On Jan. 7, 1536, the first wife of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, died at Kimbolton House. While we don't know exactly how she died, many now believe she had cancer.
There's a lot of focus on what Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn did after Catherine's death, but right now it's about focusing on this unfortunate and loyal first wife of Henry VIII. She died alone and in poverty, with many believing at the time of her death that she'd been poisoned.
Since before Henry's marriage of Anne Boleyn, Catherine had been discarded and punished for her belief that her marriage to her husband was legally valid. For seven years, Henry had sought a divorce from his Catholic wife and thought he could on the grounds that she'd married his brother before.
But you know this story, right? You know why Henry chose to divorce her but what about the events that happened afterward?
Catherine of Aragon was left without any financial help from her ex, a man she still loved despite everything. She wasn't allowed to see her daughter again and prevented from seeing the majority of her friends. She had to sell her own jewels just to afford some sort of upkeep.
She'd been ill for a few months up to this point but it wasn't until December 1535 that she'd started to succumb fully to that illness. After drinking some Welsh beer, she felt much worse and her doctor sent word to those who had always been loyal to her, most importantly Eustace Chapuys, on Dec. 29, 1535.
Read more: The Death of Queen Victoria on Jan. 22, 1901
Chapuys was able to get permission from the king to visit Catherine in her final days. Mary wasn't so lucky, something she would always hold against her father. When Chapuys did arrive to see Catherine on Jan. 2, 1536, she was lucid enough to keep witnesses in the room so there could be nobody saying she had conspired to kill the king.
Catherine never wanted to conspire. She was too filled with guilt of the problems in the country and the loss of her friends. So many had refused to convert when Henry reformed the faith. Like many people now wonder if she could have prevented the reformation or the hardships against her daughter, she wondered similarly.
After that, she seemed to get better. That was until the early hours of Jan. 7. Before daylight, she asked to receive communion, but communion before daylight was illegal. Her confessor Jorge de Athequa knew that Catherine wouldn't make it to daylight, so agreed to perform communion.
Catherine died with a troubled mind. She feared about the fate of the country and her daughter and worried that she was to blame for those who died because of her divorce. Nobody ever learned if she had truly consummated her marriage to Arthur. If she had, that was a secret she took to her grave. However, knowing how devout Catherine was, had she lied, she would have confessed to that before her death.
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