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Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised. After a long

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Speaker 1: and treacherous journey from her cloistered life in Spain, Princess

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Speaker 1: Catherine finally made it safely to English shores. Katherine, the

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Speaker 1: daughter of the illustrious Ferdinand and Isabella, was devoutly religious,

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Speaker 1: and so as soon as her ship had landed on

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Speaker 1: the English coast, she insisted on going immediately to church.

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Speaker 1: Though she was only fifteen, Catherine already felt like a woman. Technically,

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Speaker 1: she was already married to Arthur, the Prince of Wales,

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Speaker 1: heir to the English throne. They had been married by

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Speaker 1: proxy the year before, and they had been betrothed since

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Speaker 1: she was three, and so the teenager knew how to

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Speaker 1: carry herself like a woman, to carry herself as a

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Speaker 1: representative of her parents and of her nation. Because she

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Speaker 1: was she had never met her husband. Although they had

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Speaker 1: exchanged flowery letters in their mutual language Latin, they wrote

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Speaker 1: like teenagers, pretending to be adults. Their tutors had handily

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Speaker 1: supplied them with phrases, promises of love and devotion and

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Speaker 1: the long awaited pleasure of gazing upon one another's faces.

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Speaker 1: Even after making it to England, it would still be

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Speaker 1: days before Catherine met the man with whom she had

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Speaker 1: promised to spend the rest of her life. From the coast,

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Speaker 1: Catherine and her party Spanish servants and ladies and ambassadors

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Speaker 1: and chaperones, road to Berkshire and then to a bishop's

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Speaker 1: house in Dogsmrefield. Even through a full day of sweaty

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Speaker 1: travel along roads pock marked with dust and holes, Katherine

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Speaker 1: embodied propriety above all else. She wore a long velvet

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Speaker 1: gown in the demure Spanish style and to veil over

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Speaker 1: her face, and she rode in a carriage with the

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Speaker 1: curtains drawn, even when the summer heat forced its way

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Speaker 1: through them and made the skin underneath the fabric of

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Speaker 1: Catherine's dress prickle with sweat. When they made it to

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Speaker 1: the bishop's house, it was already dark, and Catherine's ladies

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Speaker 1: politely demurred the bishop's offer of dinner, and they swept

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Speaker 1: their princess to bed. But word had already made it

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Speaker 1: to the King of England, Henry the Seventh, that his

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Speaker 1: future daughter in law had arrived. He rode out immediately

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Speaker 1: to inspect the goods as it were, and so he

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Speaker 1: was furious when he arrived, only to be told by

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Speaker 1: Catherine's chaperone that the princess had had an exhausting travel

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Speaker 1: day and that she had retired to her bedroom for

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Speaker 1: the night. King Henry the seventh was outraged. Was the

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Speaker 1: princess deformed? Was the portrait? They had sent? The cunning

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Speaker 1: lie on the part of the Spanish monarchy to trick

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Speaker 1: them and make them appear the fool? Were they sending

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Speaker 1: his son damaged goods? He was the king, and he

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Speaker 1: demanded to see Princess Catherine. After a few moments, Catherine

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Speaker 1: and her ladies emerged from her bed chamber. Catherine wore

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Speaker 1: a heavy black veil over her face. Henry the seventh

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Speaker 1: was sure they were hiding something, and so he strode

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Speaker 1: over and, without even a word of introduction, flung the

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Speaker 1: veil back. He was surprised, in spite of himself, she

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Speaker 1: was exactly as her portrait had presented her, a beautiful

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Speaker 1: fifteen year old girl with clear, creamy skin and thick

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Speaker 1: red hair. Her blue eyes were bleary but light and intelligent.

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Speaker 1: Very well, the king said, and he bid her good night.

