Following this argument, Catherine was sent away from court for a few weeks, although she returned to court to preside over the Christmas festivities.
In February 1530, the Spanish ambassador reported, “The Queen is treated as badly and even worse than ever. The King avoids her company as much as he can. He is always here with the Lady, whilst the Queen is at Richmond.”1 In 1531, Henry sought the opinion of several universities on the matter, and the majority agreed that the marriage was invalid. The situation was beginning to take its toll on Catherine’s health. At the end of 1530, she desperately wrote to the Pope, complaining that he had abandoned her cause.
In June 1531, Henry made one last attempt to get Catherine to change her mind and submit to his demands. Catherine replied that she would “never consent to it as long as she lived.”2 The following month, Henry and Anne left Windsor on a hunting trip. Catherine remained behind, and she would never see her husband again. She did not realise this at first and happily invited Princess Mary to join her. This angered Henry, and in the middle of August, he ordered Catherine to leave Windsor and relocate to The More while Princess Mary was sent to Richmond. She would never see Mary again.
Anne could now begin openly living with Henry while Catherine lived at The More. In May 1532, Henry ordered her to move again – this time to Hatfield and later to Enfield Manor House. In November 1532, Anne and Henry were secretly married, with a second ceremony following at the end of January as Anne was already pregnant. In March 1533, Catherine was moved to Ampthill Castle. Shortly after, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, declared that Henry and Catherine’s marriage was null and void. On 9 April, the Duke of Suffolk and Norfolk arrived at Ampthill Castle to inform Catherine and to urge her to give up her cause and to inform her that Henry had already remarried. In July, she was informed that she could no longer use the title of Queen and would instead be referred to as the Dowager Princess of Wales as Arthur’s widow. She was also forbidden from having any contact with Mary, who was now considered illegitimate.
Once again, Catherine was forced to move – this time to Buckden House in Cambridgeshire. Her popularity with the people had never wavered, and as she left, many people had gathered outside to “see her and pay her honour.”3 In August, the Pope demanded that Catherine be restored as Queen on pain of excommunication. She also received word that Anne had requested that she hand over the christening gown that her mother had given her. Catherine absolutely refused to do so. On 7 September 1533, Anne gave birth to a daughter – Elizabeth.
The following years saw a steep decline in Catherine’s health. Meanwhile, Henry planned to send her to Somersham Palace but Catherine refused to go “unless we were to bind her with ropes.”4 In May 1534, she was moved to her final residence – Kimbolton Castle. The situation was fraught, and Catherine believed she could be martyred. At the end of 1535, Ambassador Ortiz wrote, “The King has twice said that the Queen and princess are traitors, and despise the statutes, and that though he lose his crown they shall suffer the same penalty as others. The ambassador declares most seriously that they are in great danger.”5
In early January 1536, it became clear that Catherine was dying. She gave the Spanish ambassador a list of her wishes for her burial. He left her on 5 January with the promise that the physician would recall him if her health took a turn for the worst. He would never see her again.
On 6 January, Catherine was able to comb her hair and dress her head. At 1 a.m. the following day, she asked what time it was as she wanted to hear Mass. At dawn, she celebrated with “the utmost fervour.”6 She finally received the last rites and dictated a letter to Henry.
It read, “My most dear lord, King and husband, The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many miseries and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants, I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.”7
Catherine died on 7 January 1536 at 2 in the afternoon. During an examination, her heart was found to be “quite black and hideous, and even after he had washed it three times, it did not change colour.”8 Her wishes regarding her burial were disregarded, and she was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, where she still rests today. Her daughter Mary became England’s first undisputed Queen regnant.
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.405
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.425
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.460
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.469
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.490
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.494
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.494-495
- Catherine of Aragon by Amy Licence p.495
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