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Catherine of Aragon

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Catherine of Aragon was the 1st wife of Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 - 7 January 1536) was Princess of Wales by her first marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII of England, and Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII.

Henry VIII's attempt to have their 24-year marriage annulled set in motion a chain of events that led to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church. Henry was dissatisfied because their sons died in infancy, leaving their daughter, the future Queen Mary I, as heiress presumptive, at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters. This allowed him to marry Anne Boleyn on the judgment of clergy in England, without reference to the Pope. He was motivated by the hope of fathering a male heir to the Tudor dynasty. Catherine refused to accept Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and considered herself the King's rightful wife and Queen until her death.

Early life (1485-1501)

Catherine was born at the Archbishop's Palace in Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid, on the night of 16 December 1485. She was the youngest child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.

Catherine was quite short in stature, with long golden auburn hair, wide blue eyes, a round face, and a fair complexion. She was descended from the English royal house as her great-grandmother Katherine of Lancaster, after whom she was named, and her great-great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster, were both daughters of John of Gaunt and granddaughters of Edward III of England. Consequently she was third cousin of her father-in-law, Henry VII, and fourth cousin of her mother-in-law Elizabeth of York.

She was educated by a tutor, Alessandro Geraldini, who was a clerk in Holy Orders. Catherine studied religion, the classics, Latin histories, and canon and civil law. She had a strong religious upbringing and developed a faith that would play a major role in later life. She learned to speak, read and write in Spanish and Latin, and spoke French and Greek. She was also taught domestic skills, such as needlepoint, lacemaking, embroidery, music and dancing. The great scholar Erasmus would later say that Catherine "loved good literature which she had studied with success since childhood".

At an early age, she was considered a suitable wife for Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII of England and heir to the throne due to her overwhelming prominent English ancestry inherited from her mother Queen Isabella I of Castile. By means of her mother Catherine had a stronger legitimate ancestry to the English throne via the two first wives of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster; Blanche of Lancaster and the Spanish Infanta Constance of Castile, by whom John hoped to claim the Crown of Castile. On the other hand Henry VII of England was the descendent of Gaunt's third marriage to Katherine Swynford whose children were born out of wedlock and only legitimized after the death of Constance and the marriage of John to Katherine. The children of John and Katherine, while legitimized, were barred from ever inheriting the English throne. Because of this, the Tudor monarchy was not accepted by all the European kingdoms. At the time, the house of Trastamara was the most prestigious due to the great rule of the Catholic Monarchs, so the alliance of Catherine and Arthur validated the House of Tudor in the eyes of European royalty and also strengthened the Tudor claim to the English throne via Catherine of Aragon's ancestry. It would also have given a male heir an indisputable claim to the throne. The two were married by proxy on 19 May 1499, and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned 15 and it was decided that they were old enough to be married.

As wife and Widow of Arthur

The couple later met on 4 November at Dogmersfield in Hampshire. Little is known about their first impressions of each other, but Arthur did write to his parents-in-law that he would be 'a true and loving husband' and told his parents that he was immensely happy to 'behold the face of his lovely bride'. They found that they were unable to speak to each other since they had learned different pronunciations of Latin. Ten days later, on 14 November 1501, they were married at St. Paul's Cathedral. Catherine, as Princess of Wales, adopted as her personal motto "Not for my crown" along with her personal badge of the pomegranate crowned.

Thomas More wrote that on her arrival in England she "thrilled the hearts of everyone, there is nothing lacking in her that the most beautiful girl should have". Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales, to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches, as was his duty as Prince of Wales, and his bride accompanied him. A few months later, they both became ill, possibly with the sweating sickness which was sweeping the area. He died on 2 April 1502, and she almost died too, but recovered to find herself a widow.