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Speaker 1: That interaction would represent Catherine's tenuous position in England for

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Speaker 1: the next thirty five years. The rest of her life,

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Speaker 1: she was more a symbol than a woman, both a

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Speaker 1: bargaining chip and an obstacle. For the rest of Catherine's life,

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Speaker 1: she would be fighting an increasingly challenging battle to maintain

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Speaker 1: her dignity. She was a player in an unwinnable game,

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Speaker 1: a hostage first of Henry the Seventh and then ultimately

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Speaker 1: of Henry the eight, her brother in law, who first

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Speaker 1: became her husband and then became her enemy. I'm Danis Schwartz,

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Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Catherine didn't know it, but

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Speaker 1: blood had already been shed to pave the way for

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Speaker 1: her journey to England. In the course of her marriage negotiations,

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Speaker 1: back when she was still a toddler crawling on her

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Speaker 1: mother's lap, her father had demanded that if their princess

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Speaker 1: was to be wed to Arthur, the heir to the

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Speaker 1: throne of England, and King Henry the Seven, would need

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Speaker 1: to kill a prisoner. Not just any prisoner. He would

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Speaker 1: need to kill the young Earl of Warwick, a boy

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Speaker 1: who had been in isolation in the Tower of London

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Speaker 1: for nearly fifteen years. The Earl of Warwick, still only

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Speaker 1: in his early twenties, was the nephew and heir of

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Speaker 1: the former King Richard the Third. England's new King, Henry

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Speaker 1: the seventh, had beat Richard of the Third in battle

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Speaker 1: and made an advantageous marriage to Elizabeth of York afterward,

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Speaker 1: but no one really believed that he had any worthwhile

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Speaker 1: blood claim to the English throne. Someone like the Earl

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Speaker 1: of Warwick did have that blood claim. Sure, the Earl

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Speaker 1: was no real threat while he was imprisoned half mad

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Speaker 1: from loneliness, but he was still a threat, and Ferdinand

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Speaker 1: of Arragon did not want any threats if his daughter

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Speaker 1: was to come to England. She was an incredibly eligible princess,

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Speaker 1: the youngest daughter of a United Spain a Ferdinand of

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Speaker 1: Aragon and Isabella of Castie Eel. Catherine's bloodline was impeccable

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Speaker 1: technically on her mother's side. She even had a better

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Speaker 1: blood claim to the English throne than Henry the seventh.

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Speaker 1: That was most of the reason that Henry the seventh

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Speaker 1: wanted her for his son. Catherine represented old European royalty

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Speaker 1: everything that he aspired for the brand new House of

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Speaker 1: Tudor to be, and so King Henry the seventh trumped

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Speaker 1: up charges of an escape attempt and had Warwick executed.

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Speaker 1: Princess Catherine would be marrying the future King of England.

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Speaker 1: Henry the seventh guaranteed it, and so Spain agreed on

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Speaker 1: a dowry of two hundred thousand crowns, and when young

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Speaker 1: Prince Arthur turned fourteen old enough to consummate a marriage,

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Speaker 1: Catherine was shipped to England for a wedding that would

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Speaker 1: make all of Europe pay attention. Catherine came to London

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Speaker 1: two days before her wedding in a gown with bell

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Speaker 1: shaped sleeves and a hooped petticoat that made her as

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Speaker 1: wide as she was high. The look was unlike anything

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Speaker 1: anyone was wearing in England. It was unmistakably Spanish. Catherine

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Speaker 1: also wore a jaunty little cap on her head with

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Speaker 1: gold lace to tie it beneath her chin in the

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Speaker 1: Venetian style. Escorted by the Lord Mayor of London, Catherine

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Speaker 1: came through the city to watch the elaborate pageants that

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Speaker 1: people had set up for her, tableaus with sets and

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Speaker 1: costumes on the street. In one tableau, a paper Welsh

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Speaker 1: dragon and green represented her husband to be Arthur, the

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Speaker 1: Prince of Wales. In another tableau, the archangel Gabriel came

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Speaker 1: down to a figure meant to represent Catherine, reminding her

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Speaker 1: that her chief duty was for the procreation of children.

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Speaker 1: A god character then came down and declared, blessed be

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Speaker 1: the fruit of your belly, your substance and fruits I

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Speaker 1: shall increase and multiply. England was coming out of civil

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Speaker 1: war between the Yorks and the Lancasters. The dynasty wasn't

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Speaker 1: entirely secure yet, but Henry the Seven and his heir

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Speaker 1: Arthur represented a stable future. And now they had this young,

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Speaker 1: beautiful Spanish princess who was ready to continue the tutor line.

