The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908) is a novel by Ford Madox Ford. The
third and final 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 Crowned, he continues
the story of Katharine in the aftermath of Thomas Cromwell's demise. Now
married to Henry VIII, she finds herself increasingly powerless at court
and fears angering the King. Strong willed and eminently good, Katharine
is drawn into the controversy surrounding Nicholas Throckmorton, who has
been implicated in Wyatt's Rebellion and thrown in prison. As the King
grows tired of her willpower and jealous of her relationship with
Culpeper, her time as Queen grows increasingly tenuous. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of Ford Madox Ford's The Fifth Queen Crowned is a classic work
of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
