o wed his son to Katharine. A
French princess for the Prince of Wales, and the Queen of Castile for
Henry, would indeed have served England on all sides. On one occasion, in
April 1507, Henry frankly told Katharine that he considered himself no
longer bound by her marriage treaty, since her dowry was overdue, and all
the poor Princess could do was to weep and pray her father to fulfil his
part of the compact by paying the rest of her portion, whilst she, serving
as Ferdinand's ambassador, tried to retain Henry's good graces by her
hopeful assurances about the marriage of the latter with Juana.

In all Katharine's lamentations of her own sufferings and privation, she
never forgot to bewail the misery of her servants. Whilst she herself, she
said, had been worse treated than any woman in England, her five women
servants, all she had retained, had never received a farthing since their
arrival in England six years before, and had spent everything they
possessed. Katharine at this time of trial (August 1507) was living alone
at Ewelme, whilst Henry was hunting at various seats in the midlands. At
length the King made some stay at Woodstock, where Katharine saw him. With
suspicious alacrity he consented to a further postponement of the overdue
dowry; and showed himself more eager than ever to marry Juana, no matter
how mad she might be. Katharine was quite acute enough to understand his
motives, and wrote to her father that so long as the money due of her
dowry remained unpaid the King considered himself free, so far as regarded
her marriage with the Prince of Wales. "Mine is always the worst part,"
she wrote. "The King of England prides himself upon his magnanimity in
waiting so long for the payment.... His words are kind but his deeds are
as bad as ever." She bitterly complained that Puebla himself was doing his
utmost to frustrate her marriage in the interests of the King of England;
and it is clear to see in her passionate letter to her father (4th October
1507) that she half distrusted even him, as she had been told that he was
listening to overtures from the King of France for a marriage between
Juana and a French prince. She failed in this to understand the political
position fully. If Juana had married a Frenchman it is certain that Henry
would have been only too eager to complete the marriage of his son with
Katharine. But she was evidently in fear that, unless Henry was allowed to
marry her sister, evil might befall h