DEATH & BURIAL of CATHERINE of ARAGON | Funeral of a queen | Six wives documentary | History Calling

hi history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel where i bring you new videos every week on all aspects of the past today on history calling we're looking at the death and burial of catherine of aragon first wife of henry viii was this one time queen of england poisoned as was rumored at the time of her death and how did the king use her funeral to heap some final insults upon the woman he had called his wife for over 20 years this video has all the answers from the scandalous lie told about the former queen during her funeral sermon to the way in which her grave has been treated and mistreated in the centuries since her death including by the troops of oliver cromwell catherine's final years were very unhappy but stay till the end of this video and i'll tell you a story about how she has been memorialized which might just restore some of your faith in humanity [Music] [Music] please remember to give this video a like subscribe to the channel with notifications switched on so you never miss one of my uploads and follow me on instagram there's a link to my account in the description box along with links for some books movies and tv shows about catherine's life if you're interested in the deaths and funerals of henry's other wives i already have videos on the passings burials and in some cases disinterments of all five women these are also linked below i'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize if my voice sounds a little bit off in this video i'm recovering from a fruit infection and i couldn't put off recording the audio for this any longer so we're just gonna have to work with what i've got i hope it doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of the video too much it's the start of january 1536 and catherine of aragon first wife of henry viii lies ill at kimbelton castle she hasn't seen her husband for years as henry has annulled their marriage on the grounds of her former union with his brother the long-dead arthur prince of wheels he has also declared their daughter mary illegitimate and married his long-term mistress anne boleyn catherine still considers herself henry's lawful wife however and has resisted being demoted to the dorager princess of wheels the imperial ambassador yuste chapwee who works for catherine's nephew charles v of spain visits her at kimbleton he reports that she has been ill for five weeks barely sleeping and eating poorly due to a pain in her stomach and so wasted that she could not support herself either on her feet or sitting in bed his visit seems to lift her however and after four days he leaves on wednesday the 5th of january writing that she is now sleeping and eating better and that her doctors believe her out of danger in fact this is to prove catherine's final rally on the night of the 6th of january she is able to comb and tie back her own hair before bed but after midnight she begins to ask what time it is wanting to hear mass but not until daybreak when the light comes she does so and according to your later report sent to chapwi thereafter continued to repeat some beautiful orisons which is a prayer and begged the bystanders to pray for her soul and that god would pardon the king her husband the wrong he had done her and that the divine goodness would lead him to the true road and give him good counsel afterwards she received extreme action applying herself to the whole office very divinely at some point she also has a last letter to henry composed it reads my most dear lord king and husband the hour of my death now drawing on the tender love i owe you forceth me my case being such to commend myself to you and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters and before the care and pampering of your body for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles for my part i pardon you everything and i wish to devoutly pray god that he will pardon you also for the rest i commend unto you our daughter mary beseeching you to be a good father unto her as i have heretofore desire i entreat you also on behalf of my maids to give them marriage portions which is not much they being but three for all my other servants i solicit the wages due them and a year more lest they be unprovided for lastly i make this fly that mine eyes desire you above all things catherine the queen at 2 p.m on friday the 7th of january she dies aged 50. chapli had already suspected poison and asked her doctor about it during his visit telling charles v that the doctor quote was afraid it was so for after she had drunk some welsh beer she had been worse and that it must have been a slow and subtle poison for he could not discover evidences of simple and pure poison end quote there is an autopsy though which the ambassador also reports to his master saying that she had been opened eight hours after death quote by command of those who had charge of it on the part of the king and no one was allowed to be present not even her confessor or physician but only the candle maker of the house and one servant and a companion who opened her and although it was not their business and they were no surgeons yet they have often done such a duty at least the principal who on coming out told the bishop of kundaaf her confessor but in great secrecy as a thing which would cost his life that he had found the body and all the internal organs as sound as possible except the heart which was quite black and hideous and even after he had washed it three times it did not change color he divided it through the middle and found the interior of the same color which also would not change on being washed and also some black round thing which clung closely to the outside of the heart on my man asking the physician if she had died of poison he replied that the thing was too evident by what had been said to the bishop her confessor and if that had not been disclosed the thing was sufficiently clear from the report and circumstances of the illness those involved in the post-mortem therefore believed that catherine had been poisoned