Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon
Portrait of Queen Catherine by Lucas Hornebolte
Queen consort of England
Tenure	11 June 1509 – 23 May 1533
Coronation	24 June 1509
Spouse	Arthur, Prince of Wales m. 1501; dec. 1502 Henry VIII of England m. 1509; (ann. 1533)
Among others... Issue
Henry, Duke of Cornwall Mary I of England
House	House of Trastámara (by birth) House of Tudor (by marriage)
Father	Ferdinand II of Aragon
Mother	Isabella I of Castile
Born	16 December 1485 Archbishop's Palace, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid
Died	7 January 1536(1536-01-07) (aged 50) Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire
Signature
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Catharine of Aragon (Castilian: Catalina de Aragón; Aragonese: Catarina d'Aragón) (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales. In 1507, she also held the position of Ambassador for the Spanish Court in England when her father found himself without one, becoming the first female ambassador in European history.^[1] For six months, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English won the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part.

At the age of three, Catherine was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne, and they married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine subsequently married Arthur's younger brother, the recently-succeeded Henry VIII, in 1509. By 1525 Henry was infatuated with his mistress Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter, the future Mary I of England, as heiress presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters. In 1533 their marriage was declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the Pope. 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. Now acknowledged by Henry only as Dowager Princess of Wales, she lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, and died there on 7 January 1536.

The controversial book "The Education of Christian Women" by Juan Luis Vives, which claimed women have the right to an education, was dedicated to and commissioned by her. Such was Catherine's impression on people, that even her enemy, Thomas Cromwell, said of her "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History."^[2] She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day for the sake of their families.^[3] Furthermore, Catherine won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor.^[3] She was also a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Saint Thomas More.

Early life

Portrait by Juan de Flandes thought to be of 11-year old Catherine

Catherine was born at the Archbishop's Palace in Alcalá de Henares near Madrid, on the night of 16 December 1485. She was the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine was quite short in stature^[4] with long red hair, wide blue eyes, a round face, and a fair complexion.^[5] She was descended, on her maternal side, from the English royal house; her great-grandmother Catherine 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 of England, and fourth cousin of her mother-in-law Elizabeth of York.

Catherine was educated by a tutor, Alessandro Geraldini, who was a clerk in Holy Orders. She studied religion, the classics, Latin histories, canon and civil law, heraldry, and genealogy. She had a strong religious upbringing and developed a faith that would play a major role in later life.^[6] 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, lace-making, embroidery, music and dancing.^[7] The great scholar Erasmus would later say that Catherine "loved good literature which she had studied with success since childhood".^[8]

At an early age, Catherine was considered a suitable wife for Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII of England and heir to the throne, due to the English ancestry she inherited from her mother Queen Isabella I of Castile. By means of her mother, Catherine had a stronger legitimate claim to the English throne than King Henry VII himself through the first two wives of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster: Blanche of Lancaster and the Spanish Infanta Constance of Castile. In contrast, Henry VII was the descendant of Gaunt's third marriage to Katherine Swynford, whose children were born out of wedlock and only legitimised after the death of Constance and the marriage of John to Katherine. The children of John and Katherine, while legitimised, were barred from ever inheriting the English throne, a stricture that was ignored in later generations. Because of Henry's descent through illegitimate children barred from succession to the English throne, the Tudor monarchy was not accepted by all European kingdoms. At the time, the house of Trastámara was the most prestigious in Europe, due to the 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 fifteen, when it was decided that they were old enough to be married.^[9] When Catherine of Aragon travelled to London she brought a group of her African attendants with her.^[10] They are the first recorded Africans to arrive in London at the time, and were considered luxury servants. They caused a great impression about the princess and the power of her family.

As wife and widow of Arthur

Arthur around the time of his marriage circa 1501

The couple 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". Unfortunately, the couple found that they could not understand each other, since they had learned different pronunciations of Latin.^[11] Ten days later, on 14 November 1501, they were married at Old St. Paul's Cathedral.

