Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of Henry VIII, King of England and Lord of Ireland. Daughter of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, she kept her Catholic faith even after the king’s schism with the Church of Rome, and she resolutely refused to grant Henry the divorce he demanded, which would have allowed him to then marry the seductive, younger Anne Boleyn.

Catherine was born on 16 December 1485 at Alcalà de Henares, near Madrid. In 1489 the Treaty of Medina del Campo was drawn up between the ruling families of Spain and England: "Catherine, Infanta of Spain, will marry Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne. Her dowry will be two hundred thousand crowns, to be paid in two stages: half at the time of the wedding, half after the first year of marriage".

To confirm the said agreement, the two will marry by proxy beforehand.

The years of Catherine’s girlhood are full of action: the court of Castille and Aragon is like a mobile military camp: the mother, even when pregnant, rides beside her husband in the war of succession to the throne and against the Moors – the conquest of Granada in 1492.

With the arrival of peace, the girl has the leisure to study: religion, classical literature, Roman history, Canon and civil Law, heraldry, genealogy.

It is on 21 May 1501 that Catherine leaves the magnificent Alhambra, the Moorish citadel with the rose-coloured walls, to embark at the port of La Coruña and set sail for England: but as a result of storms and unfavourable winds, it is only on 2 October that she finally disembarks at Plymouth in Devon.

Here she is welcomed by a host of dignitaries, and the common folk – fishermen, farmworkers, women living in thatched cottages – acclaim her. But first her future father-in-law, the cautious Henry VII, father of princes Arthur and Henry, insists on seeing her in the flesh: he wishes to assure himself that the future Queen of England is truly as attractive as in the miniatures exchanged over the years – that her face is not scarred by smallpox, that she is in good health. If not she will be shipped back to Spain, though the first half of the dowry will be retained.

The meeting takes place at the beginning of November at Dogmersfield, Hampshire, in the palace of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, where she lodges that night. At the sight of the young woman, pretty and full of health, the English sovereign is satisfied, and presents to her his sons, Arthur and Henry.

For the first time Catherine sees her future spouse, Arthur, who has delicate features, an elegant crop of auburn hair, gentle hazel eyes. But he is shorter than her, very pale, the tunic and cloak too large, as if they belong to someone else.

Then she is introduced to the king’s younger son, that prince Henry who will reign as Henry VIII. The young man is already a span taller than his brother, he has a splendid head of red hair, thick and unruly, radiant blue eyes, the perfectly shaped mouth inherited from his mother Elizabeth of York. When he enters the room, it brightens with his presence. At that moment a spark is born between the two, but they will confess it only years later: her heart skips a beat, he falls in love immediately.

Arthur and Catherine marry on the morning of 14 November 1501, in London, in St Paul’s Cathedral. Two weeks later the first half of the dowry is paid.

At the court in London Catherine is made welcome: there are the king’s children, Margaret, Henry, Mary, and the sweet Queen Elizabeth, who teaches her the duties of a future queen. At Christmas the great lords will arrive from all parts of the kingdom, there will be celebrations, banquets, music, dancing. Then, in February, she and Arthur will move to Ludlow, on the border of England and Wales. It is the tradition that the Prince of Wales resides in Ludlow Castle with his court, his tutors, and prepares himself to become king.

But a few days before Christmas the sovereign orders Arthur and her to leave court for Wales immediately – the young man is behind with his studies and must catch up.

The winter is frigid, at the end of March both fall ill from that mysterious disease known as the sudor anglicus, the seating sickness: a deadly illness – in the morning, you suddenly break out into a foul-smelling sweat, you suffer excruciating pains in the head and abdomen, in the evening you rest in a coffin. Catherine is strong, she recovers; but on 2 April Arthur dies.

She returns to the court in London – dressed in mourning, pallid, shrunken. There to comfort her is Elizabeth, who herself will die in childbirth the following year.

And here begins her ordeal: as Arthur’s widow, Catherine has the right to a third of her late husband’s possessions. Besides this, King Ferdinand demands that his daughter returns to Spain, and with her the portion of the dowry already paid. The English monarch reacts angrily: no-one will lay their hands on English property, no part of the dowry will be returned.

So begins a miserable dispute regarding the gold and silver plate, cutlery and drinking vessels brought with her from Spain as a dowry. In time Henry VII declares that he is no longer able to keep her at court with all her retinue, and has her moved to Durham House, a small London house that she will share with the Bishop of Ely. Catherine is obliged to send some of her servants back to Spain. He continues to reduce her allowance to a point where he ends it completely, and she has to accrue debts and pawn her own jewels to stave off starvation for herself and her household.

