Catherine of Aragon

Katherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536), also known as Catharine, Catherine or Katharine, Castilian Infanta Catalina de Aragón y Castilla, was the Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII of England. Henry'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 with the marriage because all their sons had died in childhood, leaving only one of their six children, Princess Mary (later 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 creating the Anglican Church so that he could marry Anne Boleyn anyway, in the hope of fathering a male heir to the Tudor dynasty.

Early life

She was born at Laredo Palace in Alcalá de Henares (30 km/20 mi from Madrid) on the night of 15–16 December. At an early age, she was identified as a suitable wife for Arthur, Prince of Wales, first son of Henry VII of England and heir to the throne. They were married by proxy, and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned 15 and it was decided that the time had arrived for them to be married in person. She arrived in England in the autumn, with a retinue including George de Athequa, and the couple met at last on 4 November 1501, 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 he later told his parents that he was immensely happy to behold the face of his lovely bride. Ten days later, on 14 November 1501, they were married at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Princess of Wales

As Prince of Wales, Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales, to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches, 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 of it on 2 April 1502, and she nearly died; she recovered to find herself a widow.

At this point Henry VII was faced with the dilemma of how to avoid returning her dowry to her father. To avoid complications, it was agreed that she would marry the king's second son, Prince Henry, who was more than five years younger than she. The marriage was delayed until the prince was old enough, and the king procrastinated so much that it looked doubtful whether the marriage would ever take place. She lived, almost as prisoner, at Durham House in London.^[1] 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. Katherine testified that 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 to the marriage, whether or not they were forbidden by religious law.

Queen Consort of England

The wedding took place on 11 June 1509, seven weeks after the death of Henry VII, and was followed by a lavish double coronation on 24 June.^[2] Both as Princess of Wales and as Queen Consort, she was extremely popular with the English people. She governed the nation as Regent when Henry invaded France in 1513.

The marriage seems to have been a happy one until Henry became seriously worried about producing a male heir to his throne as the years went past. Their first child, a daughter, arrived stillborn on 31 January 1510. Prince Henry, Duke of Cornwall was born on 1 January 1511, but died 52 days later. In November 1513, she gave birth to another son named Henry, but he only lived a few hours. Her next pregnancy produced a stillborn daughter, in December 1514. On 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, she gave birth to a daughter named Mary (later Mary I of England) - the only child to survive infancy. Her final pregnancy ended with another stillborn daughter, on 10 November 1518.

Henry 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 female, (Henry I of England's daughter, the Empress Matilda), had inherited the English throne. The disasters of civil war were still fresh in living memory from the Wars of the Roses (1455–85).

In 1520 Katherine's nephew Emperor Charles V paid a state visit to England, and she urged Henry to enter an alliance with Charles rather than with France. Immediately after his departure, 31 May 1520, she accompanied the king 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 made welcome in England, where plans were afoot to betroth him to Princess Mary.

Henry's annulment

In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured with Anne Boleyn, a maid-of-honour to the Queen, and began his pursuit of her.^[3] By this time Katherine was not in a physical condition to undergo further pregnancies. Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from the Bible, which says that if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless.^[4] 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 suggested itself to the King much earlier than this, and it is highly probable that it was motivated by his desire for a male heir. Before Henry's father Henry VII ascended the throne, England had been beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown, and Henry may have wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession.^[5]

It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment.^[6] He set his hopes upon a direct appeal to the Holy See, acting independently of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he at first communicated nothing of his plans. William Knight, the king's secretary, was sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for the annulment of the marriage, on the ground that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II was obtained by false pretences.

