Catharineof Aragon

Catharine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, was born in 1483. At the age of eighteen she was married to Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII. of England, who died five months later. In 1502, for the sake of securing her dowry, Prince Henry, Arthur's brother, was made her husband, though he was six years her junior, but the marriage was not solemnised until after his succession to the throne in 1509. In 1516 she gave birth to Mary, who afterwards became queen, and in 1527 Henry, hearing that there was little prospect of male issue, and being enamoured of Anne Boleyn, professed that his conscience was awakened to the sin of having married his brother's wife, and sought for a divorce. Wolsey seconded the king's efforts in the hope of arranging an alliance with France, but the Pope and Charles V., Catharine's brother, resisted his schemes. In 1533 Henry, having privately married Anne Boleyn, convened an ecclesiastical court in London, over which Cranmer presided, and the decree of divorce was pronounced. Catharine, under the title of Dowager-Princess of Wales, retired to Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire, where she died brokenhearted in January, 1536. She was a devoted and faithful wife to the king, a good mother, and a pious, amiable woman. Her character and the events that led to her ruin and death have been made familiar to all by the play of Henry VIII., which bears Shakespeare's name.