(Cover image – © WeHeartIt)
‘History is written by the survivors, and I am surely that’
- Catherine de Medici, from ‘Reign’.
Whilst this quotation from an empowering portrayal of one of the most intelligent and powerful Queens in history is true, history is also written by men—men have always had control over who and what history remembers, and women unfortunately had history against them from the get-go. Women, regardless of status, have fallen victim to men writing their lives in history based on their beauty, their sexuality, their ability to produce children and so forth. And Catherine of Aragon, despite being a strong Queen, was just another victim to history.
Exaggerated myths and flabbergasting lies have always been created and spread about royals; it was a source of gossip not only in the court but for other royals across the seas. To have a rumour or a false piece of information in your hands to make fun of another royal was like finding gold, ruining or doing damage to another royal’s reputation only makes yours better in comparison.
And although Catherine of Aragon was a respected and almost-feared Queen (because of her devotion to her religion), that did not stop many from making up rumours and myths about her that still linger to this day. However, it is noteworthy to mention that, in comparison to the Queens that came after her, the myths created about her were minimal in number and would not have remotely damaged her reputation, considering they would have been made after her death and her reputation was maintained through the reign of her only surviving child, Mary Tudor, later Mary I of England.
So, as today marks the anniversary of the very day that Catherine of Aragon became the first wife of King Henry VIII nearly six-hundred years on, let us take a look at the myths created about Catherine of Aragon and the truth behind the lies.
. . .
Myth One – Catherine was ‘ugly’ and had a typical Spanish appearance:
As mentioned before, one myth or rumour created about women or Queens throughout history is based off their appearance. In men’s eyes, a woman’s appearance was a very easy thing to critique, and it was well within their right to critique a woman’s appearance because they inevitably controlled and dictated what happened within a woman’s life. If a woman was beautiful, it could go one of two ways; she would find herself having numerous offers of marriage and multiple men trying to court her from a young age (especially if her beauty stood out strongly from the first stages of puberty) or her beauty might deter offers of marriage because men might be put off by her beauty and believe that her beauty might bring unwanted attention to the woman and (in a man’s mind) might lead to infidelity on the woman’s part. Whereas, if a woman was not considered to be beautiful, it could lead to problems later in life, something that the future wife of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves suffered from (and something that we look at in further detail in other posts). It could lead to her finding it difficult to secure an advantageous marriage or gain favour in the court, especially since young ladies were often persuaded by male family members to attract the King’s attention during their time at court as women who the King took an interest in often helped their family’s reputation and power at court increase because the King is interested in them—something that both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour experienced before their marriages to Henry VIII.
So, you can imagine my surprise to learn that there was (and still is) a myth that Catherine was considered physically ‘ugly’ whilst also possessing a ‘typical Spanish appearance’. What contrasting myths, eh?
But it’s clear that this myth is unfounded; as we have previously discussed, Catherine’s appearance was not one that would usually stick out as a ‘typical Spanish’ appearance which was olive-skin, dark eyes, and black hair.
Which Catherine definitely did not have.
Alike her mother, Queen Isabella I of Spain (as well as Queen of Castille in her own right), Catherine actually was of very fairly complexion, had beautifully long auburn hair and bright yet soft blue eyes that warmed the soul, as can be seen below.
© Royal Collection Trust
© Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery
This myth is believed to have been created later on during Catherine’s marriage to Henry VIII both as a way of explaining why Henry would choose to cheat on her constantly as well as a reason behind why he would later divorce her (other than her inability to produce a living male heir). And this myth would be used by the media for casting actresses to portray the Spanish Queen and it often left the producers choosing actresses with incorrect ethnicities as well as appearance, as can be seen through popular depictions of Catherine such as Maria Doyle Kennedy in The Tudors, which is still a great performance regardless of her appearance.
There is even evidence to support that Catherine was in no way considered ugly by people who lived during her reign. Thomas More, a close personal friend of her husband, believed Catherine to be ‘the most beautiful creature in the world’ as there was absolutely ‘nothing lacking in her that the most beautiful girl should have’, in his eyes at least {1}.
So, this myth was absolutely unfounded and, in my opinion, was just created by jealous courtiers who wanted to defame her as Queen in order to allow their daughters and female family members to have a ‘legitimate’ reason behind allowing the King to court them. Thankfully, history stood behind Catherine by documenting powerful men complimenting her looks. Sucks to be anyone who lied about her, eh?
