Catherine of Aragon Biography

Catherine of Aragon was born to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 'The Catholic Monarchs', on 16th December 1485. The youngest of five surviving children, Catherine, 'the political pawn', was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales and eldest son of Henry VII of England, by the age of three.

Just over a month after arriving in England, just prior to her sixteenth birthday, Catherine and Arthur were married on 14th November 1501. After only a few months, the sickly Arthur died of a mystery infection and left Catherine alone in the foreign land of England. For eight years Catherine's future remained uncertain, as Henry VII's enthusiasm for an Anglo-Spanish alliance waned.

However, when the vibrant eighteen-year-old, Henry VIII, came to the throne in 1509, he immediately made full use of the papal dispensation Pope Julius II had issued in 1501, allowing him to marry his dead brother's wife. Catherine's duty as the King's wife was to give Henry a son, a male heir to carry on the Tudor Dynasty. After three miscarriages, one still birth and two infant deaths, Catherine produced only one surviving child - Mary, born in 1516.

Unfortunately for Catherine, this did not satisfy the King and, by the age of forty-two, chances of her bearing another child were slim.

Anne Boleyn, a beauty of the Court, had attracted Henry's attention and despite a seemingly contented twenty year marriage, 'The King's Great Matter' took precendence over Catherine, and Henry VIII declared the papal dispensation of 1501 inadequate, claiming the illegitimate marriage had left her barren.

A complicated political and religious struggle ensued and, consequently, Henry VIII rejected all papal authority in 1533, bestowing the title 'Princess Dowager of Wales' on the former Queen.

Catherine was separated from her daughter, banished from Court, deprived of luxury and spent the last years of her life unhappy and lonely in damp castles and manors.

She died in Kimbolton on 7 January 1536 and was buried in Peterborough Abbey. Her funeral ceremony was fit only for the widow of the Prince of Wales, and Henry VIII was notably absent.