Cathrine of Aragon?

Question

What did she do that makes her so great? Besides being married to Henry the VIII?????

Answer 1

Catherine (also Katherine) was a Spanish princess, she was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.Catherine was a highly intelligent person and deeply religious. Until the end of her life Catherine of Aragon would refer to herself as Henry's only lawfully-wedded wife and England's only rightful Queen Consort, her faithful servants continued to address her by that title. Henry refused her the right to any title but "Dowager Princess of Wales" (in recognition of her position as his brother's widow).

Catherine has been admired by many for her willingness to contest the divorce and fight for her daughter's rights. She became a symbolic representation of the wronged woman.

The political and legal debate of her marriage continued for six years. Catherine was adamant in saying that she and Arthur, her first husband and Henry's brother, did not consummate their marriage and therefore were not truly husband and wife. Catherine sought not only to retain her position, but also that of her daughter Mary. Catherine's tactics in political intrigue were a tribute to her intelligence.

Answer 2

she was a spanish princess

Answer 3

answers 2 thru 4 are right. because of her the church of england was started. she refused to lie. she was accused of having affairs with her brother and others which she did not and for her not lying she was beheaded.

Answer 4

As far as I can remember my history classes (they were a long time ago) there was nothing that made her so great in herself. As for you royal position, that was something else. Henry, as you know, was married 6 times and three of this wives were names Catherine (of Aragon), Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. The alliance with her country was one of the reasons he married her.

Answer 5

Well, she was the daughter of Ferdinand and isabella, King and Queen of Spain.  She was married to Henry VIII for longer than all his other five wives put together.  She bore him several children, though sadly only one, her daughter Mary, survived.She acted as Regent when he was awayfighting the French, and made a good job of handling england's war with .Scotland.

When it became apparent that she was never going to have another child, and when he ha dfallen in love with Anne bolyen, henry attemtped to his marriage to Katherine annulled.  Katherine had previously been married to henry's older brother Arthur, who had died, nad Henry beleived this meant that his marriage had displeased God (despite the fact that the Pope had granted him a dispensation to marry Katherine).  katherine declared that she was still a vigin when she married Henry, and that therefore her marriage to Arthur didn't count (though the dispensation was valid whether or not she was a virgin).  Anyway, the church would not give henry a dispensation, and so he broke from the Church of rome and made himself head of the church of England.  He had his marriage annulled in spite of Katherine' spirited defense of herself.

Katherine refused to acknowledge that henry's annullment was valid, even though doing so would ahve made life much pleasanter for herself and for her daughter Mary.  Henry was very crule to both of the, because they would not accept his ruling in this matter.  Katherine stuck to he guns until she died, but after her death Mary broke down and gave in to Henry's bullying.

Some people admire katherine for sticking to her guns and refusing to cooperate with Henry.  Some people think it was stupid, and that she should ahve given in to henry and made her life easier.  Personally, I admire her.

Answer 6

Being the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella she was a devout Catholic. She stood up to Henry and yet kept herself calm and demure in hard times. It had to be hard for her to know that her husband of more that two decades wanted to just dump her and their child, Mary.

Answer 7

She was a Spanish princess (sister of Fernanado de Aragón).

She was Henry´s wife.  She arrived in England, not knowing a word of English, and learned the language, not only to survive, but to communicate with the husband she loved and respected.  

She spent her entire life trying to have a baby boy for him, which tore her body up, and constantly put her in risk of dying.

And when she did have a child who survived, she taught her to rule, taught her things that few women knew or understood.  taught her to stand on her own, or Mary might never have survived a day as Queen of England.

She gave EVERYTHING to Henry, only to be thrown out into the cold because he decided he wanted to have a fling with a little sixteen-year-old hussy, who turned out to be completely unfaithful to him (but DID bear him another daughter).  (not really sure how old Anne was, that just seems a logical age...Henry became quite the uh...almost pedophile as he aged).

Answer 8

She was devout, virtuous and, although offered insult upon insult by her husband Henry VIII, refused to use underhand tactics to stop his marriage to Anne Boleyn and the shaming of her daughter (Bloody) Mary as a Royal b*****d.  Although she spoke very little English when she arrived to marry Henry's brother, she adopted the English and a great many of them were dedicated to her which reflected badly on Henry when he turned his back on her.  It was her love of the English people, her devoutness and her stoicism in the face of abysmal treatment that made her so great.

Answer 9

If there was no Catherine, England might still be Catholic...

Answer 10

Queen Catherine stood her ground firmly and would never actaully divorce King Henry.  She is one of the wives of Henry who didn't get her head chopped off.  Henry, being a smart dude, didn't want to get the Spanish all riled up - they were already a little pissed about Henry's wanting to divorce Catherine and all that c**p with the Pope - so he made Catherine a Dowager Princess and set her up in style for the rest of her days.  She truly loved Henry, in spite of his headstrong and sometimes murderous ways.

