Katharine of Aragon

Katharine of Aragon

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Katharine was born on the 16th December 1485, at the Archbishop's Palace of Alcalá de Henares, Alcala de Henares, Spain.

Her mother and father were King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, a royal power couple of the time.

From a young age, it was clear that Katharine was going to be beautiful.

She had long auburn hair, bright blue eyes, and a cherubic face.

People actually called her “the most beautiful creature in the world,” and one courtier noted,

“There were few women who could compete with the Queen in her prime.”

When Katharine was three years old, she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

The pair became pen-pals over the long years of their childhood betrothal, corresponding in Latin to get over their Spanish-English language barrier.

Prince Arthur and his Spanish princess officially married on November 14th 1501, in a stately, lavish ceremony that fit their ranks as royals.

Right before the wedding, Katharine’s new beau even promised his parents he would be a “true and loving husband” to his wife.

Little did he know, tragedy was just around the corner.

Katharine and Arthur went to Wales for their honeymoon.

Mere months later, their celebrations turned to terror.

The fatal “sweating sickness” was ravaging the area at the time, and they both fell desperately ill, with the sickness.

Bedridden and delirious, Katharine spent the next days fighting for her life.

When she pulled through, she found out, that her young husband had died.

At just 16 years old, Katharine was a widow…

Her father-in-law, King Henry VII, was anxious to keep her dowry, and sending her back to Spain meant giving a full refund.

It has been said, that the 45-year-old widowed monarch, even considered marrying her himself.

Prince Harry - the future Henry VIII- was chosen as her next husband, instead.

While waiting for the marriage to go ahead, Katharine was practically penniless in the drafty manor of Durham house, London.

She had to support herself, and also her ladies-in-waiting.

Then Prince Henry dealt her a crushing blow.....

In 1505 when he turned 14, Henry changed his mind, and refused to marry the Spanish princess.

Katharine had to think very fast to keep her crown.

Devout and stubborn, she felt it was her destiny to rule, and took everything Henry and his father threw at her, with determination.

Katharine and her father, came up with a brilliant solution to stay in royal favor.

King Ferdinand suggested that instead of royal bride, Katharine become the “Spanish Ambassador” to England, making her Europe’s first female ambassador in the process.

It worked, and Katharine got to stay in England and win Henry back.

Because Katharine had already been married to Henry's brother, they had to get special dispensation from the Pope for the union.

Even then, the royals only got a reluctant go-ahead…and only after Katharine made a extremely controversial confession.

Katharine’s assured that she and Arthur, had never consummated their union.

This would come back to haunt Katharine, many years later.

After seven long years, Henry finally marry Katharine.

When the now 23-year-old Katharine walked down the aisle on June 11th 1509, Henry had been newly crowned king.

Accordingly, Queen Katharine had her own lavish coronation just a handful of days later.

In his best years with Katharine, Henry was a strapping, auburn-haired athlete who loved hunting as much as he loved his Humanist education.

Still, Henry was only a 17-year-old teenager when he married, and his immaturity started to show.

Just two months after her wedding, Katharine was overjoyed to find herself pregnant.

Five months later, she went into premature labor, and gave birth to a stillborn girl.

After she suffered her first of many miscarriages, her stomach remained puffy, probably from infection.

Yet this caused her doctors to believe that she had been carrying twins and one had survived, even as Katharine continued to menstruate.

Katharine went into seclusion again, for the royal birth two months later.

No child arrived, and the young Queen was disappointed all over again.

In 1510, right around the time Katharine was suffering the misery of her first stillbirth labor, Henry took up with the first of his mistresses - either Elizabeth or Anne Hastings, two beautiful nobles in his court.

Soon after her “twins” ordeal, Katharine was pregnant again—and this time things were different.

She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, christened Henry, in January 1511.

At the sight of a living baby, and a boy at that, the young royals breathed a sigh of relief, but things were about to go horribly wrong.

In February 1511, their baby Henry passed away, he was just 52 days old.

The young couple were heartbroken.

Contemporary sources indicate the child may have suffered from a digestive issue.

While Henry was away in France, Scotland saw an opening and started invading England.