Once married, 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. The couple stayed at Castle Lodge, Ludlow. A few months later, they both became ill, possibly with the sweating sickness which was sweeping the area. Arthur died on 2 April 1502; Catherine recovered to find herself a widow.

At this point, Henry VII faced the challenge of avoiding the obligation to return her dowry to her father. To settle the matter, it was agreed that Catherine would marry Henry VII's second son, Henry, Duke of York, who was five years younger than she was. The death of Catherine's mother Isabella of Castile, however, meant that her "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.^[12] Some of the letters she wrote to her father complaining of her treatment have survived. In one of these letters she tells him that "I choose what I believe, and say nothing. For I am not as simple as I may seem." She had little money and struggled to cope, as she had the well-being of her ladies-in-waiting to maintain as well as her own. In 1507 she served as the Spanish Ambassador for England, thus becoming the first female ambassador in European history.^[13] While Henry VII and his councillors expected her to be easily manipulated, Catherine went on to prove them wrong.^[13]

Marriage to Arthur's brother depended on the Pope granting a dispensation because canon law forbade men to marry their brother's widow. Catherine testified that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated, as also according to canon law, a marriage was not valid until consummated.

Queen of England (1509–1533)

16th century woodcut of the coronation of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon showing their heraldic badges, the Tudor Rose and the Pomegranate of Granada

Catherine's wedding took place on 11 June 1509, seven years after Prince Arthur's death. She married Henry VIII, who had only just acceded to the throne, in a private ceremony at Greenwich Church. She was 23 years of age. The king was just days short of his 18th birthday.

Coronation

On Saturday 23 June, the traditional eve-of-coronation procession to Westminster was greeted by a large and enthusiastic crowd. As was the custom, the couple 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.

Pregnancies and children

On 31 January 1510, Catherine gave birth prematurely to a stillborn daughter. A son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, was born on New Year's Day 1511. He lived for only 52 days. In 1513, Catherine was pregnant again. On 11 June 1513 Henry appointed her Regent or Governor of England when he went to France on a military campaign.^[14]

When Louis I d'Orléans, duc de Longueville, was captured at the Battle of Guinegate, Henry sent him to stay in Catherine's household. She wrote to Wolsey that she and her council would prefer the Duke to stay in the Tower of London as the Scots were "so busy as they now be" and she added her prayers for "God to sende us as good lukke against the Scotts, as the King hath ther."^[15] The war with Scotland occupied her subjects, and she was "horrible busy with making standards, banners, and badges" at Richmond Palace. The Scots invaded and on 3 September she ordered Thomas Lovell to raise an army in the midland counties.^[16]

Catherine rode north in full armour to address the troops, despite being heavily pregnant at the time. Her fine speech was reported to the historian Peter Martyr d'Anghiera in Valladolid within a fortnight.^[17] Although an Italian newsletter said she was 100 miles north of London when news of the victory at Battle of Flodden Field reached her, she was near Buckingham.^[18] From Woburn Abbey she sent a letter to Henry along with a piece of the bloodied coat of King James IV of Scotland, who died in the battle, for Henry to use as a banner.^[19]

Portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger circa 1540

Catherine had lost another son when Henry returned from France. He was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. In December 1514, she had another son, Prince Henry who died shortly after birth. 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 1518, Catherine became pregnant for the last time. She gave birth to a daughter on 10 November, but the child was weak and lived either only a few hours or at most a week. Catherine was pregnant six times altogether.

Catherine watching Henry at the joust in honour of Catherine giving birth to a son

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, (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 Holy Roman 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, 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

The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr

Catherine pleading for her divorce to Henry. Painting by Henry Nelson O'Neil

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 (Anne's exact year of birth is unknown). Henry began pursuing her.^[20] Catherine was no longer able to bear children by this time. Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from the Bible, which he interpreted to say that if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless.^[21] Even if her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated (and Catherine would insist to her dying day that she had come to Henry's bed a virgin), Henry's interpretation of that biblical passage meant that their marriage had been wrong in the eyes of God. Whether the Pope at the time of Henry and Catherine's marriage had had the right to overrule Henry's claimed scriptural impediment would become a hot topic in Henry's campaign to wrest an annulment from the present Pope. 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 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.^[22]

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.

