WEBVTT - Divorced (From the Archive) 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.880 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:13.160 This is Danishchwart's host of Noble Blood. I am off 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.360 taking a brief maternity leave and so this week I 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.480 am so excited to share one of my absolute favorite 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.200 early episodes of the show from the archives, an episode 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:27.720 about Henry the Eighth's first wife, Katherine. Though most people 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.360 only associate her with the end of her life and 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.599 Henry's attempts to divorce her, this episode focuses mainly on 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.800 Catherine's early life, back before she married Henry the Eighth, 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.000 when she was trapped in limbo as a bargaining chip 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.760 in England after the death of her first husband, I 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:46.560 hope you enjoy. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.080 After a long and treacherous journey from her cloistered life 0:00:55.080 --> 0:01:02.400 in Spain, Princess Catherine finally made it safely to English shores. Catherine, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.600 the daughter of the illustrious Ferdinand and Isabella, was devoutly religious, 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.039 and so as soon as her ship had landed on 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.399 the English coast, she insisted on going immediately to church. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:20.399 Though she was only fifteen, Catherine already felt like a woman. Technically, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:24.560 she was already married to Arthur, the Prince of Wales, 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.840 heir to the English throne. They had been married by 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.600 proxy the year before, and they had been betrothed since 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.880 she was three, And so the teenager knew how to 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.200 carry herself like a woman, to carry herself as a 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.280 representative of her parents and of her nation. Because she 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.319 was she had never met her husband, Although they had 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:53.040 exchanged flowery letters in their mutual language Latin, they wrote 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:58.040 like teenagers pretending to be adults. Their tutors had handily 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.360 supplied them with phrases, promises of love and devotion, and 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.160 the long awaited pleasure of gazing upon one another's faces. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.800 Even after making it to England, it would still be 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.600 days before Catherine met the man with whom she had 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.200 promised to spend the rest of her life. From the coast, 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.840 Catherine and her party, Spanish servants and ladies and ambassadors 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.639 and chaperones, rode to Berkshire and then to a bishop's 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.239 house in Dogsmurfield. Even through a full day of sweaty 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:34.720 travel along roads pock marked with dust and holes, Catherine 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:39.919 embodied propriety above all else. She wore a long velvet 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.440 gown in the demure Spanish style and a veil over 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.720 her face, and she rode in a carriage with the 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.080 curtains drawn, even when the summer heat forced its way 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.400 through them and made the skin underneath the fabric of 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.919 Catherine's dress prickle with sweat. When they made it to 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.160 the bishop's house was already dark, and Catherine's ladies politely 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.360 demurred the bishop's offer of dinner, and they swept their 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.880 princess to bed. But word had already made it to 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.400 the King of England, Henry the seventh, that his future 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.440 daughter in law had arrived. He rode out immediately to 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.960 inspect the goods, as it were, and so he was 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.320 furious when he arrived, only to be told by Catherine's 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.239 chaperone that the princess had had an exhausting travel day 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.720 and that she had retired to her bedroom for the night. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.880 King Henry the seventh was outraged. Was the princess deformed? 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.280 Was the portrait they had sent? Just a cunning lie 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.320 on the part of the Spanish monarchy to trick them 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.280 and make them appear the fool were they sending his 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:52.200 son damaged goods? He was the king and he demanded 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.880 to see Princess Catherine. After a few moments, Catherine and 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.200 her ladies emerged from her bedchamber. Catherine wore a heavy 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.720 black veil over her face. Henry the seventh was sure 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.600 they were hiding something, and so he strode over and, 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:13.320 without even a word of introduction, flung the veil back. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.560 He was surprised, in spite of himself, she was exactly 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.160 as her portrait had presented her, a beautiful fifteen year 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.800 old girl with clear, creamy skin and thick red hair. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:30.200 Her blue eyes were bleary but light and intelligent. Very well, 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.200 the king said, and he bid her good night. That 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.840 interaction would represent Catherine's tenuous position in England for the 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.640 next thirty five years. The rest of her life. She 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.920 was more symbol than a woman, both a bargaining chip 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:50.080 and an obstacle. For the rest of Catherine's life, she 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.880 would be fighting an increasingly challenging battle to maintain her dignity. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.640 She was a player in an unwinnable game, a hostage 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.080 for of Henry the seventh and then ultimately of Henry 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.840 the Eighth, her brother in law, who first became her 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:14.400 husband and then became her enemy. I'm Danas Schwartz, and 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:22.280 this is noble blood. Catherine didn't know it, but blood 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.120 had already been shed to pave the way for her 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.919 journey to England. In the course of her marriage negotiations, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.320 back when she was still a toddler crawling on her 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.400 mother's lap, her father had demanded that if their princess 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:37.560 was to be weed to Arthur, the heir to the 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.240 throne of England, then King Henry the seventh would need 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.400 to kill a prisoner. Not just any prisoner, he would 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.320 need to kill the young Earl of Warwick, a boy 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.000 who had been in isolation in the Tower of London 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.480 for nearly fifteen years. The Earl of Warwick, still only 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.640 in his early twenties, was the nephew and heir of 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.200 the former King Richard the Third. England's new King, Henry 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.120 the seventh, had beat Richard the Third in battle and 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.120 made an advantageous marriage to Elizabeth of York afterward, but 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.800 no one really believed that he had any worthwhile blood 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.000 claim to the English throne. Someone like the Earl of 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.080 Warwick did have that blood claim. Sure, the Earl was 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.520 no real threat while he was imprisoned half mad from loneliness, 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.320 but he was still a threat, and Ferdinand of Aragon 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.279 did not want any threats if his daughter was to 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.600 come to England. She was an incredibly eligible princess, the 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.800 youngest daughter of a United Spain a Ferdinand of Aragon 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:44.440 and Isabella of Castile. Catherine's bloodline was impeccable technically on 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.200 her mother's side. She even had a better blood claim 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.359 to the English throne than Henry the Seventh. That was 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.960 most of the reason that Henry the seventh wanted her 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:58.520 for his son. Catherine represented old European royalty everything that 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.479 he aspired for the new House of Tutor to be, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.680 and so King Henry the seventh trumped up charges of 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:10.880 an escape attempt and had Warwick executed. Princess Catherine would 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.120 be marrying the future King of England. Henry the seventh 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.000 guaranteed it, and so Spain agreed on a dowry of 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.080 two hundred thousand crowns, and when young Prince Arthur turned 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.120 fourteen old enough to consummate a marriage, Catherine was shipped 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.640 to England for a wedding that would make all of 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:34.920 Europe pay attention. Catherine came to London two days before 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.280 her wedding in a gown with bell shaped sleeves and 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.200 a hooped petticoat that made her as wide as she 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.160 was high. The look was unlike anything anyone was wearing 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:50.720 in England. It was unmistakably Spanish. Catherine also wore a 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.040 jaunty little cap on her head with gold lace to 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.440 tie it beneath her chin in the Venetian style. Escorted 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.440 by the Lord Mayor of London, and Catherine came through 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.160 the city to watch the elaborate pageants that people had 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.320 set up for her, tableaus with sets and costumes on 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.600 the street. In one tableau, a paper whilst dragon and 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.960 green represented her husband to be Arthur, the Prince of Wales. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.320 In another tableaux, the archangel Gabriel came down to a 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.280 figure meant to represent Catherine, reminding her that her chief 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.840 duty was for the procreation of children. A god character 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.520 then came down and declared, blessed be the fruit of 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.840 your belly, your substance and fruits I shall increase and multiply. 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.600 England was coming out of civil war between the Yorks 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:47.480 and the Lancasters. The dynasty wasn't entirely secure yet, but 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.080 Henry the seventh and his heir, Arthur, represented a stable future, 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.760 and now they had this young, beautiful Spanish princess who 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.520 was ready to continue the Tudor line. When Arthur and 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.480 Catherine finally met in person, they smiled and blushed, still 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.280 teenagers even as they were play acting adults. They tried 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.240 to converse in Latin, but they found that they couldn't 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.559 quite understand each other. They had been taught different pronunciations. 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.120 A Spanish ambassador assured Arthur that Catherine would learn English 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.800 soon enough. Arthur's little brother, Henry, then just ten years old, 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.560 peeked out at the princess who had arrived from a 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.120 distant land. He whispered into his brother's coat that she 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:35.319 was beautiful. Arthur smiled, and he kissed Catherine on the cheek. 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.640 The wedding was a spectacle, with Arthur and Catherine both 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.400 in heavy crowns and in velvet robes trimmed with ermine. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.040 When they completed their vows, doves and rabbits were released 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.000 outside Saint Paul's Cathedral. In a moment of delicious chaos, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.080 a children's choir sang them out and into their marriage bed. 