Katharine became a warrior queen, and defended her new country.

She helped raised armies, made banners, and marshalled allies.

She was seven months pregnant at the time.

Unfortunately, the stresses of going to war, would come at a high price - Katharine went into premature labor again, on September 17th 1513, just days after rallying her men.

It was another boy, and it was another stillbirth.

The next year, the same unbearable tragedy happened again.

This made her fourth failed pregnancy in five years.

In 1516, Katharine gave birth to her one child who would survive into adulthood, the future Queen Mary I of England.

Around this time, Henry had been seeing yet another mistress, this time it was Bessie Blount.

Though Katharine seemed to permit most of his dalliances, this one drove her mad.

Not only did Henry carry on the affair for three long years, Blount even gave birth to a healthy boy, Henry’s illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy.

Katharine’s final pregnancy happened in 1518, and it was absolutely heartbreaking.

By now, the Queen was desperate for a living son, and even made a pilgrimage to a shrine to beg God for a healthy boy.

Her prayers were not answered.

She gave birth to a fragile daughter who lived only a few hours.

Henry and Katharine’s relationship was falling apart, and

in 1522, the queen hired a new lady-in-waiting- Anne Boleyn.

Henry was utterly smitten with Anne.

Anne refused to sleep with Henry, without a ring.

Katharine was now past her childbearing years, whereas Anne was 11 years younger than Henry, and he still desperately wanted that heir.

He’d stop at nothing to get it.

Desperate for a son, Henry decided to rid himself of Katharine, and marry Anne Boleyn.

According to Henry, the union between himself and Katharine was cursed, all because he had broken God’s law when he married his brother’s widow.

Katharine was shocked at Henry’s attempts to deny their entire marriage.

She knew she was the rightful Queen of England.

She also swore, to her dying day, that she had never consummated the marriage with Arthur.

Henry tried to convince his wife to retire into a convent, where she could spend the rest of her days in relative comfort, as a nun.

Katharine took big exception to the proposal.

She reportedly snapped, “God never called me to a nunnery. I am the King’s true and legitimate wife.”

" The Kings Great Matter” dragged on for years as Henry tried to get the Church to let him divorce his wife.

Henry eventually broke from Rome, taking over as Head of the Church, annulling his own marriage, and starting the English Reformation.

In July 1531, he left Katharine, to go on a hunting trip and never came back.

Practically overnight, he made the decision to move the court with him, while leaving Queen Katharine and Princess Mary behind.

Katharine never saw Henry again.

For the next four years, Katharine moved from castle to castle.

Banished from Court, she was also banished from seeing their only daughter Mary, a cruelty Katharine could hardly bear.

By the time she was at Kimbolton Castle, she started behaving strangely, lived in one room of the house, leaving it only to attend Mass.

Katharine’s self-hatred grew.

Besides starving herself, and self confinement, the once-and-former Queen took to wearing a hair shirt, a coarse and uncomfortable garment that was meant to “mortify” the flesh, torment the wearer, irritate their skin, and promote repentance.

Just what Katharine was seeking repentance for, we will never know.

Had she lied about consummating her marriage with Arthur?

Katharine never stopped referring to herself, as the true Queen of England.

She also demanded that her servants do the same, addressing her with her rightful title.

By 1535, she felt herself growing weaker and weaker, with a strange illness.

Knowing the end was near, she wrote a last letter to her husband—

In it, she forces him to remember his wrongs toward her, but also writes,

“For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also.”

In her closing lines, Catherine directs Henry to take care of their daughter Mary, but ends with a tender show of her own affection for him.

“Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.”

In true fashion, she signed the letter “Katharine the Quene.”

On January 7th, 1536, Katharine passed at Kimbolton Castle.

On the day of Katharine’s funeral—Anne Boleyn miscarried.

In a tragic irony to end all tragic ironies, that stillbirth also ended up being a baby boy.

Married to Henry for 23 years, 11 months, and 19 days, Katharine is ultimately the longest-serving of Henry VIII’s six queens.

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https://www.historyextra.com/.../catherine-aragon.../

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders