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You are here: UK History > Royal History > House of Tudor > Henry VIII | The king with 6 wives > Catherine of Aragon
Henry VIII’s first wife came to England as a Spanish princess betrothed to Henry’s brother. She was also his longest marriage at over twenty years, and mother of the future Mary I.
Known as Catherine, Katherine, Katherina, Kateryn and Katerine – there is some debate over the spelling her name but Catherine is the most commonly used. The common rhyme about Henry’s wives claims that they were divorced, a more accurate assessment would be that their marriage was annulled. Read on to find out more!
Born: 16th December 1485, Archiepiscopal Palace, Castille, Spain
Died: 7th January 1536 (aged 50), Kimbolton Castle Huntingdonshire, England
Queen: 11th June 1509 – 23rd May 1533
Married: 1st - 1501-1502 | 2nd -1509 - 1533
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Henry VIII’s first wife came to England as a Spanish princess betrothed to Henry’s brother. She was also his longest marriage at over twenty years, and mother of the future Mary I.
Known as Catherine, Katherine, Katherina, Kateryn and Katerine – there is some debate over the spelling her name but Catherine is the most commonly used. The common rhyme about Henry’s wives claims that they were divorced, a more accurate assessment would be that their marriage was annulled. Read on to find out more!
Born: 16th December 1485, Archiepiscopal Palace, Castille, Spain
Died: 7th January 1536 (aged 50), Kimbolton Castle Huntingdonshire, England
Queen: 11th June 1509 – 23rd May 1533
Married: 1st - 1501-1502 | 2nd -1509 - 1533
Spouses: Arthur Prince of Wales | Henry VIII of England
Parents: Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille
Children: Mary Tudor, aka Mary I of England
Catherine was the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. While that was already pretty impressive, that wasn’t the end of her royal lineage, she was also descended from the English House of Lancaster via John of Gaunt. This meant that she was the third cousin of her future father in law, Henry VII of England and fourth cousin of her mother in law, Elizabeth of York.
As the daughter of royalty, Catherine had a good education for the time, learning maths, canon and civil law, classic literature, genealogy and heraldry, history, philosophy, religion and theology. Her main tutor was a clerk in Holy Orders and her strong Roman Catholic upbringing influenced her throughout her life. She learned to read, write and speak in both her native Castillian Spanish and Latin and also spoke French and Greek. Like many girls of the time, she also received lessons in music, weaving, spinning, sewing, needlepoint, lace making, embroidery, cooking, dancing, drawing and court etiquette.
At an early age, she was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, the oldest son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. In actuality, Catherine had a stronger claim to the English throne than Henry VII, which is why she was considered such a good match for Arthur. The alliance between their kingdoms would validate the House of Tudor in the eyes of other European royalty and would strengthen the Tudor claim via her ancestry. Their children would then have an indisputable claim to the throne. Because of their age, they were married by proxy on 19th May 1499 and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned 15 at which point, it was decided their marriage should be consummated.
Catherine was accompanied to England by the several ambassadors, the Bishop of Mallorca, a group of African attendants, among the first to have arrived in London at the time, and other members of the Spanish court, including her supervisor, Elvira Manuel. She was just 15 when she departed her home on 17th August 1501, finally meeting her husband on 4th November in Hampshire. Little is known about their first impressions of each other, but letters written by Arthur states that he was very happy with her. They did struggle to communicate, as though they could both write and speak Latin, their pronunciations were different.
Ten days after arriving in England, Catherine and Arthur were officially married at Old St Paul’s Cathedral after half of Catherine’s dowry had been paid. Once married the pair moved to Ludlow Castle to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. A few months later, however, they both fell ill with the sweating sickness. Arthur succumbed on 2nd April 1502, leaving Catherine a widow at 16.