Answer 11

I don't think queens (consort) did much then.

You could say she was responsible for making England protestant, which probably had a huge impact on its susequent economic development.

Answer 12

Cathrine refused to let Henry divorce her so Henry started his own religion.

Answer 13

Because she was no less than the daughter of the powerful king  Ferdinand II of Aragon and queen Isabella of Castile, who not happy of having united their separated kingdoms to create what it is now known as Spain, they reconquered their territory from the moors (after 800 years of invasion), expelled jews from Spain, and financed the discovery of America, making them the king and queen of the largest kingdom on earth.

When her sister, Joanna the mad, married Philip the handsome, the spanish kingdom claimed it was so large that the son would never set on its territory (which was indeed a fact)

On top of that, hers was a devoted family, ferociously loyal to the vatican.

Since after 24 years of marriage she was not able to produce a surviving male heir presuntive to the throne, Henry decided to divorce her in order to preserve the throne for the house of Tudor.

Had she been other person, it is likely Henry would have divorced her.  But being Catherine part of such powerful family, the vatican deined him the divorce, and this led to the separation of the english church, of whom the king would be the head in England.

Other than that, Catherine of Aragon was good girl with a bad marriage.

Answer 14

she married Henry VIII. after she did not produce ole Henry a boy (but a girl named Mary) or at least one that surviving infancy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_o...

Answer 15

Very basically:

Besides being a daughter of the famous Ferdinand and Isabella, and a good political match for the still-new Tudor dynasty, she was the wife Henry VIII wanted to get rid of so that he could marry Anne Boleyn and have a son.  Katherine had several miscarriages and stillbirths and only gave Henry a daughter, Mary I.   (Henry and Anne didn't have a son, only another girl, Elizabeth I, so he had her beheaded, married Jane Seymour, and did indeed have a boy, Edward VI.  The next wives were divorced and beheaded, and the last outlived him.  There were no other legitimate children.)

It was because of her refusal to admit to sleeping with her first husband, Henry's older brother Arthur (who died young) that Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church and set himself up as the Only Supreme Head of the Church of England.  Katherine maintained to her dying day that she was Henry's true wife.  Henry found something in the Bible that said you would be cursed if you took your brother's wife; he put his lack of sons down to this.

http://tudorhistory.org/aragon/

http://www.larmouth.demon.co.uk/sarah-ja...

Katherine was a good wife to Henry for the long time they were married, even acting as Regent for him when he was away.  She eventually died of cancer of the heart, it's thought, having been banished to damp and gloomy castles.

Their daughter, Mary I, became known as "Bloody Mary" because of her burning of Protestants.  (Not to be confused with Mary, Queen of Scots.)

Answer 16

she was a spanish princess..

Answer 17

Personally I do not feel she was a great Queen because of her stubbornness. We (I am English) changed our religion as a nation because of her pride and many people lost their lives in the process directly because of her actions. Some see her as a wronged wife and a martyr for her faith. (she died of old age however!!) I see her as a stubborn woman who caused England to become Protestant. Selfish rather than selfless.

She was married to Henry's older brother Arthur and at the time of her marriage to Henry many spoke against the match. Marrying your dead brothers wife was considered a sin by some.

The Pope of the time was captured by her powerful nephew and the marriage could not be annulled because the Popes life was under threat. Without this, I feel that England would still be Catholic and no one need to have lost their lives. So not a good martyr at all!

I can't blame her for attempting to protect her daughter but at the time (a very sexist time!) only one woman had attempted to rule England and it was a disaster. Her name was Matilda and civil war took over the country she won but the people would not accept her as Queen. Henry felt he needed a son to prevent civil war. (Even today in England first born sons legally take the throne before there elder sisters!) Also I can see what a poor Queen her daughter Mary I ( nick named bloody Mary) would prove to be so I am bias.

Catherine did run the country in Henrys absense and she did win a war with Scotland when Henry was away. The king of Scotland died. I do not know how Henrys sister took the news as she was the Scottish Queen at the time!

Good books about Henry and his too many wives are I feel  by David Starkey and John Guy. Henry did not start his own religion! ( A monk called Martin Luther did this!  Martin Luther King was named after the 16th centry monk) Henry thought he was a non pope catholic until he died but his actions set the ball rolling towards his son  the boy King EdwardVI  changing our religion. Henry called the Pope 'the Bishop of Rome'

I feel that our best Queen was Elizabeth I but that's my personal feeling! (My spellings are UK spellings sorry if its annoying!)