Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon (also Catherine of Aragon , Spanish Catalina de Aragón y Castilla or Catalina de Trastámara y Trastámara , English Catherine of Aragon ; * December 16, 1485 in Alcalá de Henares ; † January 7, 1536 at Kimbolton Castle ( Huntingdonshire )) was as the first wife of Henry VIII. Queen of England and mother of the future Queen Maria I Tudor .

Life

Catherine of Aragon was born on the night of December 15th to 16th, 1485 in the archiepiscopal palace of Alcalá de Henares . She was the youngest child of the royal couple Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon . Her great-grandmother, Catherine of Lancaster , after whom she was named, was a granddaughter of King Edward III of England . Her motto in life was “ humble humble and loyal ” (German: “modest and loyal”). Through her sister Johanna , she was the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I.

Marriage to Arthur Tudor

As early as 1489, a marriage contract was signed between the royal houses of England and Castile for Catherine of Aragon and Arthur Tudor , only two years old , the son of Henry VII of England. Heinrich saw it as the most important task to strengthen his power as a monarch and to secure his supreme authority. He had the army of the House of York under Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field . beaten. However, his claim to the throne was only vaguely based on illegitimate descendants. His son's marriage to the Spanish princess would further improve his standards and create a strong alliance between England and Spain. Catherine left Spain in September 1501. When she married the English heir to the throne on November 14, 1501 in St Paul's Cathedral , they were both 15 years old. As Prince of Wales , Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the Welsh border to chair the Council of Wales, with Catherine accompanying him. Shortly after they got married, both of them developed a severe fever. Arthur succumbed to the disease, so that Katharina became a widow after just four months of marriage .

Life between speculations

Due to the early death of her husband Arthur, Katharina was practically at the mercy of her father-in-law. Henry VII did not treat her very well and did not allow her to live a decent life. For Heinrich, after Arthur's death, Katharina was more of a costly hostage than a daughter-in-law or a member of the royal family. Katharina was not welcome at court, so she retired to Durham House. The English king paid her so little housekeeping that Katharina was forced to ask her parents for money so that she could pay for her food, servants, clothes and wood. For years she only wore two dresses and traded parts of her tableware in order to buy groceries. Later there were further humiliations: the dissolution of her engagement to the heir to the throne Heinrich and the new marriage speculations of the English king. Perhaps precisely because of her misfortune and the humiliations which Katharina endured worthily, she was very popular with the English people.

Marriage to Heinrich Tudor

royal coat of arms of Catherine of Aragon

According to his father's will, the 12-year-old new heir to the throne, the future Henry VIII , should marry Catherine of Aragon as soon as he was 14 years old. Such a marriage with his brother's wife, however, violated canon law (which in this point ultimately goes back to Leviticus 18:16). However, after the ladies-in-waiting testified that the marriage with Arthur had not been consummated because of the couple's youth, Pope Julius II issued a dispensation . When Isabella I of Castile died on November 26, 1504, these marriage plans were initially put on hold. The English waited and started new marriage negotiations. Heinrich was now to marry Eleanor of Castile , the daughter of Philip the Fair , the new King of Castile.

In June 1505 (his son had just come of age), Henry VII arranged for his engagement to Katharina to be resolved and, since Philip I died in 1506, considered his own marriage to his widow Joan of Castile . However, when she became more and more insane due to the loss of her husband, Henry VII gave up these marriage plans. Katharina's father Ferdinand insisted on keeping the marriage contract between Heinrich and Katharina or on repayment of the very substantial dowry. The engagement contract negotiated on June 23, 1503 was finally redeemed on June 11, 1509 with the wedding. Legend has it that Henry VII on his deathbed (he died on April 21, 1509) asked his son to marry Catherine of Aragon, who is extremely popular as the Princess of Wales.

Queen of England

Katharina was pregnant only a few weeks after the wedding, but in January 1510 she suffered a stillbirth, a girl. The second child, Prince Henry , was born on New Year's Day, 1511, but died after 52 days. Katharina then had a miscarriage, followed by another son who died early. Despite these dynastic setbacks, Katharina and Heinrich had a harmonious marriage. Katharina was - not only for the court and the people - the ideal wife. So she insisted on mending her husband's shirts herself, and in the presence of Heinrich appeared quiet, caring, and submissive. In doing so, she corresponded to the ideal of women of her time, but this did not prevent her from expressing her opinion. Her special talent was knowing exactly when she shouldn't contradict the king and when she had to give in.

She treated her husband's affairs with his only historically guaranteed mistresses Elizabeth Blount and Mary Boleyn discreetly and did not officially take note of them. However, Elizabeth Blount brought her inability to bear a male heir to the throne when she gave birth to Henry Fitzroy in 1519 . This was officially recognized by Heinrich as a son and given the titles of Duke of Richmond and Duke of Somerset. Despite her other discretion, Katharina viewed these honors as an affront and she declared that "no bastard should be raised over the daughter of a queen".

