December 16, 1485: Birth of Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England and Ireland

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Anne Boleyn, Annulment, Arthur, Catherine of Aragon, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII of England, House of Trastámara, Isabella of Castile, Mary I of England and Ireland, Papal Dispensation, Pope Clement VII, Prince of Wales

Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536) was Queen of England and Ireland as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on June 11, 1509 until their annulment on May 23, 1533. She was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Infanta Catherine was born at the Archbishop’s Palace of Alcalá de Henares near Madrid, on the early hours of December 16, 1485. She was the youngest surviving child of King Fernando II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine was quite short in stature with long red hair, wide blue eyes, a round face, and a fair complexion. She was descended, on her maternal side, from the House of Lancaster, an English royal house; her great-grandmother Catherine of Lancaster, after whom she was named, and her great-great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster were both daughters of John of Gaunt and granddaughters of Edward III of England. Consequently, she was a third cousin of her father-in-law, Henry VII of England, and fourth cousin of her mother-in-law Elizabeth of York.

Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England and Ireland

At an early age, Catherine was considered a suitable wife for Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne, due to the English ancestry she inherited from her mother. By means of her mother, Catherine had a stronger legitimate claim to the English throne than King Henry VII himself through the first two wives of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster: Blanche of Lancaster and Constance of Castile.

In contrast, Henry VII was the descendant of Gaunt’s third marriage to Katherine Swynford, whose children were born out of wedlock and only legitimised after the death of Constance and the marriage of John to Katherine. The children of John and Katherine, while legitimised, were barred from inheriting the English throne, a stricture that was ignored in later generations.

Because of Henry’s descent through illegitimate children barred from succession to the English throne, the Tudor monarchy was not accepted by all European kingdoms. At the time, the House of Trastámara was the most prestigious in Europe, due to the rule of the Catholic Monarchs, so the alliance of Catherine and Arthur validated the House of Tudor in the eyes of European royalty and strengthened the Tudor claim to the English throne via Catherine of Aragon’s ancestry. It would have given a male heir an indisputable claim to the throne.

Catherine and Arthur and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned fifteen, when it was decided that they were old enough to be married.

First they weremmarried by proxy on May 19, 1499 and in person o November 14, 1501, they were married at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral. A dowry of 200,000 ducats had been agreed, and half was paid shortly after the marriage.

Once married, Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches, as was his duty as Prince of Wales, and his bride accompanied him. The couple stayed at Castle Lodge, Ludlow. A few months later, they both became ill, possibly with the sweating sickness, which was sweeping the area. Arthur died on April 2, 1502; 16-year-old Catherine recovered to find herself a widow.

At this point, Henry VII faced the challenge of avoiding the obligation to return her 200,000-ducat dowry, half of which he had not yet received, to her father, as required by her marriage contract should she return home. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth in February 1503, King Henry VII initially considered marrying Catherine himself, but the opposition of her father and potential questions over the legitimacy of the couple’s issue ended the idea. To settle the matter, it was agreed that Catherine would marry Henry VII’s second son, Henry, Duke of York, who was five years younger than she was.

Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England and Ireland

Catherine held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history.

Marriage to Arthur’s brother depended on the Pope granting a dispensation because canon law forbade a man to marry his brother’s widow (Lev. 18:16). Catherine testified that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated as, also according to canon law, a marriage was dissoluble unless consummated.

Catherine’s second wedding took place on June 11, 1509, seven years after Prince Arthur’s death. She married Henry VIII, who had only just acceded to the throne, in a private ceremony in the church of the Observant Friars outside Greenwich Palace. She was 23 years of age.

For six months in 1513, Catherine served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English crushed and defeated the Scottish at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about English courage.

By 1525, Henry VIII was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter, the future Mary I of England, as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne.

Henry VIII sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England’s schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters.

In 1533 their marriage was consequently declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as supreme head of the Church in England and considered herself the king’s rightful wife and queen, attracting much popular sympathy. Despite this, Henry acknowledged her only as dowager princess of Wales.

After being banished from court by Henry, Catherine lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, dying there on January 7, 1536 of cancer. The English people held Catherine in high esteem, and her death set off tremendous mourning.

