The Spanish Princess S 1 E 1 type TV Show network Starz genre Historical Drama Tonight, The Spanish Princess debuted on Starz, bringing viewers into the political and romantic intrigue of the Tudor court. Drawn from two books by Philippa Gregory, The King’s Curse and The Constant Princess, the series blends historical fiction with historical record to tell the story of Catherine of Aragon from her point-of-view. Rather than a traditional recap, each week we’re going to bring you historical observations and musings from each episode, peeling back the pages of the history books on this lush, meticulously researched series. Yes, there have been some major changes for the sake of storytelling expediency — for instance, the boy who would become Henry VIII was only ten years old when Catherine married his brother, Prince Arthur — but he’s been aged up here to condense time (as has Catherine from 15 to 17 for that matter). With my unending lust for all things Tudor, a lust that sent me to Oxford for a Master’s degree in British History, I’m here to delve into the true history of each episode as we recap its events. This week’s episode follows Catherine as she makes her initial journey to England, first meets her future husband Prince Arthur (and another future husband, Prince Henry — oh hai, Harry). She briefly clashes with her in-laws and some culture shock before marrying Arthur at episode’s end — while walking down the aisle on Henry’s arm (which is true by the way). Here are our six historical observations from this week’s episode, The New World. 1. The Most Beautiful Creature in the World catherine-of-aragon Credit: Imagno/Getty Images With the title The Spanish Princess, you might be expecting Catherine to look more like modern conceptions of Spanish women — but in reality, she was every inch what actress Charlotte Hope lends the character — a fair-skinned, red-headed woman who possessed the coloring of her English ancestors. Catherine of Aragon was descended from John of Gaunt, and we see that in both her appearance and her bearing — this was a young woman raised knowing that her birthright was the English throne. So often, we see Catherine portrayed as a cast-off, aging, dowdy woman thrown over for the sexier, younger Anne Boleyn. But here, we see the Spanish princess who was once considered “the most beautiful creature in the world” by philosophers and courtiers in full possession of her entitlement and power. It also bears noting that Catherine technically had a stronger claim to the English throne than the King of England himself, Henry VII. They were both descendants of John of Gaunt, but Henry VII, a.k.a. Henry Tudor, came from a line of children born out of wedlock and later declared legitimate. Thus, throughout the episode, when we see Catherine putting the King in his place, talking back to her crazy new in-laws, and refusing to take any British B.S., she’s capitalizing on a legacy she would have been reminded of since birth. 2. Prince Arthur and that haircut prince-arthur Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images We know, Prince Arthur is pretty unfortunate — he’s young, he’s shy, and as his brother Henry puts it, he’s afraid of girls. But worst of all, he has the most terrible haircut ever known to man. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of history is aware Catherine will go on to marry Henry eventually, so it doesn’t hurt to make Arthur the more unappealing option here. But I am so sad to tell you that this haircut was all the rage for teenage boys in Tudor England — and Arthur genuinely rocked this tragic bowl-cut look. For that matter, so did his brother Henry for a while, but here, he gets to have some dashing red curls while his brother looks like the hapless sidekick to a villain in a Disney animated film. Arthur was perhaps not as hopeless as the show paints him to be — there’s no evidence to suggest Henry actually wrote Catherine love letters pretending to be Arthur as this episode purports. In fact, of the letters exchanged between Catherine and Arthur before their marriage, only one has survived, and it contains much of the language used here, lines about embracing and how love “may reap [its] proper fruit.” But the letters were in Latin and since the first was written when Arthur was 13, there’s a strong belief amongst historians that someone else likely wrote the letter or at least directed him on what to say. Here, it’s Henry, because what is more of a Tudor flex than writing love letters pretending to be your brother and already making moves on his betrothed? Henry VIII might not have actually done this, but you know he totally wishes he did. 3. Who run the world? Girls. When we first meet Catherine, she’s being accompanied across Spain by her mother Queen Isabella, who makes a