In 1514 Heinrich invaded France with his army in the course of the Italian wars , but previously appointed Katharina as regent during his absence. With a large army of 30,000 to 40,000 men, he crossed to Calais and conquered the city of Thérouanne . The Scottish King James IV , who was allied with France through the Auld Alliance , then declared war on England. Katharina sent an army north. This campaign reached its bloody climax a short time later in the Battle of Flodden Field . The Scottish king fell near the Anglo-Scottish border, and with him many high-ranking nobles and ten thousand of his subjects.

In February 1516 Catherine gave birth to daughter Mary, later Queen Mary I of England, in the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich , London . In 1518 she gave birth to a dead girl.

Dissolution of the royal marriage

Anne Boleyn

By the end of 1526 at the latest, Anne Boleyn , one of Katharina's former ladies-in-waiting and sister of the former mistress Mary Boleyn , was the mistress of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn was not only physically attractive, but also impressed with her extraordinary education and quick-wittedness. These were qualities that were particularly challenging to many men, as most women behaved quietly, submissively, and humbly according to contemporary custom. Henry VIII was very enthusiastic about Anne, but she was initially not impressed by the ardent wooing of the king. Her skilful tactic of refusal aroused even more stormy feelings in the king. From the spring of 1527 Heinrich seems to have only been occupied with the thought of how he could end his marriage to Katharina. Since their marriage can be proven to have been consummated, this reason for annulment was ruled out. The appropriate argument was then found in the Bible:

“If someone takes his brother's wife, it is a hideous act. You should be without children, because he has violated his brother with it. "

- 3 Mos 20,21  LUT

Since Catherine of Aragón had not given her husband the desired male heir to the throne, Heinrich wanted to have his marriage annulled with this passage from the Bible, although he had received a papal dispensation for this marriage in 1503. Pope Clement VII, however, showed no interest in lifting Julius II's dispensation . In addition, at this time, after the Sacco di Roma in May 1527, he did not want to annoy Katharina's nephew Charles V. When he rejected the suggestion, he used the formulation Non possumus, which became known as a result .

Katharina, who did not hide the plans of Heinrich, stuck to the legality of her marriage steadfastly. In May 1529 Clement VII sent his envoy Lorenzo Campeggi , who, together with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was to chair a commission entrusted with the investigation of the divorce question. On the first day of the trial in Blackfriars, Katharina rejected the judges and demanded that her case be heard before the Pope in Rome. Then she threw herself on the floor in front of Heinrich and asked him to spare her this humiliating process for her and her daughter. Then she left the room and did not return. Subsequently, the trial was conducted in her absence. The decision of the tribunal dragged on with agonizing slowness, until Pope Clement VII finally ordered the triumph of Catherine to hear the case in Rome . The king's anger over this papal decision erupted on Cardinal Wolsey, who only escaped execution because he died on November 29, 1530. Before that, Henry VIII moved in because of anger over the setback of Wolsey's property.

Thomas Cromwell (portrait of Hans Holbein )

Until June 1531 Heinrich maintained the image of the problem-free marriage with Katharina for the English people. Official appearances were made by the king and queen. From July 1531 Anne took on the role of queen for all to see. In October 1532 she accompanied Heinrich to a meeting with Franz I in France . For this trip, Katharina had to give her crown jewels to Anne, who now wore them for all to see at official receptions and celebrations.

Probably shortly after her return from France, Anne finally gave in to Heinrich's recruitment. At the end of December 1532, she must have informed Heinrich that she was pregnant. Heinrich now had to act quickly so that his child (he assumed it would be a son) could legitimately be born. On January 25, 1533, he married Anne Boleyn in a silent ceremony in a chapel near the Greenwich Palace. The marriage was initially kept secret, as Heinrich was not yet divorced and so lived in bigamy . After Heinrich had secretly married Anne Boleyn, he passed a parliamentary act on May 23, 1533 annulling his marriage to Katharina.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Thomas Cromwell and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer were commissioned by Heinrich to divorce his marriage to Katharina at last, with the guise of theological correctness. Both managed to put the clergy in England under pressure, so that on May 23, 1533 a divorce court declared the marriage to Catherine of Aragón invalid. This happened without the consent of the Pope. It was the first step towards a break with the Roman Catholic Church and the emergence of the Anglican Community (colloquially known as the "Anglican Church").

Trial and Exile

After five years of waiting, Henry demanded in March 1534 Pope Clement VII. To agree to the divorce, but what the Pope in view of the previous dispensation, and out of consideration for the Emperor Charles V refused. Heinrich then broke with the Catholic Church and established the Anglican state church , which he himself headed.

Catherine refused to consent to the divorce and was forced to leave the royal court. She was separated from her illegitimate daughter and sent to distant castles. The hope that she would submit under the humiliating circumstances, however, turned out to be irrelevant, because Katharina never accepted the divorce and still signed her last letter with "Katharina the Queen". The deported Queen initially lived in Buckden Palace in Huntingdonshire . In the spring of 1534 Katharina had to move again to Kimbolton Castle . It was then that she learned that Heinrich's marriage with Anne was turning for the worse. It is not known whether she still had hope that one day he would return to her.

