Claire | May 11, 2023
Henry VIII’s great matter, his quest for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, caused him to break with Rome and was the beginning of the English Reformation. However, Henry chose to marry Catherine in 1509 and their marriage was happy for many years. In this talk, I explore how they came to […]
Claire | December 16, 2022
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Queen Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Mary I. Catalina de Aragón was born during the night of 15th/16th December 1485 at Alcalá de Henares in Spain. She was the daughter of Isabella (Isabel) I of Castile and Ferdinand (Fernando) […]
Claire | March 28, 2021
Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of King Henry VIII, the mother of Queen Mary I and the aunt of Emperor Charles V, but there are lots more interesting facts about this Tudor woman. In this talk, I share 16 interesting facts about this Tudor queen consort. How many of them do you already […]
Claire | December 16, 2017
On this day in history, sometime during the night of 15th/16th December 1485, Queen Isabella I of Castile gave birth to her youngest daughter at the Archbishop of Toledo’s palace at Alcalá de Henares, a town just east of Madrid. Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, named their daughter Catalina after her great-grandmother, […]
Claire | May 2, 2017
My latest 60-second history video is on Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. There was so much I wanted to say about this queen consort, but so little time, so I tried my best and I hope you enjoy it. As I’ve explained before, the idea of this series is to give information […]
Claire | January 29, 2017
On the day of the burial of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, at Peterborough Abbey, Queen Anne Boleyn miscarried “a male child which she had not borne 3½ months” at Greenwich Palace. It is an event which has become surrounded by myths, with some claiming that Anne Boleyn miscarried a monstrous baby […]
Claire | January 7, 2017
On this day in history, 7th January 1536, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Catherine of Aragon died at Kimbolton Castle. Catherine had been ill for several months but felt worse after drinking a draught of Welsh beer in December 1535 and this, combined with the embalmer’s report that all of her organs were healthy […]
Claire | December 16, 2016
Today is the birthday of Catherine of Aragon, or Catalina de Aragón, so I wanted to take this opportunity to ask you for your thoughts on this 16th-century woman. Even though she was married to Henry VIII for nearly 24 years, she’s so often ignored in favour of the wives who people perceive to be […]
