(Cover image – © Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)
Reputation was a delicate thing for Tudor women, even more so than the reputation of modern women today, and Catherine had narrowly escaped hers being ruined by her claim that her marriage to her beloved, deceased Arthur was unconsummated.
If she were not a maiden, her life would not have been the famous one that intrigues us so much today.
Who knows what might have become of our strong-willed Catalina?
However, whilst Catherine was worrying about her reputation and preparing to wed her first husband’s little brother, her father-in-law had resolved an issue of his own; Catherine’s dowry.
Although England was a powerful country, keeping money safely locked up was a must for King Henry VII as he was desperately fighting to get a hold of the 200,000 ducats dowry (which would possibly be millions in today’s society considering the change in value over so many centuries) that her father, King Ferdinand, had promised him, of which Henry spent the final years of his life chasing, although it was never paid and had in fact left him wanting to break up the engagement between his son and Catherine in order to find his son a more ‘suitable’ match. In other words, he wanted a woman whose parents could pay her dowry quickly.
Not to mention, Catherine herself even began to sell her belongings and use some of her own allowance to pay for her own dowry, leaving her financially unstable by 1507.
It was only by her father-in-law’s defeat with his years’ long battle with tuberculosis and his subsequent death at the age of fifty-two on 21st April 1509 that proved the end for Catherine’s stress over her dowry. England had just lost their King and now they not only had a grand, Kingly funeral to organise but the coronation of the new King, his son; King Henry VIII.
. . .
The King’s death was a hard fact to swallow for many especially Catherine and her proposed future-husband Henry; over the years of their marriage being negotiated, the two had grown quite close and even formed a respectful friendship over the understanding that the two would one day marry. Although we do not know if either one of them loved their partner, it is understood by many historians that the two maintained a mutual fondness and affection for one another and therefore comforted one another during this troubling time.
Catherine was not the only one who had a difficult relationship with her father-in-law, in fact, it is believed that Henry himself was not the closest to his father. After all, he was merely seen as the ‘spare to the heir’ and had lived most of his life with his younger sisters away from his older brother and even after his brother’s death, his father had only increased his hyper-protection of his only son by sheltering him from a ‘normal’ life of enjoying your childhood. Nonetheless, losing your father and the only parent you had left would have been devasting for the mere seventeen-year-old King-to-be.
Just days after his death, as funerals for royalty were swift and of the utmost importance to arrange, King Henry VII was laid to rest at Westminster Abbey beside his sweet Elizabeth whilst Catherine (along with her sister-in-law Mary who was already in talks of arranging her own marriage to Catherine’s nephew Charles who would later break off the engagement and become the Holy Roman Emperor) was dressed in the appropriate mourning garbs and walked behind the procession. Shame it was the funeral of her father-in-law and not her beloved Arthur that she was able to attend.
Henry, of course, did not attend due to the belief that no one should be allowed to imagine the death of the King, even though Henry had yet to be crowned.
. . .
Lovely things were in store for Catherine though, not everything was doom and gloom as, on the intense urging of the members of the Privy Council, Henry essentially proposed to Catherine by visiting her private apartments and dismissing her ladies before asking Catherine to be not only his wife but his Queen. At this point, Catherine had lived in England long enough to learn more of the language and easily accepted his offer of marriage. England now had hope for a better future with the announcement of the future King now having found himself his future bride.
And so, on the 11th June 1509, Henry and Catherine were married by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a private ceremony at the church at Greenwich where Henry was born. Unlike other royal marriages, theirs was one of simplicity and was an altogether quiet affair due to the wedding taking place still very close to the previous Kings’ death and because Henry was still in mourning for his father. At the point of marrying, Catherine was twenty-three-years-old when she married Henry who was five years her junior who was a mere week or two away from turning eighteen-years-old.
Despite their wedding being a quiet affair, this did not stop Catherine or Henry from making the most out of this happy change in their lives, as on the 24th June of the same year, Henry and Catherine (dressed in beautiful white satin with Catherine’s beautiful auburn hair hanging loose with her crown sitting tidily on her head) were officially crowned King and Queen of England, ending the misery and sorrow that came with Henry VII’s death.
. . .
