Today in 1501 Katherine of Aragon married Arthur, Prince of Wales in St. Paul’s. Katherine was escorted to the cathedral by her 10-year-old brother-in-law, Henry. She was dressed in white satin, in the Spanish style, and she wore a white veil covered with gems, and gold thread. Prince Arthur was also dressed in white satin. The ceremony consisted of reading the marriage agreement and her dowry, then they said vows, and had a mass. The conduits ran with wine, there were sumptuous banquets, and the celebrations lasted for over 2 weeks with jousts, and pageants.
Of course, the main event would be the consummation of the marriage, and what happened on that night would be the stuff of rumor and debate for years. The woman in charge of dressing and undressing Katherine reported that she was very sad that nothing happened that night, though of course there is the famous statement Arthur made about being thirsty as he had been in the midst of Spain. We’ll never know, but of course, Katherine swore until her dying day that nothing had happened with Arthur.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 110: Arthur Tudor
Episode 47: Tudor Times talks about Katherine of Aragon
Episode 69: Supplemental – Chat with James Boulton on Katherine of Aragon
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.