Jean Plaidy, página 2 de 7

La apasionate vida de Isabel de Castilla y Fernando de Aragón, los Reyes Católicos. Juntos ascendieron al trono, juntos gobernaron su glorioso imperio. Basada en hechos históricos, esta novela narra las vicisitudes de un próspero reinado, donde se yergue la figura de Isabel, una de las mujeres de más férrea voluntad que recuerda la historia. Una reina al frente del gobierno de España en unos años muy difíciles.

Una fantástica historia centrada en los primeros años de Isabel la Católica, la más extraordinaria reina de España. Su infancia y adolescencia, bajo los cuidados de una madre ambiciosa y desequilibrada, su vida en la corte de su hermano Enrique IV y, finalmente, su ascensión al trono del brazo de Fernando de Aragón. Intrigas, amores clandestinos y escándalos palaciegos se suceden en una inolvidable novela donde la realidad histórica aparece magníficamente reflejada por la pluma de la autora.

Francia, finales del siglo XVIII. Una preciosa muchacha de provincias que ejerce la prostitución en parís inicia un ascenso social imparable de la mano de su amante Jean du Barry y otros benefactores, hasta que llega a la corte de Versalles y conoce al propio Luis XV. Un retrato emocionante y fiel de una época convulsa y sangrienta.

Sinopsis: Como cada mañana, después de tomarse su chocolate caliente, Jorge preguntó de dónde soplaba el viento y anunció su intención de salir a pasear. Entró en su vestidor y murió. Jorge III, su nieto, estaba dispuesto a ser un buen monarca y a devolve

Jean PlaidyAs Henry VIII's only child, the future seemed golden for Princess Mary. She was the daughter of Henry's first queen, Katharine of Aragon, and was heir presumptive to the throne of England. Red-haired like her father, she was also intelligent and deeply religious like her staunchly Catholic mother. But her father's ill-fated love for Anne Boleyn would shatter Mary's life forever. The father who had once adored her was now intent on having a male heir at all costs. He divorced her mother and, at the age of twelve, Mary was banished from her father's presence, stripped of her royal title, and replaced by his other children--first Elizabeth, then Edward. Worst of all, she never saw her beloved mother again; Katharine was exiled too, and died soon after. Lonely and miserable, Mary turned for comfort to the religion that had sustained her mother. In a stroke of fate, however, Henry's much-longed-for son died in his teens, leaving Mary the legitimate heir to the throne. It was, she felt, a sign from God--proof that England should return to the Catholic Church. Swayed by fanatical advisors and her own religious fervor, Mary made horrific examples of those who failed to embrace the Church, earning her the immortal nickname "Bloody Mary." She was married only once, to her Spanish cousin Philip II--a loveless and childless marriage that brought her to the edge of madness. With In the Shadow of the Crown, Jean Plaidy brings to life the dark story of a queen whose road to the throne was paved with sorrow.

Dangerous court intrigue and affairs of the heart collide as renowned novelist Jean Plaidy tells the story of Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's six queens. Henry VIII's fifth wife, Katherine Howard, was both foolish and unfaithful, and she paid for it with her life. Henry vowed that his sixth wife would be different, and she was. Katherine Parr was twice widowed and thirty-one years old. A thoughtful, well-read lady, she was known at court for her unblemished reputation and her kind heart. She had hoped to marry for love and had set her heart on Thomas Seymour, the dashing brother of Henry's third queen. But the aging king—more in need of a nurse than a wife—was drawn to her, and Katherine could not refuse his proposal of marriage. Queen Katherine was able to soothe the King's notorious temper, and his three children grew fond of her, the only mother they had ever really known. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a volatile tyrant, books were Katherine's consolation. But among her intellectual pursuits was an interest in Lutheranism—a religion that the king saw as a threat to his supremacy as head of the new Church of England. Courtiers envious of the Queen's influence over Henry sought to destroy her by linking her with the "radical" religious reformers. Henry raged that Katherine had betrayed him, and had a warrant drawn up for her arrest and imprisonment. At court it was whispered that the king would soon execute yet another wife. Henry's sixth wife would have to rely on her wits to survive where two other women had perished. . . .

For the first time in paperback—all three of Jean Plaidy's Katharine of Aragon novels in one volume. Legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy begins her tales of Henry VIII's queens with the story of his first wife, the Spanish princess Katharine of Aragon. As a teenager, Katharine leaves her beloved Spain, land of olive groves and soaring cathedrals, for the drab, rainy island of England. There she is married to the king's eldest son, Arthur, a sickly boy who dies six months after the wedding. Katharine is left a widow who was never truly a wife, lonely in a strange land, with a very bleak future. Her only hope of escape is to marry the king's second son, Prince Henry, now heir to the throne. Tall, athletic, handsome, a lover of poetry and music, Henry is all that Katharine could want in a husband. But their first son dies and, after many more pregnancies, only one child survives, a daughter. Disappointed by his lack of an heir, Henry's eye wanders, and he becomes enamored of another woman—a country nobleman's daughter named Anne Boleyn. When Henry begins searching for ways to put aside his loyal first wife, Katharine must fight to remain Queen of England and to keep the husband she once loved so dearly.

Las hijas de España narra los últimos años del reinado de Isabel. Es entonces cuando la desgracia golpea sin piedad la casa real. La gente pregunta si no es una maldición que se cierne sobre los reyes y su descendencia. Allí están esas hijas: Isabel, la viuda trágica; Juana, cuya locura parece aumentar con las infidelidades de su hermoso marido; la suave María y, por fin, Catalina que debe abandonar todo lo que ama, a su familia y a España, para convertirse en Catalina de Aragón, reina de Inglaterra y primera esposa del fascinante Enrique VIII.

El 24 de agosto de 1572 Catalina de Médici alentó los sucesos de la noche de San Bartolomé, cuando miles de hugonotes murieron a manos de católicos enloquecidos. Fue su crimen más horrendo y el principio del fin de su reinado. Catalina, a pesar de su enorme impopularidad, siguio gobernando, entre otras razones, porque consiguio dominar a sus debiles hijos. La reina Jezabel es el ultimo libro de la trilogia de la autora sobre Catalina de Medici.