Peterborough Cathedral: Catherine of Aragon’s final resting place

But Catherine was no longer a queen consort – she was a dowager princess. Henry didn’t want to bury her with all of the honour that he would give a reigning queen consort, but he also couldn’t do nothing, as he didn't want to annoy the Spanish monarchs.

Peterborough Abbey, as it was known at the time, was the nearest and biggest religious institution to Kimbolton Castle, where Catherine died. And so Henry ordered that she should be buried there. This happened at the very end of January 1536. There was a very big funeral cortege: there were lots of noble women acting as chief mourners, a lot of black cloth, a lot of candles. And Catherine was buried under a big tomb in the nave.

The abbey was dissolved in 1539, and it later became a cathedral. Catherine's tomb was then vandalised by Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers in the English Civil War. So the tomb slab that's there now is not the original – it was installed in 1895. But it's still a big site of pilgrimage for people who admire Catherine of Aragon. You can still go and lay flowers at her tomb today.

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Dr Nicola Clark is a senior lecturer in early modern history at the University of Chichester whose books include Gender, Family and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018)