. . .
Myth Two – Catherine was a bloodthirsty Catholic:
Out of all the myths listed here, this is the one that I feel is the most unfounded and I believe that this myth was created as a means of explaining what would later go on to happen under the ruling of her daughter, Mary Tudor, and her religious policies which infamously resulted in her sentencing nearly three-hundred people to burn at the stake for heresy. People have sought after links between Catherine’s devotion to her Catholic faith and Mary I’s political decisions, trying to claim that Catherine imposed her ‘dogmatic’ religion onto her daughter and instilled a ‘bloodthirstiness’ in her that would leave her being seen as ‘overly’ religious by her people.
When, in fact, Catherine was a well-educated Queen who is still to this day revered for her piety. You could not blame a Queen for being so devoted to her religion in a time where religion was everything to even the commonest of people. In fact, if she was not so devoted to her religion, I believe that she would have been scrutinised for her decision against supporting the religion of both the English people and her origins in Spain.
Although Catherine would have viewed religion with passion and held strong to her beliefs, there is no evidence to suggest that she would have been nearly as brutal as her husband, or her daughter would later prove to be. Catherine had shown her strength in her religion in other ways just like her parents, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, has through the expulsion of Jews from Granada in 1492.
Why her people would judge her for being so religious to the point where a myth was created about her in regard to her religion is beyond me. In the myth’s eyes, she was a bloodthirsty Catholic.
In the eyes of the people, she was rightly devoted to God and to preserving a religion that was constantly being challenged by other religions such as Protestantism and Puritanism (a stricter and more brutal form of Protestantism).
If there is anything that history should not judge Catherine on, it is her religion, because she was in no way as brutal or deadly as her husband. No comparison, in my eyes.
. . .
Myth Three – Catherine was horrible to Henry’s mistresses:
Now this is a myth where you can easily tell how and why it’s been started.
It is no secret that Catherine would have been tremendously hurt and insulted by the identities and presence of Henry’s mistresses being shoved in her face every single day without an end but that doesn’t mean that she would have treated them horribly.
No, that would have ruined her reputation as a Queen—just because she had to accept Henry’s mistresses, it did not mean that she would have been right to treat them badly just for sleeping with her husband. They were still her subjects, and she would have had no right by law to punish them harshly or even banish them from court without proper cause, especially if they came from a high-standing family who could have spoken up against her actions and possibly gotten the King to publicly reprimand her.
Mistresses were a necessary evil for royal couples and families during these times and Catherine would have been brought up with the knowledge that her husband might not be faithful and so she would have been taught how to handle with Henry’s mistresses in an appropriate, sensible manner.
Therefore, the idea that Catherine would have treated Henry’s mistresses terribly is just mind-blowing to me. Certainly, there were instances where Catherine would not have been able to control her anger as there are many pieces of evidence that suggest that Catherine argued privately with Henry in regard to his mistresses with one of these instances being said to be so loud that the Spanish Ambassador delivered his concerns over the marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor. However, this instance would prove to be a necessary one as it was just about the same time that Henry made it clear that Anne was not just a mistress who he would inevitably throw away when he got bored. No, he intended to marry her.
Even with the news of Henry’s mistress, Bessie Blount, giving birth to a healthy son (Henry Fitzroy) and then being named Duke of Richmond, meaning that he was a possible heir to the throne over her legitimate daughter Mary—this would have embarrassed and infuriated Catherine, yet she somehow kept it together and maintained her composure, but you can bet that she had a few arguments with Henry behind closed doors.
Yet Bessie Blount was never at risk of Catherine attempting to humiliate her or hurt her in a physical way, Catherine knew that Bessie’s reputation was damaged more than her own since she was thrown away by Henry after he married her off to someone who wished to send her to a nunnery for sleeping with the King as a virgin and an unmarried woman.
Catherine knew how to pick her fights and she did this well, better than her replacement Anne Boleyn, whose fury and disagreement with Henry’s cheating ultimately led to her untimely death. It can even be seen in court records that Catherine warned her ladies not to speak ill against Anne Boleyn because of her importance to the King. Catherine's strength and intelligence was not one to be underestimated.
. . .
