_-004_(cropped).jpg "Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII and brother of Henry VIII. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.")
Prince Arthur Born in Winchester: King Arthur's Camelot
Tudor monarch Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York united England after the 15th-century civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry, as Earl of Richmond, won the crown from Richard III on 22nd August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
He was the Lancastrian half-nephew of King Henry VI. She was the daughter of the House of York's King Edward IV, the sister of Edward V (who, with his brother Richard, was one of the "Princes in the Tower"), and the niece of Richard III.
Arthur was born nine months after their wedding at just after midnight on 20th September 1486 in Winchester, Hampshire. Winchester was the site of the mythical King Arthur's Camelot. The Tudor Arthur's birth heralded a new Arthurian era in his father's eyes. Four days later, he was christened at Winchester Cathedral.
The royal nursery was managed by Elizabeth, Lady Darcy, and two bishops guided the king regarding Arthur's upbringing. Over the next seventeen years, six siblings were born, but three died in infancy. Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after childbirth.
Ludlow Castle: The Prince of Wales' Seat
Arthur was made Prince of Wales in 1489, and three years later, he was given his own household at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, close to the Welsh border. He was well aware of what was expected of him as a future king carrying his father's wishes, and he was quick to learn. Arthur impressed his tutors John Rede and Thomas Linacre and the poet Bernard Andre.
Before Arthur's third birthday, he was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, who was just nine months older than him. The Treaty of Medina del Campo was a contract signed in 1489 and 1490 by Henry VII and Spain's first monarchs Catherine's parents Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille. Within the treaty, the marriage of Arthur and Catherine was agreed upon.
As their childhood years passed, Arthur and Catherine wrote perfectly polite letters to one another. They were strangers. Fifteen-year-old Catherine left Spain on 1st November 1501; she never saw her homeland again. Three days later, she arrived in England to start her new life, and this was the first time that Catherine and Arthur met. Their in-person courtship lasted for ten days.
Arthur and Catherine of Aragon: Teenage Newlyweds
Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine married on 14th November 1501 at the original St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Catherine was escorted to the cathedral by her future brother-in-law and husband, Henry, Duke of York, later King Henry VIII.
Henry VII dreamed of the second Arthurian age and an abundance of little Tudors to secure the dynasty's longevity. There has been a great deal of debate over the last five hundred years about whether Arthur and Catherine ever consummated their marriage.
Their attendants placed them in bed together on their wedding night during the bedding ceremony, and the following morning, Arthur brightly asked them to "bring me a cup of ale for I have been this night in the midst of Spain!" but did they or didn't they? Catherine later claimed they did not. Ever.
From Christmas 1501, Arthur and Catherine resided at Ludlow Castle so that Arthur, Prince of Wales, President of the Council of Wales and the Marches, could continue to fulfil his duties.
The following spring, Arthur and Catherine fell ill. Catherine survived, but the sweating sickness or possibly tuberculosis claimed Arthur on 2nd April 1502. The hope of a second Arthurian era died with him. He was buried at Worcester Cathedral.
Henry VIII: The 'Did They or Didn't They?' Question Resurfaces in the 1520s
Catherine remained in England, devastated but shrewd. Henry VII managed to keep Catherine's dowry and negotiate a marriage between Catherine and Henry, the new Prince of Wales. When Henry VII lost Elizabeth of York in 1503, he mulled over a union between himself and Catherine before he dismissed the notion, according to Thomas Penn in the Winter King. In 1509 Catherine became the first of the six infamous wives of King Henry VIII.
The question of whether Catherine and Arthur's marriage was consummated became significant to Henry VIII in the late 1520s and early 1530s. He decided that his brother and sister-in-law turned wife must have slept together. This was a convenient conclusion; Catherine swore until her dying day that they didn't, but Henry wanted a son and heir, and Catherine was nudging towards middle age. The king wanted a new marriage that might give him his heir, and Anne Boleyn was waiting in the wings to displace Catherine.
Catherine of Aragon Banished in 1533
Henry petitioned the Pope, citing the fact that he had lain with his brother's wife, and this was against the Bible's teaching if the earlier marriage had been consummated, which he believed had occurred. That was obviously why God was not allowing Henry and Catherine to have a healthy son. Mary, later Mary I, was their only surviving child. The Pope did not oblige Henry, so Henry created the Church of England, and he was excommunicated.
Elizabeth I was the surviving child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's three-year-long union. Anne's "failure" to bear a son was explained equally conveniently by calling her a witch. Catherine of Aragon died on 7th January 1536 of natural causes, and Anne was beheaded on 19th May 1536. Henry died on 28th January 1547.
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