to death and chaplain reported that this was the general feeling amongst the london populace though how far he could really gauge such sentiment is open to debate later he would even come up with a suspect writing on the 29th of january that many suspect that if the queen died by poison it was gregory d casale who sent it by a kinsman of moderner named goron if the details of the autopsy are true though cancer of the heart seems much more likely given the condition of that organ the mask clinging to the outside of it and the fact that the rest of her internal organs appear to be intact on the 8th of january catherine's body was taken into the castle's privy chamber and placed under the canopy of state where it remained for a week according to a contemporary description found in the archives of vienna and evidently written for the spanish royal family as it refers to catherine as the queen this was done without any other solemnity than four flamboo continually burning over the course of that week a leading coffin was prepared in which the body was enclosed on saturday the 15th and born to the chapel the vigils of the dead were said the same day and next day one mass and no more without any other light than six torches of rosin on sunday the 16th the body was removed again into the privy chamber where it remained till saturday following which would be the 22nd of january in london henry viii and anne berlin appear to be quote transported with joy at catherine's death chapwi reports that the king now believes he is safe from war with spain and the day after he heard the news he appeared quote clad all over in yellow from top two except the white feather he had in his bonnet he also parades he and anne's two-year-old daughter elizabeth around the court showing her off to the assembled personages he still acknowledges catherine as a member of the royal family however albeit as his sister-in-law and that means she needs a funeral fit for a princess if not a queen riding from greenwich palace on the 10th henry informs lady bettingfield whose husband had had custody of catherine at kimbelton castle that she is to be there by the 25th of january in order to be one of the principal mourners conveying catherine's remains from kimballton to the place of burial he sends her enough black cloth to clothe her two gentle women two gentlemen and eight women in mourning for the one time queen meanwhile his top minister thomas cromwell ordered seven polls to be used at the internment catherine had requested shortly before her death that she be buried in a convent of observance of the order of saint francis but this is ignored because according to cromwell there remained no convent of observance in england this is due to the english reformation on the 11th of january it is suggested to him that saint paul's cathedral in london be used for the funeral but cromwell responds no doubt in line with henry's wishes that for any hearse to be had at polls it should be more charged than was either requisite or needful he brushes away the comment that henry's sister mary queen of france and duchess of suffolk had had such a hearse saying that she was a queen and as the princess dorager is to be buried at peterborough meaning peterborough cathedral which was an abbey at the time with so great solemnization and the emperor's ambassador that shepwi was to be their present there was no need of a hearse at paul's and just to clarify here a hearse at this point in time was a structure that actually sat over the top of a coffin so it's not to be confused with the modern meaning of that word which is something that you transport a body on even in death henry and his ears are determined to present catherine as princess dowager of wheels and to deny her any honor which might suggest she was a queen in fact this determination leads to the imperial ambassador refusing to attend the funeral after all despite being repeatedly pressed to do so by henry and cromwell for chapway does not want his presence to give an air of legitimacy to the notion that catherine was a mere princess the king does say though that peterborough cathedral or abby is one of the most honorable in all england and that something would be done in the abbey where she should be interred that would be more notable and worthy of her memory we'll hear later in the video just how far henry kept that promise back at kimbalton castle on saturday the 22nd of january catherine's body quote was again brought to the chapel and remained until the masses of thursday following during which time solemn masses were said in the manner of the country at which they are assisted by turns as principles the duchess of suffolk the conscious of wooster the young contest of oxford the contest of surrey and baronesses howard willoughby bray and gascon on tuesday following to the 25th of january as they were beginning mass four banners of crimson taffeta were brought two of which wore the arms of the queen one those of england with three lambo blancs which they say are of prince arthur the fourth had the two visa of spain and england together there were also four great golden standards on one was painted the trinity on the second our lady on the third saint catherine and on the fourth st george and by the side of these representations the said arms were depicted in the above order and in like manner the said arms were simply and without gilding painted and set over all the house and above them a simple crown distinguished from that of the kingdom which is closed if we pause for a minute to consider this description of how katherine's remains were being treated we can see a few things first she was being treated with honor in many ways and as a member of the english royal family and of a foreign royal house her mourners were some of the highest ranking ladies in the kingdom she had an expensive lead coffin and royal banners were used to put the castle into mourning at the same time however her status and memory were clearly being insulted the arms of her first husband arthur prince of wales were displayed not those of henry viii and an open crown was