Myth Four – Catherine was not a devoted mother to her daughter:
Famously, the myth that Catherine was not a devoted or loving mother towards her sole-surviving child, Mary I of England, has been replicated numerously over time, most recently in the hit television-series featuring Charlotte Hope, ‘The Spanish Princess’, which shows Catherine as being distant and sometimes unaffectionate towards her soft, sweet daughter—something that very far from reality and the true relationship between a mother and her daughter.
We’re not denying that Catherine would have undoubtably been disappointed by not having the son and heir that she and her husband desperately craved, however, the belief that she was not pleased to have given birth to a healthy daughter is not true. Catherine and Henry were thrilled by the arrival of their daughter as it was a living child regardless of her sex and it was not the first time that a Queen’s only (at that point in time) surviving child was a daughter. After all, a princess could prove just as valuable as a prince could because she could provide an advantageous political alliance and potential trading benefits through an arranged marriage, just like her mother had.
And in any case, neither Henry or Catherine had given up hope that Catherine would soon or one day give birth to a living male heir—she had done it before, albeit he had only lived for a month or so, and she was positive that she could do it again.
Though Henry’s hopes were slightly dwindling, and his cheating only increased, the idea of divorcing Catherine or that their marriage was invalid had not yet entered his mind.
. . .
Similar to her mother, Catherine was more than proud to take an interest in securing a superb education for her daughter, contrary to the education of women of the time. From having Mary study complex, difficult languages to ensure that she could converse with rulers from other countries to even having a renowned scholar such as Juan Luis Vives as one of Mary’s private tutors—who even went as far as writing a book based on how he believed Princess Mary’s upbringing to be the ideal way to raise a Christian woman and how the education of women needed to change—, it’s clear that Catherine paid extra close attention to ensuring that her daughter’s sex did not limit her ability to learn and become just as intelligent as a male heir might have been.
Despite Mary being brought up in a strict environment, where she would have had limited freedom because of her royal status, this did not mean that she lacked her mother’s attention nor her love. Catherine doted on her daughter, and this was very much evident in how Mary acted in her teenage years; Catherine modelled obedience, piety and diligence, and Mary willingly took these virtues into herself. Many within the English court believed Mary to be a younger version of her mother, who embodied her devotion to her religion as well as her obedience to her father, even though her refusal to recognize and accept Anne Boleyn as Queen of England instead of her mother caused her more pain than comfort.
And when the time came when Catherine would realise that she could not produce a male heir, she did not abandon her faith in Mary; she believed that Mary would be the heir to the throne of England, above Henry’s bastards or his future children with Anne Boleyn. She was not giving up on her daughter and even when she died, she was said to have prayed to God, asking him to watch over her daughter and one day restore her right to the throne.
An ever-loving mother to the end of her days, Catherine surely was.
. . .
Myth Five – Catherine was trying to have Anne Boleyn killed:
What in the hell was this person thinking when they created this myth?
Catherine might have fought against the divorce from Henry VIII, but she was not ruthless nor cruel enough to try and have her replacement killed in order to prevent the divorce from happening. Even if she had attempted to assassinate Anne Boleyn, it would have been impossible to gain access to Anne as Henry would have had her in private quarters with a ton of servants looking after her as he had already made it known that she was to be Queen of England following the official declaration of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Also, it would have been plainly obvious who was behind the assassination attempt and Catherine, regardless of her royal status, would have been tried and possibly executed for killing an innocent woman. Anne had not physically committed a crime other than the ‘crime’ of stealing Catherine’s husband from her, therefore she was innocent in the law’s eyes—not necessarily the same in the eyes of the Catholic religion but that’s a different story.
There would have been no way for Catherine to even plot to kill Anne Boleyn as Henry would have had someone watching over Catherine at all times just to make sure that she wasn’t going to try and bring Anne down a peg or two.
And ultimately, Anne had her claws in Henry by this point so even though Catherine continued to fight against the divorce, she would have known that her marriage to Henry and her time as Queen of England was over.
Killing Anne would have made things worse, sadly enough.
. . .
Myth Six – Catherine hated Henry VIII for divorcing her:
Of course, Catherine would have been devastated hearing from a servant—yes, Henry would not have directly told Catherine that he was intending to divorce her as he would have been with Anne at the time—that Henry was divorcing her and would have immediately decided to fight against the divorce proceedings. She would have immediately sought out academics and people of the law to assist her with fighting Henry’s accusations and find grounds for why the marriage was a valid one, she was an intelligent woman who knew how to fight against her husband’s political decisions, and she would have ruled beside Henry long enough to know what kind of decisions or surprising twists that he would make in a case of law. She was no stupid woman, folks.