It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to secure an annulment.^[23] 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".^[24] 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 this great matter into the hands of Thomas Wolsey, and Wolsey did all he could to secure a decision in Henry's favour.^[25] 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. The Pope had no intention of allowing a decision to be reached in England, and his legate was recalled.

Catherine and Henry's daughter The Lady Mary

(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 annul his marriage to the Emperor's aunt.^[26]) 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 he not been terminally ill and died in 1530, he might have been executed for treason.^[27] 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.^[28]

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, Maria de Salinas, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Pope Paul III and Protestant Reformers Martin Luther^[29] and William Tyndale.^[30]

Later years

Aragonese, Valencian and Sicilian Royalty
House of Trastámara

Ferdinand I    Alfonso V    John II    Eleanor, Queen of Portugal Alfonso V John II    Charles IV of Navarre    Blanche II of Navarre    Eleanor I of Navarre    Ferdinand II    Joan, Queen of Naples Ferdinand II    Isabella, Queen of Portugal    Joanna I, Queen of Aragon    John, Prince of Asturias    Mary, Queen of Portugal    Catherine, Queen of England Joanna I

Upon returning to Dover from a meeting with King Francis I of France in Calais, Henry married Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony. Some sources speculate that Anne was already pregnant at the time, but others testify that Anne (who had seen her sister Mary Boleyn taken up as the king's mistress and summarily cast aside) refused to sleep with Henry until they were married. Henry defended the legality of their union by pointing out that Catherine had previously been married. If she and Arthur had consummated their marriage, Henry by canon law had the right to remarry.^[31] 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, even though Catherine testified she and Arthur had never had physical relations. Cranmer ruled Henry and Anne's marriage valid five days later, on 28 May 1533.^[32]

Until the end of her life, Catherine would refer to herself as Henry's only lawful wedded wife and England's only rightful queen, and her servants continued to address her by that title. However, Henry refused her the right to any title but "Dowager Princess of Wales" in recognition of her position as his brother's widow.

Catherine went to live at The More castle in the winter of 1531/32. In 1535 she was transferred to Kimbolton Castle. There, she confined herself to one room (which she left only to attend Mass), dressed only in the hair shirt of the Order of St. Francis, and fasted continuously. While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. They were also forbidden to communicate in writing, but sympathizers discreetly ferried letters between the two. Henry offered both mother and daughter better quarters and permission to see each other if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as his new Queen. Both refused.

In late December 1535, sensing her death was near, Catherine 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":^[33]

My most dear lord, King and husband,

The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I ouge [owe] thou forceth me, my case being such, to commend myselv to thou, and to put thou in remembrance with a few words of the healthe and safeguard of thine allm [soul] which thou ougte to preferce before all worldley matters, and before the care and pampering of thy body, for the which thoust have cast me into many calamities and thineselv into many troubles. For my part, I pardon thou everything, and I desire to devoutly pray God that He will pardon thou also. For the rest, I commend unto thou our doughtere Mary, beseeching thou to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat thou also, on behalve of my maides, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all mine other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I makest this vouge [vow], that mine eyes desire thou aboufe all things.

Katharine the Quene.

Death

She died at Kimbolton Castle on 7 January 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the king. There were rumours at the time that she was poisoned,^[34][35][36] possibly by Gregory di Casale.^[37] According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning, which has been interpreted in various ways; Polydore Vergil interpreted this to mean that Anne did not mourn.^[38] 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.^[39] This was seen as distasteful and vulgar by many. Another theory is that the dressing in yellow was out of respect for the late queen-princess dowager as yellow was said to be 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. On the day of Catherine's funeral, Anne Boleyn miscarried a son, which led to her execution a few months later. Rumours then circulated that Catherine 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.^[40] 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.

