Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon's wedding © The Spanish Princess
On this day in history, 14th November 1501, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Infanta Catherine of Aragon were married at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The marriage between the two young elites had been a long awaited one.
From his ascension to the throne in August 1485, Henry VII sought to emulate his legitimacy and sustain his premature dynasty by forging as many alliances as possible overseas. This accumulated into the Treaty of Marina del Campo. Whilst by 1489 Isabella II of Castile and Ferdinand I of Aragon were not yet at the zenith of their power, which would later accumulate into the Siege of Granada in 1492, which would lead to the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain, Henry VII recognised their diplomatic value in strengthening his own regime. This union forged with Span consisted of plans to marry the young Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabella and Ferdinand. Additionally, the treaty consisted of various trade agreements and a joint scheme to combat France, their joint rival. Overall, the Treaty of Marina del Campo was a work of fine diplomatic craftmanship that set England back on the European stage.
However, solidified arrangements were not met until the execution of Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, the final remaining Yorkist threat to the English throne, who was beheaded in 1500. Subsequently, plans were set in motion for Catherine’s departure from Spain, the place she had grown up in and would ultimately never see again.
Catherine’s parting had been delayed a number of times after a departure in August from the Bay of Biscay, but she and her las meninas (ladies-in-waiting) finally arrived on the cold English shores in October, landing in Plymouth rather than the intended Southampton. From there, she was to embark on a ceremonial journey towards London.
On this journey, Catherine would have witnessed religious pageants filled with motifs emphasising the royal lineage of her and Arthur, culminating in their legitimacy to rule England. Catherine temporarily stayed at Dogmersfield, Hampshire, a palace owned by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. It was here that Catherine met her betrothed, whom she had technically been married to by proxy in 1499, for the very first time on the 6th November. Catherine was initially supposed to meet her father-in-law, King Henry VII, at Lambeth, but the impatient Henry flocked with his son to meet Catherine in Hampshire. In sharp contrast to Spanish tradition, that of not meeting one’s husband before the marriage ceremony, Catherine bowed to her adopted tradition and met them. Following a night of entertainment. Consisting of dancing and minstrels, Catherine and Arthur continued their journey to London.
This must have been both a terrifying and thrilling moment for the two teenagers, who would be married practically a week after meeting. This is not to imply they were ill-prepared, however. Arthur and Catherine had continuously exchanged letters written in Latin throughout their arduous betrothal, in which Arthur vows to be a dutiful husband and love his wife.
The interior of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the venue of their marriage, had been scrupulously redesigned for the ceremony. However, this is not to be confused with the contemporary St Paul’s, for the one Catherine and Arthur would have recognise burnt down during the Great Fire of London in 1666. St Paul’s, with a marvellous design fit for royal nuptials, has only been home to two royal weddings – that of Arthur and Catherine, as well as Charles and Diana in 1981 (one could say weddings of Princes and Princesses of Wales at St Paul’s sets a bad omen in motion…)
A raised walkaway was intended to draw the attention of the thousands of people who flocked to see the new Princess of Wales, who must have enjoyed the endless flow of wine that spurted from fountains near the cathedral. Additionally, a myriad of architectural spectacles were re-worked and re-furnished for Catherine’s arrival. Carvings around Westminster Palace were reworked to showcase dragons, roses, and greyhounds. Cooks were encouraged to provide the best of English goods and sustenance, which Sean Cunningham suggests culminated to more worth than a national tax! The tiltyard around Westminster was also rebuilt in order to oversee three days’ worth of tournaments.
Dressed jointly in white-satin, on 14th November Arthur and Catherine were married. Catherine’s biographer, Giles Tremlett, describes a large wooden stage that had been erected for the ceremony, ornamented with white silk and wool. The walls of the cathedral had been decorated with tapestries, emulating a scene that would have been revolutionary to the sixteenth-century eye. Catherine was escorted to St Paul’s by her ten-year old brother-in-law and future spouse, Prince Henry, whilst Arthur’s aunt Cecily of York carried her train. Catherine’s gown is described as being in the Spanish farthingale style, and her face was covered with a silk veil, illuminated by a selection of gold threads, pearls, and gems.
Catherine and her now husband were to enjoy a sumptuous wedding feast, and the celebrations supposedly continued for a fortnight, including the aforementioned tournaments as well as jousts and banquets. The arguably most important aspect of their marriage, the consummation, has remained a mystery that has divided historians for generations. Later in life Catherine would defend her life on not having consummated her union with her first husband, a boy contemporarily in her service, Juan de Gamarra, defended her plea.
According to Gamarra, Catherine had been disappointed in her wedding night, for nothing had occurred between them, much to everyone’s dismay. On the other hand, a selection of English witnesses testified that after the wedding night, Arthur demanded ale the next morning from his server Anthony Willoughby, for he had that night ‘been in the midst of Spain’ and that it was a ‘good pastime to have a wife.’
Much to our contemporary dismay, whatever occurred that night shall forever remain a behind the confines of Arthur and Catherine’s privy chamber.
Not long after their marriage, around mid-December, Arthur and Catherine departed London for Ludlow Castle, Arthur’s childhood home where he was learning the craft of kingship and mechanisms of government. From a letter sent from Arthur to his in-laws, that describes his joy at seeing his bride, we can get a sense of what both Arthur, and likely the entire country, were feeling at the hopeful union. However, their premature marital bliss was to be short lived.
Only after five months of marriage, on the evening of 15th April 1502, Prince Arthur tragically passed away at Ludlow.
Both Catherine and Arthur had both taken ill, when exactly is not certain, but whilst Catherine had fortunately recovered, Arthur was not to be so fortunate. Arthur had taken part in Maundy Thursday celebrations on 24th March, just nine days before his death, so his demise must have been a shock to both Catherine and the rest of England.
A myriad of reasons have been suggested for the cause of Arthur’s demise, spanning from tuberculosis to testicular cancer, but the most likely cause was an epidemic of the sweating sickness, a harrowing condition that oversaw multiple epidemics across England from the 1480s to 1550s.
Arthur’s unfortunate end, aged only fifteen-years old, was a devastating blow to the Tudor dynasty. The heir that England had prided itself on, who was supposed to signify the dawn of a new age, was ripped from them and they were left with a single heir, the eleven-year-old Prince Henry, who was not prepared for the mechanisms of kingship whatsoever. Alongside this, Catherine was now charting unfamiliar waters, dowry-less, uncertain of her standing and away from home: it must have been a terrifying period for her.
What should have been a fruitful marriage between two inexperienced adolescents, rather, set in motion a chain of events which would ultimately shake England, and the continent, forever.
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