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Speaker 1: When Arthur and Catherine finally met in person, they smiled

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Speaker 1: and blushed, still teenagers even as they were play acting adults.

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Speaker 1: They tried to converse in Latin, but they found that

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Speaker 1: they couldn't quite understand each other. They had been taught

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Speaker 1: different pronunciations. A Spanish ambassador assured Arthur that Catherine would

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Speaker 1: learn English soon enough. Arthur's little brother, Henry, then just

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Speaker 1: ten years old, peeked out at the princess, who had

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Speaker 1: arrived from a distant land. He whispered into his brother's

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Speaker 1: coat that she was beautiful. Arthur smiled, and he kissed

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Speaker 1: Catherine on the cheek. The wedding was a spectacle, with

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Speaker 1: Arthur and Catherine both in heavy crowns and in velvet

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Speaker 1: robes trimmed with ermine. When they completed their vows, doves

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Speaker 1: and rabbits were released outside St. Paul's cathedral. In a

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Speaker 1: moment of delicious chaos, a children's choir sang them out

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Speaker 1: and into their marriage bed. The Warthur was at this

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Speaker 1: point only fifteen years old and have a particularly sickly constitution.

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Speaker 1: The morning after his wedding, he strolled out of his

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Speaker 1: bed chamber and bodily told his friends to pour him

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Speaker 1: an ale. Marriage is thirsty work, he said, poking a

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Speaker 1: friend in the ribs. Gentlemen, he announced, when he had

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Speaker 1: his mead to hold high. I have spent the night

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Speaker 1: in Spain. Catherine privately told her ladies that they hadn't

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Speaker 1: done anything but sleep side by side and offer each

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Speaker 1: other a chaste kiss good night. The day after the wedding,

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Speaker 1: King Henry the seventh sent most of catherine Spanish entourage home,

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Speaker 1: leaving Catherine more isolated than she ever been in her

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Speaker 1: entire life in a strange country and in bed with

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Speaker 1: the stranger King Henry tried to distract her that day.

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Speaker 1: He showed her his library, and he let her choose

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Speaker 1: a new ring for herself, But Catherine couldn't stop looking

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Speaker 1: out the window, looking back towards the land she had

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Speaker 1: left and to which he would now never return. Though

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Speaker 1: Arthur's health seemed to decline in the weeks following his wedding,

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Speaker 1: the pale, weedy boy becoming even paler and weedier, he

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Speaker 1: was still the Prince of Wales, and so the newly

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Speaker 1: wed couple set off to Ludlow Castle in the Welsh

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Speaker 1: Marshes so Arthur could gain some experience in governance. Because

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Speaker 1: Arthur's color continued to fade, courtiers joked that the boy

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Speaker 1: was just over exerting himself in the marriage bed. When

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Speaker 1: both Catherine and Arthur fell sick, with the sweating sickness

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Speaker 1: drenching their clothes, leaving them delirious with fever, people stopped

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Speaker 1: making jokes. On April three, Confessor woke King Henry the

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Speaker 1: Seventh in the middle of the night in his palace

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Speaker 1: in Surrey. The King, still bleary eyed, just stared at

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Speaker 1: his confessor, who recited, stuttering, if we receive good things

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Speaker 1: at the hand of God, why may we not endure

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Speaker 1: evil things. The King didn't respond, and so the confessor

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Speaker 1: lowered his eyes, and he was forced to continue. Your

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Speaker 1: dearest son, he said, hath departed to God. Arthur, Prince

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Speaker 1: of Wales and heir to the English throne, was dead.

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Speaker 1: When Catherine recovered from the sweating sickness, she woke to

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Speaker 1: a new life as a widow alone in a foreign land.

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Speaker 1: She had been married for only six months. As tradition dictated,

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Speaker 1: Catherine did not attend her husband's funeral. Shrouded in black

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Speaker 1: in heavy veils, she returned to London to see what

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Speaker 1: her future wouldn't tail. Catherine's father, King Ferdinand, demanded that

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Speaker 1: England repay her dowry. It was negotiation tactic to frighten

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Speaker 1: Henry the seventh into agreeing to a new betrothal to

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Speaker 1: his next son, the new heir Henry. There were a

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Speaker 1: few obstacles that would prevent Catherine from becoming engaged to

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Speaker 1: the very young Henry Tudor. First, that Catherine was over

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Speaker 1: five years older than him. The new widow was sixteen.

