between the King and Puebla
to obtain possession of the plate and jewels or their value: the sending
of the Princess to Wales being for the purpose of making it necessary that
she should use the objects, and so give good grounds for a demand for
their value in money on the part of Henry. In any case Katharine found
herself, only five weeks after her marriage, with an unpaid and
inharmonious household, dependent entirely upon her husband for her needs,
and conscious that an artful trick was in full execution with the object
of either depriving her of her personal jewels, and everything of value,
with which she had furnished her husband's table as well as her own, or
else of extorting a large sum of money from her parents. Embittered
already with such knowledge as this, Katharine rode by her husband's side
out of Baynard's Castle on the 21st December 1501 to continue on the long
journey to Wales,[7] after passing their Christmas at Oxford.

The plague was rife throughout England, and on the 2nd April 1502 Arthur,
Prince of Wales, fell a victim to it at Ludlow. Here was an unforeseen
blow that threatened to deprive both Henry and Ferdinand of the result of
their diplomacy. For Ferdinand the matter was of the utmost importance;
for an approachment of England and Scotland to France would upset the
balance of power he had so laboriously constructed, already threatened, as
it was, by the prospect that his Flemish son-in-law Philip and his wife
would wear the crowns of the Empire, Flanders, and Burgundy, as well as
those of Spain and its possessions; in which case, he thought, Spanish
interests would be the last considered. The news of the unexpected
catastrophe was greeted in London with real sorrow, for Arthur was
promising and popular, and both Henry and his queen were naturally
attached to their elder son, just approaching manhood, upon whose training
they had lavished so much care. Though Henry's grief at his loss may have
been as sincere as that of Elizabeth of York certainly was, his natural
inclinations soon asserted themselves. Ludlow was unhealthy, and after the
pompous funeral of Arthur at Worcester, Katharine and her household prayed
earnestly to be allowed to approach London, but for some weeks without
success, and by the time she arrived at her new abode at Croydon, the
political intrigues of which she was the tool were in full swing again.

When Ferdinand and Isabel first heard the news of their daughter's
bereav