Catherine of Aragon: Facial Reconstructions & History Documentary

Catherine of Aragon is somewhat of a forgotten figure in the Tudor-sphere. She is often passed over in the drama shows, and thought of as plain or even boring. But she was an incredibly interesting figure in European history. We also don't know exactly what she looked like - there are some disputes regarding portraits of her. Let's check out my recreations as well as learn about her history.

0:00 Introduction
0:42 The History of Catherine of Aragon
11:29 What did Catherine of Aragon Look Like?
14:38 Recreations Reveal

Hello everyone and welcome back
to Royalty Now Studios

where we recreate famous figures
from the past

and talk about their history.

Today's subject is Catherine of Aragon

who lived a fascinating life
between her childhood

as the daughter
of the catholic monarchs in Spain

and her marriages
to two princes of England

including the infamous King Henry VIII.

We'll first explore
her life and her history

and then we'll jump into her portraits

and what she may have looked like.

I'll reveal multiple new recreations
of Katherine at the end.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

Catalina de Aragon
was born in what is now Madrid Spain

on december 16th of 1485.

As a child in Spain
she was called Catalina

but it was later anglicized
in England to Catherine

and that's what i'm going
to use throughout the video.

Now Catherine is born

into this really
high-powered royal family.

She is the youngest daughter

of Ferdinand II of Aragon
and Isabella I of Castile.

Her parents known
as the Catholic Monarchs

and widely considered to be
Spain's greatest monarchs,

They effectively united Spain
with their marriage

and made it on of the most
powerful countries in Europe.

An alliance with Spain would be
massively beneficial to any country.

So, from a young age,
Catherine was considered

this very valuable bargaining chip
on the marriage market of Europe.

In fact she was promised
at only three years old

to the English heir prince Arthur.

Catherine was chosen
as the future queen of England

for a few specific reasons.

First was her sweet nature,
her intelligence

and obviously her great education.

She was essentially
raised to be a queen.

The second is far more interesting

You see, Catherine of Aragon
technically had a stronger claim

to the throne of England
than the king of England himself,

Henry VII.

She was a descendant
of John of Gaunt's second wife

while King Henry VII
was a descendant of his third wife.

Katherine Swynford,

and their children were born
out of wedlock

and barred from succession
to the English throne.

Even though Henry VII
won his throne in battle

being the last English monarch
to do so

the Tudor monarchy was not accepted
by all european kingdoms.

Catherine comes
from the House of Trastámara

and that is one of the most
powerful houses in Europe at the time.

Marriage into this house
means safety for the Tudor dynasty.

Any air that was born
from Catherine and Arthur

would have an indisputable claim
to the English throne.

And finally the partnership
between England and Spain

could quiet this ongoing
French hostility

that the English had been
dealing with for years.

Catherine and Arthur are married
by proxy in 1499

and then officially married in England
in november of 1501

when both were just 15 years old.

Little is known about
their first impressions of each other

but Arthur did write
to his parents-in-law telling them

that he would be a true
and loving husband.

Sadly, the two would only be married
for four short months.

In early 1502, both of them
came down with a quote malign vapor,

the English sweating sickness.

While Catherine recovered,
Arthur did not.

This was a massive blow to everyone.

The master plan that the family had
for an alliance with Spain

was just shattered.

And the ten-year-old quote spare,

the future Henry VIII

was not expecting to be
the next king of England.

Very quickly a shuffling occurs
and young Henry immediately

becomes the new Prince of Wales.

His studies have to pivot very quickly

from general education to training
to become the next king.

The next question is
what to do with Catherine?

The newly widowed king Henry VII,

still needing this Spanish alliance

and the dowry that Catherine offered

which, by the way, was one
of the largest ever offered

by a princess of Europe,

even began negotiations
to marry Catherine himself.

But queen Isabella refused.

She did not want her daughter
to be the wife of an aging king of England

so, then the idea is obviously come up

with that Catherine
should just stay in England

and she should marry
the next heir to the throne,

the young Henry, who is only
about 12 years old at the time.

So, on the 25th of june 1503,
they were betrothed

and the plan to keep Catherine
in England was back on.

for the most part.