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Speaker 1: The young prince was eleven, but that age difference wouldn't

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Speaker 1: matter much as Henry aged by the time he was

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Speaker 1: fourteen able to consummate a marriage. It wouldn't raise too

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Speaker 1: many eyebrows for him to be going to bed with

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Speaker 1: an older woman. But the much bigger barrier was the Bible,

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Speaker 1: which forbade a man to marry his brother's widow. To

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Speaker 1: be fair, the Bible wasn't entirely clear on the matter.

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Speaker 1: Leviticus explicitly forbade marriage between a man and his brother's wife,

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Speaker 1: declaring outright that such a union would be cursed with childlessness.

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Speaker 1: But then again, in Deuteronomy, it's basically encouraged for a

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Speaker 1: man to marry his brother's widow. If the couple was childless,

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Speaker 1: it's painted as an act of charity. But that religious

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Speaker 1: complication could be brushed aside if the marriage between Catherine

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Speaker 1: and Arthur was never consummated. Impatient with the hemming and

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Speaker 1: hawing of advisers and ambassadors, King Henry the seventh summoned

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Speaker 1: Katherine and explicitly asked her if she and Arthur had

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Speaker 1: slept together. Catherine shook her head. She and Arthur had

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Speaker 1: laid together for six nights, but never as a man

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Speaker 1: and wife. There Henry the seventh said, do you see simple,

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Speaker 1: we shall keep the dowry and Henry shall Mary Spain.

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Speaker 1: So it was agreed the marriage was set to take

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Speaker 1: place in fifteen o five, when Prince Henry was fourteen

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Speaker 1: years old. Spain would send a delegation to the Pope

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Speaker 1: for special dispensation in order to settle any lingering doubts

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Speaker 1: about the marriage's legality, and so Catherine and Henry were

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Speaker 1: formally betrothed in a ceremony in which Catherine wore white,

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Speaker 1: looking as virginal as she possibly could, with her hair

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Speaker 1: unbound in loose waves down past her shoulder to signify

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Speaker 1: her purity. But until Henry turned fourteen, Katherine remained in England,

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Speaker 1: not quite a guest but not quite a member of

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Speaker 1: the royal family either. She was given a minimal household

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Speaker 1: and an allowance, but not much else. But then Catherine's

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Speaker 1: mother died in Spain, the illustrious Isabella of Castile. That

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Speaker 1: would be devastating under any circumstance, but with her mother's death,

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Speaker 1: Catherine lost her dynastic importance. Technically, Castile went to Catherine's

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Speaker 1: older sister Juana. But everyone knew that Juana was volatile,

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Speaker 1: verging on unhinged, and so the real power was Juana's husband,

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Speaker 1: Philip the Hansom, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor.

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Speaker 1: But all that just meant that with Isabella dead, Catherine

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Speaker 1: was no longer a princess of a United Spain. She

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Speaker 1: was instead just the princess now of the smaller, less

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Speaker 1: important region of Argon. Her father's kingdom. Henry Tudor was

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Speaker 1: going to be the King of England some day. He

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Speaker 1: could probably find a much better marriage. Abruptly, King Henry

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Speaker 1: the Seventh stopped Catherine's allowance. The king began treating her

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Speaker 1: with cruel disdain when he didn't outright ignore her. Catherine

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Speaker 1: wasn't sent back to Spain, of course, not that would

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Speaker 1: mean having to give back her dowry, but Catherine was

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Speaker 1: kept more like a hostage, temporarily kept safe and confined

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Speaker 1: until a better marriage match for Henry Tudor could be made.

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Speaker 1: Henry's fourteenth birthday came and went, and there was no

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Speaker 1: mention of any upcoming wedding. Catherine became aware, with the

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Speaker 1: sinking feeling that there may be no wedding coming at all.

