The Fifth Queen
Encyclopedia
The Fifth Queen trilogy
is a series of connected historical novel
s by English
novelist Ford Madox Ford
. It consists of three novels, The Fifth Queen; And How She Came to Court (1906), Privy Seal (1907) and The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908), which present a highly fictionalized account of Katharine Howard's arrival at the Court of Henry VIII, her eventual marriage to the king and her death.
. By accident, she comes to the attention of the king, in a minor way at first, is helped to a position as a lady in waiting
for the then bastard
Mary I of England
, Henry's eldest daughter, by her old Latin tutor Nicholas Udal. Udal is a spy for Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal
.
As Katharine becomes involved with the many calculating, competing, and spying members of Henry VIII's Court, she gradually rises, almost against her will, in Court. She is brought more to the attention of the King, becomes involved with him, is used by Cromwell, Bishop Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer
as well as the less powerful though more personally attached Nicholas Throckmorton
.
Katharine's forthrightness, devotion to the Old Faith and learning are what make her attractive to the King, along with her youth and physical beauty. This is in direct contradiction to the way historians view the historical personage herself; that is, as a flighty and flirtatious young woman with few other redeeming qualities.
Gass goes on to say that Ford "habitually goes beyond the evidence, oversteps the bounds of probability, and invents occasions, speeches, feelings, thoughts, and scenes, which no doubt never were nor could have been, simply to enliven his narrative and entertain, rather than instruct, his readers."
, Alan Judd
and William Gass -- to be its impressionistic qualities, its creation of a believable approximation of Tudor English and its successful creation of atmosphere.
"The style of this novel cannot be escaped, and readers who prefer their literature to be invisibly literary should shun it."
Graham Greene has written that "in The Fifth Queen Ford tries out the impressionist method...The whole story of the struggle between Katharine and Cromwell for the King seems told in shadows -- shadows which flicker with the flames of a log-fire, diminish suddenly as a torch recedes, stand calm awhile in the candlelight of a chapel: a cresset flares and all the shadows leap together. Has a novel ever before been lit as carefully as a stage production?"
Alan Judd, in his 1991 biography of the author, states that "He creates a version of Tudor English that is not only effective but does not in any way hinder the sense of reality. This is a considerable achievement; the use of a dated form of one's own language always sounds the contrivance it is, unconvincing, artificial and slow. In order to work it needs to sound natural and in order for that to happen the author needs to have created a world or an atmosphere in the context of which it can be natural...The result in The Fifth Queen is vigorous and convincing, sometimes compressed poetic speech."
"The whole book has the atmosphere and particularity of film. It is set in static scenes and drenched in suggestions of power, fear, sex, longing, guile and fate."
Greene concludes: "It seems likely that, when time has ceased its dreary work of erosion, Ford Madox Ford will be remembered for three great novels [The Fifth Queen trilogy, The Good Soldier
, and Parade's End
], a little scarred, stained here and there and chipped perhaps, but how massive and resistant compared with most of the work of his successors."
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
is a series of connected historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s by English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
. It consists of three novels, The Fifth Queen; And How She Came to Court (1906), Privy Seal (1907) and The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908), which present a highly fictionalized account of Katharine Howard's arrival at the Court of Henry VIII, her eventual marriage to the king and her death.
Plot summary
The Fifth Queen trilogy has an omniscient narrator. Katharine Howard is introduced in the first book as a devout Roman Catholic, impoverished, young noblewoman escorted by her fiery cousin Thomas CulpeperThomas Culpeper
Sir Thomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, to the south of Maidstone in Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a...
. By accident, she comes to the attention of the king, in a minor way at first, is helped to a position as a lady in waiting
Lady in Waiting
Lady in Waiting is the 2nd album by American southern rock band Outlaws, released in 1976. -Track listing:#"Breaker-Breaker" – 2:59#"South Carolina" – 3:05#"Ain't So Bad" – 3:48...
for the then bastard
Bastard
Bastard may refer to:* A child whose birth lacks legal legitimacy—that is, one born to a woman and a man who are not legally married* Bastard , illegitimacy in English law* Bastard , a blackletter typeface...
Mary I of England
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
, Henry's eldest daughter, by her old Latin tutor Nicholas Udal. Udal is a spy for Thomas Cromwell, the Lord Privy Seal
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
.
