Katharine of Aragon, daughter of the powerful Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, spent her youth traveling across Spain, absorbing its culture and politics.

In 1501, she married Arthur, Prince of Wales at St Paul’s Cathedral, securing the Anglo-Spanish alliance. The couple lived at Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marches for a few months before Arthur’s untimely death. Years later, in 1509, Katharine married his brother, Henry VIII, and became his first Queen, residing mainly in royal palaces such as Greenwich and Richmond. 

The couple’s inability to produce a surviving male heir led to her downfall and Katharine’s refusal to accept annulment defined her legacy. Banished from court in 1531, Katharine was moved between several residences outside London, before dying at Kimbolton Castle in Cambridgeshire in 1536. She was buried at Peterborough Cathedral.

We have published a range of in-depth articles on the places connected to Katharine of Aragon’s time in England.

Ludlow Castle

In Issue 17 - Ludlow Castle: a Royal Base in the Welsh Marches, Dr Elizabeth Norton explores Ludlow Castle, a Yorkist stronghold that came into royal ownership through Edward IV, and became the residence of several princes of Wales, including Prince Arthur, who died there in 1502, leaving Katharine of Aragon widowed at age 16.

Many of the domestic buildings within the inner bailey of Ludlow Castle were built during Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March’s ownership of the castle, including the palatial North Range which overlooks the River Teme below ©Shutterstock

Greenwich Palace

Greenwich Palace was the backdrop to important events in the life of Henry VIII. He married his first wife, Katharine of Aragon, there not long after his accession to the throne in 1509, probably surprising the bride as much as his court in his rapid decision to wed. Katharine gave birth to the couple’s only surviving child, Princess Mary, in the royal apartments at Greenwich in February 1516.

This eighteenth-century engraving shows the principal façade of Greenwich Palace facing the River Thames. The chapel can be seen to the left, with Henry VII’s five-storey tower, containing studies, libraries and other private rooms, to the right ©Alamy

The birthplace of Henry VIII and his two daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I, Greenwich Palace was a favoured residence of all the Tudor monarchs. In Issue 10 - The Lost Palace of Greenwich, Dr Elizabeth Norton looks at this magnificent Tudor palace and where we can still find glimpses of it today.

Richmond Palace

The newly-created Richmond Palace was completed in 1501, just in time to host the wedding feast held to celebrate Katharine's marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales. A decade later, it was at Richmond Palace that Henry and Katharine's son, Henry, Duke of Cornwell was born, and also died, barely two months later.

The sixteenth-century gatehouse, with its Tudor arches and arms of Henry VII, is the most visible remains of Richmond Palace ©Elizabeth Norton

Following a fire in 1497 at what was Sheen Palace, Henry VII commissioned a major re-building project, creating the impressive red-brick palace complex known as Richmond (after his Yorkshire earldom) as a suitably magnificent family seat for the dynasty he founded.  In Issue 3 - The Lost Palace of Richmond, Dr Elizabeth Norton investigates the history of this splendid Tudor palace.

Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle in Kent, well-located between London and the coast, with a spectacular island setting, has been a popular royal residence over the centuries – with connections to seven queens of England. It is long supposed that Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon stayed at Leeds Castle on their way to the Field of Cloth of Gold.

The origins of Leeds Castle date back to Norman times. Major renovations in the sixteenth century were followed by a substantial rebuilding in the nineteenth century ©Elizabeth Norton

A number  of fireplaces in the castle are decorated with the pomegranate badges of Katharine of Aragon, as well as the castle emblem of her mother’s kingdom of Castile, almost certainly dating them to this period of works. Katharine of Aragon’s apartments were probably on the upper floor of the gloriette and still survive, although they have been much altered. In Issue 16 - Leeds Castle: The Most Beautiful Palace in England, Dr Elizabeth Norton guides us through this minor, but cherished, palace of Henry VIII.

Buckden Palace

By far the most memorable guest at Buckden Palace was an unwilling one - Katharine of Aragon, who arrived there in the summer of 1533. Katharine had learned that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer had declared her marriage to Henry unlawful and that it had been ordered that she should now be referred to not as the Queen but as the Princess Dowager.

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was sent to Buckden to enforce the use of her new title and status. The meeting was not a success. Charles Brandon wrote to Thomas Cromwell “We find this woman more obstinate than we can express, as you will see by our letters to the King” of his meeting with Katharine of Aragon that took place via a hole in the wall of the great tower. 

The three-storey high great tower at Buckden Palace has a commanding position in the inner courtyard. ©Julian Humphrys

Substantially rebuilt in the most up-to-date fashion of the late fifteenth century, this palace of the Bishops of Lincoln was frequently visited by members of the nobility and Tudor royalty. In Issue 13 - Buckden Palace: Home to the Bishops of Lincoln, Julian Humphrys looks at Buckden Palace, the site of a remarkable act of defiance by Katherine of Aragon, and of a later tragedy for the Brandon family.

Peterborough Cathedral

Katharine of Aragon died at Kimbolton Castle, her final residence following banishment from court in 1531, and was buried in Peterborough Abbey (now Cathedral). Katharine’s refusal to accept Henry VIII’s plans to annul their twenty-four year marriage also resulted in her being forbidden from seeing their daughter, Mary. Katharine rejected her situation and demotion from Queen of England to Princess-Dowager of Wales right up until her death.

Peterborough was not Katharine’s choice for her final resting place. She had wished to be buried at The Church of the Observant Friars at Greenwich, but at the time of her death this chapel, along with many others owned by the friars, had been dissolved. A memorial stone to Katharine, laid in Peterborough Cathedral in the nineteenth century is still honoured, and the royal arms of England and Spain were rehung in the twentieth century, on the orders of Queen Mary, wife of George V.

Katharine of Aragon’s original black marble, gilded tomb did not survive the centuries. Katharine Clayton, a nineteenth-century canon’s wife, raised the money to install the marble slab and gilded grille that mark the Tudor queen’s burial spot in the north aisle © David Ross/britainexpress.com

Rebuilt twice before its current twelfth-century incarnation, Peterborough Cathedral is a glorious mix of Norman and Gothic architecture. In the sixteenth century, the cathedral became the burial place of two queens, each of whom the reigning monarch wished to forget. In Issue 11 - Peterborough Cathedral: A Phoenix in Stone and Glass, Dr Emma J. Wells looks at its turbulent history and splendid architecture.