On 7th January 1536, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, died at Kimbolton Castle.
You can read all about her death in my article “The Death of Catherine of Aragon”.
Catherine of Aragon was laid to rest on the 29th January 1536 at Peterborough Abbey, which still stands today and is now known as Peterborough Cathedral. Although she was buried as the Dowager Princess of Wales, the Cathedral have marked her grave “Katharine Queen of England” and commemorate her death and burial, and celebrate her life, with a special programme of events known as the Katharine of Aragon Festival. This always takes place at the end of January and this year’s events include:
- 25th January 2013 – Tudor Banquet
- 26th January 2013 – Tudor Living History Day
- 26th January 2013 – Lecture – Dissolving Peterborough
- 27th January 2013 – Tudor Experience Day
- 27th January 2013 – Tudor Walk
- 29th January 2013 – Service of Commemoration
Click on the links above to find out more or go to http://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/
I had not ‘put it together’ that Queen Catherine was still buried at Peterborough Cathedral.
Not being British, and not having been blessed as yet with a trip to England (hopefully in the near future), I had made an assumption that she had been reburied at Westminster Abbey with the commemorative plaque there.
Thank you for this post!
I have just look at some photos of KofA tomb on the net, it is outstanding in its simplicity, with a beautiful pattern etched on the top of the stone. Very fitting for her I think…
R.I.P. Queen Katherine.
I’m in a bit of a quandary here, over this ‘Yes you are Queen, No you’re not Queen’.. we all know that Henry had the marriage annulled and gave her the title Dowager Princess of Wales, but…she was actually crowned a Queen, she was annointed, had the crown placed on her head, the full regalia, so surely she was Queen by law because of the sanctity of the ceromony, whether she was deemed legally married to Henry or not. And I would have though that even Henry wouldn’t be able to ‘demoted’ her, as he did with Anne too, they both had a full blown coronation, this can’t be denied or reversed by anyone, so that to me entitles them both to bear the title Queen on their place of burial. They were Crowned!! The other 4 weren’t.. but Jane and Katherine kept the title Queen, Anne and Catherine didn’t, you can perhaps see the reasoning behind that, for those times anyway. In my mind all six deserved more than the title Queen, heroic is one..
Do you get what I mean about this ‘Queen’ thing though, because Mary Tudor (Henry’s sister), was still referred to as Queen of France, after she was widowed and remarried, Mary Queen of Scots was still called Queen, (of France too), even though she was widowed on one account, and abdicated on the other, therefore no kingdom either. How is it all differentiated, it is quite confusing…