hter, made it evident that that was out of the question. So Henry
at last made up his mind at least to execute the treaty which was to
betroth his surviving son to Katharine. In the treaty, which was signed on
the 23rd June 1503, it is set forth that, inasmuch as the bride and
bridegroom were related in the first degree of affinity, a Papal
dispensation would be necessary for the marriage; and it is distinctly
stated that the marriage with Arthur had been consummated. This may have
been a diplomatic form considered at the time unimportant in view of the
ease with which a dispensation could be obtained, but it is at direct
variance with Dona Elvira Manuel's assurance to Isabel at the time of
Arthur's death, and with Katharine's assertion, uncontradicted by Henry,
to the end of her life.

Henry, Prince of Wales, was at this time twelve years old; and, if we are
to believe Erasmus, a prodigy of precocious scholarship. Though his
learning was superficial and carefully made the most of, he was, in
effect, an apt and diligent student. From the first his mother and father
had determined that their children should enjoy better educational
advantages than had fallen to them, and as Henry had been until Arthur's
death intended for the Church, his learning was far in advance of that of
most princes and nobles of his age. The bride, who thus became unwillingly
affianced to a boy more than five years her junior, was now a young woman
in her prime, experienced already in the chicane and falsity of the
atmosphere in which she lived. She knew, none better, that in the juggle
for her marriage she had been regarded as a mere chattel, and her own
inclinations hardly taken into account, and she faced her responsibilities
bravely in her mother's exalted spirit of duty and sacrifice when she
found herself once more Princess of Wales.

When Ferdinand, in accordance with his pledge in the treaty, instructed
his ambassador in Rome to ask for the Pope's dispensation, he took care to
correct the statement embodied in the document to the effect that the
marriage of Arthur and Katharine had been consummated; though the question
might pertinently be asked, why, if it had not been, a dispensation was
needed at all? The King himself answered the question by saying that "as
the English are so much inclined to cavil, it appeared prudent to provide
for the case as if the previous marriage had been completed; and the
dispensation must be worded in accorda