Infidel: The Daughters of Aragon
(Six Tudor Queens)
By Nicola Harris
Born in the glittering courts of Castile and Aragon and forged in the shadow of war, Catalina de Aragón grows up surrounded by queens, rebels, and explorers. She is her mother’s last daughter, the final jewel of a dynasty built on conquest and faith, and the one child Isabella of Castile cannot bear to lose.
But destiny has already claimed Catalina.
Promised to Prince Arthur of England since childhood, she is raised to bind kingdoms, soothe old wounds, and carry the hopes of an empire across the sea. Yet, Spain fractures under rebellion, grief, and the ruthless zeal of its own rulers.
From the burning streets of Granada to the storm lashed Bay of Biscay, Catalina and her sisters must navigate a treacherous path shaped by ambition, betrayal, and the dangerous love of men who fear the power of queens. She learns to read cyphers, to read hearts, and to stand unbroken even as her childhood is stripped from her piece by piece.
And when she finally sails for England armed with her mother’s lessons, her father’s steel, and the ghosts of the Alhambra at her back, Catalina steps into her fate not as a girl, but as a force.
A princess.
A survivor.
A daughter of Aragon.
Infidel is the story of a young woman raised for greatness and destined to reshape the fate of nations. This is Catalina, as she has never been seen before. She is fierce, vulnerable, and unforgettable.
A sweeping, intimate portrait of sisterhood, survival, and the making of a dynasty, Infidel reveals the hidden lives of a woman whose courage shaped the Tudor world.
Publication Date: 5th March 2026
Publisher: Independently Published
Print Length: 268 Pages
Genre: Biographical Historical Fiction | Tudor Fiction | Historical Fiction
A conversation with Nicola Harris.
What inspired you to start writing?
when I became extremely ill. I didn’t have the energy to crawl to the end of my bed, but I could still use my laptop. I was eventually diagnosed with a genetic disability and writing helped me to cope with all my frustrations and the loss of my career. Writing became my lifeline and my passion because at last I had the time to write about what I really care about.
My research for Infidel began long before I ever thought of writing a novel about Catherine of Aragón. It began on a beach in Tenerife, years before tourism transformed the island. To a child, it felt like another world. The light, the heat, the colours, the food, the rhythm of life.
I was fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time with a Spanish family who welcomed me into their home and their culture year after year. They taught me fragments of their language and, more importantly, the stories that shaped their history. Through them, I first encountered the world of Muslim Spain and the Catholic warrior monarchs who fought to reclaim it. It was impossible not to be fascinated.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
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Her childhood was not soft or sheltered. It was an ordeal. She came face to face with native Americans who were snatched from their land and brought to the palace. I wanted to understand what forged her, what hardened her, and what gave her the strength she carried into England. Her resilience did not appear by magic. It was earned.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
Catalina’s sister Juana is often reduced to the label Juana the Mad, but she was far more than that. In Infidel, Juana allows me to explore the moral questions surrounding the Muslim wars and the Inquisition. She is outspoken, intelligent, and unwilling to accept cruelty as the natural cost of faith. Through her, I could give voice to the discomfort a modern reader might feel when confronted with the punishments and persecutions of the age. Without revealing too much, Juana’s own journey takes her far from home, and the emotional cost of that distance shapes her view of the world.
But my absolute favourite is Prince Jaun who is the heir to the throne. He is silly, cheeky and everything an older brother should be. He gets away with so much more than his siters because he is the heir and even when his mother Isabella of Castile is angry with him she still calls him “my angel”.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Everyone knows Catherine of Aragon’s story in England as the first wife of Henry VIII but almost no one knows what she endured in Spain to make her so strong. That’s the story I wanted to tell. When at the very end Catalina steps on the ship to England armed with her mother’s lessons and her father’s steel and with the ghosts of the Alhunbra at her back. Catlina will step into her fate not as a girl but as a force. A Princess, a survivor and a daughter of Aragon.
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Nicola Harris
Writing became my lifeline: a way to step beyond my pain, to shape my experience into a story, and to find meaning where there had once been only endurance.
I have a lifelong love of children, Counselling, and Psychotherapy Theory and history.
