The Spanish Princess Review: The Field of Cloth of Gold (Season 2 Episode 6)

With only three episodes left in the series, The Spanish Princess Season 2, Episode 6, “The Field of Cloth of Gold,” begins to lay the groundwork for how the show will ultimately frame Catherine of Aragon’s legacy. 

To the surprise of no one, it does not appear that this is a version of the former English queen who will go gently into that good night. Her insistence on obtaining mercy for the men convicted of breaking the king’s peace is proof enough of that.

Here, instead, in this episode, she re-embraces the two linchpins that will define the end of her life and reign — her devotion to her daughter, Mary, and her love of her God. 

The fact that The Spanish Princess has generally depicted Catherine as a disinterested mother to Princess Mary, more upset by the fact of her daughter’s gender than overjoyed by the fact that she had a living child that thrives, has really bugged me for the past few installments.

The real Catherine, after all, was a tiger in defense of her daughter and her rights, and clearly loved her above all things. 

But, after the genuinely fantastic sequence in which Nadia Parkes returns for an episode as Catherine’s former lady in waiting, Rosa de Vargas, to give her the emotional guidance she so desperately needs. I’m kind of okay with it.

>There’s something that is both grounding and inspiring about Rosa’s speech to the friend she has seen in a decade — a reminder of who Catherine truly is, the things she believes in, and the lineage she shares with generations of strong, accomplished women.
One which her own daughter is now part of. 

As Rosa encourages Catherine to not only allow herself to love her daughter for who she is — not who she might have been –  but to embrace her as another entry in the long line of warrior queens their family is famous for, the change in the queen is palpable. 

She isn’t just Henry Tudor’s daughter, after all. She’s the granddaughter of Queen Isabella of Castille and the descendent of all the women who came before her. She is Catherine’s legacy. 

After years of being emotionally beaten down and blamed by the man she married, how powerful must it have been for someone to remind her that Mary has worth, that she, Catherine, has worth, that is perfectly formed within themselves, and that doesn’t need Henry’s blessing or permission to embrace it.

Charlotte Hope truly does not get enough credit for the incredible subtlety of her work in this role. Her Catherine, now growing older and beginning to accept that she will likely never have the son Henry so longs for, experiences a riot of intensely complex emotions, simultaneously, in virtually every scene she is in.

Whether it’s watching her husband play with his illegitimate son and clearly thinking of the prince she has yet to provide him, or looking at Lina and seeing her pregnant again as she herself struggles, or recognizing the fear and anger she feels toward Meg, who’s pushing herself toward ruin in her attempt to find a way get rid of the husband she no longer wants, Hope’s face conveys so much more than the script allows Catherine to say.

Her complicated feelings about Meg’s marriage both underscore how truly she felt that marriage was an unbreakable act of God and foreshadow how fiercely she will fight to keep Henry from dissolving their union so that he might take another wife in just a few short years.

This episode sees the English court head to France for a famous summit with King Francis I known as the Field of Cloth of Gold. So named because of its lavish accouterments and tremendous expense, the event was ostensibly meant to affirm the new friendship between Henry and Francis I of France.

In actuality, it was a sort of a competition to see which of them could outspend the other, and the event turned into what was essentially an eighteen-day party complete with tournaments, fireworks, masks, and elaborate makeshift palaces.

There was even an extremely elaborate dragon-esque kite that literally breathed fire. Talk about extra!

This episode does a great job of continuing this season’s subtle chronicle of Henry’s descent into tyranny and rampant misogyny. The offhand remarks about how women are at fault for men’s sins, the insistence that Catherine — and everyone else — must be obedient to his will, first and foremost, and his utter inability to stand anyone being seen as potentially eclipsing him for any reason are all warning signs of the man he will become.

Sure, he finally forgives his best friend and sister for marrying one another — years after the fact — but not before they pay him a tremendous amount of money and grovel excessively for the privilege. 

He is being depicted as increasingly petty and cruel and, unfortunately, these are traits that will only get worse in the season’s final episodes. 

And that wild burst of hope you get when you realize that Catherine is pregnant again is perhaps the last time we’re going to feel that way for a while.

But at least we know this Catherine is a woman that won’t go down without a fight.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• The real Catherine of Aragon had many children — historians estimate somewhere between six and ten. Only two lived past birth, Prince Henry and Princess Mary, and only the latter made it out of infancy. (Little Henry, as we saw in The Spanish Princess Season 2 premiere, died when he was just 52 days old.) She suffered miscarriages, stillbirths, and even a false pregnancy over the years, and her final pregnancy was in 1518. In November of that year, she gave premature birth to another stillborn girl. By 1524, Catherine was no longer menstruating, Henry had stopped sharing her bed and turned his attentions to one Anne Boleyn. 
• Speaking of Anne Boleyn, there is every possibility that she herself was also present at the Field of Cloth of Gold, in the train of the French queen, Claude. 
• The story of Meg’s marriage — and her on-again/off-again relationship with the Earl of Angus — is honestly complex enough that it could power its own series, easy.
• This episode desperately makes me want to see a series about the young Princess Mary’s difficult road to the throne from Emma Frost and Matthew Graham. It feels like they would really get her.

What did you think of this episode of The Spanish Princess? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Spanish Princess airs Sundays at 8/7c on Starz.

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