As a result of Henry divorcing Catherine and removing her from power as Queen of England in favour of his favourite mistress, Anne Boleyn, there has always been a belief that Catherine despised Anne (which she probably would have) but that she also hated Henry for betraying her as not only a woman and a wife but as a Queen who has done everything that a wife and a Queen ought to (albeit provide a male heir).
But this is not even remotely true—Catherine was nothing but respectful towards Henry after the divorce was finalised which she shouldn’t have had to be. Henry not only divorced her and took away her power as Queen, but he moved her out of the royal palace to a household where she had a limited number of staff and even forbid her from contacting her daughter, something that Catherine could have fought against. After everything that Mary and Catherine had been through with not recognising Anne Boleyn as Queen, Henry had to go and forbid his ex-wife and daughter from seeing each other and even writing to each other. The two only spoke to one another after Catherine’s death where Catherine instructed a trusted servant to deliver a letter to Mary after her death so that she would know her mother’s love and know that she was not alone in this world even though she had died.
In fact, Henry showed Catherine no respect in any compacity in return to the huge amount of respect that Catherine showed to Henry; she might not have recognised her replacement but she did always respect Henry as King, writing to him often asking him to treat their daughter with respect if he could find it in his heart to do so and was always writing to him of her love and devotion to him and how she still saw herself as his wife, even if he no longer did. Talk about devotion and respectfulness, she beat every single one of Henry’s other wives through her dedication to protecting her daughter’s future as she knew that her own future was in ruins and that there was nothing that she could do to savour it. Mary was her top priority after the divorce was finalised and Henry was still someone that Catherine respected and was the only one who could impact Mary’s future as her father and the King of England.
Catherine’s final letter to Henry was filled with beautiful words and humble advice towards her ex-husband and sovereign; Catherine knew she was dying and did not want to waste the chance to praise her ex-husband for being such a valiant King and always protecting the interests of their people. This does not mean that she approved of Henry’s religious and political decisions such as him converting England into a Protestant country or making himself the Head of the Church or even marrying Anne Boleyn, but she said whatever she had to in order to try and have a positive impact on her daughter’s future. Her final letter to Henry was even said to have brought the King to tears, showing that deep in his heart, he did actually love Catherine but his love for Anne and his desperate need for a male heir just overwhelmed his love for Catherine and proved more important.
Catherine’s final letter to Henry goes as follows;
“My most dear lord, king and husband,
The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Katharine the Quene.” {2}
. . .
Well, these myths just prove that not all royals who prove to be great and respected would be treated nicely by history and that unfair and unfounded lies would be spread about them as an attempt to defame them for some unknown reason. But, unlike most, Catherine of Aragon has remained a positive female historical icon to all as her behaviour, opinions and actions have shown that, regardless of the men that tried to bring her down, she stayed true to herself and rose above the ashes and burned brighter than ever.
Women of both her time and this time look(ed) up to her as a role model, as someone who stood up for their beliefs and did not let any man (or woman) dare to bring her down—this is something that women of today are constantly dealing with, especially since the times of Catherine and the times of today are vastly different; it was a more patriarchal and sexist time, and even though today is more accepting and positive towards women, women still have to suffer the consequences of standing up for themselves and trying to achieve their dreams by any means possible. And I wonder if Catherine of Aragon was alive today, would women of today still feel the need to stand up against traditional societal views and against the prejudice of women?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Catherine was a woman of the 15th century, not the 21st century, which means that she would probably have acted different if she existed in today’s world. And we cannot waste time wondering about what would happen if this person was alive today or if this person ruled in today’s society as it does not prove anything. What good would it do?
I don’t know… anyway!
I hope you found this compilation of myths about Catherine of Aragon interesting and let us know in the comments below what your thoughts are about these myths and whether YOU think they are unfounded or not.
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
References:
Conor Byrne (2014). Myths about Henry’s Six Wives. Available from: http://conorbyrnex.blogspot.com/2014/08/myths-about-henry-viiis-six-wives.html
https://englishhistory.net/tudor/letter/letter-of-katharine-of-aragon-to-king-henry-viii/
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