Catherine's tomb in Peterborough Cathedral

Monument to Catherine of Aragon in the birthplace of Alcalá de Henares.

From December 1535, Katharina felt unwell and died on January 7, 1536 of cancer at Kimbolton Castle. Her last words from her last letter to Henry VIII were:

“Oculi mei te solum desiderant. Vale. "

“My eyes only long for you. Farewell. "

- Catherine of Aragon

She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony of the widow of a Prince of Wales, not that of a queen. When the king heard of the death of his first wife, he is said to have said the following words: “Praise be to God! We are now free from any fear of war. ”One day later Heinrich took part in a ball; he forbade his daughter Maria to give her mother her final conduct .

myth

The former queen's body was embalmed in such a hurry that rumors of a poisoning arose early on. However, studies have shown that Katharina died of a cancer of the heart.

progeny

Daughter Maria as a young woman (painting by Master John)

Children with King Henry VIII (marriage on June 11, 1509, the marriage was annulled on May 23, 1533):

• Daughter (* / † January 31, 1510)
• Henry, Duke of Cornwall (January 1, 1511 - February 22, 1511)
• Son (* / † November 1513)
• Henry, Duke of Cornwall (* / † December 1514)
• Maria I (February 18, 1516 - November 17, 1558); ∞ with Philip II.
• Daughter , stillborn in the 8th month (* / † November 10, 1518)

ancestors

Ferdinand I of Aragon (1380-1416)

John II of Aragón (1397–1479)

Eleonore Urraca of Castile (1374–1435)

Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516)

Fadrique Enríquez († 1473)

Juana Enríquez (1425–1468)

Maria Fernández de Cordoba

Catherine of Aragón (1485–1536)

Henry III. of Castile (1379–1406)

John II of Castile (1405-1454)

Catherine of Lancaster (1373-1418)

Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504)

John of Portugal (1400–1442)

Isabella of Portugal (1428–1496)

Isabella of Braganza (1402–1465)

title

• Infanta Catalina of Castile and Aragon (December 16, 1485 - November 14, 1501)
• The Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester (November 14, 1501 - April 2, 1502)
• The Dowager Princess of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Dowager Countess of Chester (April 2, 1502 - June 11, 1509)
• Her Grace The Queen of England (June 11, 1509--1519)
• Her Majesty The Queen of England (1519 - May 23, 1533)
• Her Highness The Dowager Princess of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Dowager Countess of Chester (23 May 1533 - 7 January 1536)

swell

• Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VII 1485–1509 , KH Ledward, 1955 - (Official state papers and letters from the reign of Henry VII.)
• Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 1509–1547 , ed. JS Brewer et al., London, 1862–1932 - (Official government papers and letters from the reign of Henry VIII.)
• Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Vol. 1–5, 1485–1538 (Official State Papers and Letters from Spain and England)

literature

General

• David Starkey: Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. Harper Perennial, 2004, ISBN 0-06-000550-5 (English).
• Peter Wende: English kings and queens. From Heinrich VII. To Elisabeth II . CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-43391-X .
• Uwe Baumann: Heinrich VIII. With personal testimonies and photo documents . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-50446-4 .
• Jean Plaidy: The queens. Henry VIII and his wives . Herder, Freiburg 1983, ISBN 3-451-17331-X .
• Antonia Fraser: The six wives of Henry VIII . Claassen, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-546-00081-1 .
• Marita A. Panzer: England's Queens . Piper, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-492-23682-0 .
• Helga Thoma: Unloved Queen . Piper, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-492-23526-3 .

Biographies

• Garrett Mattingly: Catherine of Aragon. W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1962.
• Patrick Williams: Catherine of Aragon. Amberley 2012, ISBN 978-1-84868-325-9 .
• Giles Tremlett: Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII Walker & Company 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-7916-8 .

Novels

• Margaret George: I, Henry VIII . Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2006, ISBN 3-404-15584-X .
• Philippa Gregory: The Eternal Princess . Bastei Lübbe, Bastei Lübbe GmbH & Co.KG (Bastei Verlag), ISBN 3-404-16469-5 .

Web links

Commons : Catherine of Aragón  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Catherine of Aragon  - Quotes

Individual evidence

1. ^ CSL Davies and John Edwards: Katherine (1485-1536) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press 2004; Online Edition May 2011 , accessed January 13, 2013
2. ^ Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen . Bloomsbury 2010, p. 32
3. ^ Letter from the Venetian ambassador of December 13, 1518: "The Queen had been delivered in her eighth month of a stillborn daughter, to the great sorrow of the nation at large." In: Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 2: 1509-1519 , pp. 478-482 (1867).

predecessor	Office	Successor
Elizabeth of York	Queen Consort of England 1509–1533	Anne Boleyn