The demise of Catherine of Aragon in 1536 brought great relief to Henry VIII. Receiving the 'glad tidings' of her death, the king cried to Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador, 'God be praised, the old harridan is dead, we are free from all suspicion of war.' The king, 'transported with joy' (Chapuys' words), decided to really celebrate, dressing himself and his court in yellow. Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, excused this to the same ambassador by saying yellow was the colour of Royal Spanish mourning. (1)
But Chapuys had eyes and a mind for himself. He knew what it meant when the king took his two year-old daughter Elizabeth - garbed also in yellow - in his arms, blithely presenting her to the court as their 'princess Elizabeth, clearly putting aside Mary, now nearing her twentieth birthday. Chapuys was good friend to both Mary and Catherine. Indeed, Catherine said to him, just days before her death, after learning her husband had denied her the presence of Mary, "I can die in your arms, not abandoned- like one of the beasts." (2) Catherine was to die not in Chapuys' arms, but two days later in the arms of her childhood friend, Maria Salinas. (3)
For Mary, her mother's death climaxed years of disillusionment, grief and despair. During the years 1528-36, when Mary grappled with not only the annulment of her parents marriage, the withdrawal of her father's open affection, the fears of an insecure step-mother, but also change of her status from heir to the English throne to the king's bastard daughter, there is one episode that tears at my heart.
After the birth of Elizabeth, Henry had to make it perfectly clear which of his daughters he regarded as legitimate, therefore heir to his throne. Up to this time, Mary had her own establishment, an establishment providing her with support and still privately acknowledging her as 'princess'. Now her father sent her to Hatfield, to be part of the establishment of her baby sister, the princess Elizabeth of England.
Mary had a miserable time at Hatfield. She was willing to recognize Elizabeth as her sister, and call her such, but princess? For Mary there was only one queen, her own loved mother, and only her daughter, meaning herself, had right to bear the title of princess. Being unable to freely visit her own mother (since the year 1531, Mary and Catherine had only seen each other one brief time in 1534, when Mary was seriously ill and Henry allowed Catherine to visit her) made Mary more determined to be true to her mother's expectations, even if this meant making her father angry and made the people overseeing her utter threats of violence.
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