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.960 The Arthur was at this point only fifteen years old, 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:05.000 and I've a particularly sickly constitution. The morning after his wedding, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.000 he strolled out of his bed chamber and bodily told 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.360 his friends to pour him in ale. Marriage is thirsty work, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.880 he said, poking a friend in the ribs. Gentlemen, he announced, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.840 when he had his meed to hold high. I have 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.800 spent the night in Spain. Catherine privately told her ladies 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.800 that they hadn't done anything but sleep side by side 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.960 and offer each other a chaste kiss good night. The 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.520 day after the wedding, King Henry the Seventh sent most 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:40.120 of catherine Spanish entourage home, leaving Catherine more isolated than 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.920 she had ever been in her entire life, in a 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.240 strange country and in bed with a stranger. King Henry 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.680 tried to distract her that day. He showed her his library, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:52.840 and he let her choose a new ring for herself, 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.880 but Catherine couldn't stop looking out the window, looking back 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.679 towards the land she had left and to which would 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:07.920 now never return. Though Arthur's health seemed to decline in 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.760 the weeks following his wedding, the pale, weedy boy becoming 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.240 even paler and weedier, he was still the Prince of Wales, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.880 and so the newlywed couple set off to Ludlow Castle 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.560 in the Welsh Marshes so Arthur could gain some experience 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:28.400 in governance. As Arthur's color continued to fade, courtiers joked 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.920 that the boy was just over exerting himself in the 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.720 marriage bed. When both Catherine and Arthur fell sick, with 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:39.640 the sweating sickness drenching their clothes, leaving them delirious with fever, 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:45.959 people stopped making jokes. On April third, a confessor woke 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.400 King Henry the seventh in the middle of the night 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:53.240 in his palace in Surrey. The king, still bleary eyed, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.679 just stared at his confessor, who recited, stuttering, if we 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.120 receive good things at the hand of God, why may 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:07.360 we not endure evil things. The King didn't respond, and 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.760 so the confessor lowered his eyes and he was forced 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:19.160 to continue. Your dearest son, he said, hath departed to God. Arthur, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:24.199 Prince of Wales and heir to the English throne, was dead. 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.200 When Catherine recovered from this wedding sickness, she woke to 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.680 a new life as a widow alone in a foreign land. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:42.160 She had been married for only six months. As tradition dictated, 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:47.480 Catherine did not attend her husband's funeral. Shrouded in black 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.520 in heavy veils, she returned to London to see what 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:57.000 her future would entail. Catherine's father, King Ferdinand, demanded that 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:02.240 England repay her dowry. It was ociation tactic to frighten 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.920 Henry the seventh into agreeing to a new betrothal to 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.280 his next son, the new Heir Henry. There were a 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.800 few obstacles that would prevent Catherine from becoming engaged to 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.400 the very young Henry Tudor. First, that Catherine was over 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.839 five years older than him. The new widow was sixteen, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.080 the young prince was eleven, But that age difference wouldn't 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.560 matter much, as Henry aged by the time he was 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.720 fourteen able to consummate a marriage. It wouldn't raise too 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.720 many eyebrows for him to be going to bed with 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.760 an older woman. But the much bigger barrier was the Bible, 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.640 which forbade a man to marry his brother's widow. To 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.920 be fair, the Bible wasn't entirely clear on the matter. 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.559 Leviticus explicitly forbade marriage between a man and his brother's wife, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:55.559 declaring outright that such a union would be cursed with childlessness. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.560 But then again, in Deuteronomy it basically encouraged for a 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:01.720 man to make Mary his brother's widow if the couple 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.880 was childless. It's painted as an act of charity. But 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.760 that religious complication could be brushed aside if the marriage 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.640 between Catherine and Arthur was never consummated. Impatient with the 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.040 hemming and hawing of advisers ambassadors, King Henry the seventh 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:23.560 summoned Katherine and explicitly asked her if she and Arthur 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:29.000 had slept together. Catherine shook her head. She and Arthur 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.240 had laid together for six nights, but never as a 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.320 man and wife. There Henry the seventh said, do you 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.320 see simple, We shall keep the dowry and Henry shall 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.960 marry Spain. So it was agreed the marriage was set 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.480 to take place in fifteen o five, when Prince Henry 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.560 was fourteen years old. Spain would send a delegation to 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.600 the pope for special dispensation in order to settle any 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:01.120 lingering doubts about the marriage's legality, and so Catherine and 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.560 Henry were formally betrothed in a ceremony, in which Catherine 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.520 wore white, looking as virginal as she possibly could, with 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.200 her hair unbound in loose waves down past her shoulder 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:19.560 to signify her purity. But until Henry turned fourteen, Catherine 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.080 remained in England, not quite a guest but not quite 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.240 a member of the royal family either. She was given 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.640 a minimal household and an allowance, but not much else. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.880 But then Catherine's mother died in Spain, the illustrious Isabella 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.200 of Castile. That would be devastating under any circumstance, but 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:44.680 with her mother's death, Catherine lost her dynastic importance. Technically, 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:48.520 Castile went to Catherine's older sister, Juana, but everyone knew 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.280 that Juana was volatile, verging on unhinged, and so the 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.880 real power was Swana's husband, Philip the Hansom, the son 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.840 of the Holy Roman Emperor. But all that just meant 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.200 that with Isabella dead, Katherine was no longer a princess 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.720 of a United Spain. She was instead just the princess 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:12.200 now of the smaller, less important region of Argonne, her 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.280 father's kingdom. Henry Tudor was going to be the King 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:26.160 of England someday he could probably find a much better marriage. Abruptly, 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.200 King Henry the seventh stopped Catherine's allowance. The King began 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.880 treating her with cool disdain when he didn't outright ignore her. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.240 Catherine wasn't sent back to Spain, of course, not that 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.880 would mean having to give back her dowry, but Catherine 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.920 was kept more like a hostage, temporarily kept safe and 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.840 confined until a better marriage match for Henry Tudor could 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:55.560 be made. Henry's fourteenth birthday came and went, and there 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.960 was no mention of any upcoming wedding. Catherine became aware 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.600 with the sinking feeling that there may be no wedding 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.520 coming at all. She didn't know that King Henry the 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.840 seventh had already brought his son to the Bishop of 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.040 Winchester to have him formally revoke the promise of betrothal. 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.440 He made the two kept it a secret in case 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.520 Henry would need to marry Catherine after all. All the while, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:27.280 Catherine's circumstances became more and more desperate from the house 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.280 she had been staying at in London. Catherine was brought 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.679 to court so that the king could save on the 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.240 cost of maintaining a separate household for her, but living 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.879 in court meant that she was in a constant fish 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:44.040 bowl of gossip and speculation and pity. With no allowance, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.400 Catherine had no way to pay her staff or pay 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.400 the dowries of her loyal ladies in waiting, who had 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.919 come with her all the way from Spain in the 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.720 hopes that they would be making an advantageous marriage while 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.119 they were in England. Now Catherine was in the humiliating 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:02.600 position of to tell them that there were no dowries available. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.040 Her servants were working for nothing but loyalty. The few 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.240 gowns that Catherine had brought with her from Spain were 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.840 growing thin and threadbare, and inches too short on the 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.760 growing teenage girl. She was heavily in debt to London 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.240 merchants for the few necessities that she couldn't borrow or 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:26.440 construct from her meager belongings. Catherine continued to send frantic 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.360 letters to her father, begging him for some financial support, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:35.560 but Ferdinand refused. Catherine was under the supervision of King 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:40.800 Henry the seventh, and her upkeep was his responsibility. It 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:47.400 was four torturous years of limbo, confusion, loneliness, and humiliation, 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:55.040 but then there was one bright spot. In January of 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.920 fifteen o six, Catherine's sister Juana and her husband Philip 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.119 were sailing from the Low Countries to Spain when they 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.840 were shipwrecked off the coast of England, and the pair 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.760 were coming to visit the English court. Catherine had not 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.760 seen her sister for ten years, and she was thrilled 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.240 at the prospect of her union. When Juana and Philip 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:18.520 arrived at court, Catherine was surprised to see that she 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.960 was invited to sit at the top table. Catherine was 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.840 treated with a kindness that was now so unfamiliar to 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.920 her that it made her uneasy. King Henry the seventh 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.080 clearly did not want Juana and Philip to see how 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.200 poorly their kin was being treated, but Catherine didn't mind. 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.199 She was seeing her sister again, and when she got 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.600 her alone, she could beg Juana to put in a 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.680 good word for her with King Henry. Maybe, if Juana 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.680 asked him, Henry would finally set the marriage between Catherine 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:52.080 and the Prince. When their meeting finally came, Catherine was 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.159 only permitted half an hour of alone time with Juana. 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.120 Before Catherine even had a moment to ask Juana for help. 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.160 Juana again in a panic, telling her sister how miserable 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.320 she was with Philip and his philandering, how she knew 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:07.879 that he was cheating on her, but how she was 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.320 too madly in love with him to confront him about it, 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.520 and before she knew it, the meeting was over. Catherine 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.640 had never had a chance to ask her for help. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.320 But while the two women were speaking, Philip was meeting 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.639 with King Henry the Seventh and secretly trying to arrange 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:29.040 negotiations for his Juana's daughter Eleanor to be the one 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.520 to marry Prince Henry. The visit that was supposed to 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:37.520 be Catherine's salvation was actually a betrayal. Catherine never saw 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.800 her sister again, and just six months after the meeting 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.680 in England, Philip died, only twenty eight years old. They 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.800 say that his death Leftuana unhinged, that she refused to 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:51.719 let him be buried, and that she kept his corpse 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.720 in an open coffin, continually kissing and embracing the decaying 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:00.399 body of her former husband until it was poled away 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:06.879 while she sobbed. Catherine had no allies left. She was 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.320 deeply in debt from supplying her staff with clothing and food, 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.120 left without even enough money to buy herself a new nightgown. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.800 She was pawning her possessions, her last relics of home, 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.679 one by one, in order to maintain a semblance of 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:30.160 the proper appearance required for her station. Prince Henry, who 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.280 had once been a cherubic ten year old, had grown 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.560 into a young man. But when Henry showed even a 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.280 fraction of affection towards Catherine, a woman he had known 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.639 for almost all of his formative years, the king forced 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:48.320 them apart and then banished Catherine to Fulham. Affection would 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.200 have no place in the negotiations of who an heir 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:55.720 would marry. Catherine, now an old maid at twenty one 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.639 years old, returned to court only for the tournaments of 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:05.960 Prince Henry's sixteenth birthday celebrations. The two exchanged shy smiles 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.560 and flirtatious glances, but they knew enough not to make 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:15.080 their affections public. But then a struggle of luck for Catherine, 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:19.960 her captor, Henry the Seventh, died of tuberculosis, and Prince 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.640 Henry became Henry the Eighth. It seemed a foregone conclusion 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.119 who the golden new teenage king would be choosing for 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.320 his new bride. He had seen Catherine of Arragon from 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.560 back when she was a beautiful girl. He had seen 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.960 her grow through hardship and suffering into a beautiful young woman. 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.240 She was his first crush, the face he always pictured 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.320 when he imagined his queen, and he was the king. 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.760 Now Henry the Eighth was her savior, her night in 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:56.320 shining armor. King Henry the Eighth was in charge, and 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:06.040 he would marry whoever he wanted. That's the story of 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.760 how Catherine of Aragon married King Henry the Eighth. But 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.000 keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear about 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:27.560 how their story ended. They were married for twenty four years, 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.680 but what had once been alight with youth and promise 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:37.679 eventually became sour and hard. One miscarriage became two became seven. 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:43.000 Although Catherine bore a daughter, Mary, there was no legitimate 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.080 tutor son, no one to carry on the precarious dynasty 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.400 that had been the reason for securing Catherine of Aragon 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.600 in marriage in the first place. Most people know the 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.240 story from then how Henry became besotted with Anne Boleyn 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:01.600 and attempted to force Catherine into a divorce, claiming that 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.000 since she had been married to his brother, the marriage 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:08.800 was never legitimate to begin with. Catherine could have agreed, 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.000 She could have bit her tongue and allowed the marriage 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:15.320 to be annulled, to just agree with whatever Henry said 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.959 and let herself settle into a position of well loved 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:23.520 sister of the king. But Katherine never wavered from her story. 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:28.240 Her wedding with Arthur was never consummated, her marriage with 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:34.040 Henry was true, and her daughter Mary was legitimate. Catherine's 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:37.480 devout Catholic faith would never allow her to agree to 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:44.040 a divorce, and so prideful, stubborn, righteous Catherine once again 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:48.119 became a hostage in England. She was moved from pallace 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:52.160 to palace, each one bleaker and colder and more isolated 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:55.919 than the last. More and more of her servants and 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:59.639 friends were stripped away from her. She was forbidden from 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:03.800 se her daughter Mary, though Katherine pled for her and 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.479 Mary begged to see her mother. They would be allowed 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:11.000 to see each other, Henry said only if Katherine agreed 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:16.399 for the marriage to be annulled. She refused. Katherine of 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:20.199 Aragon died, maintaining that she was the rightful Queen of 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:32.639 England and Henry the Eighth's only true wife. Noble Blood 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:36.440 is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from 0:25:36.520 --> 0:25:40.560 Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, 0:25:40.960 --> 0:25:44.920 with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:49.199 Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:54.680 edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima Ill 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:59.840 Kayli and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:05.960 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:08.320 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.