pitstop to put down a Moorish rebellion in full battle armor. It’s no wonder with her mother as an example that Catherine never once thought she should hold her tongue — a fact we’re reminded of when she gets to England and refuses to land at the agreed upon port so she can get off the ocean as soon as possible. But Catherine’s not the only fierce woman trying to run the show here. We meet three other Tudor women in this episode — Margaret Pole, born Plantagenet, one of the last of her line after the devastation of the Wars of the Roses; Queen Elizabeth of York; and Lady Margaret Beaufort, the King’s mother. Historically, these women were every inch the powerhouses they’re depicted as here. Elizabeth of York married Henry Tudor in an alliance that ended the Wars of the Roses, uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.<doc-sep>Photo: Nick Briggs/Starz The Spanish Princess, Starz’s new costume drama about Catherine of Aragon and the young Henry VIII, is a story about love and death and revenge and betrayal and power. There are alliances between noble families. There are plagues. There are strong performances by Harriet Walter as the power-hungry grandmother Margaret Beaufort, and Laura Carmichael as the tragically marginalized aunt. There’re some half-hearted gestures toward the immense cultural complexity of the recently conquered black Muslim population of Spain that, predictably, gets very little attention. But what I really want to talk about is the hats. The hats are plentiful, meticulous, and striking. They are made from multiple combinations of textures and materials, cresting and curving into an astonishing variety of silhouettes, gracing the heads of noblewomen and petulant boy princes and soldiers. There are fur hats and linen bonnets and veils. Harriet Walter’s Beaufort wears a pointed cap with long ladderlike woven side flaps that’s so magisterial and stern that I immediately took seven screenshots and texted them to many people with the caption “look at this HAT!” There are great dresses and doublets and jackets and sleeves as well, of course — hats this good would never work so well if the rest of the looks were careless. But the hats are produced with a studied care that’s part painstaking replication (look for any of the known images of Margaret Beaufort and you’ll see what I mean) and part inspiration stemming from prodigious research. Sadly, I also came away from the first four episodes of The Spanish Princess with the sense that its hats have been crafted with more care than its characters. A few of them do spring to life with more persuasive detail than the others. Carmichael’s Maggie Pole is good, as are Walter’s Beaufort, Alexandra Moen as Queen Elizabeth, and a few very good scenes with Georgie Henley as Meg Tudor, the younger sister who’s being sent away to marry the ancient king of Scotland. The common thread of all those characters is that they’re women on the sidelines railing against their marginalized positions, desperately trying to manipulate the men around them to achieve their own goals. They often fail. But The Spanish Princess is most confident and effective in its characterizations when it’s focused on women whose battles are already lost, and who are scrabbling to regain some foothold of power. The best characters are those the show can pit against their own marginality. But in the limelight of the story, for the characters who are meant to be central, things are a bit of a drag. Catherine of Aragon herself, played capably by Charlotte Hope, can’t seem to make up her mind about what kind of person she’s going to be. She’s maybe too privileged, or maybe self-conscious of her privilege, or maybe wickedly smart, or maybe very blind to the world, or maybe sweet and honest, or maybe an inept liar — honestly it’s hard to say. When she takes a sharp turn into manipulative territory, I was legitimately unsure if it was meant to be a heel turn or a sign of her comparative naïveté. Her eventual husband-to-be, Henry VIII (Ruairi O’Connor), is similarly sketchy. The show seems to use the weight of viewers’ knowledge about who he is as a stand-in for building a character. He’s all curly red hair and smirking smile, sexual capacity and a looming petulance that doesn’t have much basis in The Spanish Princess’s writing except for some light rivalry with his gloriously dopey older brother. (The unfortunate Prince Arthur is some of the most inspired casting of the series; nothing carries Arthur’s soft, pouting immaturity better than Angus Imrie’s face framed by Arthur’s fantastically terrible haircut.) The biggest enigmas, and the biggest missed opportunities, are the two nonwhite characters in The Spanish Princess, Lina (Stephanie Levi-John) and Oviedo (Aaron Cobham). The series’s first episode sets up a