Abstract
To modern readers, Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) was a dutiful bride (twice), a neglected widow of Prince Arthur Tudor, a lively and happy then frustrated wife of Henry VIII, a devoted mother, and a bitter rejected queen consort who died a dowager princess.1 Her life, “the tragic story of Henry VIII’s first unfortunate wife,” is a prelude to what, for many authors is the main event, Anne Boleyn and the divorce that sparked a religious reformation.2 Biographers, both scholarly and popular, tell and retell a story in which Henry dominates the narrative. Using the same set of official sources, they see her obliquely, through the gaze of men—father, husband, courtiers, diplomats, and churchmen—who measure her importance as wife and widow. Yes, she was widowed after six months of marriage and endured seven years in diplomatic limbo until marrying again. But she also governed as Henry’s regent in 1513, gave birth to his heir in 1516, bore five other children who did not live past infancy, tolerated her husband’s infidelities, and defied Henry’s efforts to divorce her.3
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© 2015 Carole Levin and Christine Stewart-Nuñez
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Earenfight, T. (2015). Regarding Catherine of Aragon. In: Levin, C., Stewart-Nuñez, C. (eds) Scholars and Poets Talk about Queens. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137534903_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137534903_14
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