But in 1504 Catherine's mother,
queen Isabella dies

Queen Isabella was a strong supporter
of Henry and Catherine as a match

Ferdinand, her father, was not.

Ferdinand really wanted
his daughter back in Spain with him

and he procrastinated paying
the rest of the dowry

but it actually wouldn't be easy
for Henry and Catherine to marry.

Based on the fact that she had
once been married to his brother.

they would require
a special dispensation from the pope.

Years of uncertainty passed.

In 1507 Catherine actually ends up

serving as the Spanish
ambassador to England

and she becomes the first female
ambassador in European History.

She would show everyone her worth
and her intelligence

and she manages this tense relationship
between Ferdinand and England

which allowed the countries to sign
at the Treaty of Westminster together,

an alliance of both countries
against France.

King Henry VII dies
on April 21st of 1509,

seven years after Catherine
had first touched English soil.

The 18 year old new king Henry VIII

decides to make Catherine
who he had very much in common with

his bride.

On june 11th of 1509,
they are married in a lavish ceremony.

Now, in the early years of their marriage
the couple is very happy and in love

there is a lot of trust between them,

a trust that just isn't seen
in Henry's subsequent marriages.

Catherine was smart and she matched
her husband in diplomatic strength.

She even served as regent

while Henry was campaigning
in France in 1513.

In this really dramatic twist,
king James IV of Scotland

uses this vulnerability as a time
to declare war on England.

Despite being heavily pregnant,
Catherine rides north in full armor

to rally the troops against him.

The English win the battle of Flodden

and Catherine sends home

a piece of the bloody coat of king James

who died during the battle.

While the pair enjoyed
a close relationship

for the beginning of their
marriage

the deterioration of their relationship
comes down to their bad luck

with having healthy children..

During Tudor times, the women were
actually considered responsible

for the gender and health of the babies

and, of course, a queen's purpose
was to have male heirs

and make the dynasty secure.

It's not known exactly how many
pregnancies Catherine of Aragon had

but scholars estimate it to be
between six and nine.

According to Claire Ridgway's blog
on the topic,

Catherine's documented pregnancies
and babies are as follows:

First was a stillborn daughter,
born 33 weeks after their marriage

in early 1510.

Second, was the birth of a son,
Henry in 1511,

who died tragically
at only 52 days old.

In 1513, the son that she was carrying,
as she rode north in full armor,

died as a newborn.

In 1514, a stillborn son,

In 1516 the birth of a daughter

who would be their only
surviving child, Mary,

and in 1518 the birth
of a stillborn daughter.

Now, I think we have the tendency
to look at these tragedies

through a more modern lens

pretending that they couldn't have been
so devastating at the time

because Tudor babies often died young.

The chance of living into adulthood
as a Tudor child

was only about 50 %.

But these losses were devastating

both for Catherine
and for her marriage to Henry

They slowly fall out of love.

Catherine is aging

and she will soon have a hard time
getting pregnant again.

Henry is becoming restless
without an heir

and he believes that Catherine
is at fault

and that this is God's punishment
for taking his brother's wife.

So, we've talked about
the series of events

that occurs over the next seven
years or so in much more detail

in our recent video
about Anne Boleyn.

So, go make sure to check that out

but let's go ahead

and summarize
the rest of these events

and the rest of Catherine's life.

In 1525 Henry becomes enamored
with Catherine's lady in waiting

Anne Boleyn.

In 1527 he seeks an annulment
through the pope.

Going public with his desire
to divorce her.

And she vehemently rejects
his plea for divorce

and he failed in persuading
the pope at this time.

In 1530, after 21 years of marriage
and steadfast loyalty

Catherine is banished
from the English court forever.

After this, Henry breaks with Rome

and becomes the head
of the Church of England

and he's declared legally
married to Anne Boleyn

and she's crowned queen.

From then on Catherine
would withdraw completely

spending the rest of her days
at Kimbolton Castle

confining herself to one room

and only leaving to attend mass.

Through it all, Catherine
would continue to refer to herself

as Henry's only lawful wedded wife

and England's only rightful queen.

In late December of 1535,

Catherine wrote
one final letter to Henry.

In the letter she asked Henry
to remember her kindly,

she urges him to begin to think
of the health and protection of his soul

over everything else in the world

which has caused her so much sorrow

and caused him so much trouble.

