The Spanish Princess

The Spanish Princess is a historical drama television limited series developed by Emma Frost and Matthew Graham for Starz. Based on the novels The Constant Princess (2005) and The King's Curse (2014) by Philippa Gregory, it is a sequel to the miniseries The White Queen and The White Princess. It centres around Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope), the eponymous Spanish princess who became Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII (Ruairi O'Connor).

Designed as a 16-part limited series, the first eight episodes premiered on May 5, 2019. On June 3, 2019, Starz ordered the remaining eight episodes, which premiered on October 11, 2020. The series finale aired on November 29, 2020.

Premise
Teenaged princess Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Spanish rulers Isabella and Ferdinand, finally travels to England, to meet her husband by proxy, Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent of Henry VII of England, to whom she has been betrothed since she was a child. Unwelcomed by some, she and her diverse court, including her lady-in-waiting Lina, who is of Moorish ancestry, struggle to adapt to English customs. Catherine is horrified to learn that Arthur's younger brother, the arrogant Henry, Duke of York, is the author of the romantic correspondence she has received. When Arthur dies suddenly, her destiny as the one who will bring peace between Spain and England seems in doubt, until she sets her sights on Prince Henry.

Main

 * Sai Bennett as Princess Mary of England, later Queen of France. Isla Merrick-Lawless portrays a younger Princess Mary.
 * Alicia Borrachero as Queen Isabella of Castille
 * Andrew Buchan as Thomas More
 * Laura Carmichael as Margaret "Maggie" Pole
 * Daniel Cerqueira as De Fuensalida, the Spanish ambassador to England
 * Aaron Cobham as Oviedo, a Spanish Muslim crossbow-maker and one of Princess Catherine of Aragon's guards
 * Elliot Cowan as King Henry VII of England
 * Philip Cumbus as Thomas Wolsey
 * Antonio de la Torre as King Ferdinand II of Aragon
 * Peter Egan as General Thomas Howard
 * Alba Galocha as Queen Joanna of Castile
 * Chloe Harris as Lady Elizabeth "Bessie" Blount
 * Georgie Henley as Princess Margaret "Meg" Tudor, later Queen of Scotland
 * Charlotte Hope as Princess Catherine of Aragon, later Queen of England
 * Angus Imrie as Arthur, Prince of Wales
 * Stephanie Levi-John as Lina de Cardonnes, a Morisco lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon
 * Gordon Kennedy as John Stewart, Duke of Albany
 * Alan McKenna as Sir Richard Pole
 * Alexandra Moen as Elizabeth of York, Queen of England
 * Ruairi O'Connor as Harry, Duke of York, later King Henry VIII of England
 * Nadia Parkes as Rosa de Vargas, a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon
 * Richard Pepper as Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire
 * Jordan Renzo as Charles "Charlie" Brandon
 * Olly Rix as Edward Stafford
 * Ray Stevenson as King James IV of Scotland
 * Harriet Walter as Margaret Beaufort, the King's Mother

Recurring

 * Mamadou Doumbia as John Blanke
 * Morgan Jones as Edmund Dudley
 * Nick Barber as Edmund de la Pole
 * Mimi De Winton (part 1) and Amelia Gething (part 2) as Ursula Pole
 * Arthur Bateman (part 1) and Clark Butler (part 2) as Reggie Pole
 * Matt Carr (part 1) and Theo Ancient (part 2) as Henry Pole
 * Luke Mullins as William Compton
 * Moe Idris as Negasi
 * Mark Rowley as Alexander Stewart
 * Andrew Rothney as Angus Douglas
 * Brian Ferguson as Gavin Douglas
 * Jamie Michie as Hume
 * Alice Nokes as Anne Boleyn
 * Bessie Coates as Mary Boleyn
 * Christopher Craig as King Louis XII of France
 * Milo Callaghan as Henry Stafford
 * Thoren Ferguson as Hal Stewart
 * Billie Gadsdon as Princess Mary
 * Lewis Russell as Jamie

