Queen of England and former Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, was one of the most influential women of the Tudor period.
The first wife of King Henry VIII of England was born on December 16, 1485, in Spain. She was the daughter of Spanish rulers Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. She got engaged to the heir-apparent to the English throne, Arthur, when she was just three years old.
The former Princess of Spain got married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 1501, but the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York died just five months after the marriage. After her husband’s death, she served as the ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England till 1507, becoming the first female ambassador in European history.
But her life changed completely after she got married to Price Henry, younger brother of her first husband, after he became king in 1509, reported Britannica.
Catherine gave birth to six children, two sons and four daughters, but all except Mary I, who was also known as “Bloody Mary,” either died at an early age or were stillborn.
Later, after she failed to give King Henry an heir to his throne, he, in 1527, asked the Pope to end their marriage because it had violated the biblical prohibition against marriage between a man and his brother’s widow.
However, Catherine argued and appealed to Pope Clement VII, saying that her marriage to Henry was valid because she and Arthur had never actually lived together as husband and wife.
The battle between the King, Queen, and Pope led to a major change in the English Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England.
The English parliament passed a law making the king the head of the Church of England. Catherine lost her title as queen and was called the Dowager Princess of Wales.
Catherine who refused to new title, Henry's wife and new church, spent the rest of her life alone in different castles, separated from her daughter Mary, the first queen to rule England, and died on January 7, 1536, at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire, England.