As they should, both Catherine and Henry loved and thrust themselves into the ‘pleasures’ of power and being a newly-wedded couple as festivities began and lasted for many days over the coronation of England’s new King and Queen. And the couple’s adoration of one another seemed to blossom even more as they spent as much time as they possibly could together, outside of their royal and individual duties; from hunting, dancing, enjoying music and even gifting each other expensive presents, the pair were seen by onlooked to be deeply in love, with some sources stating how passionately in love Catherine appeared with her new husband in the many affectionate letters she wrote to her father expressing her joys over her new husband. In return for his daughter’s happy manner, Ferdinand sent his new son-in-law some very expensive Spanish horses, which would have been a costly present in the case of transporting them safely to England.
. . .
And the good fortune for Catherine was only just beginning, for just two months after their wedding-slash-coronation, the blessed announcement that Catherine was carrying the couple’s first child was spread across the lands, causing even more festivities to be held in her honour.
The couple’s infatuation with one another only seemed to deepen with Catherine’s swift ability to produce a child for her new husband. Rest assured, she was going to do everything in her power to ensure that this child was born healthy and safely as Henry was convinced beyond belief that this child was the son and heir that he needed to secure his throne. Some say that he saw this swift pregnancy as a sign that his reign was blessed by God and that marrying Catherine was his destiny, as she had already proven that she could become with child so early on into their marriage.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t just in her baby-making abilities that Catherine proved herself a worthy Queen of England, but it was in her political expertise also. One of her most valuable political advantages was her holding of the positioning of ambassador for the Spanish court in England in 1507 (which she held for a short period after becoming Queen also) which was normally a position held by a man, making her the first female ambassador in European history and with her mother’s choice in educating her in politics, it meant that she was quite helpful to her new husband when political matters became a new issue to face. Many historians say that Henry was quite grateful for his wife’s political advice and that he valued her opinion quite strongly and highly as though she was one of his Privy Council Members—something quite unique as a Queen was often not allowed to become involved in such matters as they were merely there to serve their husband and not step ‘out-of-bounds’ by becoming too opinionated.
Perhaps this is the reason behind her choice to depict a pomegranate as her royal badge as well as for her motto of ‘Humble and Loyal’, with the motto symbolising her loyalty and submission to her husband (as women were to submit to their husband’s will, even Queens) and the pomegranate standing as an ancient symbol for fertility and as a sign of Christ’s resurrection in the eyes of the Church. She was smart in her approach of handling her husband as she had seen what affect being stubborn and opinionated might have on your marriage alike her mother and father who argued frequently throughout their marriage.
In England’s eyes, she was a perfect Queen and this pregnancy had only reassured not only the people but the King of this as well.
. . .
Only this happiness was not to last long at all.
Just five months after the royal announcement of Catherine’s pregnancy, on 31st January 1510, Catherine sadly went into labour prematurely and delivered a stillborn daughter. Not only had Catherine delivered far too early but she had delivered what would have been a daughter and not a son.
However, Henry’s response was not one of anger but of comfort towards his wife as both were disappointed but determined to produce a living male heir for England. Besides, Henry was not one to lose hope over this as it was known that a miscarriage or a stillbirth of a first pregnancy for most women (including Queens) was a common occurrence. And so, the two began to try again for their heir, after waiting for Catherine to overcome the grievance of their stillborn daughter first, of course.
Catherine’s delivery of a still-born daughter was not the only arrow of bad luck to strike her marriage as not too long after, another arrow struck—the King had a lover.
Rumours about the King’s straying from the marital bed (not long after Catherine fell pregnant) with a woman called Anne Stafford, a member of Catherine’s household and the daughter of the Duke of Buckingham soon began to spread around the court, leaving Catherine shocked and embarrassed at the news of her husband sharing his bed with another woman – we shall discuss Anne Stafford’s affair with the King as well as his other affairs during his marriage to Catherine in further detail in forthcoming posts.
Though it was not her that became angered by this news, but it was Henry himself, who had gone to great lengths to conceal this affair from his clearly vulnerable wife, showing that he at least cared to protect her reputation and spare her feelings from getting hurt.
Regardless, Catherine showed no public anger or jealousy towards this news (though we can most probably guess that she had a word or two with Henry about it) and was even soon pregnant for the second time in May of that same year.
Although alike the first pregnancy, this child also died, although it was a boy called Henry who lived for only a month and a half and was buried at Westminster Abbey so shortly after becoming ill with some unknown disease.
The death of this long-awaited heir is known to have deeply traumatised the young couple and Catherine is even said to have wept bitterly at the mere mention of her tragically departed son for many years to come. The King, it’s said, never forgot the death of his son and would even go to use his son’s death as a reason for later divorcing Catherine in favour of his new wife, but we will discuss this at a later point.
