lf in the purple of kingdom, of power and of
glory, learned the littleness of greatness and entered the Republic of
Death in a hair-shirt.

KATHARINE

For purity and steadfastness of devotion and duty, Katharine stands
unsurpassed in the history of the world, and Shakespeare has conceived no
more pathetic figure than that of the patient Queen living in the midst of
an unscrupulous Court.

Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, she was betrothed at the age
of five to Arthur, Henry VII.'s eldest son. Though known as the Princess
of Wales, it was not till 1501, when only sixteen years old, that she was
married to Prince Arthur. She had scarcely been married six months when
Arthur died, at the early age of fifteen, and she was left a widow. Henry
VII., in his desire to keep her marriage dower of 200,000 crowns, proposed
a marriage between her and Arthur's brother. Katharine wrote to her father
saying she had "no inclination for a second marriage in England." In spite
of her remonstrances and the misgivings of the Pope, who had no wish to
give the necessary dispensation for her to marry her deceased husband's
brother, she was betrothed to Henry after two years of widowhood. But it
was not till a few months after Henry VIII. came to the throne, five years
later, that they were actually married. Henry was five years younger than
Katharine, but their early married life appears to have been very happy.
She wrote to her father, "Our time is ever passed in continual feasts."

The cruel field sports of the time the Queen never could take any delight
in, and avoided them as much as possible. She was pious and ascetic and
most proficient in needlework. Katharine had a number of children, all of
whom died shortly after birth. It was this consideration in the first
instance which weighed in Henry's mind in desiring a divorce. The first
child to survive was Princess Mary, born in February, 1516. Henry
expressed the hope that sons would follow. But Katharine had no further
living children. Henry hoped against hope, and undertook, in the event of
her having an heir, to lead a crusade against the Turks. Even this bribe
to fortune proved unavailing. Henry's conscience, which was at best of the
utilitarian sort, now began to suffer deep pangs, and in 1525, when
Katharine was forty years old and he thirty-four, he gave up hope of the
much-needed heir to the throne. The Queen herself thought her
childlessness was "a judgment o