Daughters of Spain - Plaidy Jean. Страница 1

About the Book

With Spain now united, Ferdinand looks to his daughters to further his ambitions. All too often, his wife Isabella finds herself torn between his brilliant plans and her love for her children.

During the last years of Isabella’s reign, the sovereigns witness as events strike at the heart of their family. Tragedy follows tragedy – the infanta Isabella a broken-hearted widow; Juana, driven to madness by her husband’s philandering; and the sorrow of parting with young Catalina, destined to become Katharine of Aragon, wife to Henry VIII and Queen of England …

Praise for Jean Plaidy

‘One of the country’s most widely read novelists’ Sunday Times

‘Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the past with such rich complexity’ Guardian

Fiction

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This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781446427132

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Published by Arrow Books in 2008

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The Estate of Eleanor Hibbert has asserted its right to have Jean Plaidy identified as the author of this work.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

First published in the United Kingdom in 1960 by Robert Hale and Company

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Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:

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The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780099513544

CONTENTS

Cover

About the Book

Title

Praise for Jean Plaidy

About the Author

Available in Arrow Books by Jean Plaidy

I: The Royal Family

II: Ximenes and Torquemada

III: The Archduchess Margaret

IV: The Marriage of Juan

V: Tragedy at Salamanca

VI: Juana and Philip

VII: The Queen of Portugal

VIII: Torquemada and the King of England

IX: Isabella Receives Christobal Colon

X: The Birth of Miguel

XI: The Court at Granada

XII: The Fate of the Moors

XIII: The Departures of Miguel and Catalina

XIV: The Wise Woman of Granada

XV: The Return of Juana

XVI: Juana the Mad

XVII: Isabella’s End

Bibliography

Praise for Jean Plaidy

‘A vivid impression of life at the Tudor Court’

Daily Telegraph

‘One of the country’s most widely read novelists’

Sunday Times

‘Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama’

New York Times

‘It is hard to better Jean Plaidy … both elegant and exciting’

Daily Mirror

‘Jean Plaidy conveys the texture of various patches of the

past with such rich complexity’ Guardian

‘Plaidy has brought the past to life’ Times Literary Supplement

‘One of our best historical novelists’ News Chronicle

‘An excellent story’ Irish Press

‘Spirited … Plaidy paints the truth as she sees it’

Birmingham Post

‘Sketched vividly and sympathetically … rewarding’

Scotsman

‘Among the foremost of current historical novelists’

Birmingham Mail

‘An accomplished novelist’ Glasgow Evening News

‘There can be no doubt of the author’s gift for storytelling’

Illustrated London News

Jean Plaidy, one of the pre-eminent authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century, is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. Jean Plaidy’s novels had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide by the time of her death in 1993.

For further information about Jean Plaidy reissues and mailing list, please visit

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Available in Arrow Books by Jean Plaidy

The Tudors

Uneasy Lies the Head

Katharine, the Virgin Widow

The Shadow of the Pomegranate

The King’s Secret Matter

Murder Most Royal

St Thomas’s Eve

The Sixth Wife

The Thistle and the Rose

Mary Queen of France

Lord Robert

Royal Road to Fotheringay

The Captive Queen of Scots

The Medici Trilogy

Madame Serpent

The Italian Woman

Queen Jezebel

The Plantagenets

The Plantagenet Prelude

The Revolt of the Eaglets

The Heart of the Lion

The Prince of Darkness

The Battle of the Queens

The Queen from Provence

The Hammer of the Scots

The Follies of the King

The French Revolution

Louis the Well-Beloved

The Road to Compiegne

Flaunting, Extravagant Queen

Isabella and Ferdinand Trilogy

Castile for Isabella

Spain for the Sovereigns

Daughters of Spain

Chapter I

THE ROYAL FAMILY

Catalina knelt on a window-seat looking out from the Palace to the purple slopes and the snowy tips of the Sierra de Guadarrama.

It would soon be Easter and the sky was cobalt, but the plain stretching out before the mountains was of a tawny bleakness.

Catalina enjoyed studying the view from the nursery window. Out there the scene always seemed a little frightening. Perhaps this was because she, who had seen bitter fighting outside Granada when she was a few years younger, was always afraid that her parents’ rebellious subjects would rise again and cause distress to her beloved mother.