Catherine of Aragon

Historical Reproductions from portraits of Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine of Aragon was destined to be Queen from the moment she was born. Her parents, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, had their daughter betrothed by the time she was 3 years old. Her intended was the heir apparent to the English throne, Prince Arthur. Though seperated by the English Channel, the two were married by proxy in 1499 but did not start their married lives together until they met in 1501. Only a little while later, in1502, Arthur died due to illness leave Catherine a widow at approximately 15 years old. Arthur's untimely death threw everything into chaos and when the dust settled, Catherine found herself once again bethrothed, this time to Arthur's younger brother, Henry who was 5 years younger than Catherine. It was decided that the couple would wait to be married until Henry became a bit older. In the mean time however, a special dispensation had to be granted by the pope before the two could be wed due to canon law stating that no man was to marry the widow of his brother. In order to obtain this dispensation, Catherine testified that she and Arthur never consummated their marriage and therefore the marriage was dissoluble leaving Catherine and Henry free to marry. The wedding took place in 1509.

The marriage went smoothly for awhile though it was occassional disrupted by the loss of a child. Catherine had a total of 6 pregnancies, 2 were stillborn, 2 were miscarried, 1 died at almost 2 months old. The only surviving child was a girl named Mary who would go on to become Queen Mary I of England.