Death & Burial of Catherine of Aragon | Funeral of a Queen

From History Calling

The DEATH AND BURIAL OF CATHERINE OF ARAGON are the subject of today’s six wives documentary from History Calling. As the first wife of Henry VIII, Catherine ought to have had the funeral of a Queen on 29 January 1536, but because Henry had annulled their marriage on the grounds that she was the widow of his brother, Prince Arthur Tudor, she was given only the funeral of the Princess of Wales. This made Catherine’s interment unique and this video will look at what happened when royalty died in Tudor England after they’d been pushed out of the royal family to such an extent. It will cover her final days in Kimbolton Castle, at what killed Catherine of Aragon on 7 January 1536, the rumours that she was poisoned, what her autopsy showed, her lying-in-state, funeral procession and the funeral service itself in Peterborough Cathedral. It will reveal how Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn rejoiced at the death of Catherine of Aragon and at how the funeral was used to throw a few final additional insults at her. As the furious Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, reported to her nephew, Charles V of Spain, the location of her burial was not where she had requested, the spot chosen within the church was not deemed sufficiently grand for one of her rank, her daughter Princess Mary Tudor (later Mary I) was not allowed to attend and the sermon falsely alleged that the former Queen had admitted on her deathbed that her marriage to Henry was not legitimate and that his marriage to Anne Boleyn therefore was. The video will also consider how her grave has been treated in the centuries since her death (including its desecration by Oliver Cromwell’s men during the Civil Wars), show how hers almost became one of the lost royal graves of history and ask if the Victorians were guilty of digging up a Queen in the 1890s. Finally, it functions as an introduction to the history of mourning for 16th century English royals and as a Tudors documentary. By comparing it to my video on the death and burial of Jane Seymour, you can also see what a funeral fit for a Queen ought to have looked like.