depicted rather than a closed one which the writer took as another nod to her status as princess of wheels rather than queen still the obsequies continued over the next few days as though nothing was amiss on wednesday the 26th according to the same contemporary description whose author isn't recorded but i suspect it was written for the absent chapwi or perhaps by him using information he'd been sent from sources on the spot at dinner the countess of surrey held state who at the vigils after dinner was chief mourner on thursday after mass which was no less solemn than the vigils of the day before the body was carried from the chapel and put on a wagon this was done so that it could be carried to the police of burial and this was affected with great ceremony and a large funeral procession of which we also have a description as follows first 16 priests or clergymen in surpluses went on horseback without saying a word having a gilded latin cross born before them after them several gentlemen of whom there were only two of the house a le du mauron estuan to some prove and after them followed the metro dotel and chamberlain with their rods of office in their hands and to keep them in order went by their sides nine or ten heralds with mourning hoods and wearing their coats of arms after them followed 50 servants of the aforesaid gentleman bearing torches and baton alumi which lasted but a short time and in the middle of them was drawn a wagon upon which the body was drawn by six horses all covered with black cloth to the ground the said wagon was covered with black velvet in the midst of which was a great silver cross and within as one looked upon the corpse was stretched a cloth of gold freeze with a cross of crimson velvet and before and behind the said wagon stood two gentlemen ushers with mourning hoods looking into the wagon around which the said four banners were carried by four heralds and the standards with the representations by four gentlemen then followed seven ladies as chief mourners upon hackneys that of the first being harnessed with black velvet and the others with black cloth after which ladies followed the wagon of the queen's gentleman and after them on hackneys came nine ladies wives of knights then follow the wagon of the queen's chambermaids then her maids to the number of 36 and in their wake followed certain servants on horseback the entire trip could not be completed in one day and so catherine's remains rested that night at the abbey of saltery there quote the abbot and his monks received it and placed it under a canopy in the choir of the church under an estolage prepared for it which contained 408 candles which burned during the vigils that day and next day at mass next day a solemn mass was chanted in the said abbey of sorta by the bishop of eli during which in the middle of the church 48 torches of rosin were carried by as many per men with morning hoods and garments end quote catherine was now carried on to peterborough abbey when the body arrived it was met at the door and was honorably received by the bishops of lincoln eli and rochester the abbott of the place and the abbots of ramsay krewland thorny walden and tam who wearing their miters and hoods accompanied it in procession until it was placed under the chappelle ardant which was prepared for it there upon eight pillars of beautiful fashion and roundness upon which were placed about one thousand candles both little and middle-sized and rounded by the said chapel eighteen banners waved of which one wore the arms of the emperor a second rose of england with those of the king's mother prince arthur the queen of portugal sister of the deceased spain aragon and sicily and those of spain and england with three lambeau those of john of gaunt duke of lancaster who married the daughter of peter the cruel visa le jour de boeuf the bundle of arrows the pomegranate which was catherine's personal symbol the lion and the greyhound likewise there were a great number of little penguns in which were portrayed the devices of king ferdinand father of the deceased and of herself and round about the said chapel in great gold letters was written as the device of the said good lady humble a loyal vigils were said that day and on the morrow so we've reached the 29th of january which was the day of the actual funeral the three masses by three bishops the first by the bishop of rochester with the abbot of tem as deacon and the abbot of walden a sub-deacon the second by the bishop of eli with the abbot of thorny as deacon and the abbot of peterborough as subdeacon the third by the bishop of lincoln with the bishop of clandeff as deacon and that of eli as subdeacon the other bishops and abbots of four said assisting at the said masses in their pontificals so the ceremony was very sumptuous the chief mourner was lily eleanor that's eleanor brandon daughter of the duke of suffolk and the french queen and niece of king henry widower lie of the said good queen she was conducted to the offering by the comptroller and mr guster gostwick new receiver of the monies the king takes from the church after this the funeral sermon was preached by the bishop of rochester and it was he who told a scandalous lie about catherine which was perhaps the low point of the whole ceremony according to our anonymous description of the service rochester contended that against all truth that in the hour of death she acknowledged she had not been queen of england i say against all truth because at that hour she ordered a writing to be made in her name addressed to the king as her husband this will be the letter that i read to you earlier and to the ambassador of the emperor her nephew which she signed with these words catherine queen of england commanding her ladies and servants to the favor of the said ambassador at the end of the mass all the morning ladies offered in the hands of the heralds each three l's in three pieces of cloth of gold which were upon the body and of this accoutrements will be made for the chapel where the annual service will be performed for her after the mass the body was buried in a grave at the lowest