Spanish sources, Earenfight paints a richer account
of Catherine the princess, widow, queen, wife, mother, patron and woman than previ-
ously presented.

Moscow State University Liya Okroshidze