Catherine of Aragon by Alison Prince Page A

despatched it to France.
    28th September 1513
    Michel is home, thank God, laughing about what he calls “Harry’s summer circus”. The real war was Catherine’s, and it is Flodden that makes Europe’s kings look with new respect at English fighting power.
    Catherine spoke to me today of Margaret, whose child will be born with no father. Her little son, only eighteen months old, has been crowned James V of Scotland, but Margaret herself will rule as best she can over a country made derelict by the loss of its men. “I have sent people to comfort her,” Catherine said. All her exultation had gone, and she looked drained of energy, her grey eyes shadowed with tiredness and distress. “Between us, Margaret and I must agree to keep the peace,” she went on. “I am disbanding my army.”
    Her voice quavered a little, and she suddenly turned to me and wept. We were both aware that James, her brother-in-law, lies in the chapel here at Richmond, washed and embalmed and decently shrouded. The mute dignity of his dead presence makes it pitifully clear what Margaret has lost and what thousands of women have lost – 1,500 of them in England as well as the countless multitude in Scotland.
    Catherine and I stood close, with our arms about each other as we have not done in many years. I knew she must be aware of the thickness of my body that is the coming baby, and ached with pity for her though I could say nothing about her own loss. After a few minutes she parted herself from me gently and wiped her eyes, then managed to smile. “Dear Eva,” she said. “I hope the future will be kind to you.”
    With all my heart, I wish the same for Catherine. Proud, reckless, careful Catherine, my friend, my queen. May God guard her in what is to come.
    Historical note
    Catherine of Aragon and Henry were married just before Henry was crowned King of England in 1509. Their marriage lasted for nearly 20 years, and it seems that it was a happy one, at least at the beginning, even though the reasons for it were political and not romantic. After he married Catherine, Henry is reported to have said, “If I were still free, I would still choose her for wife above all others.”
    The marriage of Henry’s sister Margaret to the Scottish king James IV had also taken place for political reasons: Scotland had a history of alliance with England’s greatest enemy, France, and the marriage came a year after a peace treaty between Scotland and England. But not long after Henry VIII came to the throne, James tried to break the peace with England, despite being married to Henry’s sister. While Henry was away in France, Catherine was left in charge of the country and it was under her rule that the English army beat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden. The victorious Catherine really did send the blood-stained coat of the dead James IV to Henry, as Eva reports in her diary. Later, in 1542, Henry’s English army was to defeat the army of Henry’s own nephew – Margaret’s son, James V of Scotland. In 1514, Henry’s younger sister Mary was married to Louis XII of France, another political royal marriage.
    Catherine gave birth to five children, but only one of them survived for more than a few weeks – a girl, Mary, not the hoped-for boy who could continue the Tudor line. By the time Catherine was in her thirties she was no longer able to have children and Henry wanted an end to the marriage. In 1527 he began to try and arrange a divorce, which proved extremely difficult and took six years to achieve. Before Henry could marry Catherine, back in 1509, he had needed special permission from the Pope, as head of the Catholic Church, because Catherine was his brother’s widow. Now, Henry argued that the marriage should never have taken place and could be “annulled” – declared invalid. The Pope wouldn’t give his permission – it would have meant going