Why ‘The Spanish Princess’ Is Exactly the Kind of Period Drama We Need More Of
On paper, Starz’s lavish’s period drama The Spanish Princess feels like something you’ve probably seen before.
A Tudor-era historical story with lots of gorgeous costumes, dramatic romances, and Game of Thrones-style court politics, it’s firmly part of a genre of shows we generally view as fluffy escapism, with little of substance to say.
Sometimes, it’s really nice to be wrong.
The third installment in Starz’s saga of the women who formed and shaped England, The Spanish Princess follows The White Queen and White Princess, which establish the Plantagenet and Tudor family history that would give rise to King Henry VIII’s infamous reign.
On The Spanish Princess, it arrives — just not quite the way you probably expected it to. (And that’s precisely why the show’s so great.)
Far too often history remembers King Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, as an old frump, the devoutly religious, dowdy queen who exists solely to be replaced by the boundary-pushing Anne Boleyn. (Before she, in turn, fell out of favor and had her head cut off. But that’s another show.)
Thankfully, The Spanish Princess isn’t that story.
Instead, this is a period drama that focuses on the rest of Catherine’s life — the part that takes place in the three decades before Anne arrives on the scene — that still impacts English history in a way that few acknowledge today. This is a show that reimagines our understanding of both who this woman was and the time period she inhabited.
This version of Catherine of Aragon isn’t a retiring flower. She’s a princess of Spain, who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to say so. Repeatedly.
Daughter of two of the most powerful monarchs in Europe — Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon — she’s learned the art of politics and statecraft from two of the very best that ever lived.
She’s brave, opinionated, and knows her own worth — and her decision to fight for the crown of England, to make a life for herself in a county she’s been raised from birth to think of as her destiny, is not forced upon her. Instead, these are her own distinct choices.
And in this version of the story, Catherine is finally positioned as the hero we should root for, rather than a woman we’re just waiting to see move out of the way.
Her road to the crown is paved with more than her fair share of troubles — the death of her first husband, Prince Arthur, years spent in poverty and limbo in which she is not permitted to live a life of her choosing in England or to return to Spain.
And though she and Henry do spend many happy years together, her struggles to produce a male heir for the crown — along with multiple miscarriages and stillbirths — ultimately come to dominate the story of her life.
In Season 1 of the Starz drama, however, Catherine’s story is entirely her own. Bolstered by a smart, diverse squad of ladies in waiting, the series’ first season rarely focuses on Henry. And that’s a good thing.
Instead, it does its best to deepen and personalize our understanding of this woman, who would ultimately be seen as a footnote in a much larger story.
The true magic of The Spanish Princess — and the thing that sets it apart from other costume romances that look like it — is its willingness to tell stories about those who are traditionally ignored in this genre.
The series explores Catherine’s early life in an in-depth way and doesn’t shy away from showing us her ambition, desire for power in her own right, and willingness to make difficult choices to get what she wants.
In this series, she’s definitely a woman that would lie about whether her first marriage was consummated or not in order to secure her second, even if it means carrying the weight of that choice for the rest of her life.
Furthermore, her court is full of native Spanish speakers and Moorish attendants, a diverse mix of voices and ethnicities that reflects the true history of the times. Catherine herself has a pronounced Spanish accent, as do most of those closest to her.
And the inclusion of a sweet romance between her confidant and chief attendant, Lina, and the soldier, Oviedo, reflects the realities of Tudor England at the time, in which Black people did live and thrive.
In short: This is not your average period drama tale.
As the series heads into its second and final season this Fall, the highest peaks and lowest valleys of Catherine’s life still await.
She will be crowned Queen of England in her own right, next to a man that loves her. She will take to the field of battle in her husband’s absence, and lead an army while seven months pregnant, in full armor. She will have a daughter she adores.
But she will also suffer terribly, losing an infant son just weeks after his birth, and experiencing many miscarriages in the years that follow. Henry will blame her for her failure to produce a male heir, even as he flaunts his (many) extramarital affairs in her face.
She will eventually be put aside for a woman named Anne, and Henry will break the world as he knows it for her. She will die put aside and abandoned and far from her daughter.
Yet The Spanish Princess will finally tell that story — with all its tragedies and triumphs — on Catherine’s terms. And that is what makes all the difference.
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Will you be checking out The Spanish Princess? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
The Spanish Princess Part 1 is available on Starz, and Part 2 premieres on Sunday, October 11 on Starz.
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.