Catherine commissioned The Education of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, and Vives dedicated the book, controversial at the time, to the Queen in 1523. Such was Catherine’s impression on people that even her enemy Thomas Cromwell said of her, “If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History.” She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day, for the sake of their families. Catherine also won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor. She was a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More.

April 22, 1451: Birth of Queen Isabella I of Castile.

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Carlos I of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Henry IV of Castile, House of Trastámara, Infanta Joanna la Beltraneja, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Spain, Philip I of Austria, Prince of Asturias, Princess of Asturias, Queen Isabella I of Castile

Isabella I (April 22, 1451 – November 26, 1504) was Queen of Castile from 1474 and Queen consort of Aragon from 1479, reigning over a dynastically unified Spain jointly with her husband Fernando II.

Isabella I,

Isabella was born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, to King Juan II of Castile and his second wife, Isabella of Portugal on April 22, 1451. At the time of her birth, she was second in line to the throne after her older half-brother Infante Enrique of Castile. Enrique was 26 at that time and married, but childless. Isabella’s younger brother Alfonso of Castile was born two years later on November 17, 1453, lowering her position to third in line.

Infante Enrique, Prince of Asturias celebrated had his marriage to Blanche of Navarre in 1440, when he was 15 years old. Blanche of Navarre Was the daughter of John II of Aragon and Blanche I of Navarre.

The Cardinal Juan de Cervantes presided over the official ceremony. The marriage had been agreed in 1436 as part of the peace negotiations between Castille and Navarre.

Enrique alleged that he had been incapable of sexually consummating the marriage, despite having tried for over three years, the minimum period required by the church. Other women, prostitutes from Segovia, testified that they had had sexual relations with Enrique, which is why he blamed his inability to consummate the marriage on a curse.

Enrique IV, King of Castile

Enrique’s claim of “permanent impotence” only affected his relations with Blanche. Blanche and Enrique were cousins, and he was also a cousin of Joan of Portugal, whom he wanted to marry instead. Therefore, the reason he used to seek the annulment was the sort of curse that only affected his ability to consummate this one marriage, and would not cause any problems for him with other women. Pope Nicholas V corroborated the decision in December of the same year in a papal bull and provided a papal dispensation for Enrique’s new marriage with the sister of the Portuguese king.

When Isabella’s father, King Juan II died on July 20, 1454 her half-brother ascended to the throne as King Enrique IV of Castile. Isabella and her brother Infante Alfonso were left in King Enrique IV’s care. Isabella, her mother, and Alfonso then moved to Arévalo.

Infanta Joan of Portugal was the the posthumous daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Infanta Eleanor of Aragon, the daughter of Fernando I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque. The wedding was celebrated in May 1455, but without an affidavit of official bull authorizing the wedding between them, although they were first cousins (their mothers were sisters) and second cousins (their paternal grandmothers were half-sisters). On February 28, 1462, the queen gave birth to a daughter Infanta Joanna la Beltraneja. On May 9, 1462, Joanna was officially proclaimed heir to the throne of Castile and created Princess of Asturias. Enrique had the nobles of Castile swear allegiance to her and promise that they would support her as monarch.

Infanta Joanna la Beltraneja, Princess of Asturias.

These were times of turmoil for Isabella. The living conditions at their castle in Arévalo were poor, and they suffered from a shortage of money. Although her father arranged in his will for his children to be financially well taken care of, King Enrique did not comply with their father’s wishes, either from a desire to keep his half-siblings restricted, or from ineptitude. Even though living conditions were difficult, under the careful eye of her mother, Isabella was instructed in lessons of practical piety and in a deep reverence for religion.

Some of Isabella’s living conditions improved once they moved to Segovia. She always had food and clothing and lived in a castle that was adorned with gold and silver. Isabella’s basic education consisted of reading, spelling, writing, grammar, history, mathematics, art, chess, dancing, embroidery, music, and religious instruction. She and her ladies-in-waiting entertained themselves with art, embroidery, and music. She lived a relaxed lifestyle, but she rarely left Segovia since King Enrique forbade this.