brief, clunkily expositional opening about Catholics conquering the Muslim territories in Spain, with a nod to the fact that Lina, Catherine of Aragon’s head lady-in-waiting, and Oviedo, a member of her military retinue, are black Muslims who’ve converted to survive. They travel with her to England, and The Spanish Princess seemingly cannot make up its mind about whether it wants to use them to tell a story of prejudice, or ignore their race and religion entirely. It’s true that many of our most grotesque and damaging modern race theories are products of the 19th century, and wouldn’t have been active in pre-Elizabethan England. But if The Spanish Princess were attempting to make a nuanced point about the history of white privilege, I’d have to hope that Oviedo and Lina would be more thoughtfully drawn characters inside the story. Instead, they hit the same character beats over and over again: Lina has faith in Catherine and assumes Catherine will pick her a good Tudor husband, while Oviedo wisely believes they will get dumped from Catherine’s retinue the second she can’t afford to keep them. Lina’s excessive obedience feels, frankly, infantilizing, and Oviedo’s knowingness is no substitute for a thoroughly understood internal life. I hope that they get more opportunities later in the series, but in the beginning they’re used as walking talismans of Catherine’s own foreignness. This isn’t to say that The Spanish Princess isn’t worth watching. But the story of Henry VIII is one of the most familiar narratives in English history, and starting the story several years earlier than it usually begins is not enough to give the series a point of view that feels distinct from other Tudor adaptations. Catherine attempts to bring Spanish culture with her to England, but her inability to shape England into a place that looks more like her home country mirrors The Spanish Princess’s similarly incomplete transformation of the Tudor story. Try as it might, it can’t help slipping back into the story we already know, and although the result is still entertaining, it’s also less original than I might’ve hoped. The hats, though — the show’s foundations may feel a bit musty, but at least everything’s topped off with a truly lovely headpiece.<doc-sep>The NBC dance competition crowns its world champion. And “The Spanish Princess” offers a fresh take on Catherine of Aragon’s life story. What’s on TV WORLD OF DANCE 8 p.m. on NBC. On the Season 3 finale of this dance competition, judged by Jennifer Lopez, Derek Hough and Ne-Yo, five remaining dancers and groups will face off for the championship title and $1 million grand prize. The finals will feature performances from VPeepz, a hip-hop group from the Philippines; the Kings, athletic choreographers from India; the Canadian dancer and actress Briar Nolet; the sister duo Ellie and Ava; and a wild-card team or contestant (to be announced). The two-hour finale will also welcome back contestants from past seasons to perform with some of the judges.<doc-sep>SUNDAY “The Spanish Princess”: This historical drama miniseries stars Charlotte Hope as Catherine of Aragon, who traveled to England from Spain and wound up as the first wife of King Henry VIII. (8 p.m. Starz) MONDAY “Chernobyl”: A five-part miniseries drama based on the 1986 nuclear accident stars Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard and Emily Watson. (9 p.m. HBO) “Shadowhunters”: It’s the series finale. (8 p.m. Freeform) “Into the Badlands”: The martial arts adventures kicks its way to a series finale. (10 p.m. AMC) TUESDAY “Foster”: A documentary that looks at the world of foster care through the prism of cases from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. (8 p.m. HBO) “The Haves and the Have Nots”: The Tyler Perry-created drama returns for Season 6. (9 p.m. OWN) WEDNESDAY “Empire”: The series has been renewed for Season 6, but this season finale caps what has been one heck of an eventful off-camera season, thanks to Jussie Smollett’s legal issues. (8 p.m. Fox) “Lucifer”: Fox canceled this stylish series about the devil (Tom Ellis) in contemporary Los Angeles, but Netflix picked it up for Season 4. (Netflix) THURSDAY “Mom”: Allison Janney and Anna Faris end Season 6. (9 p.m. CBS) FRIDAY “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”: Yes, this show is still on, and as proof, here it is returning for new episodes. (8 p.m. ABC) “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”: The influential hip hop group is the focus of a docuseries including interviews and performance footage. (9 p.m. Showtime) “Sneaky Pete”: Giovanni Ribisi returns for Season 3 of the series about a con man who fakes being part of a family, but is scrambling to hide from his past, and to keep his secrets. (Amazon Prime Video) SATURDAY “My Dad Wrote a Porno”: A comedy special based on a popular British comedy podcast, in which Jamie Morton reads from actual “erotic” fiction written by his father, under the pen name of “Rocky Flintstone.” (10 p.m. HBO) -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.<doc-sep>
