The Queen's Mistake: In the Court of Henry VIII (Henry VIII's Court)

by Diane Haeger

Book Overview

From the author of The Secret Bride , the tragic tale of the fifth wife of Henry VIII. When the young and beautiful Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of the fifty-year-old King Henry VIII, she... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451228006
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Berkley
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 0.9" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

very good book

This was a very good book. Finished it in one day. Felt like i was there

In the shadow of Anne Boleyn...

Anne Boleyn has been the subject of many books and movies, while her young cousin, Catherine Howard's story is not as well known but is also rife with tragedy and drama. Mrs. Haeger's novel, The Queen's Mistake, chronicles the life of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. The book was an easy read, but very entertaining. To my knowledge, while no new historical facts were presented, I found the story of Catherine Howard was told with a fresh perspective in this novel. I especially liked the romanticized development of the relationship between Catherine and Thomas Culpeper, so reminiscent of young love. Although I knew the outcome of the story, I still found myself rooting for Catherine and Culpeper to be together. Mrs. Haegar has a great talent for making you feel like you're amongst the court of Henry VIII. Her descriptions of the surroundings, clothing, food, etc. are very vivid. I also enjoyed the back story involving Mary Lassells and how her envy of Catherine helped bring down the young queen's downfall. I felt very sorry for Catherine. She was so young and naive and never had the opportunity to reach her potential and come into her own. I look forward to reading more of Mrs. Haegar's books!

Very good historical novel on Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard has grown up in the country, a relatively insignificant member of an incredibly powerful family. After the death of her cousin Anne Boleyn, the Howard family fortunes fell to some extent, but in 1540, things are about to change. Catherine's uncle, the duke of Norfolk, brings her to court at age seventeen, when she is at her most beautiful, white-washing her reputation and placing her before the king. Catherine is no innocent but King Henry VIII falls in love with her, convinced that she is his rose without a thorn. When the members of her past come to court intent on blackmail, Catherine's road to tragedy is assured. This story is a familiar one for many Tudor enthusiasts, and clearly I'm no exception. I was looking forward to reading Haeger's portrayal of this young queen. Considering Catherine probably slept with a variety of men, I would think it would be difficult for her to be a sympathetic character, but Haeger makes it look easy. She creates a Catherine that readers will wish had a different ending. Despite her sexual experience, Catherine does seem innocent and naive at times, completely a pawn for her powerful uncle and the Howard family strategy to gain favor. Once she's gained the eye of the king, there is no looking back for this girl. Her downfall is indeed tragic because Haeger's Catherine wishes in every instance for something different. When she finally settles into her role as queen and begins to hope she can be good for Henry and for the country, that hope is snatched away from her by her past. While most of the third person narrative is focused on Catherine, we do occasionally get glimpses into the other characters' heads, particularly that of Thomas Culpeper. The other characters are not quite so well-defined, but each of them feel intriguing and real, and this is a Tudor world that feels largely authentic and familiar. I enjoyed the rich descriptions, especially of Catherine's dresses, and felt I could picture all of the players moving about the court, ambitions intact. The plot unfolds in a sensible way; virtually everyone who is interested in Tudor history will know that Catherine was beheaded by Henry VIII, so the book opens on the night before the execution. It then returns to the time when everything began to change for Catherine and the author can explain how she got to that point in her own way. It's very well done and the book is a pleasure to read. Perhaps my only qualm with it is that Catherine never seems bothered by the fact that she sleeps with every man who looks at her twice. She does it out of boredom, but surely she must worry about pregnancy at the very least. No one seems to lament the loss of her virginity except as it pertains to the king, which did seem strange to me since surely any other nobleman would like his wife to be a virgin, but it's only a minor part of the story. Overall, I would recommend The Queen's Mistake to Tudor enthusiasts and other fans of historical f