One Arthur’s death, Henry VII faced the challenge of avoiding having to pay the dowry back, especially as he had only received half of it. He briefly considered marrying Catherine himself after his own wife died the following year but eventually decided that she should marry his second son, Henry Duke of York who was just eleven at the time and had suddenly become heir to the throne. Because she had previously been married to Arthur, Catherine and Henry had to receive a special dispensation from the pope because canon law forbade a man to marry his brother’s widow. Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated, meaning that their marriage was invalid in canon law.
Due to having to wait for Henry to reach an appropriate age and her father’s delay in paying the rest of her dowry, Catherine ended up living as a prisoner at Durham House in London. Her letters from this time reveal how unhappy she was and show that she lived in near poverty. In 1507, she was appointed as Spanish ambassador to England, the first female ambassador in European history. It is thought that she was initially given the role because the royal court thought she could be easily manipulated, but she soon proved them wrong.
Catherine was married for the second time on 11th June 1509 at the age of 23 in a private ceremony outside Greenwich Palace. Henry had only just ascended the throne and the pair were coronated together on 24th June 1509. The coronation was followed by a banquet in Westminster Hall and she was well received by the people of England as their new queen.
Catherine had a very successful tenure as queen. Just a few years into their marriage, Henry made her Regent in England with the titles Governor of the Realm and Captain General while he was in France on a military campaign. While he was away, she oversaw a conflict with the Scottish, resulting in the Battle of Flodden Field in which King James IV of Scotland, husband of Henry’s sister Margaret, was killed. Catherine sent a letter to Henry with a piece of James’ bloodied coat for him to use as a banner.
Catherine had multiple miscarriages and stillbirths throughout her marriage with Henry that resulted in only one living child, their daughter Mary Tudor.
Records show that between 1510 and 1518 she was pregnant seven times and at least three of those times she was carrying a son. She was said to have been a devoted mother to Mary and sought an advantageous match for her, including to her nephew the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Henry was unfaithful throughout their marriage, as was expected at the time and had several mistresses, some of which it was rumoured had given him children, including Henry Fitzroy who was acknowledged by the king and given titles. In 1525, Henry became enamoured with Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies in waiting and the sister to one of his mistresses. Anne was significantly younger than Henry and at the time that Henry began pursuing her, Catherine could no longer bear children and he was desperate for a male heir. He began to think his marriage was cursed because she had previously been married to Arthur and started to seek out an annulment.
This period, which was known as the King’s Great Matter saw Henry desperately seeking papal approval to annul his marriage, but Catherine refused to quietly retire to a nunnery. Henry had a bit of a problem on his hands though, Catherine’s nephew was at that time holding the pope prisoner following the sack of Rome in 1527, which meant that his representatives could not get an audience.
He turned to his advisor Cardinal Wolsely and this spelled his downfall.
Despite not receiving initial permission from the pope, Henry banished Catherine from court and gave her old rooms to Anne Boleyn. He also married her in secret, defending the marriage by saying that Catherine had been married before their wedding, so this was no different. Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury ruled that Henry and Catherine’s marriage was unlawful and that Anne was his true wife. From then on, Catherine was referred to as the Dowager Princess of Wales, though she insisted that she was Henry’s only lawful wife and England’s only queen.
Following the annulment, Catherine moved around various castles in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire before finally settling at Kimbolton Castle where she confined herself to one room and only left to attend mass. She was forbidden to see Mary, though the pair did write to each other in secret with the help of their supporters. Henry offered them a new home together, as long as they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as queen, but neither would.
Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle on 7th January 1536 with many speculating that she had been poisoned. According to reports at the time, Henry and Anne wore yellow for the mourning which was interpreted by some as being disrespectful. On the day of Catherine’s funeral, Anne miscarried a male child. She was buried in a ceremony at Peterborough Cathedral as Dowager Princess of Wales, her daughter Mary was forbidden from attending and Henry refused to attend himself.
Her tomb is still able to be seen at Peterborough Cathedral and is frequently decorated with flowers and pomegranates, her heraldic symbol.
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