‘The Spanish Princess’: Did Catherine of Aragon Really Ride Pregnant into Battle?

The Spanish Princess Season 2 Episode 2 “Flodden” took viewers back to Catherine of Aragon’s (Charlotte Hope) most triumphant moment as the regent of England. While her husband, the king, Henry VIII (Ruairi O’Connor) was in Europe attempting to win a war against France without Spain’s help, Catherine had to deal with the threat of Scottish invasion from the north. Undaunted, the pregnant Catherine rallies her troops by riding north in full battle armor and leading the charge at the Battle of Flodden.

But did this really happen? Did Catherine of Aragon really don armor as an expectant mother-to-be? And did she fight at Flodden? The answer is yes and no. While Catherine did in fact rally her troops in full battle armor — and while visibly pregnant — she was not present at the Battle of Flodden. She heard about it later, at one of her many palaces. The Spanish Princess showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham had a good answer for why they fudged history in a major way in last night’s episode.

“It’s a TV show — there’s no way we’re taking our protagonist to the very edge of the battle and then just have her sit there and watch it,” Matthew Graham told Decider before noting they were careful not to suddenly turn the monarch into “Wonder Woman.”

“She doesn’t go in and start hacking around. She gallops through, which is great. I feel that’s incredible. But it’s not like she’s ninja-ing them off and doing all that stuff,” Graham said.

Emma Frost added, “And I think it’s a character point as well. I think the mere fact that she had armor made when she was heavily pregnant, she rode north to give this speech to the troops. If you then follow that up, in a drama, with a scene where she sits on her horse and does nothing — you’re appearing to say a particular thing about that character that is the opposite of what all of those actions that preceded that meant about her at the time.”

“She defied gender. She absolutely risked herself. She was completely dedicated to the king, and to her country, and trying to stop this invasion. So in modern parlance, I think you have to go to the end of the line with that. Otherwise you appear to be saying in the end, ‘Oh, but actually, she was scared’ or ‘Oh, but actually, she was passive,'” Frost said. “Well, she wasn’t.”

Catherine’s big battle moment also gave Spanish Princess star Charlotte Hope a chance not to be passive. She got to be out of the corsets and hoop skirts and in the mud with the troops!

“Leading up to it, I was really worried,” Hope confessed to Decider. “I was training in the gym and going on runs in the rain trying to prep for it. But actually, once I got to it, I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. I felt so badass in that armor.”

Hope added that the scene allowed her a respite from a lot of the more somber scenes she had to play in The Spanish Princess Season 2. “It was so fun to get to do something really action-y because I had spent a lot of time crying. Just to be completely raw and angry and fierce and powerful felt like such a release to me.”

The scene did not go unnoticed by Hope’s co-stars. Stephanie Levi-John told Decider that she was “a little bit envious” even though Lina has her “own battle, which was trying to bring a child into the world” in the episode. Ruairi O’Connor, however, was adorably jealous of Hope’s hero moment.

“Look. I know that this is called The Spanish Princess. But that’s fuckin’ bullshit, okay? I should have been able to put on battle armor and kill one person. Just one person. I’m Henry the VIII, I behead people all the time — I’m famous for it!” O’Connor teased, while also saying he’s so desperate to do a battle scene, he will likely have to “do another period drama to get a proper battle scene.”

“The only battle scene [Henry] got was in the first season with Catherine. I got to battle her. But now she gets a whole extra Game of Thrones-style battle scene, and Charlotte was already in Game of Thrones,” he said.

But the Battle of Flodden wasn’t all victory for Charlotte Hope or Catherine of Aragon.

Hope said, “I do remember one of the first fight sequences we did — we prepped this whole fight sequence, but when they called action, three seconds passed. Suddenly, I was like, face-down in the mud. It’s so embarrassing! I went over to Emma and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I was supposed to be this incredible warrior. And I was face-planting in the mud within three seconds.'”

“She was like, ‘No. I think it looked quite good,'” Hope said.

That moment, of course, made it to the final cut of the Battle of Flodden sequence on last night’s episode of Starz’s The Spanish Princess.  

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