HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2023-11-03T23:03:24.000Z
update period: hourly
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update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Catherine of Aragon: Henry's greatest queen
items: Catalina: the real history of The Spanish Princess favourite
items: Catherine of Aragon: Spain’s Virgin queen?
items: The real history behind The Spanish Princess

Catherine of Aragon: Henry's greatest queen
type: item
date: 2020-10-19T09:55:42.000Z
subject: Tudor
subject: Period
subject: The Spanish Princess
subject: TV interest
description: Catherine of Aragon’s reputation may be defined by the acrimonious breakdown of her marriage. But, during her 24 years as Henry VIII’s wife and queen, she proved herself a resolute war leader, a formidable intellect and the darling of the English people. It’s high time, then, argues John Edwards, that we looked beyond that famous annulment and celebrated Catherine’s achievements
encoded: In June 1513, Catherine of Aragon went on to a war footing. Henry VIII, her husband of four years, had led a huge army across the Channel to attack the French king Louis XII. Henry appointed Catherine as “regent and governess of England, Wales and Ireland, during our absence… to issue warrants under her sign manual… for payment of such sums as she may require from our treasury”. Henry also gave his wife powers to raise and equip troops for the defence of the realm – powers she quickly needed to deploy. No sooner had Henry left for France than James IV of Scotland, husband of Catherine’s sister-in-law Margaret Tudor, was attempting to take advantage of the English king’s absence by crossing the border into England at the head of a powerful army. As the Scots surged south, all eyes turned to Catherine. How would she react? Catherine of Aragon: Spain’s Virgin queen? Catherine, who was born near Madrid in 1485, had often travelled with her parents – King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile – during their war against the last Muslim ruler of Spain, known to the Spaniards as Boabdil. Now, two decades later and a queen in her own right, Catherine imitated her pugnacious mother in backing and organising the English defences. While the Earl of Surrey commanded the army in the north, Catherine ordered another force to be sent into the Midlands as a reserve, and then started mobilising a third contingent north of London, in case things went badly. Watching The Spanish Princess? Find out more about the real history that inspired the drama: The real history behind The Spanish Princess Your guide to the battle of Flodden 1513 Catherine of Aragon: Spain’s Virgin queen? Catherine’s involvement in the defence of England has largely been written out of history, often restricted to a tongue-in-cheek remark she made to Henry’s minister Thomas Wolsey that she was confining herself to “making standards, banners and badges”. But in fact, while her husband was engaged in larg…

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Catalina: the real history of The Spanish Princess favourite
type: item
date: 2020-10-09T15:25:45.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: The Spanish Princess
subject: TV interest
description: Returning to our screens for Part II in October 2020, drama The Spanish Princess aims not just to reclaim the story of Catherine of Aragon, but also another woman who has been lost to history: Catalina, a lady of the bedchamber to the young queen. We found out more about the woman who inspired Lina and how, for actor Stephanie Levi-John, portraying her is a source of great pride…
encoded: The Spanish Princess tells the story of Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Spanish royalty who journeyed to England to marry Prince Arthur Tudor before becoming Henry VIII’s first wife, repositioning the queen in a history in which she is so often reduced to a single word in a rhyme. But as well as placing a fresh spotlight on the royal, the show also brings another forgotten woman of history into focus. Known as Lina in the drama, the character played by Stephanie Levi-John is based on a woman who appears in the records only as ‘Catalina’, a slave and royal bedmaker. An Iberian Moor, Catalina (sometimes also ‘Cattelena’) is known to have arrived in England in 1501 with her royal mistress Catherine of Aragon, whom she served for 26 years as the lady of the bedchamber. Since some slaves in royal service were known to assume the same name as their mistress, this may be how Catalina came by her name – Catherine’s name was anglicised from ‘Catalina’ upon her arrival in England. The ‘de Cardones/Cardenas’ element that sometimes appears as a surname, including that of Lina in the drama, may well come from Catalina being conflated with Katherine Cardenas, a chief lady-in-waiting in Catherine of Aragon’s household, writes Lauren Johnson. Watching The Spanish Princess? Find out more about the real history that inspired the drama: The real history behind The Spanish Princess Your guide to the battle of Flodden 1513 Henry VIII’s mistresses: who else did the Tudor king sleep with? Catherine, the daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, was sent to England as part of a marriage strategy that aimed to consolidate Spanish power and contain France, and in the show, Lina attends to the needs of ‘la infanta’, ensuring that she is treated in a manner befitting Spanish royalty and custom, however ‘foreign’ some behaviours might seem to English courtiers. The travelling party from northern Spain included Jews and Muslims, and was certainly noted for its difference at …

