royal wedding celebration

The ancient residence of King Harold of Denmark was discovered recently by archaeologists near the famous Jelling runic stones. Harold was called Harald Blåtand in Denmark, meaning dark-skinned and tan.

This king is well-loved by many Danes because he united Denmark and Norway and he converted Denmark to Christianity. Born in 911, King Harold was the son of King Gorm and his wife Thyra. Thyra was rather interested in Christianity but remained pagan.

When Gorm was defeated by the German king, Henry 1, he was forced to tolerate his Christian subjects. Harold only accepted Christianity when Denmark was finally defeated by Otto 1. Otto forced Harold to convert and Harold was baptized by a German with the strange name of Poppo. Harold must have taken to the new religion in the end because he built a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity and he built a monument which said that he converted the country to Christianity.

When his sister's Graafeld's husband,Erik Blood Axe, was assassinated, Harold took over Norway. He was slain himself in 986.

Harold was nicknamed 'Harold Bluetooth' and Ericsson's famous Bluetooth technology, which unites 'the worlds of computers and telecom' is named after him.

You can read more about Harold here: Harold Bluetooth's Royal Palace

This is a sympathetic portrayal of Catherine of Aragon who suffered so much at the hands of Henry VIII. Plaidy paints a vivid picture of the splendour of Henry's court and the life that Catherine is forced to endure after her downfall.

Catherine is depicted as proud and determined to fight for her daughter's legitimacy. She is a very loving wife and mother, and remains very fond of Henry even when he subjects her to great trials. She is, perhaps, shown as a little bit too saintly, but Plaidy does an excellent job of making the reader feel very sorry for her.

Plaidy's character analysis of Henry is also excellent. He could be kind and loving, but quickly change to being nasty. His mercurial nature must have been extremely frightening! Henry was capable of turning against people very quickly, and the fear of death became ever-present for those close to him.

Plaidy also wrote well about Wolsey, but I got a bit tired of reading about him. He wasn't a very likeable character, and I wasn't especially interested in reading about his thoughts. Plaidy probably thought that this made the story clearer, but I am not sure that it was necessary.

I enjoyed this book and thought that it was one of Plaidy's better novels. The story is depressing and the reader knows that at the start. This probably made the novel even harder to write because many readers like happy endings. This book is worth reading if you like historical novels set in Tudor times.