At this point, Henry VII faced the challenge of avoiding returning her dowry to her father. To avoid complications, it was agreed she would marry Henry VII's second son, Henry, Duke of York, who was five years younger than she was. However, the death of her mother meant that Catherine's 'value' in the marriage market decreased. Castile was a much larger kingdom than Aragon and it was inherited by Catherine's mentally unstable elder sister, Joanna. Ostensibly, the marriage was delayed until Henry was old enough, but Henry VII procrastinated so much about Catherine's unpaid dowry that it was doubtful if the marriage would ever take place. She lived as a virtual prisoner at Durham House in London. Some of her letters to her father, complaining of her treatment, have survived.

Marriage to Arthur's brother depended on the Pope granting a dispensation because of the close relationship. Catherine testified her marriage to Arthur was never consummated. The matter was considered of minor importance at the time, as the Pope had the power to overrule any objections, whether or not they were for religious reasons.

Queen of England (1509-1533)

Catherine's second wedding took place on 11 June 1509, seven years after Prince Arthur's death. They were married in a private ceremony at Greenwich Church.
On Saturday 23 June, the traditional eve-of-coronation procession to Westminster was greeted by an extremely large and very enthusiastic crowd. As was the custom, they spent the night before their coronation at the Tower of London. On Midsummer's Day, Sunday, 24 June 1509, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were anointed and crowned together by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey. The coronation was followed by a banquet in Westminster Hall. Many new Knights of the Bath were created in honour of the coronation.

A son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, was born on New Year's Day 1511. He only lived for 52 days. In 1513, Catherine was pregnant again. Henry appointed her regent when he went to France on a military campaign. When the Scots invaded, they were defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field, with Catherine addressing the army, and riding north with some of the troops. She sent a letter to Henry along with the bloodied coat of the King of Scots, James IV, who died in the battle.

Catherine had lost another son when Henry returned from France. He was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. In 1514, she had another stillborn son. On 18 February 1516, Catherine delivered a healthy girl. She was named Mary and christened three days later with great ceremony at The Church of Observant Friars. In 1517, she had a miscarriage and in 1518, Catherine became pregnant for the last time. She gave birth to a daughter in November, but the child was weak and lived only a few days. Catherine was pregnant six times altogether.

Catherine's religious dedication increased as she aged, as did her interest in academics. She continued to broaden her knowledge and provide training for her daughter. Education among women became fashionable, partly because of Catherine's influence. She also donated large sums of money to several colleges. Henry, however, still considered a male heir essential. The Tudor dynasty was new, and its legitimacy might still be tested. A long civil war (1135-54) had been fought the last time a woman, (Henry I of England's daughter, Empress Matilda), had inherited the throne. The disasters of civil war were still fresh in living memory from the Wars of the Roses.

In 1520, Catherine's nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, paid a state visit to England, and she urged Henry to enter an alliance with Charles rather than with France. Immediately after his departure, she accompanied Henry to France on the celebrated visit to Francis I, the so-called Field of the Cloth of Gold. Within two years, war was declared against France and the Emperor was once again welcome in England, where plans were afoot to betroth him to Catherine's daughter Mary.

The King's Great Matter

In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne Boleyn, a maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine who was between 10 and 17 years younger than Henry. By this time Catherine was no longer able to undergo further pregnancies. Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from the Bible, which said if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless. If she had lied when she said her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated, it meant that their marriage was wrong in the eyes of God. It is possible that the idea of annulment had been suggested to Henry much earlier than this, and is highly probable that it was motivated by his desire for a son. Before Henry's father, Henry VII, ascended the throne, England was beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown, and Henry may have wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession.

It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to secure an annulment. Catherine was defiant when it was suggested that she quietly retire to a nunnery, saying "God never called me to a nunnery, I am the King's true and legitimate wife". He set his hopes upon an appeal to the Holy See, acting independently of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, whom he told nothing of his plans. William Knight, the King's secretary, was sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for an annulment, on the grounds that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II was obtained by false pretences.

