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Writer's picture Emma Holbrook

Catherine of Aragon – A grieving widow yet hopeful queen-in-waiting


(Cover image – © Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)



Losing your husband after just under a year of marriage was one matter but to lose someone you deeply cared about (and potentially loved in Catherine’s case as Arthur’s letters to her certainly proved there was an affectionate attraction between the two) and someone who was your closest friend in a foreign land for quite some time must be heart-breaking. And the worst part is that even to this day, historians cannot officially confirm what sickness caused the premature death of England’s most beloved prince.


Over the years, many historians have offered their diagnosis of what the sickness might have been; from the sweating sickness, influenza, tuberculosis to even possible side-effects of Type 1 diabetes—all of these contemporary opinions have been favored by history as Arthur was said to be easily prone to sickness because it is believed that he was born one month premature, which was not uncommon during the Tudor era since physicians could not accurately determine how far along a woman was into her pregnancy until she started showing.


Whatever the sickness was, it was definitely powerful enough to bring down a most beloved Tudor prince and it certainly ripped a large hole in England and all those who lay in her.


Sadly, as mentioned in our earlier post, poor Catherine was still suffering from her bout of this mysterious sickness at the time of Arthur’s death on the 2nd of April and did not learn about his death until weeks later. Unfortunately for the rest of England, their future King’s untimely death was just enough to bring the whole of England’s spirits down and spread mourning across the lands.


Very shortly after Arthur’s death, possibly a few days considering how the news would have been carried either by letter or by a trusted servant, the King and Queen were given the devasting news of their son’s passing. King VII was delivered the tragic tidings by his own confessor who said ‘[his] dearest son hath departed to God’ leaving the devasted king sobbing in tears at his eldest son’s death. Sweet Elizabeth of York was said to have put on a brave face as she consoled her husband throughout the night, reminding him of their other children (and other living son) who could take on the duties of the crown but as soon as the Queen retreated into her private chambers, servants confessed to have been devasted at the sight of their ‘sweet, angelic’ Queen collapsing to the ground with sorrowful sobs and endless prayers to God for her beloved son’s soul.


And naturally, as the future heir to the throne of England and England’s favourite prince, Arthur’s funeral was promised (and delivered) to be an expensive, mournful and lengthy affair. It was important that the Crown recognised the significance of Arthur’s death and the fact that he was the Crown Prince by organising a beautiful and respectful funeral for him – and the whole of London was in agreement with this statement as on the 8th of April, just days after his death, nearly every person in London, rich and poor, walked along the streets for a procession for his soul as every parish church sang a lament for their lost prince—for England, they had lost their future as well as their prince and many offered their condolences and support to their monarchs during this terrible time.


All who loved and respected Arthur attended his funeral, except one—Arthur’s widow, Catherine. Despite Catherine’s delirium from her sickness having ‘cleared up’ at the time of his funeral taking place and her visible reeling from her loss of her newly-wedded husband, Catherine was not present at her husband’s lavish funeral on the 23rd of April where ‘attendants sprinkled his embalmed body with holy water and laid him to rest at Ludlow Castle’ {1} What was even worst was that it was a tradition during this time for royal widows could NOT attend the mourning services for their fallen husbands as ‘it would remind their subjects of the monarch's mortality’ and in any case, imagining the death of a royal family member, especially the Princess and future Queen, was seen as treason and punishable by death {2}. Leaving deserted, confused Catherine to suffer miserably alone without her husband or her future subjects to comfort her.


. . . .


If you think not being able to attend her husband’s funeral was painful enough, what came next was even more unbearable for the teenage Spanish princess—her parents-in-law’s undying hope for an heir. Catherine would have been too invested in her grieving to have spoken much to her parents-in-law about her brief marriage to their son and heir and it was their assumption that, after living together as a married couple for five months, that Catherine would be with child. What was more important to King Henry was that diplomatically speaking, Arthur’s death couldn’t have come at a worst time as his marriage to Catherine was of the utmost importance (with her being the daughter of Europe’s most powerful King) and therefore, the King and Queen clung to the hopes that Catherine would have conceived a child with their son shortly before they were both struck down with this sickness.


To ensure the safe return of their daughter-in-law from Ludlow to London, a carriage dressed intricately in black to transport the grieving widow was sent and under the strictest of orders, Catherine’s journey to London was painfully slow as the King and Queen believed Catherine was carrying the most precious of cargo; their unborn grandchild.


Only when she arrived, their hopes and dreams that their son’s death had not been in vain were cruelly crushed when a fragile, clearly not-pregnant Catherine appeared from the carriage. But then some surprising and quite frankly well-timed news came, it wasn’t the Princess who was expecting—it was the Queen!


. . . .


