<em>The Spanish Princess</em> recap: Catherine?s struggle to follow her heart and other historical observations

Having lost her first husband and her heart to Harry, Catherine’s fate still hangs in the balance after Henry VII announced he would marry her. But a particular delight of this week’s episode was the strong sense of foreshadowing for the type of tyrannical king Henry will become.As Maggie points out near the episode’s end, Harry was “mollycoddled” by his grandmother as a child — and consequently, he’s not used to not getting his way. Henry VIII is best regarded for sweeping military reforms during his reign, including fostering military leadership among his nobles — something he insists upon at this meeting.Harry is also presented with women to satisfy his lustful appetites, something he never had a shortage of in life (and it was not uncommon for aristocrats to feel the need to educate their sons in the ways of the bedroom with providing them access to prostitutes as his grandmother does here). In 1523, Henry VIII executed him for treason (though this is a rare case of the court having a pretty airtight case against the accused).Though Richard Pole yearns to be back in Margaret Beaufort’s good graces, Maggie is actually quite happy with this turn of events — he enjoys being out of the palace, free to spend time with the husband she loves and raise her children away from the poisonous vipers of the Tudor Court. This lays the foundation for and foreshadows that Maggie would ultimately go on to be a great ally of Catherine’s during her marriage to Henry.Maggie also briefly writes to Meg — she’s overjoyed to hear of Meg’s happiness in her marriage, but dismayed that she was greeted by a passel of the Scottish King’s bastard children (all of which is true).