As the pope was at that time the prisoner of Katherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, Knight had some difficulty in obtaining access to him. In the end the king's envoy had to return without accomplishing much. Henry had now 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 the King's favour.^[7] How far the pope was influenced by Charles V in his resistance, it 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.^[8] The pope forbade Henry to proceed to a new marriage before a decision was given in Rome. Wolsey had failed and he was dismissed from public office in 1529. He then began a secret plot to have Boleyn forced into exile and he began communication with Katherine and the Pope, to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and, had it not been for his death from a terminal illness in 1530, he might have been executed for treason.^[9] A year later, Katherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Boleyn. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed to the vacant position.^[10] In November 1531, Katherine wrote to her nephew: "My tribulations are so great, my life so disturbed by the plans daily invented to further the king's wicked intention, the surprises which the king gives me, with certain persons of his council, are so mortal, and my treatment is what God knows, that it is enough to shorten ten lives, much more mine".

Later years

Upon returning to Dover in England, Henry and Boleyn went through a secret wedding service.^[11] The King's second wife soon became pregnant and, as was the custom with royalty, there was a second wedding service, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move at a quick pace. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the king's marriage to Katherine, declared that marriage null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be valid.^[12]

Until the end of her life Katherine would refer to herself as Henry's only lawfully-wedded wife and England's only rightful Queen Consort; her faithful servants continued to address her by that title. 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, she prepared to meet her end. While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. She was also forbidden to communicate with her, but discreet sympathizers ferried secret letters between mother and daughter. Henry offered them both better quarters and the company of one another if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as his new Queen. Neither did.

In late December 1535, sensing death was near, she made out her will, wrote to her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, asking him to protect her daughter. She then penned one final letter to Henry, "my most dear lord and husband"^[13]:

She died at Kimbolton Castle, on 7 January 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the King and he reportedly decked himself in bright yellow clothing, a color often seen by the English as signifying joy. Henry called for public displays of joy regarding her death. Rumours then circulated that she had been slowly poisoned by Anne or Henry. 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.^[14] Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart's discolouration was due not to poisoning, but to cancer, something which was not understood at the time.^[15] She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony due to a Princess Dowager of Wales, not a Queen. Henry did not attend the funeral, nor did he allow Princess Mary to do so. She would be the only one of his wives to see her fiftieth birthday.

Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral can be seen and is frequently decorated with flowers. It bears the title Katharine Queen of England. Peterborough is twinned with the Castilian city of Alcalá de Henares, her birthplace.

Historiography

Katherine has remained a popular biographical subject to the present day. The American historian Garrett Mattingly was the author of a popular biography Catherine of Aragon in 1942. In 1966, Katherine and her many supporters at court were the subjects of Catherine of Aragon and her Friends, a biography by John E. Paul. In 1967, Mary M. Luke wrote the first book of her Tudor trilogy, Catherine the Queen which portrayed her and the controversial era of English history through which she lived.

In recent years, the historian Alison Weir covered her life extensively in her biography The Six Wives of Henry VIII, first published in 1991. Antonia Fraser did the same in her own 1992 biography of the same title; as did the British historian David Starkey in his 2003 book Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII.

Spelling of her name

"Catherine" is the most common modern English spelling of her name. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that her name should be spelled "Katherine" in a professional publication. In most official documents, her name is spelled with a K, and she herself signed her name "Katharine" and "Katherina".^{citation needed} Loveknots built into his various palaces by her husband, Henry VIII, display the initials "H & K". Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral is marked "Katharine Queen of England". The Spanish spelling is "Catalina", and in Catalan, which was the language spoken in Aragon, the spelling is "Caterina".

Legacy in fiction, film and television

Although Katherine is often portrayed in film and on stage as having possessed the stereotypical Spanish traits of dark hair and an olive complexion, she in fact had grey or blue-eyes, fair skin with reddish-blonde hair, not too unusual for many Spaniards such as those from her father's land of Aragon. Furthermore, she was part English, through her ancestors, Katherine of Lancaster (her namesake and also having red hair) and Philippa of Lancaster, who were both daughters of Prince John, Duke of Lancaster.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Katherine of Aragon

Contents

Early life

Princess of Wales

Queen Consort of England

Henry's annulment

Later years

Historiography

Spelling of her name

Legacy in fiction, film and television

Ancestry

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links