C. W. Gortner

A fictional portrait of the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit the throne chronicles the troubled and turbulent life of Juana of Castile, daughter of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand, as she becomes caught up in the struggle for control of the throne o

A Novel

The Last Queen

Judy Hudgins

Recommended by a friend who is a great lover of all queens historically, I have to admit I started this book not nothing a thing about Isabella, her children, and especially the next queen of Spain, Juana. A very good read it was, keeping me up past my bedtime a couple of nights to see just what was going on in her life. The final outcome of the book....we've come a long way baby! The "mad" queen, Juana spent her life trying to survive the men in her life. Between her husband who had aspirations to her throne and her father who also wanted the throne, archbishops who wanted to rule in her place, no wonder everyone thought the poor woman was crazy. 

It is surprising how, despite her legitimate right to the throne of Spain, she had absolutely no power over herself; no military to defend her position and spent most of her life shut away from the rest of the world. We think we, as women, are still second class citizens, here was a queen who wasn't even that.

Sarah Roberts

Mary Baldwin

Sarah Campbell

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 of Flanders, 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. From the Hardcover edition.

The Last Queen A Novel

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