Catherine 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 forbade Mary to attend either.^[41]

Faith

Catherine as Mary Magdalene, Portrait by Michael Sittow

Catherine was a member of the Spanish order of the Catholic organisation Observant Franciscans and she was punctilious in her religious observations, integrating without demur her necessary duties as queen with her personal piety. The outward celebration of saints and holy relics formed no part of her personal devotions,^[42] which she rather expressed in mass, prayer, confession and penance. Privately, however, she was aware of what she identified as the shortcomings of the papacy and church officialdom.^[42] Her doubts about church improprieties certainly did not extend so far as to support the allegations of corruption made public by Martin Luther in Wittenberg in 1517, which were soon to have such far-reaching consequences in initiating the Protestant Reformation: In 1523 Fray Alfonso de Villa Sancta, a learned friar of the Observant Franciscans and friend of the king's old advisor Erasmus, dedicated to the queen his book De Liberio Arbitrio adversus Melanchthonem denouncing Philipp Melanchthon, a supporter of Luther. Acting as her confessor, he was able to nominate her as a "Defender of the Faith" for denying Luther's arguments.^[43]

Appearance

Catherine was of a very fair complexion, had blue eyes, and had a hair colour that was between reddish-blonde and auburn; these were typical in members of the House of Trastámara, a royal house descended from Alfonso XI of Castile.^[44] During her lifetime she was described as "The most beautiful creature in the world",^[45] and that there was "Nothing lacking in her that the most beautiful girl should have."^[46] Saint Thomas More and Lord Herbert would reflect later in her lifetime that in regard to her appearance "There were few women who could compete with the Queen [Catherine] in her prime."^[47][48]

Legacy, memory, and historiography

Statue of Catherine at Alcalá de Henares

The controversial book "The Education of Christian Women" by Juan Luis Vives, which claimed women have the right to an education, was dedicated to and commissioned by her. Such was Catherine's impression on people, that even her enemy, Thomas Cromwell, said of her "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History."^[2] She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day for the sake of their families.^[3] Furthermore, Catherine won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor.^[3] She was also a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Saint Thomas More. Some saw her as a martyr.^[49][50]

In the reign of her daughter Mary I of England, her marriage to Henry VIII was declared "good and valid." Her daughter Queen Mary also had several portraits commissioned of Catherine, and it would not by any means be the last time she was painted. After her death, numerous portraits were painted of her, particularly of her speech at the Legatine Trial, a moment accurately rendered in Shakespeare's play about Henry VIII.

Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral can be seen and there is hardly ever a time when it is not decorated with flowers or pomegranates, her heraldic symbol. It bears the title Katharine Queen of England.

In the 20th century, George V's wife, Mary of Teck, had her grave upgraded and there are now banners there denoting Catherine as a Queen of England. Every year at Peterborough Cathedral there is a service in her memory. There are processions, prayers, and various events in the Cathedral including processions to Catherine's grave in which candles, pomegranates, flowers and other offerings are placed on her grave. On the service commemorating the 470th anniversary of her death, the Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom attended. During the 2010 service a rendition of Catherine of Aragon's speech before the legatine court was read by Jane Lapotaire. There is a statue of her in her birthplace of Alcalá de Henares, as a young woman holding a book and a rose.^[51]

Catherine has remained a popular biographical subject to the present day. The American historian Garrett Mattingly was the author of a popular biography Katherine of Aragon in 1942. In 1966, Catherine 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.

Grave of Katherine of Aragon in Peterborough Cathedral.

