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The Wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

It is difficult to separate the stories of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn after about 1524, when Anne gradually ousted Catherine from Henry's affections and became the object of his obsession. Yet one must remember that, for all the cataclysm which ensued, Henry and Catherine spent over twenty happy years together before the first dark clouds began to gather over their marriage.

When Catherine arrived in England toward the end of 1501, she had already effectively been married to Henry's older brother, Arthur, by proxy three times, the first on 20 January, 1500. Small and of a creamy complexion, with long auburn hair and a round face of great charm, Catherine received a glittering welcome to England, a welcome overflowing with pageantry and celebration.

Catherine brought with her a new feeling of security and importance for the English people and the nation as a whole. Not only was a sturdy international player helping to confer legitimacy on England as a power in its own right, but it was felt that the daughter of such a prolific and hardy mother as Isabella of Spain (who gave birth to Catherine while on the march leading her armies against the Moors) was sure to provide England with hale and healthy male heirs as a bulwark against the ever-present threats of invasion, internal strife, and general governmental weakness.

An unassailable gem was Catherine, of a powerful family, well-educated, attractive, submissive, docile, well-dowered and young. Despite ongoing conflicts over the payment of her dowry, her arrival in England and her marriage to Arthur were generally hailed as cause for celebration by her proud new in-laws, her adoptive country and, happily, her frail, shy new husband.

Arthur's health had long been a subject of concern to his parents and to the ministers whose job it was to foresee the future security of the nation. Arthur, unlike his robust younger brother Henry, suffered from a weak chest (possibly tuberculosis), a generally unathletic character, a dislike for and lack of talent in most manly pursuits, and a perpetual tendency to ill-health. While young Henry rode, wrestled, danced and hunted tirelessly, his timorous older brother preferred to sit comfortably at the sidelines and look on - even at his own wedding, where legend tells us that 10-year-old Henry and not Arthur danced with the glowing young bride and threw off his jacket to aid his exuberant efforts on the dance floor.

But it was taken as a given that Arthur would perform his conjugal duties, if not with finesse or enthusiasm then at least with results, and that Catherine should be expecting the new heir before their nuptial year was out. This optimism appeared to be borne out when Arthur swaggeringly emerged from the bridal bower loudly calling for wine, and quoted variously as saying that "being a husband was hot work" and that he needed sustenance for "I have been in Spain this night". Such evidence would be dug out 30 years later to prove the consummation of the marriage when Henry VIII sought to annul his union with the same Catherine of Aragon on the basis of the biblical taboo against incest, but Catherine would swear even on her deathbed that her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated, and that she had maintained her virginity until her marriage to Henry himself.