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'The Spanish Princess' Season 2 Episode 6: As Henry and Catherine keep clashing, who mothers their daughter Mary?

In 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold', Princess Mary finds a new caregiver within her family
PUBLISHED NOV 16, 2020
(Starz)
(Starz)

Spoilers for 'The Spanish Princess' Season 2 Episode 6 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold'

When we meet Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope) in the sixth episode of 'The Spanish Princess' in Season 2, she is busy clashing with her husband King Henry VIII (Ruairi O'connor), once again, because of yet another preposterous decision of his. This time, it's Catherine and Henry clashing over who their very young daughter Princess Mary should be betrothed to. The episode, titled 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold', sees Catherine and Henry arrive in France, where the titular event is taking place, marking a reunion of France and England by promising his daughter to the dauphin of France. His wife Catherine, on the other hand, would rather strengthen her alliance with her home country Spain, and promise Mary to Charles V. As the two continue to battle it out, it is aunt Maggie (Laura Carmichael) who steps in to actually raise Mary.

Once Henry arrives at Frace, the obvious tension becomes too hard to ignore. Charles' presence also causes Henry to reconsider his decision, especially once it is pointed out just how far Wolsey is gooing with his position, practically overstepping his bounds. As all of this continues, and Henry literally wrestles with Francis over Catherine's honor among a bunch of other ridiculous gestures, it is Maggie who ends up becoming Mar's primary caregiver - something that is straight out of the pages of history.

In real life, Maggie Tudor was quite the supportive figure towards Mary, who was later coined the moniker Blood Mary. While the actual Tudors did first betroth Mary to the French dauphin, and later to Charles V purely out of political and diplomatic vested interests, it was Maggie helping raise her in the year 150, when the aunt was officially appointed as her niece's governess for a brief period of time.   

After Henry forcibly divorced Catherine once he fell for Anne Boleyn, it was Maggie who defended the princess' legitimacy as an heir while Henry declared his own child a bastard in 1533. Like the fierce badass she has always been, Maggie refused to return the child's jewels and gold to her ruthless father either. We are not that far in the show's timeline yet, but we do get to see a glimpse of Catherine turning her favor towards the only living child she has ever birthed.

Despite her lady in waiting's earnest requests for Catherine to be happy with what she has and not pine over what she can't have the Tudor queen remained indifferent towards her own daughter simply because she wasn't a boy, and thus unable to please the king. With Bessie's child turning out to be a son, that grievance was amplified, and Catherine shunned further now that Henry had finally produced a boy. Catherine however has a turn of heart in this episode, as, towards the end, she finally shows interest in Mary's life.

Perhaps it was watching the keenness and interest Maggie took in Mary's life, or just Rosa's advice, but Catherine, for the first time ever, expresses interest in educating Mary the way a royal heir would. She goes to Henry, requesting Mary to be educated in philosophy and Latin, the way a boy would. And even though Mary is too shy to accept her own mother at first, Catherine shows a whole other side in her determination to have the little girl warm up to her own mother. 

Both aspects of this are once again out of pages of History. Royal children were often detached from their parents growing up, with others having a primary hand at their upbringing. But it was also true that Catherine did the utmost to ensure her daughter's education, with her own and her mother's qualities as a queen in mind. From comunicating regulrly with the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives to getting him commissioned to write 'De Institutione Feminae Christianae' on the education of girls - Catherine was extremely invested and History would reap the benefits of the eagerness she sowed in Mary's upbringing. But it all started with Maggie's love and affection for Mary.

'The Spanish Princess' Season 2 airs on Sundays at 8pm only on Starz.

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