Philippa Gregory‘s historical novels The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse have been fertile sources of material for TV producers over the past several years, probably because the struggle for power in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries was so intriguing. The Spanish Princess is the third miniseries from these novels. Read on for more info on this sequel… THE SPANISH PRINCESS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: A shot of Alhambra Palace in Spain. A voice over explains that in 1501, Spain and England create an alliance whereby England’s Prince Arthur (Angus Imrie) and Spain’s Princess Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope). The Gist: Catherine is a strong young woman; when she traverses Spain’s rough terrain with her soldiers and court members, she wants to fight with her mother Queen Isabella (Alicia Borrachero) when they come upon a squadron of Moors blocking the road. Isabella, though, tells her to stay behind, as her marriage to Arthur is imperative to Spain fighting back the Muslim insurgence and staying Catholic. She consoles herself with the love letters that Arthur has written her, expressing his love and his anticipation for the moment they meet. Meanwhile, back in England, King Henry (Elliot Cowan) fumes that Catherine’s journey to England is taking so long, but he is reassured by Queen Elizabeth (Alexandra Moen) that Ferdinand and Isabella will hold up their end of the deal. When Catherine arrives, she stays at the home of Sir Richard Pole (Alan McKenna), whose chief of staff Margaret Beaufort (Harriet Walter) runs a tough ship; Catherine chafes at the customs practiced by British nobility, like once-per-week baths and the idea that her soldiers should stay in the stables. In fact, Catherine’s lady in waiting Lina de Cardonnes (Stephanie Levi-John) stands up to Beaufort on behalf of the soldiers; this attracts the attention of Oviedo (Aaron Cobham) a Muslim soldier that Lina caught praying to Allah while they were at sea. When Catherine and Arthur meet, she realizes that this isn’t the man who wrote her all of those flowery love letters; when Arthur finds out, he’s shocked and upset that someone was that intimate with her. When Catherine stays in the Tower of London before her wedding, she finds out who wrote the letters; Arthur’s brother Harry (Ruairi O’Connor), who seems to be much less of a fop than Arthur is. But, a deal is a deal, and Catherine is determined to go through with her marriage and her path to becoming Queen of England. Our Take: The Spanish Princess is a sequel to The King’s Curse and The White Princess; all three miniseries are based on Philippa Gregory’s historical novels The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse. Showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham have created a sumptuous version of 16th-century Europe, with sweeping vistas in Spain and misty dreariness in England. But this miniseries rides or dies on the strength of its lead, and Charlotte Hope is definitely up to the task. Her version of Catherine isn’t just strong; she’s confident and knows what she wants. Catherine has been told since she was a child that she’s destined to become Queen of England, so when this alliance is proposed, her determination to see it through is shown in how she sticks to her guns as far as her preferences and customs are concerned. But the first episodes shows the potential for sexy times as we see the obvious chemistry between Catherine and Harry, especially as Catherine quickly figures out who wrote those intimate letters. And there’s something going on between Lina and Oviedo that will likely spark later in the miniseries. That sexual tension carried us through the usual boring parts of any costume drama. There are other storylines that are intriguing, like the pain Maggie Pole (Laura Carmichael) has at Catherine’s presence; Catherine finds out from Queen Elizabeth exactly what Queen Isabella had to do to forge this alliance. Also, the specter of Elizabeth, who demands that Catherine sire male heirs, will be interesting to watch; England has struck this deal for their survival, so Catherine is under a lot of pressure to play along, despite the fact that she’s marrying a limp noodle in Prince Arthur. Sex and Skin: We see Catherine naked while she’s taking a bath. Catherine walks down the aisle of her wedding, muttering to herself “Daughter of Spain, wife of Prince Arthur.” She then imagines herself walking through an orange grove in sunny Spain.