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Catherine of Aragon: Spain’s Virgin queen?
type: item
date: 2020-10-04T05:05:00.000Z
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: Henry VIII's wives
subject: The Spanish Princess
subject: TV interest
description: When Henry VIII was attempting to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, the question of whether she had enjoyed a sexual relationship with his brother, Arthur, became of vital importance. Here, Giles Tremlett looks at the Spanish perspective...
encoded: Rarely has an English queen consort’s virginity been of quite such public importance. Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was famously pious and virtuous. But was she a virgin when, shortly after he came to the throne in 1509, they married? The answer to the question matters because, almost two decades later and as he sought a way to divorce her, it mattered to Henry. Catherine of Aragon: Henry's greatest queen A 15-year-old Catherine had originally travelled to England from her native Spain in order to wed Henry’s older brother, Arthur. They married in splendid pomp at St Paul’s in November 1501. Just 20 weeks later Arthur, also aged 15, died. Catherine’s parents Ferdinand and Isabel did not want to lose the English match so they arranged a second marriage to Henry VII’s other son, the future Henry VIII. The pope’s permission was sought, and obtained, to allow Henry to marry his brother’s wife when he came of marriageable age. The couple had to wait for his father to die, however, before they could wed. Watching The Spanish Princess? Find out more about the real history that inspired the drama: The real history behind The Spanish Princess Your guide to the battle of Flodden 1513 Henry VIII’s mistresses: who else did the Tudor king sleep with? It was only after 18 years with his Spanish wife that Henry began fretting about whether Pope Julius II had overstepped his powers in authorising their marriage. His conscience, he said, was troubled. Had they been living in sin all that time? And was God punishing them for it by not providing a male heir to the crown? When Henry asked Cardinal Wolsey to come up with an answer to the first of these questions in 1527, he was convinced the answer would be ‘yes’. That would free him to marry Anne Boleyn. He could both obtain the woman who fired his passion and, from her young womb, a male heir. He could also dispose of Catherine in a manner that was sanctioned by the church. Henry VIII’s mistresses: who else did the Tud…

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The real history behind The Spanish Princess
type: item
date: 2020-09-24T09:05:00.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: Period
subject: Tudor
subject: Henry VIII's wives
subject: The Spanish Princess
description: How historically accurate is The Spanish Princess? The drama tells the story of Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish royal who married both the teenage Tudor heir Prince Arthur and his younger brother Henry. Read more about the real history behind the young princess’s arrival in England, her relationship with the princes, and her journey to becoming the first wife of Henry VIII…
encoded: Is The Spanish Princess a true story? The Spanish Princess dramatises the true story of the Spanish Catholic royal Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), who married into the Tudor dynasty at the beginning of the 16th century, setting in motion a chain of events that would redefine the history of the western world. Though the drama in The Spanish Princess is heavily fictionalised and includes supposition on events that remain matters of historical debate, there's plenty of real history that informs the plot. The drama, available to watch on Starz, is based on two fiction novels by bestselling historical writer Philippa Gregory – The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse – and sets out to challenge the popular perception of her as “an unwanted and burdensome wife”, say showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham. It follows two previous adaptations of Gregory’s work: The White Queen set during the Wars of the Roses following Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage to Edward IV; and The White Princess, about the young Tudor king Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, a union that attempted to reunite the York and Lancaster houses after years of bitter dynastic conflict. So, what's the real history of the events behind the drama? Did Catherine and Prince Arthur really consummate their marriage? How did Catherine come to marry Henry VIII? What happened to Catherine's children? And was Catherine and Henry's marriage a happy one? Read on for the real history behind The Spanish Princess parts 1 and 2 (warning, there may be spoilers ahead). The wedding and marriage of Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur Catherine of Aragon was born in the Archbishop’s Palace of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, on 15 or 16 December 1485, just four months after a Welshman by the name of Henry Tudor seized the English crown. The betrothal of Catherine, the daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, and Arthur, the Prince of Wales and son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, signalled a pivotal al…

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