The Queen's Mistake by Diane Haeger

The Queen's Mistake: In the Court of Henry VIII When young and beautiful Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of fifty year old king Henry VIII, she seems to be on top of the world. Yet her reign is destined to be brief and heartbreaking, as she is forced to do battle with enemies far more powerful and calculating than she could have ever anticipated in a court where one wrong move could mean her destruction. Wanting only love, Catherine is compelled to deny her heart's desire in favor of her family's ambition. But in so doing, she unwittingly gives those who seek to bring her down a most effective weapon, her own romantic past. The Queen's Mistake is the tragic tale of one passionate and idealistic woman who struggles to negotiate the intrigues of the court and the yearnings of her own heart. excerpt taken from Diane Haeger's website. When I started reading this book, The Queen's Mistake, I was not sure if I was going to like it or not. I enjoy the Tudor era but my reading has been mostly focused on Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. I had not read many books about the other wives of Henry VIII. But as I was reading I found that even though this was another wife that " lost her head" I really sympathized with her. As with her cousin Anne, her future was pretty much all planned out for her by her greedy uncle Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk for his political aspirations. She also had a grandmother Agnes Howard, the Dowager Duchess, who aspired to the same goals as Thomas, that of seeing that there was another Howard on the throne and . Catherine is sent to be a lady-in-waiting to the court of Queen Anne of Cleves . In the meantime Henry is trying to get his marriage annulled due to the fact that their marriage was never consummated and he could not stand being married to her. Queen Anne of Cleves is portrayed as a very pleasant woman who has her language barrier and her looks going against her as far as the King is concerned. I think Catherine's biggest downfall was the fact that she was too free with her 'charms' with the men in the town she came from and she did not realize that her 'little lie" would be found out. She was not a virgin when she came to the marriage bed with Henry and he was too 'in love" to notice this little lie. I really think that she didn't really realize until too late that her past was coming back to haunt her marriage to Henry and she was torn between doing the right thing, according to her uncle and grandmother or go with her heart and the love she has for another man , Thomas Culpepper, who was a trusted person in Henry's mind. Catherine did what was expected of her and tried to make the marriage work and she stayed faithful to Henry and also suffered a couple of miscarriages. Then when she tried to save an old woman in the tower and argued with Henry about this he had the woman put to death anyway.This showed her what kind of a man Henry really was. The plot to discredit Catherine came from a vindicti

(4.5) "I am a prisoner of my past and future."

In one sentence the fate of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII is cast: "She shall do as she is told and be proud of it." Niece of the powerful Duke of Norfolk, Lord High Treasurer of England, and cousin to Anne Boleyn, Catherine's future has been decided long before she is sent to the court of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. An unacceptable match for such a monarch, Anne of Cleves is lucky to escape her union with the king with her head attached, only to be replaced by a flawed Catherine Howard. Young and passionate, Catherine rises from insignificance to unfortunate bride of an insatiable king long past his prime, Henry's hubris growing apace with is physical infirmities. Indeed, Haeger is a master of this historical terrain, using her intimate knowledge of Tudor history to create a tapestry of love and betrayal, the hopeless narrative of Henry's quest for happiness and the ambitions of those who would secure their family's power and position. This is a sympathetic portrait of a girl caught up in youthful indiscretions and a serious love affair that hinders her ability to protect herself from a hostile environment. Considered foolish and careless by many writers of historical fiction, Haeger shows considerable compassion for her protagonist and an understanding of the psyche of a young romantic with a limited world view and a lack of artifice in a dangerous court. From youth exuberance to fallen queen, without friends, Catherine turns to Jane Rochford, widow of George Boleyn, a woman struggling to assuage her own demons. Certainly, the scheming Duke of Norfolk and the Dowager Duchess, Agnes Howard, are governed by family ambitions, Catherine expected to do as other young women of the 16th century, pawns to history and the greed of their families. The enmity between the Seymour's and the Howard's continues unabated, as does the struggle between the forces of the Reformation and those who would restore the True Church. Ironically, each faction justifies their actions in God's name, implacable in their surety of the righteous path. As a pawn of her powerful uncle, Catherine has no options, sacrificed on the altar of power. Complicit in her own demise, Haeger's Catherine is a bright young woman easily distracted by romance, realizing too late the stakes of the game she plays. All is passion in Catherine's world, especially her love for one of Henry's trusted courtier's blinding her to the dangers of court intrigue. The reality is politics, Norfolk determined to unseat Thomas Cromwell, placing the Howard's once again in ascendancy. Catherine is surrounded by the agendas of others: Lady Jane Rochford's confused loyalty; Mary Lassells, privy to Catherine's dalliances before she arrives in court; Francis Dereham, trothplighted to Catherine in her youthful enthusiasm; Thomas Culpepper, hopelessly in love with the girl his king wants to marry; and Henry, a bloated, ageing king desperate to recapture his youth and avoid life's inevitable