Arthur Tudor was Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall as the eldest
son and heir apparent of Henry VII of England and his wife, Elizabeth of York—daughter
of Edward IV—and his birth thus cemented the union between the House of Tudor and the
House of York.
He was their eldest child and was born months after their marriage.
Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House
of Tudor, as his birth symbolised the end of the Wars of the Roses, during which his
great-uncle Richard III, the final Yorkist king, had died in battle.
Plans for Arthur's marriage began before his third birthday; he was installed as Prince
of Wales two years later.
He grew especially close to his siblings Margaret and Henry, Duke of York, with the latter of
whom he shared some tutors.
At the age of eleven, Arthur was formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, a daughter
of the powerful Catholic Monarchs in Spain, in an effort to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance
against France.
Arthur was well educated and, contrary to modern belief, was in good health for the
majority of his life.
Soon after his marriage to Catherine in 1501, the couple took up residence at Ludlow Castle
in Shropshire, where Arthur died six months later of an unknown ailment.
Catherine would later firmly state that the marriage had not been consummated.
One year after Arthur's death, Henry VII renewed his efforts of sealing a marital alliance
with Spain by betrothing Catherine to Arthur's brother Henry, who had by then become Prince
of Wales.
Arthur's untimely death paved the way for Henry's accession as Henry VIII in 1509.
His subsequent reign encompassed the separation between the Church of England and the Roman
Catholic Church and Henry's quest for a male heir, which endured six marriages.
Biography Birth and early life
In 1485, Henry Tudor became King of England upon defeating Richard III at the Battle of
Bosworth.
In an effort to strengthen the Tudor claim to the throne and emphasize his family's Welsh,
that is to say Romano-British, ancestry, Henry had royal genealogists trace his lineage back
to the ancient British rulers and decided on naming his firstborn son after the legendary
King Arthur.
On this occasion, Camelot was identified as present-day Winchester, and his wife, Elizabeth
of York, was sent to Saint Swithun's Priory in order to give birth there.
Born at Saint Swithun's Priory on 20 September 1486 at about 1 am, Arthur was Henry and Elizabeth's
eldest child.
Arthur's birth was anticipated by French and Italian humanists eager for the start of a
"Virgilian golden age".
Sir Francis Bacon wrote that although the Prince was born one month premature, he was
"strong and able".
Young Arthur was viewed as "a living symbol" of not only the union between the House of
Tudor and the House of York, but also of the end of the Wars of the Roses.
In the opinion of contemporaries, Arthur was the great hope of the newly established House
of Tudor.
Arthur became Duke of Cornwall at birth.
Four days after his birth, the baby was baptised at Winchester Cathedral by the Bishop of Worcester,
John Alcock, and his baptism was immediately followed by his Confirmation.
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, William FitzAlan,
16th Earl of Arundel, Queen Elizabeth Woodville and Cecily of York served as godparents; the
latter two carried the prince during the ceremony.
Initially, Arthur's nursery in Farnham was headed by Elizabeth Darcy, who had served
as chief nurse for Edward IV's children, including Arthur's own mother.
After Arthur was created Prince of Wales in 1490, he was awarded a household structure
at the behest of his father.
Over the next thirteen years, Henry VII and Elizabeth would have five more children, of
whom only three – Margaret, Henry and Mary – would survive infancy.
Arthur was especially close to his sister Margaret and his brother Henry, with whom
he shared a nursery.
On 29 November 1489, after being made a Knight of the Bath, Arthur was appointed Prince of
Wales and Earl of Chester, and was invested as such at the Palace of Westminster on 27
February 1490.
As part of his investiture ceremony, he progressed down the River Thames in the royal barge and
was met at Chelsea by the Lord Mayor of London, John Mathewe, and at Lambeth by Spanish ambassadors.
On 8 May 1491, he was made a Knight of the Garter at Saint George's Chapel at Windsor
Palace.
It was around this time that Arthur began his formal education under John Rede, a former
headmaster of Winchester College.
His education was subsequently taken over by Bernard André, a blind poet, and then
by Thomas Linacre, formerly Henry VII's physician.
Arthur's education covered grammar, poetry, rhetoric and ethics and focused on history.
Arthur was a very skilled pupil and André wrote that the Prince of Wales had either
memorised or read a selection of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, a good deal of Cicero and a
wide span of historical works, including those of Thucydides, Caesar, Livy and Tacitus.
Arthur was also a "superb archer", and had learned to dance "right pleasant and honourably"
by 1501.
Later life
The popular belief that Arthur was sickly during his lifetime stems from a Victorian
misunderstanding of a letter from 1502; on the contrary, there are no reports of Arthur
being ill during his lifetime.
Arthur grew up to be unusually tall for his age, and was considered handsome by the Spanish
court: he had reddish hair, small eyes, a high-bridged nose and resembled his brother
Henry, who was said to be "extremely handsome" by contemporaries.
As described by historians Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton, Arthur had an "amiable and
gentle" personality and was, overall, a "delicate lad".
In May 1490 Arthur was created warden of all the marches towards Scotland and the Earl
of Surrey was appointed as the Prince's deputy.
From 1491, Arthur was named on peace commissions.
In October 1492, when his father travelled to France, he was named Keeper of England
and King's Lieutenant.
Following the example of Edward IV, Henry VII set up the Council of Wales and the Marches
for Arthur in Wales, in order to enforce royal authority there.
Although the council had already been set up in 1490, it was headed by Jasper Tudor,
Duke of Bedford.
Arthur was first dispatched to Wales in 1501, at the age of fifteen.
In March 1493, Arthur was granted the power to appoint justices of oyer and terminer and
inquire into franchises, thus strengthening the council's authority.
In November of that year, the Prince also received an extensive land grant in Wales,
including the County of March.
Arthur was served by sons of English, Irish and Welsh nobility, such as Gearoid Óg FitzGerald,
9th Earl of Kildare, who had been brought to the English court as a consequence of the
involvement of his father, Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, in the crowning of pretender
Lambert Simnel in Ireland during Henry VII's reign.
Other servants were Anthony Willoughby, a son of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby
de Broke, Robert Radcliffe, the heir of the 9th Baron FitzWalter, Maurice St John, a favourite
nephew of Arthur's grandmother Lady Margaret Beaufort, and Gruffydd ap Rhys ap Thomas,
the son of powerful Welsh nobleman Thomas ap Rhys.
Gruffydd grew quite close to Arthur and was buried in Worcester Cathedral upon his death
in 1521, alongside the Prince's tomb.
Marriage
Henry VII planned to marry Arthur to a daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile
and Ferdinand II of Aragon, in order to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France.
It was suggested that the choice of marrying Arthur to Ferdinand and Isabella's youngest
daughter, Catherine, would be appropriate.
The Treaty of Medina del Campo provided that Arthur and Catherine would be married as soon
as they reached canonical age; it also settled Catherine's dowry at 200,000 crowns.
A papal dispensation allowing the marriage was issued in February 1497, and the pair
were betrothed by proxy on 25 August 1497.
Two years later, a marriage by proxy took place at Arthur's Tickenhill Manor in Bewdley,
near Worcester; Arthur said to Roderigo de Puebla, who had acted as proxy for Catherine,
that "he much rejoiced to contract the marriage because of his deep and sincere love for the
Princess".
The young couple exchanged letters in Latin until Arthur's fifteenth birthday, when he
was deemed old enough to be married.
In a letter from October 1499, Arthur, referring to Catherine as "my dearest spouse", wrote
that "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."
Catherine landed in England on 2 October 1501, at Plymouth.
On 4 November, the couple met each other for the first time at Dogmersfield in Hampshire.
Arthur wrote to Catherine's parents that he would be "a true and loving husband"; the
couple soon discovered that they had learnt different pronunciations of Latin and were
unable to communicate.
On 9 November, Catherine arrived in London.
The marriage ceremony took place on 14 November at Saint Paul's Cathedral; both Arthur and
Catherine wore white satin.
The ceremony was conducted by Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was assisted
by William Warham, Bishop of London.
Following the ceremony, Arthur and Catherine left the Cathedral and headed for Baynard's
Castle, where they were entertained by "the best voiced children of the King's chapel,
who sang right sweetly with quaint harmony".
What followed was a ceremonial laid down by Lady Margaret Beaufort: the bed was sprinkled
with holy water, after which Catherine was led away from the wedding feast by her ladies-in-waiting.
She was undressed, veiled and "reverently" laid in bed, while Arthur, "in his shirt,
with a gown cast about him", was escorted by his gentlemen into the bedchamber, while
viols and tabors played.
The Bishop of London blessed the bed and prayed for the marriage to be fruitful, after which
the couple were left alone.
This is the only public bedding of a royal couple recorded in Britain in the 16th century.
Death
After residing at Tickenhill Manor for a month, Arthur and Catherine left London and headed
for the marches in Wales, where they established their household at Ludlow Castle.
Arthur had been growing weaker since his wedding, and although Catherine was reluctant to follow
him, she was ordered by Henry VII to join her husband.
Arthur found it easy to govern Wales, as the border had become quiet after many centuries
of warfare.
On March 1502, Arthur and Catherine were afflicted by an unknown illness, "a malign vapour with
proceeded from the air".
