Katharine of Aragon Marries Arthur Tudor
A quarter of a century later, Henry VIII would choose this date for his wedding to Anne Boleyn. There was a pointed significance to this date. It was also the day his first wife, Katharine of Aragon, had wed his brother back in 1501. By choosing this date, Henry was re-enforcing his claim that Katharine had never been his wife because of her prior marriage to his brother.
Katharine’s wedding to Arthur was a boon for the fledgling Tudor dynasty when the Catholic Kings, Isabella and Ferdinand, agreed to join their houses through a marriage between their daughter, the Infanta Catalina, and Henry VII’s son, Prince Arthur.
The union with the ancient and noble House Trastámara conferred legitimacy on Henry’s rule in the eyes of Europe. Catalina – or Katharine, as she’d be called in England – had a bloodline claim to the throne of England through her mother’s Lancastrian blood. Katharine was a descendant of John of Gaunt, which made her Henry’s third cousin.
Isabella had always regretted her own lack of education as a young girl and seen to it that her daughter was raised to be a ruler, educated as a prince in the classics, law, languages, and religious studies. (Katharine would later serve as the first female ambassador in Europe, putting that education to good use.) She was trained in etiquette, dance, and music…. Every attribute a queen should have, and more. From a young age, Katharine was taught it was her destiny to be England’s queen, and it was a destiny she refused to surrender until her dying day.
She and Arthur exchanged polite love letters until the time of their marriage. The only language they had in common was Latin, and so that was the language they used to communicate. Oddly, Isabella never had Katharine taught English.
When Katharine arrived, the English saw that reports of her beauty had not been exaggerated. Katharine was simply knock-out gorgeous. She had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, and a peaches-and-cream complexion. She charmed everyone she encountered.
Arthur and Katharine met for the first time on November 7, 1501. They discovered, to their dismay, that they could no longer communicate in Latin, since they had both been taught different pronunciations and accents. They had to rely on translators, but apparently, they got on swimmingly.
On the 12th of November, Katharine entered the city of London, riding on a mule. The people performed six pageants for her along the way, full of allegory and symbolism she may not have grasped, considering she didn’t understand what they were saying, but she surely understood their welcoming intent. She listened politely to speeches given to her by characters dressed as Honor and Policy, and one who portrayed King Alfonso the Wise of Castile. She was escorted to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where she was given gifts by the Lord Mayor while a choir sang. There, she made an offering to St. Erkenwald before heading to the archbishop’s palace to rest for the night.
The wedding was held on the 14th, and nothing like this pageantry would be seen for another fifty years. It was a holiday for the English people. The fountains ran with free wine. Church bells clanged, and the city streets were hung with fluttering banners.
Katharine walked from the archbishop’s palace to the church on a blue carpet that had been laid down for her. She wore a white satin gown – an unusual color choice for a wedding gown in that era. Beneath it she wore a Spanish farthingale, similar to what we’d call a hoop skirt, a fashion that had not yet been seen in England. Her red-gold hair hung loose under a silk veil, edged with gold and precious stones.
A raised walkway, hundreds of feet long, had been built so all the people could see the bride and the nobles as the procession went inside the cathedral. It was carpeted with a rich red cloth, tacked down with gilded nails. Her soon-to-be brother-in-law, Prince Henry, escorted Katharine down the walkway and handed her over to Arthur at the stage built before the high altar. Arthur was as splendidly dressed as his bride. He wore an outfit of silver tissue, a light, gauzy cloth made by weaving real silver with fine thread, embroidered with roses.
The nuptial mass lasted for three hours, and at the end, the bride and groom remained kneeling so they could be blessed by Arthur’s parents. They rose and walked back down the platform to greet the people as husband and wife. At the end of the platform, a mountain had been built, covered with precious metal and jewels. It was meant to symbolize the “rich mound (Richmond)” title that Henry VII had held before he became king. On it, King Arthur of legend was featured, flanked by Spanish knights and a tree of Tudor roses. Wine spouted from the top down into a fountain, from which the crowd filled their goblets and toasted the newly married pair.
There was a sumptuous feast afterward at Lambeth Palace. The celebrations would continue for another two weeks, and would include jousts, banquets, archery competitions, and masques. It truly had been “the wedding of the century” a splendid spectacle that most of the people present would never see again. The next king, Henry VIII, always had his weddings in private. There wouldn’t be another public royal wedding until Katharine’s daughter Mary married Phillip of Spain in 1554.
