biography
| name: |
Catherine of Aragón
|
pronunciation:
[aragon]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1485–1536)
|
| biography:
| Queen consort of England, the first wife of Henry VIII (1509–33), born in Alcalá de Henares, C Spain, the fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. She was first married in 1501 to Arthur (1486–1502), the son of Henry VII, and following his early death was betrothed to her brother-in-law Henry, then a boy of 11. She married him in 1509, and bore him five children, but only the Princess Mary survived. In 1527 Henry began a procedure for annulment of the marriage, which was refused by Pope Clement VII. Henry then proceeded on his own; a court presided over by Thomas Cranmer pronounced his marriage to Catherine invalid (1533), thereby breaking with the pope, and starting the English Reformation. Catherine then retired to lead an austere religious life until her death. |
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