The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court (1906) is a novel by Ford
Madox Ford. The first installment of Ford's The Fifth Queen Trilogy is
set during the reign of Henry VIII, a tumultuous time of political and
religious oppression in a land at the mercy of a murderous King. Ford's
trilogy recreates Tudor England in a masterful story of court intrigue,
romance, and betrayal. Focusing on the tragic figure of Katharine
Howard, the fifth wife of the King, Ford investigates the
interconnection of sex and power in a political atmosphere clouded by
violence and espionage. Depicting some of the era's most notorious
figures, including Thomas Cromwell, Bloody Mary, and the King himself,
Ford makes history both entertaining and undeniably human. Brought to
the court of King Henry VIII by her cousin Thomas Culpeper, Katharine
Howard, a noblewoman whose family's fortunes had been in decline for
some time, inadvertently catches the eye of his majesty. Given a
position as a lady in waiting for Lady Mary, Howard--though opposed by
the brutally efficient schemer Thomas Cromwell--soon distinguishes
herself in the eyes of the King, who makes her his fifth Queen. Thrust
into the spotlight at the age of seventeen, she finds herself forced
into an impossible role as a public figure whose every move could enrage
her notoriously violent husband. Howard has traditionally been seen as a
minor figure in the history of Tudor England. For Ford, however, a
master storyteller with an eye for tragedy and a skill for developing
flawed, convincingly human characters, Howard is a woman whose life and
death are not only worthy of literature, but instructive for the men and
women of Edwardian England. In The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to
Court, he introduces his readers to this largely unknown, tragic
figure, presenting her as an intelligent, confident, and morally
righteous young woman whose greatest misfortune may have been to be good
in a court controlled by self-serving, vindictive men. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of Ford Madox Ford's The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to
Court is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern
readers.