In early 1460s, Castilian nobles became dissatisfied with the rule of King Enrique IV and believed that Queen Joan’s child (Joanna, Princess of Asturias) had not been sired by Enrique. Propaganda and rumour, encouraged by the league of rebellious nobles, argued that her father was Beltrán de la Cueva, a royal favorite of low background whom Henry had elevated to enormous power and who, as suggested by Alfonso de Palencia and others, may have been Enrique’s lover. This resulted in giving Infanta Joanna, Princess of Asturias the name “Juana la Beltraneja”, which has stuck with the girl throughout history. If Joanna was illegitimate, the next in line was Alfonso. If she was legitimate—which is entirely possible—then Alfonso and, ultimately, his famous sister Isabella were both usurpers. Considering Isabella’s impact on world history, this question has fascinated historians for centuries.

The question of Isabella’s marriage was not a new one. She had made her debut in the matrimonial market at the age of six with a betrothal to Infante Fernando of Aragon, the younger son of King Juan II of Aragon and Navarre (whose family was a cadet branch of the House of Trastámara) and Juana Enriquez de Córdoba, 5th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte. At that time, the two kings, Enrique IV and Juan II, were eager to show their mutual love and confidence and they believed that this double alliance would make their eternal friendship obvious to the world. This arrangement, however, did not last long.

In 1465, an attempt was made to marry Isabella to King Alfonso V of Portugal, Enrique IV’s brother-in-law. Through the medium of the Queen and Count of Ledesma, a Portuguese alliance was made. Isabella, however, was wary of the marriage and refused to consent.

A civil war broke out in Castile over King Enrique IV’s inability to act as sovereign. Enrique now needed a quick way to please the rebels of the kingdom. As part of an agreement to restore peace, Isabella was to be betrothed to Pedro Girón Acuña Pacheco, Master of the Order of Calatrava and brother to the King’s favourite, Juan Pacheco. In return, Don Pedro would pay into the impoverished royal treasury an enormous sum of money. Seeing no alternative, Enrique IV agreed to the marriage. Isabella was aghast and prayed to God that the marriage would not come to pass. Her prayers were answered when Don Pedro suddenly fell ill and died while on his way to meet his fiancée.

In 1464 the league of nobles with the Representation of Burgos controlling Isabella’s younger brother, Alfonso, forced Enrique IV to repudiate Joanna and recognize Alfonso as his official heir. Alfonso then became Prince of Asturias, a title previously held by Joanna. Enrique agreed to the compromise with the stipulation that Alfonso someday marry Joanna, to ensure that they both would one day receive the crown.

However, in 1468 at the age of only 14, Alfonso suddenly died. The cause of death is not known, but it likely to have been an illness such as consumption or plague (although it is rumored that he had been deliberately poisoned by his enemies).

When King Enrique IV had recognised Isabella as his heir-presumptive on September 19, 1468, he had also promised that his sister should not be compelled to marry against her will, while she in return had agreed to obtain his consent. It seemed that finally the years of failed attempts at political marriages were over.

There was talk of a marriage to Edward IV of England or to one of his brothers, probably Richard, Duke of Gloucester,(future Richard III); but this alliance was never seriously considered. Once again in 1468, a marriage proposal arrived from Alfonso V of Portugal. Going against his promises made in September, Enrique IV tried to make the marriage a reality. If Isabella married Alfonso, Enrique IV’s daughter Joanna, would marry Alfonso’s son Juan II of Portugal and thus, after the death of the old king, Juan II and Joanna could inherit Portugal and Castile. Isabella refused and made a secret promise to marry her cousin and very first betrothed, Fernando of Aragon.

On May 10, 1475, King Afonso V of Portugal invaded Castile and married Joanna in Plasencia, 15 days later, making her Queen of Portugal.

On October 18, 1469, the formal betrothal took place. Because Isabella and Fernando were second cousins, they stood within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity and the marriage would not be legal unless a dispensation from the Pope was obtained. With the help of the Valencian Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI), Isabella and Fernando were presented with a supposed papal bull by Pius II (who had died in 1464), authorizing Fernando to marry within the third degree of consanguinity, making their marriage legal. Afraid of opposition, Isabella eloped from the court of Enrique IV with the excuse of visiting her brother Alfonso’s tomb in Ávila. Fernando, on the other hand, crossed Castile in secret disguised as a servant. They were married immediately upon reuniting, on October 19, 1469, in the Palacio de los Vivero in the city of Valladolid.

Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile

When Isabella came to the throne in 1474, upon the death of King Enrique IV of Castile was in a state of despair due to her brother Enrique’s reign. It was not unknown that Enrique IV was a big spender and did little to enforce the laws of his kingdom. It was even said by one Castilian denizen of the time that murder, rape, and robbery happened without punishment. Because of this, Isabella needed desperately to find a way to reform her kingdom.

Queen Isabella reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Isabella’s marriage to Fernando II of Aragon in 1469 created the basis of the de facto unification of Spain. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms.

Isabella and Fernando are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile to their Jewish and Muslim subjects, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as a major power in Europe and much of the world for more than a century. Isabella, granted together with her husband the title “the Catholic” by Pope Alexander VI, was recognized as a Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1494.

In later years Isabella and Fernando were consumed with administration and politics over the Empire they had forged; they were concerned with the succession and worked to link the Spanish crown to the other rulers in Europe. By early 1497, all the pieces seemed to be in place: The son and heir Infanta Juan, Prince of Asturias, married a Habsburg princess, Archduchess Margaret of Austria, establishing the connection to the Habsburgs. The eldest daughter, Isabella of Aragon, married King Manuel I of Portugal, and the younger daughter, Joanna of Castile, was married to a Habsburg prince, Archduke Philipp of Habsburg, the son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife, Duchess Mary of Burgundy. These marriages were one of a set of family alliances between the Habsburgs and the Trastámaras designed to strengthen both against growing French power.

However, Isabella’s plans for her eldest two children did not work out. Her only son, John of Asturias, died shortly after his marriage. Her daughter Isabella of Aragon, whose son Miguel da Paz died at the age of two, died in childbirth. Queen Isabella I’s crowns passed to her third child Joanna and her son-in-law, Philip who is recognized as King Felipe I.

Isabella did, however, make successful dynastic matches for her two youngest daughters. The death of Isabella of Aragon created a necessity for Manuel I of Portugal to remarry, and Isabella’s third daughter, Maria of Aragon, became his next bride. Isabella’s youngest daughter, Catherine of Aragon, married England’s Arthur, Prince of Wales, but his early death resulted in her being married to his younger brother, King Henry VIII of England.

Isabella officially withdrew from governmental affairs on 14 September 14, 1504 and she died that same year on November 26 at the Medina del Campo Royal Palace. She had already been in decline since the deaths of her son Prince Juan of Asturias in 1497, her mother Isabella of Portugal in 1496, and her daughter Princess Isabella of Asturias in 1498.

She is entombed in Granada in the Capilla Real, which was built by her grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (Carlos I of Spain), alongside her husband Ferdinand, her daughter Joanna and Joanna’s husband Felipe I; and Isabella’s 2-year-old grandson, Miguel da Paz (the son of Isabella’s daughter, also named Isabella, and King Manuel I of Portugal). The museum next to the Capilla Real holds her crown and scepter.

The Unification of the Kingdom of Spain: Part I.

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Ferdimand II of Aragon, Ferdinand and Isabella, Henry IV of Castile, House of Aviz, House of Trastámara, Isabella of Spain, Kingdom of Aragon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Spain

The history of Spain reaches back into antiquity and the era of the Roman Empire. After the demise of Rome the Iberian Peninsula fractured into many kingdoms. Even as late as the 15th century, the most important among all of the separate Christian kingdoms that made up the old Hispania were the Kingdom of Castile (occupying northern and central portions of the Iberian Peninsula), the Kingdom of Aragon (occupying northeastern portions of the peninsula), and the Kingdom of Portugal occupying the far western Iberian Peninsula.

The death of King Henrique IV of Castile in 1474 set off a struggle for power called the War of the Castilian Succession (1475–1479). Contenders for the throne of Castile were Henrique IV’s one-time heir Joanna la Beltraneja, supported by Portugal and France, and Henrique’s half-sister Isabella of Castile, supported by the Kingdom of Aragon and by the Castilian nobility. The setting of the succession was a step in unifying Aragon and Castile into the Kingdom of Spain.

