nd Isabella of Castile. Both were cautious sovereigns, and
many a rebellion had to be put down and many a pretender put away,
before they would consent to entrust their daughter to the care of an
English king. It was not till 2nd October, 1501, that Catherine landed
at Plymouth. At her formal reception into England, and at her
marriage, six weeks later, in St. Paul's, she was led by the hand of
her little brother-in-law, Prince Henry, then ten years old.[30]
Against the advice of his council, Henry VII. sent the youthful bride
and bridegroom to live as man and wife at Ludlow Castle, and there,
five and a half months later, their married life came to a sudden end.
Prince Arthur died on 2nd April, 1502, and was buried in princely
state in Worcester Cathedral.

[Footnote 30: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, i.,
413-415; _L. and P._, _Henry VIII._, iv., 5791.]

CHAPTER II. (p. 015)

PRINCE HENRY AND HIS ENVIRONMENT.

The Prince, who now succeeded to the position of heir-apparent, was
nearly five years younger than his brother. The third child and second
son of his parents, he was born on 28th June, 1491, at Greenwich, a
palace henceforth intimately associated with the history of Tudor
sovereigns. The manor of Greenwich had belonged to the alien priory of
Lewisham, and, on the dissolution of those houses, had passed into the
hands of Henry IV. Then it was granted to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
who began to enclose the palace grounds; on his death it reverted to
the Crown; and Edward IV., many of whose tastes and characteristics
were inherited by his grandson, Henry VIII., took great delight in
beautifying and extending the palace. He gave it to his Queen,
Elizabeth, and in her possession it remained until her sympathy with
Yorkist plots was punished by the forfeiture of her lands. Henry VII.
then bestowed it on his wife, the dowager's daughter, and thus it
became the birthplace of her younger children. Here was the scene of
many a joust and tournament, of many a masque and revel; here the
young Henry, as soon as he came to the throne, was wedded to Catherine
of Aragon; here Henry's sister was married to the Duke of Suffolk; and
here were born all future Tudor sovereigns, Edward VI., Mary, (p. 016)
and Elizabeth. At Greenwich, then, through the forfeit of his
grandmother, Henry was born; he was baptised in the Church of th