You're listening to the Tudor's Dynasty podcast with Rebecca Larson.

England had changed quite a bit since Elizabeth I

first had died in 1603.

There was the gunpowder plot,

the reign and execution of Charles I,

and of course the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell.

Our guest today specializes in Catherine of Brighganza, the wife of King Charles II.

A very warm welcome to first-time guest, Susan Abernethy.

Hi, Rebecca.

I'm so happy to have you on, Susan.

I don't think listeners have any idea how long you and I have known one another because we go back to probably 2015 yes that's right yeah quite a ways back and I'm so excited to have you on today because

we're going to talk about Catherine of Braganza and we all have a story behind why we chose the

historical figures that we did.

And I'm curious, why did you choose Catherine as your research topic?

I don't even know if I could explain it.

I've just, I read about her, and she just seemed so interesting.

And another thing is historians seem to ignore her. And so I wanted to kind of shine a

light on her and just show that, you know, there was more to her than what historians were saying.

That happens quite a bit with women in history, doesn't it? Yes, it does, unfortunately. Well,

I am always interested to know more about the woman before she married. Can you give me and our listeners just maybe a little bit of insight into who Catherine was prior to her marriage to Charles the seconds?

Yes. This is really interesting because she was born in 1638, but her father did not become king of Portugal until 1640.

So in her early years, she grew up in the countryside in her father's house just west of Lisbon.

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