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Speaker 1: She didn't know that King Henry the seventh had already

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Speaker 1: brought his son to the Bishop of Winchester to have

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Speaker 1: him formally revoke the promise of betrothal. He made the

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Speaker 1: two kept it a secret in case Henry would need

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Speaker 1: to marry Catherine after all. All the while, Catherine's circumstances

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Speaker 1: became more and more desperate. From the house she had

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Speaker 1: been staying at in London. Catherine was brought to court

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Speaker 1: so that the King could save on the cost of

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Speaker 1: maintaining a separate household for her. But living in court

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Speaker 1: meant that she was in a constant fish bowl of

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Speaker 1: gossip and speculation and pity. With no allowance, Catherine had

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Speaker 1: no way to pay her staff or pay the dowries

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Speaker 1: of her loyal ladies in waiting, who had come with

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Speaker 1: her all the way from Spain in the hopes that

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Speaker 1: they would be making an advantageous marriage while they were

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Speaker 1: in England. Now Catherine was in the humiliating position of

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Speaker 1: having to tell them that there were no dowries available.

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Speaker 1: Her servants were working for nothing but loyalty. The few

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Speaker 1: gowns that Catherine had brought with her from Spain were

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Speaker 1: growing thin and threadbare. An inches too short on the

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Speaker 1: growing teenage girl. She was heavily in debt to London

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Speaker 1: merchants for the few necessities that she couldn't borrow or

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Speaker 1: construct from her meager belongings. Catherine continued to send frantic

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Speaker 1: letters to her father, begging him for some financial support,

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Speaker 1: but Ferdinand refused. Catherine was under the supervision of King

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Speaker 1: Henry the Seventh and her upkeep was his responsibility. It

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Speaker 1: was four torturous years of limbo, confusion, loneliness, and humiliation.

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Speaker 1: But then there was one bright spot. In January of

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Speaker 1: fifteen o six, Catherine's sister Juana and her husband Philip

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Speaker 1: were sailing from the Low Countries to Spain when they

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Speaker 1: were shipwrecked off the coast of England, and the pair

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Speaker 1: were coming to visit the English court. Catherine had not

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Speaker 1: seen her sister for ten years, and she was thrilled

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Speaker 1: at the prospect of her union. When Juana and Philip

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Speaker 1: arrived at court, Catherine was surprised to see that she

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Speaker 1: was invited to sit at the top table. Catherine was

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Speaker 1: treated with a kindness that was now so unfamiliar to

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Speaker 1: her that it made her uneasy. King Henry the Seventh

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Speaker 1: clearly did not want Juan and Philip to see how

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Speaker 1: poorly their kin was being treated. But Catherine didn't mind.

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Speaker 1: She was seeing her sister again, and when she got

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Speaker 1: her alone, she could beg Juan at to in a

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Speaker 1: good word for her with King Henry. Maybe if Juanna

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Speaker 1: asked him, Henry would finally set the marriage between Catherine

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Speaker 1: and the Prince. When their meeting finally came, Catherine was

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Speaker 1: only permitted half an hour of a lone time with Juanna.

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Speaker 1: Before Catherine even had a moment to ask Juana for help,

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Speaker 1: Juanna began in a panic, telling her sister how miserable

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Speaker 1: she was with Philip and his philandering, how she knew

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Speaker 1: that he was cheating on her, but how she was

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Speaker 1: too madly in love with him to confront him about it,

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Speaker 1: and before she knew it, the meeting was over. Catherine

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Speaker 1: had never had a chance to ask her for help.

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Speaker 1: But while the two women were speaking, Philip was meeting

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Speaker 1: with King Henry the seventh and secretly trying to arrange

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Speaker 1: negotiations for his and Juanna's daughter Eleanor to be the

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Speaker 1: one to marry Prince Henry. The visit that was supposed

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Speaker 1: to be Catherine's salvation was actually a betrayal. Catherine never

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Speaker 1: saw her sister again, and just six months after at

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Speaker 1: the meeting in England, Philip died, only twenty eight years old.

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Speaker 1: They say that his death left Wana unhinged, that she

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Speaker 1: refused to let him be buried, and that she kept

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Speaker 1: his corpse in an open coffin, continually kissing and embracing

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Speaker 1: the decaying body of her former husband until it was

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Speaker 1: pulled away while she sobbed. Catherine had no allies left.

