One tragic event that changed the face of English History took place inside of Ludlow
Castle on the 2nd April 1502.
Arthur Tudor was the heir to the first Tudor King, Henry VII’s throne being his eldest
son.
Prince Arthur had recently got married to Catherine of Aragon, but months after the
marriage the pair became very ill, but the significant of Arthur’s death was that his
younger brother would then inherit the throne after the death of their father.
This younger brother would go on to chance the face of English History forever, and would
be the brutal King Henry VIII.
However what is the story of the death of Arthur Tudor, the boy who should have been
king?
Arthur Tudor was the great hope for the Tudor dynasty, and Henry VII believed that his son
would go on to become the man who would have many children which would secure the Tudor’s
reign on the throne for centuries.
But this would never happen.
Arthur at birth was made the Duke of Cornwall, and he was given the greatest education across
the land as he was the eldest son of the King.
He was bestowed great titles including being made a Knight of the Bath, and he was then
also appointed the Prince of Wales, and the Earl of Chester.
He had a huge investiture celebration, and his education as mentioned was incredible
as it was hoped he would be the King one day.
There has been a myth that Arthur was a very sickly child, however there are no reports
that he was ill during his life.
Arthur was a tall child, and he was considered handsome by some, and he had red hair, small
eyes and a high bridged nose.
He looked similar to his brother Henry, and he was described also as a gentle and delicate
boy.
But then he was despite being a young boy appointed the Warden of all the Marches.
But when his father left for France he was made the Keeper of England, and the King’s
leftenant.
But despite this, he was just a child, and Henry VII established the council of Wales
and the marches for Prince Arthur, and it was his job to later establish the English
authority in the region.
HE was sent to Wales first at the age of 15 in 1501.
But Henry VII planned to marry Arthur to the daughter of the Catholic Isabella I of Castile
and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
He wanted to build an alliance between Spain and England in the face of France.
It was suggested that the choice for Arthur was the youngest daughter Catherine of Aragon.
Negotiations then took place, and it was settled that Catherine had a dowry of 200,000 crowns
which in today’s money would be around £10 million pounds.
Arthur during these negotiations was not 14, and was below the age of consent, but with
this the Pope granted a special waiver for the marriage to take place, and it was issued
in February 1497, and Arthur and Catherine were betrothed by proxy on the 25th August
1497.
The pair wrote to each other, and Arthur stated ‘I cannot tell you what an earnest desire
I feel to see your Highness and how vexatious to me is this procrastination about your coming.
Let it be hastened that the love conceived between us and the wished for joys may reap
their proper fruit.’
The pair continued to write, but Catherine landed in England on the 2nd October 1501
in Plymouth.
The following month the couple met for the first time, and Arthur wrote to his wife’s
parents promising he would be a true and loving husband.
But the couple could not communicate well as they learned different versions of Latin,
but on the 14th November 1501 the marriage took place at Saint Paul’s Cathedral.
The Archbishop of Canterbury conducted the service, and it was a huge wedding, and then
after this the traditional bedding ceremony occurred.
Lady Margaret Beaufort, Arthur’s grandmother prepared the marriage bed, and the bed was
sprinkled with holy water.
Catherine was prepared for bed, and Arthur was dressed in a gown and was escorted to
the bedchamber.
The Bishop of London prepared the bed, and prayed for their marriage to be fruitful.
The couple then stayed at Tickenhill Manor for a month, and following this they then
went to the Welsh Marches, and specifically Ludlow Castle where they would establish their
household.
However there was a huge problem, as Arthur had been getting weaker following his wedding.
They lived at Ludlow for a number of months, but in the spring of 1502 the pair had both
b become ill, and they were stricken by what was considered the sweating sickness.
Catherine although very ill would recover, however Arthur Tudor would not.
He continued to get ill, and continued to get worse and on the 2nd April 1502 whilst
inside of his room at Ludlow Castle, Prince Arthur, the heir to the throne died from the
sweating sickness.
He was only 15, and the news of his death reached the King’s court 2 days later.
Henry VII was completely devastated, and when he was told by his confessor that his son
had died, he said ‘If we received good things at the hands of God why may we not endure
evil things,’ and with this he burst into tears, and was Grief stricken and emotional.
Henry’s wife, and Arthur’s mother Elizabeth of York came into the chamber and reminded
the King that they could have more children, and that they had been left with ‘yet a
fair price and two fair princesses and that God is where he was, and that they were both
young enough.’
Elizabeth did her grieving in private, and the pair were both inconsolable.
It was said, ‘When his Grace [Henry VII] understood that sorrowful heavy tydings, he
sent for the Queene [Elizabeth of York], saying that he and his Queene would take the painful
sorrows together.
After that she was come and saw the Kyng her Lord, and that naturall and paineful sorrowe,
as I have heard saye, she with full great and constant comfortable words besought his
Grace that he would first after God remember the weale of his own noble person, the comfort
of his realme and of her.
She then saied that my Lady his mother had never no more children but him only, and that
God by his Grace had ever preserved him, and brought him where he was.
Over that, howe that God had left him yet a fayre Prince, two fair Princesses and that
God is where he was, and we are both young ….Then his Grace of true gentle and faithful
love, in good hast came and relieved her, and showed her howe wise counsell she had
given him before, and he for his parting would thank God for his sonn, and would she should
doe in like wise.
When the king by his high policy had completed his alliance with Spain in this way, there
suddenly came a lamentable mischance and loss to the king, queen and all the people.
For that noble prince Arthur, the king’s first begotten son, after he had been married
to the Lady Catherine for five months, departed this transitory life at Ludlow on 2 April
1502.
With great funeral obsequies he was buried in the cathedral church of Worcester.
After his death the name of prince belonged to his brother the duke of York, since his
brother died without his issue, and so without being thus created he ought to be called,
unless some apparent cause was a let or obstacle to it.
But the duke, suspecting that his brother’s wife was with child, as was thought possible
by the expert and wise men of the prince’s council, was by a month or more delayed from
his title, name and pre-eminence, in which time the truth might easily appear to women.
It is reported that this lady Catherine thought and feared such an unhappy chance might come,
for when she had embraced her father and taken leave of her noble and prudent mother, and
sailed towards England, she was continually so tossed and tumbled hither and thither with
boisterous winds that what with the raging of the water and the contrary winds her ship
was prevented many times from approaching the shore and landing.’
The funeral procession was large, and Catheirne or Aragon did not attend the funeral, and
a special wagon whilst was covered in black cloth took the coffin of Arthur Tudor to Worcester
Cathedral where it was interred inside of a large stone tomb.
But following Arthur’s death, the question now came to who would marry his widow Catherine
of Aragon.
Henry VII did not want to pay back the dowry payment, and with this he even considered
marrying her himself following the death of his wife, Elizabeth of York.
However then Henry VIII, the now eldest son of Henry VII was betrothed to Catherine, and
the pair would then marry.
But it’s Arthur’s legacy which had the biggest impact in History.
His life was largely uneventful despite the fact he was the heir to the Tudor throne,
but in his death his brother Henry would become the heir to the throne, and he would later
become the notorious King Henry VIII.
He would be the man who split England during the Reformation due to his desire to marry
Anne Boleyn, and he was known for having 6 wives, two of whom lost their heads inside
the Tower of London.
Henry VIII’s life and reign as King was a bloody one with over 70,000 people executed
in his kingdom, but without the death of his brother Prince Arthur, he would never have
become King.
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