On this day in history, 24th June 1509, Midsummer’s Day and the Feast of St John the Baptist, King Henry VIII and his queen consort, Catherine of Aragon, were crowned at Westminster Abbey, in London, by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Henry VIII had become king on the death of his father, Henry VII, on 21st April 1509, and he had married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, on 11th June 1509. Catherine was the widow of Henry’s brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, who had died in April 1502.
I do like David Starkey’s linking the new king and queen with Oberon & Titania, characters immortalised by Shakespeare 87 years later, and the knitting up of old wounds and an end to ancient hatreds and what not. Oberon, King of the fairies, as we know, had a not very nice side, which is on full display to us in the play the Bard wrote, against his Queen, the lovely Titania. Though of course, as we know, Oberon took pity ….. and Henry, well, the rest is history.