Catherine of Aragon
Aragon, (in Spanish Catalina de Aragón), (December 16, 1485 - January 7, 1536) was Henry VIII's first wife. Born in Alcalá de Henares, she was the youngest child of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile and, as a third-great-granddaughter of Edward III of England, a fourth cousin of both Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York.
She first married Arthur Tudor, the son of Henry VII of England, in 1501. As Prince of Wales, Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales, to preside over the Council of Wales, and Catherine accompanied him. A few months later, both of them fell prey to an infection which was sweeping the area. Catherine herself nearly died; she recovered to find herself a widow. Catherine testified that, because of the couple's youth, the marriage had not been consummated; Pope Julius II then issued a dispensation, so that Catherine could become betrothed to Arthur's younger brother, the future Henry VIII. The marriage did not take place until after Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, the marriage on June 11, followed by the coronation on June 24, 1509. Both as Princess of Wales and as Queen, Catherine was extremely popular with the people. She governed the nation as Regent while Henry invaded France in 1513.
Henry VIII supposedly married Catherine of Aragon at his father's dying wish and was happily-enough married to her, although not faithful, for 18 years, until he became seriously worried about getting a male heir to his throne as she approached menopause. Her first child was stillborn in 1510. Prince Henry was born in 1511 but died after 52 days. Catherine then had a miscarriage, followed by another short-lived son. In February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, she gave birth to a daughter named Mary (later Queen Mary I of England). There was another miscarriage in 1518. A male heir was essential to Henry. The Tudor dynasty was new, and its legitimacy might still be tested. No queen had ever ruled England successfully in her own right. The disasters of civil war were still fresh in living memory.
In 1520, Catherine's nephew Charles V paid a state visit to England, and the Queen urged the policy of gaining his alliance rather than that of France. Immediately after his departure, May 31, 1520, she accompanied the king to France, on the celebrated visit to Francis I, the is remembered from the splendors of the occasion the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Within two years, however, war was declared against France and the Emperor once again made welcome in England, where plans were afoot to betroth him to Henry and Catherine's Princess Mary.
Henry was keeping a succession of mistresses. Catherine was not in physical condition to undergo further pregnancies. The marriage was further soured by trouble made by Catherine's father, Ferdinand, over payments of her dowry and by a shift of allegiance on the part of Ferdinand, who signed a treaty with the French, to Henry's fury. Because of the lack of heirs, Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from two verses of the biblical Book of Leviticus, which said that, if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless. He chose to believe that Catherine had lied when she said her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated, therefore making their marriage wrong in the eyes of God. Emboldened by this assumption, Henry secretly married one of Catherine's former ladies-in-waiting (and sister of one of his former mistresses), Anne Boleyn, a marriage that would be bigamous unless he could arrange a special act of Parliament to annul his marriage to Catherine. This was duly passed on May 23, 1533, but the annulment was still seen as illegal in the eyes of the Church, so in March 1534 Henry demanded that Pope Clement VII issue a divorce. The Pope refused for a number of reasons, including the fact that Charles, Catherine's nephew, now Holy Roman Emperor, was currently controlling Rome and holding him virtually captive.
The Pope's refusal to annul the marriage contributed to the Reformation of the English church and the eventual establishment of the Church of England, a break from the Roman Catholic Church. Catherine refused to acknowledge the divorce and took the issue to the law, but she lost and was forced to leave the Royal Court. She was separated from her daughter (who was declared illegitimate) and was sent to live in remote castles and in humble conditions, in the hope that she would surrender to the inevitable; but she never accepted the divorce and signed her last letter, "Catherine the Queen". By this time, she was aware that Henry's marriage to Anne was turning sour, and she had not ceased to hope that he might one day return to her.
Catherine died of a form of cancer, at Kimbolton Castle, in 1536 and was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony due to a Princess Dowager of Wales, not a Queen. Henry did not attend the funeral, nor did he allow Princess Mary to do so.
In film
Catherine was first portrayed on the silver screen in 1911 by Violet Vanburgh in a production of William Shakespeare's play "Henry VIII." Nine years later, German actress, Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein, played Catherine in the film "Anna Boleyn." Later, actress Rosalie Crutchley played Catherine in "The Sword and the Rose" an acount of Mary Tudor's romance with the duke of Suffolk in 1515. Crutchley later played Henry's sixth queen Catherine Parr in "The Six Wives of Henry VIII."
It was not until 1969, in Hal B. Wallis's acclaimed movie "Anne of the Thousand Days" that Catherine appeared again. This time she was played by Greek actress, Irene Papas. A year later, in a 90 minute television drama produced by the BBC, British actress, Annette Crosbie, played the most historically-accurate version of Catherine in a piece simply entitled "Catherine of Aragon" as part one in the channels "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" series. The drama began on the night Catherine arrived in England and followed through until her early marriage to Henry VIII. The drama then re-commenced almost a decade later, with Henry's moves to get a divorce in order to marry Anne Boleyn. The play, which co-starred Australian actor Keith Michell as Henry VIII, Dame Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn and Patrick Troughton as the duke of Norfolk, then chronicled Catherine's life until her death in January 1536. Two years later esteemed actress, Claire Bloom, played Catherine in another adaptation of Shakespeare's play.
In 1973, in the movie "Henry VIII and his Six Wives," Frances Cuka played Catherine and Keith Michell reprised his role as Henry VIII. A scene was incorporated between Ms. Cuka and Charlotte Rampling (playing Anne Boleyn) to show their quiet, glacial enmity.
It was not until 2001 that Catherine again appeared on the screen. This time it was in Dr. David Starkey's documentary series on Henry's queens. She was portrayed by Annabelle Dowler, with Julia Marsen as Anne Boleyn.
In 2003 Catherine appeared twice on British television. In January, Spanish actress Yolanda Vasquez made a brief appearance in the wildly-inaccurate "The Other Boleyn Girl," opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn. In October, the ITV 2-part television drama, "Henry VIII" starred Ray Winstone in the title role and Assumpta Serna as Queen Catherine. Part 1 chronicled the king's life from the birth of his bastard son, Henry Fitzroy until the execution of Anne Boleyn (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) in 1536. David Suchet co-starred as Cardinal Wolsey.
Historiography
For centuries, Catherine has been revered by many as a saint-like figure. She became a symbolic representation of the wronged woman and for years she has been presented in an extremely favourable light.
This view was first challenged in 1860 by historian G.A. Bergenroth. He had seen inside the Spanish royal archives, and believed that the universal praise of Catherine of Aragon needed "to be more or less lowered." Bergenroth's research formed the basis of the work of modern British historian, Dr. David Starkey, whose recent book, "Six Wives" gives a full account of Catherine's talent for intrigue and less-than-perfect cultural awareness. Joanna Denny also takes a firmer line with Catherine than historians of previous generations. Having said that, Catherine still has her ardent admirers; chief amongst them being historian, Alison Weir, author of "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and "Henry VIII: King and Court". Weir, however, makes no mention of Bergenroth's findings. Catherine was savagely criticised in Joanna Denny's 2004 biography of Anne Boleyn. Catherine is described by Denny as "arrogant, stubborn, even bloody-minded".
