The dream was always the same … the scaffold before me. I stared on in horror as the sword sliced my aunt’s head from her swan-like neck. The executioner raised her severed head into the air by its long chestnut locks. The last thing I remembered before my world turned black was my own scream.Fifteen year-old Catherine Carey has been dreaming the same dream for three years, since the bloody … since the bloody execution of her aunt Queen Anne Boleyn. Her only comfort is that she and her family are safe in Calais, away from the intrigues of Henry VIII’s court. But now Catherine has been chosen to serve Henry VIII’s new wife, Queen Anne of Cleves.
Just before she sets off for England, she learns the family secret: the true identity of her father, a man she considers to be a monster and a man she will shortly meet.
This compelling novel tells the life story of a woman who survived being close to the crown and who became one of Queen Elizabeth I’s closest confidantes.
Author Interview
What makes your historical novel Cor Rotto: A Novel of Catherine Carey special?
Cor Rotto was a novel seven years in the making. When I began researching this enigmatic woman, there were no books about her, fiction or otherwise, which is surprising because Catherine Carey is one of those women who appears in the households of several Tudor queens. She is the epitome of the perfect Tudor woman: fertile, devoted, and loyal. I think she was ignored for many years because she wasn’t your “typical” heroine. As I dug into Catherine’s life, I found an incredible story, from an eyewitness to so many amazing events in Tudor history.
Who was Catherine Carey?
Catherine’s origins are the subject of debate even today. Catherine’s mother, Mary Boleyn, had an affair with King Henry VIII long before sister, Anne Boleyn, came along…but was he Catherine’s father? We don’t know, and historians are still divided. Many years after her aunt and uncle were executed, Catherine Carey was invited to court to serve Henry VIII’s fourth queen, Anne of Cleves. She went on to serve each consecutive queen, all while building a family of 14(!) children with her husband, Francis Knollys. After the death of Edward VI, Catherine and her family fled to the Low Countries to escape the religious persecution of Mary I. They returned to England when Catherine’s cousin (or sister?), Elizabeth I, came to the throne. Catherine served Elizabeth I loyally until Catherine’s early death in 1569. Catherine’s many children went on to have very successful careers and families of their own. In fact, the current royal family can trace their ancestry back to Catherine!
Why should readers give your historical fiction novels a try?
Historical accuracy in fiction has always been important to me. That’s why I spend years researching everything that goes into my novels. I work hard to vividly recreate the people and places of Tudor England while keeping my story grounded in the historical record. The goal of each of my novels is to shine a light on the hidden or maligned figures of the royal court.
Cor Rotto ebook categories
- Historical fiction
- Historical romance
- Tudor fiction
- Historical fiction bestsellers
- Historical novel
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An Interesting Look Inside the Tudor Court from the Perspective of A Minor Player
With my lifelong fascination for all things Tudor, I am always looking for stories about peripheral historical figures of that time, that can offer a new perspective on events and people. And Cor Rotto does this well.
This story of Catherine Carey, the daughter of Queen Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary, who may also be the illegitimate child of King Henry VIII, is someone seldom mentioned in either historical novels or non-fiction accounts of the time. Catherine’s upbringing, long-term marriage to Francis Knollys, and her service to multiple royals including Anne of Cleves, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I provide the focus of this book. And it does provide readers another way to look at many of the events Tudor buffs know so well. Like the “boy King” reign of Edward VI, the persecution of Elizabeth during her sister Mary’s reign, the marriages and abdication of Mary Queen of Scots, the mysterious death of Robert Dudley’s first wife Amy, and the origins of Robert Dudley’s infatuation with Lettice Knollys, daughter of this book’s central character, who eventually becomes Dudley’s second wife.
The story of Catherine Carey herself however seemed to me to lack drama. Despite the fact that she suffered some hardship, including the deaths of several of her 16 children, I found Catherine two-dimensional and emotionally remote. Perhaps this is due in part to Dillard’s writing style, which struck me as too contemporary. I love getting totally absorbed in novels where authors are able to recapture the tone of this historical period. And in that regard, I felt Dillard’s novel fell short. What I did love is the author’s Afterword where she faithfully explains what is fact and what is conjecture in the novel, based on her own substantial research.
Cor Rotto tells the story of Catherine Carey, a woman who was the eldest daughter of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn. Very early in the novel, Catherine discovers she is the bastard daughter of Henry VIII – a fact that will shape her whole life.
Leaving her mother’s side at fifteen, Catherine goes to England to serve Anne of Cleves. Since Catherine is of noble birth, she is married at just sixteen, meeting her future husband, Francis Knollys, for the first time on the day of their wedding. It is the beginning of a loving, passionate relationship, which also results in an almost yearly pregnancy. This does not prevent Catherine from serving not only the three last queens of Henry VIII, but also – with great dedication and love – the final Tudor queen: Elizabeth I. Dillard guides the reader from Catherine’s girlhood to her death in middle age. By then, Catherine has birthed over a dozen babies and seen her older children grow into young adults taking up their own roles at the court of Elizabeth I.
The first person narration entices the reader in believing we are hearing Katherine’s voice echoing down the centuries of history. Dillard tells Catherine’s story with great empathy, building up a picture of a selfless, loving woman. Dillard’s thorough research is likewise apparent throughout her ambitious first novel. Since Catherine lived closely to her royal half siblings, she is the perfect choice for a character well able to not only observe and recount the stories of the three last Tudor monarchs, but also reveal their human faces. This novel left me emotionally moved.