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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Catherine of Aragon
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(1485–1536) Daughter of the Spanish rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, and first wife of *Henry VIII. She married in 1501 his elder brother, Prince Arthur, who died a few months later. Henry married her in 1509. Their relationship, reasonably good for many years, foundered eventually because of her tragic failure to produce a male heir. (Of her six children only one, *Mary I, survived early infancy; of the five who were stillborn or died within weeks, three were boys.)
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Henry's conviction that the kingdom required a king was understandable – the only female heir in previous English history, *Matilda, had failed to make good her claim – and he became determined to end the marriage. His first efforts to do so, in 1527, were probably before the start of his passion for *Anne Boleyn. It was not until May 1533 that he finally had the marriage annulled by his archbishop, Thomas *Cranmer (in defiance of the pope, thus provoking the English *Reformation). For the last few years of her life Catherine remained in England, defiantly insisting upon her status as the queen, though separated from her daughter and increasingly persecuted by her husband.
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