Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of Henry VIII. They produced and heir to the throne named Mary. Catherine faced many difficult birth attempts and had still borns (which could today leave a woman dealing with post-partum depression). However, Henry was deteremined to have a son, therefore he chose to go against the Catholic Priest and wanted to have their marriage annuled and desired another woman named Anne Boelyn. So whatever happened to Catherine after the divorce?
In a sense, Catherine was booted out of the castle immediately and transferred many times until her and her daughter were placed at Kimbolton Castle.
Her and her daughter Mary were to live in separate chambers of this castle and was not allowed to see or write letters to each other. Some sources say that there was compassion for the two, and some of the letters were able to be fully exchanged. Later, Henry wanted to offer Catherine a deal: To declare Anne Boelyn as Queen and in return have a better living quarters and able to see her daugther Mary. Both Catherine and Mary refused to accept this offer. Both went from Queen and Princess to ladies. If I would understand their feelings, I would feel betrayed. Catherine refused to return the jewels that are for the Queens, and still called herself the lawfully wedded wife of Henry VIII.
As Catherine got older, she decided she wanted to write her Will. She wanted her nephew to protect her daughter. Sources say she wrote a last letter to Henry stating:
“My most dear lord, king and husband,
The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Katharine the Quene.“
On January 7th of 1536, Catherine of Aragon died at the age of 50 In Kimbolton Castle.
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