Baptism of Princess Mary Tudor
After a difficult labour, Katharine of Aragon gave birth to a healthy daughter in the early morning of 18th February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia.
Katharine’s previous pregnancies had all ended in tragedy, a stillborn daughter and three stillborn or short-lived sons.
The disappointment in her sex was masked by optimism for the future.
Surely, with God’s will, boys would follow.
Katharine was steadfast in her belief that her daughter would be the heir, as her mother and her sister had been in Castile.
Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich on 20th February – two days after she was born.
According to tradition, neither of her parents were present, but many of the aristocracy were.
Her godparents were Catherine of York, Countess of Devon, Thomas Wolsey and Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk.
Mary was carried into the church by Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Surrey.
Immediately following the baptism was the confirmation which required another godparent.
This was to be Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who also became Mary’s governess.
Four Knights held the canopy over a well-wrapped Mary as she was carried in, one of whom was Sir Thomas Boleyn.
When the ceremony was over Mary was returned to her mother, in the Queen’s chamber at Greenwich Palace.