Elizabeth of York, at the age of thirty-six where pregnancy was considered rare to happen and dangerous, had fallen pregnant with her eighth child and it was just the miracle that England needed following the tragic death of the future King.


Everyone was rejoiced, including Catherine and Elizabeth, who both believed this child was blessed by God and would be a boy born to the royal family to bless a King and Queen cruelly stripped of their eldest child and son. But alike their son’s blissful marriage, this too would not be the blessing they sought.


The following year, on the 2nd of February, following a tremendously painful and difficult birth, Elizabeth gave birth to a final daughter whom she named Katherine (presumably after the wife of their most beloved child) and the following day (and week) after suffering complications from this tiring birth at such a fragile age, both Elizabeth and the infant princess were pronounced dead with Elizabeth dying tragically on her thirty-seventh birthday.


King Henry’s devastation had reached its peak as the days and weeks following his beloved son, daughter and now faithful wife’s death, he shut himself away and fell ill with pneumonia, leaving England clinging to hope that their King would survive.


Fortunately—should the King fall to this illness, the crown would pass to his only surviving male heir, eleven-year-old Henry (or Harry as he was known)—the King did not fall and soon recovered enough to arrange a beautiful funeral for his deceased wife and daughter.


. . . .


As if Elizabeth’s, Katherine’s and Arthur’s tragic and untimely passing weren’t enough for King Henry VII to deal with, Catherine’s shocking announcement following the weeks of his son’s death would throw all his plans out the window; she was a virgin! —she was now claiming that she and Arthur had not consummated the marriage!


Now the pressure was on for the King to decide what to do with this young Spanish Princess who claimed that his son had never taken her maidenhead, as it was so eloquently called in those days.


The first choice for the King was to marry Catherine off to his second and only surviving son, Henry. Of course, the King had reason to suspect that Catherine was not telling the truth considering how it took her five months to admit that she was still a virgin and how smitten the couple were with one another, but as soon as Catherine (a devout Catholic whose religion was more important to her than her own life, yes, religion was that serious to her) swore on the sacrament to a papal legate, basically a representative of the Pope in Rome, that the marriage was unconsummated and that she was still ‘intact’, the King was now somewhat pleased that the alliance with Spain was not in ruins. After all, even to this day, it is known that if a marriage is never consummated, it was not legally binding, meaning that Catherine could marry Henry without it being seen as sinful or wrongfully done in the eyes of the Church.

However, this was not the King’s only option, in fact, this next one might not just shock you but disgust you. The King, Arthur’s own father, considered taking Catherine as his bride!


Eww doesn’t even come close to how disgusting this sounded but it is true—with Elizabeth having proven that the King could still have children at such an old age, her sudden death leaving him without a Queen and with Katherine being so young, he considered taking Catherine as his wife also!

Let’s just say that this idea did not go down well when Henry VII announced this as a possibility to both Catherine and her parents as her mother Isabella wrote to Henry ‘Un mal abominación que ofende a los oídos’ ( an evil abomination that offends the ears.)’ and Catherine herself even wrote to her parents’ about her distaste towards potentially marrying her father-in-law, a man who was almost of a similar age to her own father.


Just a brief note, Catherine wasn’t the only one of Isabella’s children that Henry VII considered marrying; her sister Queen Joanna of Castile as well her distant relation, Johanna, the widow Queen of Naples were also potential candidates for a wife.

. . . .


However, after much deliberation and taking his son and heir into consideration, Henry finally made a decision; Catherine was to marry Henry’s young son Harry (or Henry, as he was also known) and become his rightful Queen as she was still a maiden and ensure the Anglo-Spanish alliance remained in place. With Catherine’s health taking a turn for the worst due to stomach problems as well as the failing health of the King himself (not to mention Isabella’s death leaving Ferdinand eager to secure Catherine’s future), Henry took matters into his own hands, seeking a papal dispensation from the Pope which would allow Catherine and Henry to marry in the eyes of God. And in 1503, this was granted with King Ferdinand writing his pleasure at this news by saying ‘it is well-known in England that the princess is still a virgin.’


Shortly after, plans for arranging Catherine to marry Henry began, so, I suppose, there was a silver lining for Catherine after all? —her reputation was not ruined and she would still be Queen, perhaps this second marriage would be more successful?


(We all know that this was not the case as we explore Catherine’s marriage to King Henry VIII from now on in.)


- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!


References:

1. Dancy Mason (2022). Doomed Facts About Arthur, Prince of Wales. Factinate [online]. Available from: https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-arthur-prince/.


2. Reddit (2016). Why is it against Royal Protocol to attend funerals or certain kinds? Reddit [online]. Available from: https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/3xdnc2/why_is_it_against_royal_protocol_to_attend/.


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