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.^[52][53][54] Giles Tremlett's biography "Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII" came out in 2010, and Julia Fox's biography of Catherine of Aragon will be released in 2011.^{[dated info]}

Places and statues

• In Alcalá de Henares, the place of Catherine's birth, a statue of Catherine as a young woman holding a rose and a book can be seen in the Archbishop's Palace.
• Peterborough is twinned with the Castilian city of Alcalá de Henares. Children from schools in the two places have learned about each other as part of the twinning venture, and artists have even come over from Alcalá de Henares to paint Catherine's tombstone.
• Aragon Road in Ampthill is named after Catherine, also in Ampthill there is a statue of a cross named "Queen Catherine's Cross" in her honour. During her exile from Henrys life, Katharine lived in one of the country manors in Ampthill.

Spelling of her name

Her baptismal name was "Catalina", but "Catherine" was soon the accepted form in England after her marriage to Arthur (who later died of natural causes).^[42] Catherine herself signed her name "Katherine", "Katherina", "Katharine" and sometimes "Katharina". In a letter to her, Arthur, her husband, addressed her as "Princess Katerine". Her daughter Queen Mary I called her "Quene Kateryn", in her will. Rarely were names, particularly first names, written in an exact manner during the sixteenth century and it is evident from Catherine's own letters that she endorsed different variations.^[55] Loveknots built into his various palaces by her husband, Henry VIII, display the initials "H & K",^[56] as do other items belonging to Henry and Catherine, including gold goblets, a gold salt cellar, basins of gold, and candlesticks. Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral is marked "Katharine Queen of England".^[57][58]

Titles, styles and arms

Catherine of Aragon's arms while queen^[59]

16 December 1485 – 26 March 1489: Su Alteza Real Infanta Catalina de Castilla, León y Aragón (In English: Her Royal Highness Infanta Katharine of Castile, Leon and Aragon)

26 March 1489 – 14 November 1501: Su Alteza Real Infanta Catalina de Castilla, León y Aragón, Princesa de Gales (In English: Her Royal Highness Infanta Katharine of Castile, Leon and Aragon, Princess of Wales)

14 November 1501 – 2 April 1502: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester

2 April 1502 – 11 June 1509: Her Royal Highness Princess Dowager of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Countess Dowager of Chester

11 June 1509 – 23 May 1533: Her Majesty The Queen of England, Ireland and France (Claim to French Throne nominal)

23 May 1533 – 7 January 1536: Her Royal Highness Princess Dowager of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Countess Dowager of Chester

In art and media

Over the years, numerous artistic and cultural works have been dedicated to her, written about her, or mentioned her, including some by her husband Henry VIII, who wrote "Grene growth the holy" about and for her, and Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated "The Education of Christian Women" to her.^[60]

Catherine of Aragon has been portrayed in film, television, plays, books, and other forms many times, and as a result she has stayed very much in popular memory. There has never been a film or television series where she is the main character although an arguable exception is the first episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII which is told from her point of view and where she is portrayed by Annette Crosbie. There are also many novels, songs, and poems written about her. Shakespeare's play Henry VIII is tremendously successful in recreating, with great accuracy, Catherine's statement about the legitimacy of her marriage at the court in Blackfriars before King Henry, and Catherine's portrayal is very sympathetic therein. However, most of the rest of the play is an attempt to absolve many, especially Henry VIII, and the timing of key incidents (including Catherine's death) are changed and other events are avoided (the play makes Henry nearly an innocent pawn in the hands of a dastard Cardinal Wolsey, and the play stops short of Anne Boleyn's execution).

Although Catherine is often portrayed in film and on stage as having possessed the stereotypical Spanish traits of dark hair and eyes as well an olive complexion, existing portraits and contemporary descriptions depict her as having had blue eyes, fair skin, and reddish-blonde hair, not uncommon for Spaniards from the northern regions of Spain, such as those from her father's land of Aragon. Furthermore, she was part English, through her ancestors, Katherine of Lancaster and Philippa of Lancaster, who were both daughters of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.

She is often played with a Spanish accent; from most reports, this is accurate, as she never fully mastered the English language.

