MyFaireLady

1. Historical Facts, as far I can remember them:

Katherine of Aragon was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile the “Most Catholic Kings of Spain”. Kathy married Henry after her first hubby Arthur (who was also Henry’s older brother) died, although quite a few years passed between both events. I’ll write more about the historical goings-on during that time later, as they helped to shape Katherine’s character and taught her to be patient and endure.

In the meantime all I can remember off the top of my head is that after Arthur died, Katherine’s father and Henry’s father basically played tug-of-war (or maybe monkey-in-the-middle) with Katherine such that she was stuck in England–in limbo–for YEARS and had to eek out an existence as best she could until old Henry died and the lusty young Henry took her as a bride.

One of these days I’ll post more, but in the meantime if any of you history buffs want to add some info, please feel free to comment!

2. Some thoughts about my portrayal of this Queen:

Again, I’ll write more as I can, but for now I’ll say that my first challenge was to develop a suitable pattern of speech for this Spanish princess turned Queen of England.

I came up with an accent for Kathy that’s a mixture of English and “old” Spanish. I think it sounds cool, and every time I have played her, I have been approached by Spanish-speaking patrons who ask me questions in their native tongue. Oh, NO!!! (Ha! Naught to fear! Read on.)

Since I happen to have learned Spanish before I spoke a word of English, the challenge was to respond in “old” Spanish, and with a convincing Spaniard’s accent to boot! I think I pulled it off…I got hired twice…and I would STILL be Queen if that whore of a witch Boleyn hadn’t enchanted my Royal Husband’s eyes away from the Truth…to the peril of his Eternal Soul. But I don’t blame him. I will love him to the end of my days…he is bewitched, that it all…(can you say DENIAL?)

O.K., so I hope you get the idea. Katherine also has a couple of nice gowns, though I should probably do some more beading on them. I hate hand sewing…but I’ll tell you more about her gowns later, too. Right now you’ll have to be content with the pictures. They’re worth a thousand words anyway, right?

If you’re running or planning to run a Tudor festival where you plan on (like Henry) going through a sucession of Queens, I believe my portrayal of Katherine of Aragon is what you’re looking for! Of course, you’ll just have to take my word for it until you contact me and find out for yourselves!

3. Forget the intellectual gibberish! Show me the pictures!

Update 3-23-09:

Hmm…now that I’m looking at those pictures closer than I have in quite some time, I realize that they’re BOTH in various stages of “improving”–the top one still fits, but…my body has changed in the years since I first made it and it needs some strategic…changes…and the overgown in the bottom picture technically is an Elizabethan style. A few years ago, I started taking the guards off to add richer trim to that gown so that I can wear it while portraying Elizabeth…chuckle, chuckle, chuckle…Lizzie wearing Kathy’s old clothes…tee-hee!

But anyway, back to the topic at hand.  I knew that this style of overgown wasn’t the most “period” style for Katherine to be wearing at the time that I made it, but I needed to be able to wear something suitable for pregnancy since I was  portraying a pregnant Katherine for a “Human Chess Match” based on the events that took place during the Battle of Flodden.

Nobody ever commented on Katherine wearing a style of gown Anne Boleyn’s child might have worn (even though it is commonly known as a “Ropa” or SPANISH surcoat, which was going to be my retort had anyone gotten snarky with me) so I guess it worked out OK, especially since I got the next two Queen gigs as Katherine after that portrayal.

By the way, if you want to see the undersleeves and forepart of the first gown in it’s current incarnation, check out my “Tudor Madness” diary!