Guests

 * Kenneth Cranham as Bishop John Morton
 * Patrick Gibson as Richard of York
 * Luka Peroš as Christopher Columbus
 * Norman Bowman as William Dunbar
 * Philip Andrew as Philip I of Castile
 * Philip McGinley as George Neville
 * Sam John as Charles of Burgundy, later King Charles of Spain and Holy Roman Empire
 * Ian Pirie as George Douglas
 * Tessa Bonham Jones as Anne Hastings
 * Molly Vevers as Jane Stewart
 * Paul Forman as King Francis of France
 * Jimmy Walker as John Lincoln
 * Nathanael Jones as Henry Fitzroy

Development
On March 15, 2018, it was announced that Starz had greenlit the production. Emma Frost and Matthew Graham were set to serve as showrunners in addition to executive producing alongside Colin Callender, Scott Huff, Charlie Pattinson, and Charlie Hampton. Production companies All3 Media's New Pictures and Playground were expected to be involved.

On May 17, 2018, it was reported that the first two episodes would be directed by Birgitte Stærmose and that most episodes in the series would be directed by women.

On June 3, 2019, Starz announced that the series would return for another eight episodes and that Graham and Frost "always intended for The Spanish Princess to span 16 episodes, but they wrote a natural stopping place after the first eight just in case." Part two would be broadcast in 2020, with stars Charlotte Hope and Ruairi O'Connor returning to the show as Catherine and Henry, "along with other key cast." It was confirmed on June 9, 2019, by showrunner Emma Frost, that both Georgie Henley and Olly Rix, who portray Meg Tudor and Edward Stafford, would return for the next eight episodes and that Meg's role would be "huge in the back eight" and that "we are totally with her story, we're up in Scotland, we're sort of Spanish Princess meets Outlander" and that Stafford would get some "redemption." Richard Pepper's agent confirmed, on May 8, 2020, that he would return as Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire. Jordan Renzo's return as Charles Brandon was confirmed by the part two teaser trailer on May 7, 2020 and Laura Carmichael's return was confirmed in an interview done by Emma Frost and Matthew Graham; the same interview confirmed that part two would "move around from France to England to Scotland a lot more and tell three interconnected stories."

Casting
Alongside the directing announcement, it was confirmed that Charlotte Hope, Stephanie Levi-John, Angus Imrie, Harriet Walter, Laura Carmichael, Ruairi O'Connor, Georgie Henley, Elliot Cowan, Alexandra Moen, Philip Cumbus, Nadia Parkes, Aaron Cobham, Alan McKenna, Richard Pepper, Olly Rix, Jordan Renzo, Daniel Cerqueira, and Alicia Borrachero had been cast in the series.

Filming
Principal photography for the series commenced on May 15, 2018, at Wells Cathedral in Wells, Somerset.

Principal photography for part two commenced on September 26, 2019 and finished on March 11, 2020, one day before lockdown due to COVID-19. Some filming took place at Mendip Hills, which doubled for Flodden Field.

Release
On December 20, 2018, a "first look" still image from the series was released. On January 25, 2019, a teaser trailer for the series was released.

On March 7, 2019, the series was given a May 5, 2019, premiere date. On September 10, 2020, the trailer for part two was released; the eight-episode installment premiered on October 11, 2020.

Critical response
The series received mixed to positive reviews in the United States. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, part one of the series has an approval rating of 75% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7.13/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Spanish Princess blends soapy melodrama with beautifully rendered historical set-pieces to paint a rounder — if still not fully realized — portrait of an often overlooked queen." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on six critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

In Spain, the series caused curiosity upon release, but later received a combination of hard criticisms and tired indifference. It was accused of "wild historical inaccuracy", and has been described by various media as "insulting", "offensive", and "as full of stereotyping as sadly expected". The newspaper ABC wrote that it "invents and humiliates [Catherine's] history." The newspaper 20minutos and the TV guide by eldiario.es both call it "one of the worst shows about Spanish history."