page_title: Catherine of Aragon
section_title: Queenship
hierarchical_section_title: Catherine of Aragon / Queenship
caption_attribution_description: 16th century woodcut of the coronation of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon showing their heraldic badges, the Tudor rose and the pomegranate. From Stephen Hawes, A Joyfull Medytacvon to All Englande(1509), printed Wynkyn de Worde, 4to, n.d. (Cambridge University Library), a single sheet with woodcut of the coronation of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
context_page_description: Catherine of Aragon was Queen of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII; she was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother, Arthur.
  The daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. She held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese Crown to England in 1507, the first female ambassador in European history. Catherine subsequently married Arthur's younger brother, the recently ascended Henry VIII, in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English crushingly defeated the Scottish at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about English courage.
caption: 16th century woodcut of the coronation of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon showing their heraldic badges, the Tudor Rose and the Pomegranate of Granada
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