As Katharine becomes involved with the many calculating, competing, and spying members of Henry VIII's Court, she gradually rises, almost against her will, in Court. She is brought more to the attention of the King, becomes involved with him, is used by Cromwell, Bishop Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
as well as the less powerful though more personally attached Nicholas Throckmorton
Nicholas Throckmorton
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was an English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.-Early years:...
.
Katharine's forthrightness, devotion to the Old Faith and learning are what make her attractive to the King, along with her youth and physical beauty. This is in direct contradiction to the way historians view the historical personage herself; that is, as a flighty and flirtatious young woman with few other redeeming qualities.
Historical accuracy and as a work of historical fiction
"History, that great fictitioner, surely did not create the honest, stubborn, beautiful, and saintly Katharine Howard, so richly realized she might have had some other life outside imagination, yet so near perfection we could not wish for her a lesser world to drag a dress in", so says William Gass in the afterword to a 1986 edition of the novels.Gass goes on to say that Ford "habitually goes beyond the evidence, oversteps the bounds of probability, and invents occasions, speeches, feelings, thoughts, and scenes, which no doubt never were nor could have been, simply to enliven his narrative and entertain, rather than instruct, his readers."
Style
The main strengths of this trilogy are considered by many writer admirers and critics -- notably Graham GreeneGraham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, Alan Judd
Alan Judd
Alan Judd aka Alan Petty is a former soldier and diplomat who now works as a security analyst and writer in the United Kingdom. He writes both books and articles, regularly contributing to a number of publications, including The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator...
and William Gass -- to be its impressionistic qualities, its creation of a believable approximation of Tudor English and its successful creation of atmosphere.
"The style of this novel cannot be escaped, and readers who prefer their literature to be invisibly literary should shun it."
Graham Greene has written that "in The Fifth Queen Ford tries out the impressionist method...The whole story of the struggle between Katharine and Cromwell for the King seems told in shadows -- shadows which flicker with the flames of a log-fire, diminish suddenly as a torch recedes, stand calm awhile in the candlelight of a chapel: a cresset flares and all the shadows leap together. Has a novel ever before been lit as carefully as a stage production?"
Alan Judd, in his 1991 biography of the author, states that "He creates a version of Tudor English that is not only effective but does not in any way hinder the sense of reality. This is a considerable achievement; the use of a dated form of one's own language always sounds the contrivance it is, unconvincing, artificial and slow. In order to work it needs to sound natural and in order for that to happen the author needs to have created a world or an atmosphere in the context of which it can be natural...The result in The Fifth Queen is vigorous and convincing, sometimes compressed poetic speech."
Cinematic qualities
"The Fifth Queen, then, is like Eisenstein's Ivan: slow, intense, pictorial, and operatic. Plot is both its subject and its method. Execution is its upshot and its art.""The whole book has the atmosphere and particularity of film. It is set in static scenes and drenched in suggestions of power, fear, sex, longing, guile and fate."
Critical assessment of achievement
For Judd, "This is the first of Ford's books of which one can say with reasonable confidence that, if he had written nothing else, it would still have a good chance of being in print today. Is it a masterpiece? Yes, of its kind -- [as a distinctive example of the genre of historical fiction]."Greene concludes: "It seems likely that, when time has ceased its dreary work of erosion, Ford Madox Ford will be remembered for three great novels [The Fifth Queen trilogy, The Good Soldier
The Good Soldier
The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers, and his own seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends...
, and Parade's End
Parade's End
Parade's End is a tetralogy by Ford Madox Ford published between 1924 and 1928. It is set mainly in England and on the Western Front in World War I, where Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment, a life vividly depicted in the novels.In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Parade's End 57th on...
], a little scarred, stained here and there and chipped perhaps, but how massive and resistant compared with most of the work of his successors."
Collected Editions
- The Bodley Head Ford Madox Ford: Vol. 2: The Fifth Queen; Privy Seal; The Fifth Queen Crowned (1962) eds. Graham Greene and Michael Killgrew, London: Bodley Head.
- The Fifth Queen (1963) With an Introduction by Graham Greene, New York: The Vanguard Press.
- The Fifth Queen (1986) With an Afterword by William Gass, New York: The Ecco Press.
- The Fifth Queen (1999) With an Introduction by A.S. Byatt, London: Penguin.