Joanna Hickson: The Tudor Bride

I read The Agincourt Bride, the first volume of Joanna Hickson's fictional account of the life of Catherine de Valois in 2013, and was quite taken by it. Told through the eyes of Catherine's (fictional) wet nurse and lifelong companion Motte, it was a well-researched, well-written, and quite engaging account of Catherine's early life, ending with her marriage to Henry V of England. The Tudor Bride completes Catherine's story - and Motte's - with the same skill and charm.

This novel covers Catherine's brief marriage, the birth and childhood of her son Henry VI, who was only in her care for a few years before being taken into the care of the members of the young king's regency council, and the course of her romance (and likely marriage, although no documentary evidence of a marriage has survived) with Owen ap Meredydd ap Tudwr, descendant of the princes of Wales and progenitor of the Tudor dynasty. In the background of Catherine's personal life as the dowager queen, Hickson also tells the history of the resurgence of French rule in the person of the Dauphin Charles (Catherine's brother), the rise and fall of Jeanne d'Arc and the unravelling of the English claims to the throne and kingdom of France.

A sweet love story, and a solid historical novel that sets the scene for the tempestuous times of the Wars of the Roses and the Tudor dynasty that would rise from the ashes of the houses of Lancaster and York.

I understand that Hickson's next planned novel will be based on the life of Cecily Neville, the mother of the Yorkist Kings, and I am looking forward to reading it.