At some time during the night of 15th/16th December 1485, Queen Isabella I of Castile gave birth to a daughter at the Archbishop of Toledo’s Palace (Palacio Arzobispal de Alcalá de Henares) in the city of Alcalá de Henares, just over twenty miles north-east of Madrid.
This little girl was to be the youngest surviving child of Isabella and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon and the couple named her after her maternal great-grandmother, Catalina of Castile or Catherine of Lancaster. She was baptised a few days later by the Bishop of Palencia. Catherine inherited her mother’s looks, having fair hair and a fair complexion rather that the dark hair and olive skin we often associate with Spaniards.
You can find out more about Catherine in the following articles:
- 16 December 1485 – Birth of Catherine of Aragon, First Wife and Queen Consort of Henry VIII
- Catherine of Aragon – The Boring One?
- Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon Part 1
- Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon Part 2
- The Death of Catherine of Aragon
- RIP Catherine of Aragon
- Did an Eating Disorder Prevent Catherine of Aragon having a Son?
- Catherine Sets Sail for England
- The Coronation of King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine
