Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485-January 7, 1536), Infanta Catalina de Aragón y Castilla, whose name can also be spelled Katherine or Katharine, was the first queen of King Henry VIII of England.

Catherine was born into the Spanish royal family. Her father was King Ferdinand II of Aragon and her mother was Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine's first marriage was a political one. She married Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII, and thus received the title of Princess of Wales. But within months of their marriage, Prince Arthur died.

When Arthur died, Spain and France were at odds. In order to maintain neutrality and not offend the Spanish royal family, Catherine's father-in-law Henry VII tried to retain his eldest wife and planned to marry Catherine to his second son Henry.

At the time, papal authorization was required to eliminate in-laws. But Catherine announced that her first marriage had not been consummated, so she did not need the Pope's permission and only had to declare the first marriage null and void. Later, both the British and Spanish royal families believed that the papal charter was still necessary to avoid outside questions about the legitimacy of Catherine and Henry's marriage. Later, at the request of Catherine's mother, Isabella I, the Pope agreed in the form of a Papal bull. So, fourteen months after the death of her first husband, Catherine became engaged to her brother-in-law, Henry VIII, who was only 12 years old at the time.

However, in 1505, King Henry VII lost interest in the alliance with Spain, and Henry VII immediately announced that he had not agreed to the marriage. Diplomacy continued until Henry VII's death in 1509. After Henry VII's death, his 17-year-old second son became Henry VIII, and Catherine married Henry VIII on June 11, 1509. The two were crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 24 of the same year, and Catherine officially became Queen of England.

The marriage of Queen Catherine to Henry VIII lasted for 24 years, during which time Queen Catherine was loved by the people of England. Henry VIII had always wanted a son who could succeed to the throne since his ascension, but all six of Queen Catherine's children except his daughter, Princess Mary, died prematurely. Henry VIII therefore tried to cancel the marriage, but Pope Clement VII at the time did not agree to Henry VIII's request. By this time, Henry VIII's lover and her waitress, Anne Boleyn, was pregnant, so in January 1533, Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in secret, and then passed an act of Parliament in England to declare that he would break away from the control of the Holy See and annul the marriage to Queen Catherine. Queen Catherine's only surviving daughter, Princess Mary, also fell from being the king's eldest daughter to the king's illegitimate daughter.

Comments: A character in the age of wind and cloud, so many major events are connected to her.