To resolve this unpleasant situation, the royal counsellors suggest that she marry Henry when he reaches sixteen years of age. But the king wants something better for his heir: with the ascent of the Hapsburgs Catherine is no longer the tempting catch that she once was.

She writes to her father, though he has lost interest in her, the youngest child. The mother, Isabella, has died in 1504. Catherine decides to return to Spain.

However, all of a sudden, her fortune changes: on 21 April 1509 Henry VII dies. Henry VIII is king, he asks her to become his wife, she accepts. From that moment there follows a rapid succession of events:

the wedding takes place on 11 June 1509 in the chapel of Greenwich Palace; on 24 June both are crowned in Westminster Abbey, with celebrations at court and feasts in the street with food and drink for everyone; in August Catherine falls pregnant but in the following January loses the baby. A year later she gives birth to a son, handsome and healthy: there is great joy, but at the end of February he is carried off by a fever. After a series of stillbirths, on 18 February 1516 a child is born, Mary – Bloody Mary – who will become queen.

When, in the summer of 1519 the king’s mistress, Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount, gives birth to a son – Henry Fitzroy – Henry recognizes him as his own.

It is 1521, Mary Boleyn becomes the sovereign’s official mistress, she gives him two children, but Henry does not wish to recognize them. At the same time, Anne Boleyn, Mary’s sister, arrives in court. Henry falls helplessly in love with her. He asks Catherine for a divorce, which she denies him. So the king begins a difficult discussion with the Pope in order to have him annul his marriage to Catherine; the Pope refuses.

By now everyone is aware of the king’s private troubles, in the street the people insult Anne, calling her a tramp.

21 June 1529: Thomas Wolsey. Henry’s Lord Chancellor, stages a sham trial in the Dominican convent of Blackfriars. The legate of Pope Clement VII invites Catherine to retire to a convent, but she declines. There follows a papal bull which enjoins Henry to give up Anne. Henry realizes that he must follow a different route in order to free himself of Catherine, he brings pressure to bear to make her submit: he orders her to leave court and move from Windsor Castle to a house that once belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, The More, in Hertforshire. “I shall obey my husband”, she replies calmly. Subsequently she is forced to leave The More and transfer to Bishop Hatfield in Hertfordshire; in September she must move to Enfield, in Middlesex – the lodgings become steadily less comfortable. To remove her from her mother, the king sends his daughter to Ludlow.

On 25 January 1533 there takes place the sovereign’s marriage to Anne Boleyn in the private chapel of Whitehall Palace: she is expecting a child. Henry moves Catherine again, to Ampthill in Bedfordshire, and from here to Buckden castle in Cambridgeshire. This building is in ruins, surrounded by swamps, water running down the walls, she falls ill from malaria. Only after the resolute intervention of the Spanish ambassador Chapys is Catherine transferred to Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire: a better setting than Buckden, but where she is watched over like a prisoner by her guardian, Sir Edmund Bedingfield.

In 1534 Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy whereby Henry VIII becomes supreme head of the church of England, breaking with the Church of Rome. Catherine and Mary refuse to accept it.

And with the Act of Succession in March, it will no longer be Mary who is heir to the throne, but the children of Anne Boleyn. Again Catherine refuses her acceptance. By now her health is failing, and Mary is forbidden to see her.

1536, 2 January: Catherine is dying, Henry allows Chapys, but not her daughter Mary, to visit her.

5 January: Catherine writes her last letter to Henry: “My lord, king and husband...I would ask only one thing, that my eyes might behold you one last time…” She signs it Catherine, Queen of England.

6 January: she makes her will, takes communion. At two in the afternoon, she dies.

Bedingfield gives orders for the embalming of the body before its removal to Peterborough Cathedral. The embalmer declares to have found her body whole, “only her heart is black and full of clotted blood”.

There is talk of poisoning, and fear that Princess Mary might be poisoned too. But many women who weep for her whisper that, after so much suffering, her heart finally broke.

29 January 1536 Catherine is buried in Peterborough Cathedral. Henry gives orders that there be no royal ceremonial, does not attend the funeral himself, nor does he allow Mary to be present.

The tomb in the cathedral is at the foot of the high altar, to the left. A memorial plaque states:

A queen cherished by the English people for her loyalty, piety, courage, and compassion.