As the Pope was, at that time, the prisoner of Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, following the Sack of Rome in May 1527, Knight had difficulty in obtaining access to him. In the end, Henry's envoy had to return without accomplishing much. Henry now had no choice but to put his great matter into the hands of Thomas Wolsey, and Wolsey did all he could to secure a decision in Henry's favour. Wolsey went so far as to convene an ecclesiastical court in England, with a representative of the Pope presiding, and Henry and Catherine herself in attendance. Shakespeare's play, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth accurately records Catherine's astounding coup in that remarkable courtroom in Act II, scene iv. She bows low to Henry, put herself at his mercy, states her case with irrefutable eloquence and then sweeps out of the courtroom, a woman both formidable and clearly wronged. The Pope had no intention of allowing a decision to be reached in England and his legate was recalled. (How far the pope was influenced by Charles V is difficult to say, but it is clear Henry saw that the Pope was unlikely to give him an annulment from the Emperor's aunt. ) The Pope forbade Henry to marry again before a decision was given in Rome. Wolsey had failed and was dismissed from public office in 1529. Wolsey then began a secret plot to have Anne Boleyn forced into exile and began communicating with the Pope, to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and, had it not been for his death from terminal illness in 1530, he might have been executed for treason. A year later, Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne Boleyn. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed to the vacant position.

When Henry decided to annul his marriage to Catherine, John Fisher became her most trusted counsellor and one of her chief supporters. He appeared in the legates' court on her behalf, where he shocked people with the directness of his language, and by declaring that, like John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage. Henry was so enraged by this that he wrote a long Latin address to the legates in answer to Fisher's speech. Fisher's copy of this still exists, with his manuscript annotations in the margin which show how little he feared Henry's anger. The removal of the cause to Rome ended Fisher's role in the matter, but Henry never forgave him. Other people who supported Catherine's case included Thomas More, Henry's own sister Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Martin Luther, Maria de Salinas, Charles V of Germany, and Pope Paul III.

Later years (1533-1536)

Upon returning to Dover from a meeting with King Francis I of France in Calais, Henry married Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony, Anne was already pregnant at the time. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of Henry's marriage to Catherine, declared the marriage illegal. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne valid.

Until the end of her life, Catherine would refer to herself as Henry's only lawful wedded wife and England's only rightful queen; her faithful servants continued to address her by that title, and most of the population of Europe believed her to be Queen, and Anne just a concubine and her daughter a bastard. Henry refused her the right to any title but "Dowager Princess of Wales", in recognition of her position as his brother's widow.

In 1535 she was transferred to the decaying and remote Kimbolton Castle. Confining herself to one room, leaving it only to attend Mass, and fasting most of the time, and wearing the hair shirt of the Order of St. Francis, she prepared to meet her end. While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter, Mary. They were also forbidden to communicate but discreet sympathizers ferried letters between mother and daughter. Henry offered them both better quarters and each other's company if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as his new Queen. Neither did.

In late December 1535, sensing death was near, she made her will, and wrote to her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, asking him to protect her daughter. She then penned one final letter to Henry, her "most dear lord and husband"

"My most dear lord, King and husband,

The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things."

Katharine the Quene. She died at Kimbolton Castle, on 7 January 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the King. According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Anne wore yellow for the mourning, which has been interpreted in various ways; Polydore Vergil interpreted this to mean that Anne did not mourn. However, Chapuys reported that it was actually King Henry who decked himself in yellow, celebrating the news and making a great show of his and Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, to his courtiers. This was seen as distasteful and vulgar by many. Rumours then circulated that she had been poisoned by Anne or Henry, or both, as Anne had threatened to murder both Catherine and Mary on several occasions. The rumours were born after the apparent discovery during her embalming that there was a black growth on her heart that might have been caused by poisoning. Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart's discolouration was due not to poisoning, but to cancer, a condition not understood at the time. Another theory, is that the dressing in yellow was out of respect for the late queen/princess dowager as yellow was the Spanish colour of mourning. Certainly, later in the day it is reported that Henry and Anne both individually and privately wept for her death.

She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony due to a Dowager Princess of Wales, not a queen. Henry did not attend the funeral and refused to allow Mary to attend either.

Look up the Stories of Henry%u2019s Other Wives

Anne Boleyn

Jane Seymour

Anne of Cleves

Kathryn Howard

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