The Pope's representative, Cardinal Compeggio, had already heard her confession (that she had married Henry a virgin despite having briefly wedded his brother first) and Bishop Fisher argued gamely in her defense, supported by her own impassioned testimony. She wins a significant moral victory near the end of the season, when an ecclesiastical court headed by Wolsey attempts to justify Henry's desire for a divorce. She pleads for Mendoza to alert Charles to Henry's attempts to divorce her, since he holds the Pope (the only one who can decide if the marriage may be annulled) hostage after sacking Rome in 1.05. However, she has few powerful allies at court except Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, the ambassador to her nephew Charles V, the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. She has strong supporters abroad in Spain, Rome and the Holy Roman Empire as well as England itself Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher remain her devoted friends. In 1.07, Catherine is sent by Henry to join their daughter Mary at Ludlow Castle in Wales to keep them safe from the outbreak of sweating sickness.ĭespite her fall from Henry's favour, the whole of England continues to love and respect Catherine. Catherine shuts this down and is sure Henry will choose her over Anne, but she is soon proven wrong, even though she dismisses Anne from her entourage in episode 1.06. There comes to be tension between Catherine and Anne Boleyn, who firmly states her belief in Henry's love for her. She sinks to the floor and cries, devastated. However, he bears the news he is divorcing her, chokes on his words, and leaves. After meeting Anne Boleyn, Henry soon becomes infatuated with her and chases her, unable to shake his desire for her until she gives in.Ī few nights later, Henry comes to Catherine's chambers, where he is happily greeted. She increasingly blames Cardinal Thomas Wolsey for her separation from her daughter and for Henry's cruelty towards her, thinking that he is manipulating Henry. To Catherine's jealousy and anger, Henry shows his bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, more favor over their legitimate daughter, granting him many titles and lands. As his conscience is supposedly affected by the fact that Catherine was married to his deceased brother, Arthur, she pledges that she never slept with Arthur and was thus a virgin when she married Henry. She tries to her best to advice Henry in forming an alliance with Spanish Empire instead of France and is forced to endure the hardship of being unable to give Henry a son when he gets her trusted lady-in-waiting, Bessie Blount, pregnant. Very much in love with her philandering, spoiled king of a husband who blames her for not giving him a son, she is a very popular and charitable queen to the common folk, adored by the entire nation, and also a very dutiful mother. Mary is devastated, collects a box of her mother's things and even though she comes to love her father's third, fourth and sixth wives, she never forgets her mother.Įarly in the first season Catherine is introduced. He tearfully reads the letter, while Anne Boleyn is unfazed and simply states that now she is finally the Queen, even though Catherine remains Queen of England in the nation's eyes. While supported by Elizabeth Darrell in her death bed, Catherine writes Henry a letter, asking to provide for her servants and their daughter, pledging her forgiveness, and praying for his soul. In late season two, not long before Henry becomes infatuated with Jane Seymour, Catherine becomes sick and succumbs to her illness, even having hallucinations of Mary. Her only friend in reach is Elizabeth Darrow, her devoted maid who refuses to leave her. After a long and hard struggle, she is eventually sent away from court to live, lonely and desolate, and banned from seeing her beloved daughter. However, his obsession with the beautiful Anne Boleyn ultimately destroyed their marriage. While she was cheated on by her husband many times, his infidelities even resulting in a son by her maid Bessie Blount, she never called him out on it and confides to her maids that he blames her for being unable to produce a son. Crowned in 1509 before her marriage to Henry was annulled in 1533, she was a charitable and popular queen, a pious Catholic, and a devoted mother and wife. She appears in Season 1, Season 2 and the finale episode of Season 4 in 16 episodes total she is portrayed by award-winning Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy.Ĭatherine is a direct descendant of the Spanish royal line, the youngest daughter of Queen Isabella of Castille and King Ferdinand of Aragon. "As long as I am alive, I will call myself 'the Queen of England." - Catherine of AragonĬatherine of Aragon was the first wife and Queen Consort of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Princess Mary Tudor.