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CATHERINE OF ARAGON

Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of Henry VIII. She was born in 1485 and died in 1536. She was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile. She married Arthur, Prince of Wales when she was 16. Her husband dying about five months after their marriage, the king, unwilling to return her dowry, caused her to be contracted to his remaining son, Henry, and a dispensation was procured from the pope for that purpose. On his accession to the throne as Henry VIII in 1509 she was crowned with him, and despite the inequality of their ages retained her ascendency with the king for nearly twenty years. Her children, however, all died in infancy, excepting Mary, and on the advent of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII affected to doubt the legality of his union with Catherine. He applied therefore to Rome for a divorce, but the attitude of the papal court ultimately provoked him to throw off his submission to it, and declare himself head of the English church.

In 1532 he married Anne Boleyn; upon which Catherine, no longer considered queen of England, retired to Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Thomas Cranmer, now raised to the primacy, pronounced the sentence of divorce, notwithstanding which, Catherine still persisted in maintaining her claims, showing from first to last a firm and dignified spirit.
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