. . .
And when the war between England and France commenced, even more hardship followed; whilst a now once-again heavily pregnant for the third time, twenty-seven Catherine was left all alone in England whilst her husband (now twenty-two and growing more handsome by the second) left to wage war against Francis I in France, more troubles arose. With Henry now in France (and safely concealed from his wife’s cautious eyes), he was now able to have more affairs without his wife’s knowledge as he entertained himself in France during the war (with another one of his mistresses being Étiennette de la Baume, who we shall also learn about), meaning that he was free to do whatever he pleased without the risk of being scorned by his loving wife.
Whilst Catherine was not content to sit helplessly whilst her husband fought dangers untold in a war he started, as troubles soon began brewing in Scotland where Henry’s younger sister Margaret had married the King of Scotland. And now he was declaring to attack England whilst she was at her most vulnerable with an absent King and a Queen who was too busy focusing on birthing a healthy heir.
But Catherine proved everyone wrong (even her husband) when she began to exercise her powers as Queen and show off her political and military knowledge as soon as Scotland declared war on England. As soon as she could, Catherine began to work with her councillors on a plan of action, leading to her building an army (and polishing up the navy) in preparation for an attack. She was harsh on anyone who did not swiftly offer aid or information that could be useful in the war, almost in the way her husband would if he had been present.
And in Catherine’s greatest honour, her efforts worked out splendidly as she appeared at the English-Spanish border, heavily pregnant, carrying 1,500 sets of armour for the troops and displaying a headpiece fitted with a crown, showing her bravery and reluctance to let her sex or her condition hinder her from securing a victory on her husband’s behalf. And not only did Catherine secure a win for England but she succeeded in defeating the Scottish King who himself was killed during the battle.
As if Catherine wasn’t respectable enough towards her husband, it is said that in a letter where she happily disclosed that she had won the battle on his behalf, she also sent him ‘a piece of the Scottish King’s bloodied surcoat (“for your banners”)’ {1} showing her loyalty and submission to her husband once again.
And all doing this whilst carrying a very well-developed child inside her swollen belly, Henry was more than proud as Henry commended Catherine for succeeding in winning ‘…a war… as fiercely as Queen Isabella, her mother, had done in Spain’ {1}.
So, Catherine proved herself once again as England’s worthy Queen, gathering even more respect and admiration from her subjects and members of her husband’s private council.
. . .
However the question I find myself asking is this; we all find ourselves questioning of whether Catherine had really slept with her first husband or if she was still a virgin as she fiercely claimed most of her life but what I want to know is: how experienced was the King, Henry VIII, before his first marriage to Catherine?
Everyone knows that fidelity was not in Henry’s book of marriage rules as he had dozens of affairs during his lifetime, however, the one unanswered question remains of whether Henry himself had been a virgin when he first married Catherine at nearly eighteen-years of age?
There are many reasons to suggest that Henry himself was a virgin when he married Catherine such as that he was still a teenager at the time of his first marriage and, despite teenagers often marrying during this time, teenage sex was often seen as dangerous to one’s health (and with Henry’s own grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, almost losing her own life giving birth to his father at the too-young-to-be-a-mother age of thirteen whilst her husband was almost twice her age). This means that Henry might not have had time or been permitted to ‘enjoy his youth’ by wooing any of the young girls or ladies of the court before his marriage. Also, it must be taken into consideration that he might have been a virgin at the time of his marriage to Catherine because of how long it took for him to ‘realise’ that Catherine might have lied about her virginity; if he had truly been sexually active before his marriage, he would have been able to take other girls’ maidenheads and therefore he would have been aware of what this looked like (or felt like, gross to imagine). So, since he waited almost two decades to bring this matter up, it could be conceived that he was a virgin at the time as he might have been genuinely confused about Catherine’s virginity.
So, perhaps our great Queen Catherine was little Henry VIII’s first—not many Queens would get to hold such an honour, being able to take your husband’s virginity, as we all know that young boys would have liked to ‘have some fun’ before their marriage, even royals. Looks like Catherine might have entered the marriage on a high note, hmm, but would it remain this way?
We’ll find out soon in our forthcoming post; ‘Doomed to a marriage full of infidelity and misery’.
Until then…
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
References:
1. Meilan Solly (2020). When Catherine of Aragon Led England’s Armies to Victory Over Scotland. Smithsonian Magazine [online]. Available from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-catherine-aragon-led-englands-armies-victory-over-scotland-180975982/
Comments