The Six Wives of Henry VIII

by Alison Weir

It took thirteen years to arrange the marriage of Katherine of Aragon and Arthur Tudor; fortunately – as so often happened – negotiations began when both were toddlers. Royal courtship in such cases consisted of formal letters containing fulsome declarations of love, and symbolic gifts, usually rings or jewels.

Did Valentine’s Day traditions originate from imitating the royalty/wealth?

Henry was driven to complain that it was ‘the fate of princes to take as is brought them by others, while poor men be commonly at their own choice’.

What a jackass

Only two years old in the spring of 1488, the Infanta Katherine of Aragon was already displaying the plump prettiness that was to enchant her two future husbands.

YIKES