step of the high altar over which they put a simple black cloth the location catherine was buried within the church was seen as another insult a chapley said in a letter to charles v the place where she is buried in the church is far removed from the high altar and much less honorable than that of certain bishops buried there and even if they had not taken her for princess dowager as they have done in death and life but only a simple baroness they could not have given her a less honorable place as i am told by men acquainted with those matters chapley made a fair point here as you can see from this floor plan even the disgraced anne boleyn executed for treason and adultery just three and a half months later would be buried in front of the altar in the chapel of saint peter at vincula in the tower of london as with her brother and co-accused george berlin vikhound rochford for more on that see my video on digging up on berlin linked on screen and below not burying catherine in the same spot in peterborough was a slap in the face chapery hoped that the insult would be moderated quote by making a becoming monument in some suitable place but his hopes proved to be envian despite henry's promises that catherine would be suitably commemorated no grand monument was built though there were some markers at her grave on the 30th of january 1539 an inventory was taken of the goods in the cathedral which included the following comments relating to the choir of the church item two pairs of organs and two desks of latin seven basins hanging with four candlesticks and bannets of silk above the choir joining to the tomb where queen catherine lies buried item in the enclosed place where the lady catherine lythe buried one altar cloth of black cloth one pole of black velvet with white cloth of silver crossed and one white altar cloth item belonging to the same remaining in the sacristy which is a little side room for keeping sacred items in two candle sticks of silver parcel guilt one chalice and two cruets guilt item one pair of vestments of black velvet with an album to the seam so catherine's tomb was clearly demarcated in some way as it is noted as being enclosed and there was an altar over it along with the various accoutrements and clothing needed by the clergy to perform masses for her soul on this altar and which were likely paid for by the donations made during her funeral service which i mentioned a minute ago of course once the church was converted into an anglican place of worship these masses wouldn't have happened anymore in the main however henry's idea of memorializing her seems to have been not to ransack or pull down the church she was buried in as part of the reformation when their daughter mary came to the throne in 1553 we might expect that she would have had her mother reburied somewhere more ostentatious or at least had a proper tomb erected over the site but she never got around to it in her will though she commanded that the body of the virtuous lady and my most dear and well-beloved mother of happy memory queen catherine which lieth and i buried at peterborough shall within a short time as conveniently it may after my burial be removed brought and laid now the place of my sepulcher in which place i will my executors to cause to be made honorable tombs or monuments for a decent memory of us this never happened unsurprisingly elizabeth the first didn't prioritize memorializing the woman whose existence at the time of elizabeth's birth in 1533 called into question the new queen's legitimacy despite the fact that as arthur's widow catherine was technically elizabeth's aunt if that seems cruel bear in mind that she left her own mother and her paternal uncle under the floor of st peter advincula too looking back to her father's messy marital career simply wasn't politic for a woman who already had only a very shaky claim to legitimacy instead catherine remained buried at peterborough where she was joined for a few decades by mary queen of scots until mary's son james the first of england had his mother moved to westminster abbey we get another and in some ways a clearer glimpse of what her tomb looked like in the mid 17th century because we have accounts of what happened to it during the english civil wars of the 1640s in 1643 oliver cromwell's men arrived at peterborough cathedral and according to a near contemporary account by the author john reeves after breaking in and destroying or stealing many of the church's interior goods including bibles silver plate money statues stained glass windows pews and the pulpit they turned their attention to the monuments it housed reeves wrote that not one monument in the church escaped undefeast no not of the pious benefactors whose accusation was sufficient they had done good to the church not those two fair tombs of catherine queen dowager of spain the repudiate of king henry viii and mary albeit queen of scots it was so great a crime to have been queens the marble walls and guards of irons wherewith they were surrounded and encircled could not preserve them in repose from all their miseries but they would add this one onto the rest to lay the emblems of their honors in the dust pulling away the hearse of black velvet and carrying away whatsoever was vendable so until cromwell's man arrived the railings around catherine's tomb had remained in place and though it wasn't mentioned in the 1539 inventory the hearse placed over her had obviously been there since her internment too we learned from this description as well that there was marble around her grave there's no particular reason given for the cromwellian destruction except that the attackers didn't like royalty and perhaps felt that the church didn't meet their puritan standards catherine was in fact lucky that her remains seemed to have been left undisturbed her successor as henry's wife catherine parr was not so fortunate when a band of ruffians came to her tomb in the 1790s see my video linked on screen and below on the burial and mutilation of her body for more details in walter sweeting's 1898 book the cathedral church of peterborough he adds to the story