She forgives Henry for everything,

only asking him to be
a good father to their daughter Mary

as she has always wanted.

In her final words, she writes:

"Lastly, do I vow that mine eyes
desire you above all things."

On the 7th of january 1536,
Catherine of Aragon dies,

presumably of cancer.
at the age of 50.

Her death set off
tremendous mourning

Now, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
are seen celebrating the news

making a great show of their newborn
daughter, Elizabeth.

But later that day,

when the king was finally alone,

it's rumored that he wept bitterly.

During her time as queen,

Catherine truly gained
the love of the people.

They adored her.

She provided massive relief to the poor

and was a patron of humanist scholars.

Even her rivals at court admired
her strength and her generosity.

Thomas Cromwell once remarked

that, if not for her sex,

she could have defied
all the heroes of History.

Her daughter Mary goes on
to be a steadfast catholic queen,

reigning from 1553 to 1558

as England's first female monarch.

Catherine of Aragon was truly
one of the great queens of England.

So, let's go ahead and talk
about what she looked like.

As for physical descriptions
we have of Catherine,

she was known to be plump
and fair-skinned

with blue eyes
and beautiful red gold hair.

she was also considered
quite short for the time

and had a round face with large eyes.

In her youth she was described
as a true beauty.

So, while we have
a solid physical description,

there's actually a lot of dispute
regarding images of her.

The portraits that are attributed to
being a young Catherine

don't really look anything
like the portraits of her

as an older woman

leading to quite a bit of confusion
about what her true face really was.

In what's presumed to be
the youngest image of Catherine

we have this image labeled
"Portrait of a girl",

but it's currently unconfirmed.

But for comparison, we do have
this portrait of her sister Joanna

and it's made by the same artist.

They do look very much alike
and it's not a leap to believe

that these two girls are sisters

and that actually is
a portrait of Catherine.

And then we have
a few more portraits

of what is said to be
a teenaged Catherine.

This one is really beautiful

and i think it lives in many
of our imaginations

when it comes to her.

I've based one of my recreations off
of this one

but some scholars believe
that this is not Catherine.

They believe that it's actually her
future sister-in-law, Mary Rose Tudor

that's depicted in this image.

There's actually enough evidence
for this

that the museum that displays
this artwork

actually labeled it as "Mary Tudor".

So, there's another great article
by Claire Ridgway

that i'm going to link here

if you're interested in reading more
about the misidentification

and the arguments of both sides
for identifying this portrait.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been settled
fully either way.

The first confirmed image
that we have of Catherine

is from around 1520

when Catherine would have been
about 35 years old.

This was initially thought
to be a portrait of Catherine Parr,

but was later re-identified
to be Catherine of Aragon

this portrait shows Catherine
with a strong chin, small eyes

and a rather plain face

and to me it doesn't quite trap
with those earlier portraits of her

and in fact it's actually
a little difficult

to find any similarity at all.

We also have a couple of confirmed
13:37
hornbolt miniatures from around 1525.
13:40
however even looking at these two
13:42
portraits painted by the same person
13:44
they don't 100 look like the same woman
13:47
i do think this one miniature looks more
13:50
similar to the painting of the young
13:51
catherine than others do but she just
13:54
has a really hard face to pin down
13:56
there are also some posthumous portraits
13:58
of catherine that kind of match this
14:00
style but they were painted long after
14:01
her death
14:03
so we do end up with kind of these
14:05
opposing views of catherine first on one
14:08
hand we have this young beautiful girl
14:10
with a plump face large eyes everything
14:13
that matches the description of the
14:14
young catherine then of course we have
14:16
these older portraits of catherine that
14:18
are quite at odds with this image
14:21
but these are the images that are
14:23
confirmed to be catherine so i do think
14:25
we need to trust them over a potentially
14:27
unconfirmed image
14:28
i have a big soft spot in my heart for
14:31
catherine and so even these older
14:32
portraits i really love them i think
14:34
they show how determined and strong a
14:36
woman she really was
Recreations Reveal
14:38
so without further ado let's go ahead
14:40
and take a look at my recreations of
14:42
catherine of aragon now
14:44
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14:53
[Music]