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Speaker 1: She was deeply in debt from supplying her staff with

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Speaker 1: clothing and food, left without even enough money to buy

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Speaker 1: herself a new nightgown. She was pawning her possessions, her

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Speaker 1: last relics of home, one by one, in order to

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Speaker 1: maintain a semblance of the proper appearance required for her station.

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Speaker 1: Prince Henry, who had once been a cherubic ten year old,

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Speaker 1: had grown into a young man. But when Henry showed

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Speaker 1: even a fraction of affection towards Catherine, a woman he

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Speaker 1: had known for almost all of his formative years, the

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Speaker 1: king forced them apart and then banished Catherine to Fulham.

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Speaker 1: Affection would have no place in the negotiations of who

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Speaker 1: an heir would marry. Catherine, now an old maid at

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Speaker 1: twenty one years old, returned to court only for the

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Speaker 1: tournaments of Prince Henry's sixteenth birthday celebrations. The two exchanged

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Speaker 1: shy smiles and flirtatious glances, but they knew enough not

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Speaker 1: to make their affections public. But then a stroke of

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Speaker 1: luck for Catherine, her captor, Henry the Seventh, died of tuberculosis,

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Speaker 1: and Prince Henry became Henry the Eighth. It seemed a

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Speaker 1: foregone conclusion who the golden new teenage king would be

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Speaker 1: choosing for his new bride. He had seen Catherine of

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Speaker 1: Arragon from back when she was a beautiful girl. He

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Speaker 1: had seen her grow through hardship and suffering into a

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Speaker 1: beautiful young woman. She was his first crush, the face

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Speaker 1: he always pictured when he imagined his queen, and he

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Speaker 1: was the king. Now Henry the Eighth was her savior

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Speaker 1: her night in shining armor, King Henry the Eighth was

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Speaker 1: in charge, and he would marry whoever he wanted. That's

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Speaker 1: the story of how Catherine of Arragon married King Henry

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Speaker 1: the Eighth. But keep listening. After a brief sponsor break

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Speaker 1: to hear about how their story ended. They were married

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Speaker 1: for twenty four years, but what had once been alight

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Speaker 1: with youth and promise eventually became sour and hard. One

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Speaker 1: miscarriage became two became seven. Although Catherine bore a daughter, Mary,

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Speaker 1: there was no legitimate tudor son, no one to carry

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Speaker 1: on the precarious dynasty that had been the reason for

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Speaker 1: securing Catherine of Arragon in marriage in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Most people know the story from then how Henry became

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Speaker 1: besotted with Anne Boleyn and attempted to force Catherine into

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Speaker 1: a divorce, claiming that since she had been married to

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Speaker 1: his brother, their marriage was never legitimate to begin with.

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Speaker 1: Catherine could have agreed, She could have bit her tongue

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Speaker 1: and allowed the marriage to be annulled, to just agree

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Speaker 1: with whatever Henry said and let herself settle into a

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Speaker 1: position of well loved sister of the king. But Catherine

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Speaker 1: never wavered from her story. Her wedding with Arthur was

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Speaker 1: never consummated, her marriage with Henry was true, and her

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Speaker 1: daughter Mary was legitimate. Catherine's devout Catholic faith would never

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Speaker 1: allow her to agree to a divorce, and so prideful stubborn,

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Speaker 1: righteous Katherine once again became a hostage in England. She

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Speaker 1: was moved from palace to palace, each one bleaker and

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Speaker 1: colder and more isolated than the last. More and more

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Speaker 1: of her servants and friends were stripped away from her.

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Speaker 1: She was forbidden from seeing her daughter Mary, though Katherine

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Speaker 1: pled for her and Mary begged to see her mother,

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Speaker 1: they would be allowed to see each other. Henry said

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Speaker 1: only if Catherine agreed for the marriage to be annulled.

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Speaker 1: She refused. Catherine of Arragon died, maintaining that she was

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Speaker 1: the rightful Queen of England and Henry the eighth only

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Speaker 1: true wife. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Aaron Mankey. The show was written and hosted

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Speaker 1: by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick,

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00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social

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Speaker 1: media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more

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Speaker 1: about the show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows. M