Isabella, Queen of Castile

Isabella was born on April 22, 1451 in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila, to King Juan II of Castile and his second wife, Isabella of Portugal, daughter of João, Constable of Portugal, (of the Aviz dynasty) the youngest surviving son of King João I of Portugal, and his half-niece and wife, Isabella of Barcelos, the daughter of his half-brother Afonso of Barcelos, the Duke of Braganza, an illegitimate son of the king.

At the time of her birth, Isabella was second in line to the throne after her older half-brother the future King Henrique IV of Castile. Henrique was 26 at the birth of his half-sister Isabella and was married to Queen Blanche II of Navarre but the union was childless and later annulled due to Henrique’s impotence. Another younger brother Alfonso of Castile was born two years later on November 17, 1453, lowering her position to third in line. When her father died in 1454, her half-brother ascended to the throne as King Henrique IV of Castile. Isabella and her brother Alfonso were left in King Henrique’s care. Isabell, her mother, and Alfonso then moved to Arévalo.

Henrique IV made a number of attempts throughout his reign to arrange a politically advantageous marriage for his much younger sister. The first attempt was when the six-year-old Isabella was betrothed to Fernando of Aragon and Navarre, son of Juan II of Aragon and Navarre (a cadet branch of the House of Trastámara) and his second wife, Juana Enriquez de Córdoba, 5th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte the daughter of Fadrique Enríquez de Mendoza and Mariana Fernández de Córdoba y Ayala, 4th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte, she was a great-great granddaughter of Alfonso XI of Castile.

In March 1453, before the annulment between King Henrique IV of Castile from Queen Blanche II of Navarre was finalised, there is no record of negotiations for the new marriage between Henrique IV and Joan of Portugal, sister of the king Alfonso V of Portugal. The first marital approaches were made in December of that year, although the negotiations were long and the proposal wasn’t definitively agreed until February 1455. The wedding was celebrated in May 1455, but without an affidavit of official bull authorizing the wedding between them, they were first cousins (their mothers were sisters) and second cousins (their paternal grandmothers were half-sisters). On February 28, 1462, the queen gave birth to a daughter Joanna la Beltraneja, whose paternity came into question during the conflict for succession to the Castillian throne when Henrique IV died.

In 1468, at the age of only 14, Alfonso, the brother of Henrique IV and Isabella, died, most likely from the plague (although poison and slit throat have been suggested). His will left his crown and place in the succession to his sister, Isabella. Henrique IV agreed to exclude Joanna la Beltraneja from the succession, due to her questionable parentage, and to recognize Isabella as his official heir.

Fernando II, King of Aragon

Infante Fernando of Aragon married Infanta Isabella, on October 19, 1469 in Valladolid, Kingdom of Castile and Leon. Isabella also belonged to the royal House of Trastámara, and the two were cousins by descent from Juan I of Castile. They were married with a clear prenuptial agreement on sharing power, and under the joint motto “tanto monta, monta tanto”.

Isabella became Castile’s next monarch when King Henrique IV died in 1474. However, the succession was not settled. After the death of King Henrique IV, war broke out in Castile. Joanna la Beltraneja was supported by Portugal, while the eventual winner, Henrique’s half-sister Isabella I of Castile, had the support of Aragon. France initially supported Joanna, yet in 1476, after losing the Battle of Toro, France refused to help Joanna, further and in 1478 signed a peace treaty with Isabella.

Fernando II and Isabella I, King and Queen of Castile and Aragon

Upon Isabella’s succession to the throne of Castile, she ruled jointly with her husband, Fernando of Aragon who succeeded his father as King Fernando II of Aragon in 1479,

Their marriage united both crowns and set the stage for the creation of the Kingdom of Spain, at the dawn of the modern era. That union, however, was a union in title only, as each region retained its own political and judicial structure. Pursuant to an agreement signed by Isabella and Fernando on January 15, 1474, Isabella held more authority over the newly unified Spain than her husband, although their rule was shared. Together, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon were known as the “Catholic Monarchs” (Spanish: los Reyes Católicos), a title bestowed on them by Pope Alexander VI.