my historical bby’s - tudor era | katherine of aragon
about: katherine was born on 16 december 1485. her parents were fredinand ii of aragon and isabella i of castile. she was related to catherine of lancaster on her mother’s side and because of this, was engaged to marry king henry vii’s oldest son arthur from a young age. because of this she grew up learning how to be a queen. they were officially married on 14 november 1501. sadly, arthur died shortly after their marriage on 2 april 1502. after the death of her husband, henry vii would have been obligated to return the dowry that her father gave him when she was married. to avoid this, it was decided that katherine would marry henry vii’s youngest son, henry viii. they were not married until seven years after arthur’s death. during this time katherine was left pretty much on her own and was basically living in poverty for much of the time. also during this time, she served as the spanish ambassador, and was the first female ambassador in european history. katherine was married to henry viii from 1509 to 1533. she gave birth to one daughter, mary. all of her other children were either stillborn or died. henry viii was obsessed with having a male heir and believed that god was punishing him by not giving him a son and because so many of their children had died (lots of people thought this during this time). this encouraged henry to begin seeking a divorce from katherine. sometime after this decision, henry met anne boleyn and eventually married her. despite this, katherine continued to refer to herself as henry’s real wife and queen. she was sent to live in several different places and was separated from her daughter and was forbidden to even write to her. katherine died on 7 january 1536.
why i like her: katherine is probably my second favourite of henry’s wives because she was such a huge bamf lol. she was just amazing, i mean. she was the first female ambassador. how awesome is that? and she just seems like she was such a strong person, to me. i mean if i had gone through everything she had i probably would’ve just given up but she didn’t. i admire her because she was so strong and stood up for her beliefs, even though it must have been so hard for her. i mean she’d been married to henry for like 20-someething years and just because she can’t have a son he’s just like “lol no i need a new wife”. and she had to deal with all of that and people looking down on her and treating her like crap not once, but twice. and she couldn’t even see her kid, wtf. but she never gave up and idk i just really admire that.
(i use wikipedia for things like facts and dates when writing this. i know wikipedia is sometimes wrong, though, so please let me know if anything i said was incorrect.)
(Source: previouslymabelroses, via cersei-lannismirk)