Dame Ellen Terry as Catherine of Aragon

Music and rhymes

• The song "Green groweth the holly" is said to have been written for her by Henry VIII.
• In the children's nursery rhyme "I had a little nut tree" she is the "King of Spain's Daughter".

Books

Catherine is the main character in:

• Katharine, The Virgin Widow, The Shadow of the Pomegranate, and The King's Secret Matter (later published in an omnibus Katharine of Aragon) by Jean Plaidy
• The King's Pleasure, by Norah Lofts;
• The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory (a novel about Catherine's younger years);
• Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer (young adult novel);
• Isabella's Daughter by Charity Bishop.

Catherine is a character in:

• Murder Most Royal, by Jean Plaidy;
• The Trusted Servant by Alison Macleod
• The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (a novel about Mary Boleyn's life)
• The Dark Rose, Volume 2 of The Morland Dynasty, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• Keeper of the King's Secrets by Michelle Diener

Theatre, film, stage, and TV

Catherine was portrayed by:

• Sarah Siddons in the 18th century, in Shakespeare's Henry VIII. She told Samuel Johnson that the role of Queen Catherine was her favourite of all the Shakespearean roles she had played, as it was "the most natural".^[61]
• Violet Vanbrugh in the 1911 short film production of William Shakespeare's play Henry VIII (first film portrayal).
• German actress Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein in the film Anna Boleyn.
• Rosalie Crutchley in The Sword and the Rose, an account of Mary Tudor's romance with the Duke of Suffolk in 1515. (Crutchley later played Henry's sixth queen Katherine Parr in The Six Wives of Henry VIII.)
• Greek actress Irene Pappas in Hal B. Wallis' acclaimed film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).
• Frances Cuka in the 1973 film Henry VIII and his Six Wives. Keith Michell reprised his role as Henry VIII. A scene was incorporated between Frances Cuka and Charlotte Rampling (playing Anne Boleyn) to show their quiet, glacial enmity.
• Claire Bloom in a 1979 adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VIII.
• British actress Annette Crosbie in a 90-minute television drama entitled "Catherine of Aragon", the first part of the BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
• Annabelle Dowler in Dr. David Starkey's 2001 documentary series on Henry VIII's Six Wives.
• Spanish actress Yolanda Vasquez, a brief appearance in the British TV version "The Other Boleyn Girl" (January 2003), opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn.
• Assumpta Serna in the October 2003 ITV two-part television drama, "Henry VIII" which starred Ray Winstone in the title role. Part 1 chronicled the king's life from the birth of his bastard son, Henry Fitzroy until the execution of Anne Boleyn in 1536. David Suchet co-starred as Cardinal Wolsey.
• Marge Simpson (voiced by Julie Kavner), as "Margerine of Aragon" in The Simpsons episode "Margical History Tour."
• Maria Doyle Kennedy in the Showtime 2007 television series, The Tudors opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry. For her performance, Kennedy won an IFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Television, and a Gemini Award for an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series.
• Ana Torrent in the 2007 film adaptation of the novel The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, with Eric Bana as Henry VIII.
• Virginia Weeks portrayed her in the play Six Dead Queens and an Inflatable Henry, and is one of only three productions that show Catherine with the correct colouring.
• In 2008 she was played by Victoria Pelro in the film The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary.
• She is played by Siobhan Hewlett in the 2009 documentary Henry: Mind of a Tyrant. This documentary is one of the few portrayals of Catherine to get her appearance correct.
• Kate Duchêne in a 2010 adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VIII at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Ancestry

See also

Catholicism portal

• List of English consorts
• Descendants of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Find more about Catherine of Aragon on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Catherine of Aragon's divorce papers and other Tudor treasures online to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession
• tudorhistory.org – An overview of her life, accompanied by a portrait gallery
• englishhistory.net – An in-depth look at her life and times
• A geo-biography of the Six Wives of Henry the VIII on Google Earth
• Guardian unlimited, letter from her to Pope Clement VII
• Katharine of Aragon.com – An Official Website For Her Cause