of what happened to catherine's tomb from reading his text it's evident that he used some primary sources and archaeological evidence to build up his account however he didn't provide much in the way of name sources that i could check for you because this was the 19th century and that's just how would be historians ruled back then so it is possible there are some errors in his book though from what i have been able to confirm it seems very accurate on the whole he writes that catherine's tomb had actually been defaced before cromwell's time during the 1580s and that those who were responsible were required to fix the damage they had caused he also describes a monument over it in more detail saying the only monument strictly so-called of which there is any record was a low-table monument raised on two shallow steps with simple quattro foils carved in squares set diamond wise engravings of this which i haven't located myself show it to have been an insignificant and mean erection a few slabs of it were literally found buried beneath the floor and they are now placed against the wall of the aisle sweeting doesn't specify when this structure was put into place but i tend to think the table monument he's describing is the remains of the altar table that we know was placed there shortly after catherine's death rather than something added after the cromwellian destruction he goes on to say that the grave was repaired in 1725 and at that point a small brass plate with catherine's name and date of death was placed on the floor above her remains adding that the table monument whatever was left of it was removed in 1792 after this there was very little to mark the spot where catherine lies apart from the deteriorating brass plate a visitor to the cathedral in 1859 reported to the gentleman's magazine that the words on it were quote nearly obliterated for the tombstone is so placed that everyone who enters the choir from the north aisle must step upon it still nothing was done to better mark her grave for several decades more there are a couple of stories about catherine being semi-disinterred author allison weir writes that she was dug up in 1777 in order to see if she was buried alone or with catherine willoughby duchess of suffolk but provides no source to support this story she does say catherine was alone by the way and that the coffin itself wasn't opened i've read other versions of this tale where the queen's tomb was examined to see if she was buried with her long-term friend maria desalinas i haven't found a primary source for either version so i reserve judgment as to whether or not it's true if you know of an original source which supports this story please let me know in the comments there is also a teal that she was briefly disinterred in 1890 which i found in a boston magazine published in 1895. it said that the tomb in which catherine's body lay was opened some five years ago the wooden coffin had entirely crumbled and it was found that the body had been sealed up in a covering of flexible lead drawn about it as a sheet and then soldered through this the outline of the skeleton could still be distinguished this may or may not have happened i didn't come across any other source which mentioned it though of course i could have missed something as i only have a few days to research these videos and i don't understand how thin or not the skeleton could have been seen through a sheet of lead i'll leave it up to you whether you believe it if you visit peterborough cathedral nowadays of course you'll see that catherine's grave is actually very well marked with a beautiful memorial the story of how this came about is the uplifting teal i promised to finish the video on to restore at least some of your faith in humanity this part of the story comes courtesy of a young girl named catherine waller who wrote to the dean of peterborough in february 1883 saying that she had seen a piece in the guardian newspaper explaining what had happened to catherine of aragon's grave and asking could not the catharines of england restore it i am only a little catherine 12 years old but if all the big catharines of england gave 10 shillings and the little ones five shillings would it not make enough i include five shillings and hope that you will accept it as a small beginning from little catherine's small beginning grew a fundraising campaign which by 1895 had accumulated enough to build the memorial you see over catherine of aragon's grave today there is also an annual celebration of her life in the cathedral every 29th of january to mark the anniversary of her internment there and as you can see from this image her title of queen has been restored to her according to the cathedral's website pomegranates which you'll remember were her symbol are also frequently left on her tomb by visitors for those of you who like poetic justice it might interest you to know that her grave is now more elaborately marked than her wayward husbands under the best of my knowledge there are no celebrations in saint george's chapel windsor each year to mark henry viii's life and that gang brings us to the end of what turned out to be a rather long video by my standards if you enjoy it please remember to like it and subscribe and let me know in the comments section if you like the look of the current memorial to catherine put in place by the victorians and paid for by so many other catharines i'll be back next week with another video and until then keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 484,219

Keywords: What happened when royalty died, British royal funerals, Six wives documentary, funeral of a queen, A history of mourning, burying a queen, a funeral fit for a queen, digging up a queen, funeral of the princess of wales, lost royal graves, death of catherine of aragon, Tudors documentary, what killed catherine of aragon, Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, English royal funerals, Peterborough Cathedral, catherine of aragon's funeral, Katherine of Aragon's funeral

Id: 5u7Spc5l2Ms

Length: 29min 59sec (1799 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022