The Shadow of the Pomegranate
Read The Shadow of the Pomegranate Online
Authors: Jean Plaidy
Whilst the young King Henry VIII basks in the pageants and games of his glittering court, his doting queen’s health and fortunes fade. Henry’s affection for his older wife soon strays, and the neglected Katharine decides to use her power as queen to dangerous foreign advantage.
Overseas battles play on Henry’s volatile temper, and his defeat in France has changed the good-natured boy Katherine loved into an infamously callous ruler. With no legitimate heir yet born, Katharine once again begins to fear for her future…
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting’
Obsever
‘Jean Plaidy, by the skilful blending of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to authenticity of detail and depth of charaterization has become one of the country’s most widely read novelists.’
Sunday Times
Arrow Books
ISBN 0099493152
Fiction
£6.99
www.randomhouse.co.uk
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781446411575
Published by Arrow Books in 2006
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Copyright © Jean Plaidy, 1962
Initial lettering copyright © Stephen Raw, 2005
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 1962 by Robert Hale Ltd
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099493150 (from Jan 2007)
ISBN 0 09 949315 2
ContentsFurther titles available in Arrow by Jean Plaidy
III: The Secret Life of Thomas Wolsey
XIII: A Venetian Embassy and a Cardinal’s Hat
Praise for Jean Plaidy
‘A vivid impression of life at the Tudor Court’
Daily Telegraph
‘It is hard to better Jean Plaidy . . . both elegant and exciting’
Daily Mirror
‘Outstanding’
Vanity Fair
‘One of our best historical novelists’
News Chronicle
‘An excellent story’
Irish Press
‘Spirited . . . Plaidy paints the truth as she sees it’
Birmingham Post
‘An enthralling story of a grim period of history, told with rare skill’
Aberdeen Press and Journal
‘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 has once again brought characters and background vividly to life’
Everywoman
‘Well up to standard . . . fascinating’
Manchester Evening News
‘Exciting and intelligent’
Truth Magazine
‘No frills and plenty of excitement’
Yorkshire Post
‘Meticulous attention to historical detail’
South Wales Argus
‘Colourful . . . imaginative and exciting’
Northern Daily Telegraph
‘Effective and readable’
Sphere
‘A vivid picture of the crude and vigorous London of those days’ Laurence Meynell
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.
Further titles available in Arrow 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
Gay 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 French Revolution
Louis the Well-Beloved
The Road to Compiègne
Flaunting, Extravagant
Queen
The Queen of Diamonds
Chapter I‘SIR LOYAL HEART’I
n the royal bedchamber at the Palace of Richmond the Queen of England lay alone. ‘She should rest now,’ the doctors said. ‘Leave her to sleep.’
Yet, tired as she was, Queen Katharine, who was known to the people as Katharine of Aragon although it was ten years since she had left her native land to come to England, had no desire to sleep. It was long since she had known such happiness. She had come through humiliation to enjoy the greatest esteem; she who had once been neglected was now courted and treated with great respect. There was no woman in England who was accorded more homage than the Queen. During the month just past she had celebrated her twenty-fifth birthday; she was reckoned to be handsome and, when she was dressed in her jewelled garments and her lovely hair with its tints of reddish gold fell loose about her shoulders, the looks of admiration which were bestowed upon her were those given to a beautiful woman, whether she were Queen or beggarmaid.