Catherine of Aragon
Catalina de Aragón
Queen of England · Princess of Wales (first marriage) · Infanta of Castile and Aragon
1485 – 1536
Biography
Youngest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the joint rulers who completed the Reconquista and dispatched Columbus. Married first at fifteen to Prince Arthur, widowed at sixteen, and married seven years later to her late husband's brother Henry VIII. Her refusal to acquiesce in his annulment despite immense pressure — defending the validity of her marriage in open court — drove him to break with Rome rather than compromise. She died at Kimbolton, separated from her daughter, still styling herself queen.
Events
The Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in November 1534, declared Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England and severed jurisdictional ties with Rome. The break originated in Henry's refusal to accept Pope Clement VII's denial of his annulment from Catherine of Aragon and his determination to marry Anne Boleyn; it produced the dissolution of the English monasteries, the seizure of perhaps a fifth of the kingdom's wealth, and the foundation of the Anglican church.
Also there: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn
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