While Catherine recovered, Arthur died on 2 April 1502 at Ludlow, six months short of
his sixteenth birthday.
News of Arthur's death reached Henry VII's court late on 4 April.
The King was awoken from his sleep by his confessor, who quoted Job by asking Henry
"If we receive good things at the hands of God, why may we not endure evil things?"
He then told the king that "[his] dearest son hath departed to God", and Henry burst
into tears.
"Grief-stricken and emotional", he then had his wife brought into his chambers, so that
they might "take the painful news together"; Elizabeth reminded Henry that God had helped
him become king and "had ever preserved him", adding that they had been left with "yet a
fair Prince and two fair princesses and that God is where he was, and [they were] both
young enough".
Soon after leaving Henry's bedchamber, Elizabeth collapsed and began to cry, while the ladies
sent for the King, who hurriedly came and "relieved her".
On 8 April, a general procession took place for the salvation of Arthur's soul.
That night, a dirge was sung in Saint Paul's Cathedral and every parish church in London.
On 23 April, Arthur's body, which had previously been embalmed, sprinkled with holy water and
sheltered with a canopy, was carried out of Ludlow Castle and into the Parish Church of
Ludlow by various noblemen and gentlemen.
On 25 April, Arthur's body was taken to Worcester Cathedral via the River Severn, in a "special
wagon upholstered in black and drawn by six horses, also caprisoned in black".
As was customary, Catherine did not attend the funeral.
The Earl of Surrey acted as chief mourner.
At the end of the ceremony, Sir William Uvedale, Sir Richard Croft and Arthur's household ushers
broke their staves of office and threw them into the Prince's grave.
During the funeral, Arthur's own arms were shown alongside those of Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd
and Brutus of Troy.
Two years later, a chantry was erected over Arthur's grave.
Legacy
Shortly after Arthur's death, the idea of betrothing the now-widowed Catherine to the
new heir, Henry, had arisen; both the King and Isabella were keen on moving forward with
the betrothal.
After originally rejecting the idea, Henry announced, after his succession on 22 April
1509, that he would marry Catherine.
The wedding took place on 11 June.
Catherine bore Henry six children: three sons died before reaching three months of age,
a daughter was stillborn and another lived for only one day.
The couple's only surviving child was Princess Mary, who would one day rule as queen.
After falling in love with Anne Boleyn, the sister of his former mistress, Mary Boleyn,
Henry became troubled by what became known as the King's "great matter", that is, finding
an appropriate solution for his lack of male descendants.
He found several possible options.
He could have attempted to legitimise his illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, but this would
not be easy and would require the Pope's intervention.
He could have married his daughter Mary off and hoped for a male grandson; this was not
seen as a real option, because Mary was a sickly child and was unlikely to conceive
before Henry's death.
Finally, he could somehow reject Catherine and marry a bride more likely to bear children.
Probably seeing the possibility of marrying Anne, the third was ultimately the most viable
option to Henry, and it soon became the King's wish to dissolve his marriage.
Henry believed that his marriage was cursed and found confirmation in the Bible, in Leviticus
20:21.
Although in the morning following his wedding, Arthur had claimed that he was thirsty "for
I have been in the midst of Spain last night" and that "having a wife is a good pastime",
these claims are generally dismissed by modern historians as mere boasts of a boy who did
not want others to know of his failure, and Catherine maintained the claim that she had
married Henry while still a virgin until the day she died.
After Henry's constant support of the claim that Catherine's first marriage had been consummated,
an annulment was issued on 23 April 1533, while the King had already married Anne on
25 January.
Anne was beheaded for high treason in 1536, after which Henry proceeded to marry four
more times.
At the time of his death in 1547, Henry only had three living children; his only son, Edward
VI succeeded but died six years later.
His successors were Henry's daughters by Catherine and Anne, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Upon Elizabeth's
death in 1603, the male line of the House of Tudor came to an end.
In 2002, following the initiative of canon Ian MacKenzie, Arthur's funeral was reenacted
with a requiem mass at Worcester Cathedral, on occasion of the quincentenary of his death.
Despite his role in English history, Arthur has remained largely forgotten since his death.
Popular culture Arthur has been featured in several historical
fiction novels, such as The King's Pleasure, by Norah Lofts and Katherine, The Virgin Widow,
by Jean Plaidy.
In The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory, Catherine promises Arthur to marry his brother,
thus fulfilling not only her own destiny of becoming Queen of England, but also the couple's
plans for the future of the kingdom.
The Alteration, by Kingsley Amis, is an alternate history novel centred on the "War of the English
Succession", during which Henry VIII attempts to usurp the throne of his nephew, Stephen
II, Arthur and Catherine's son.
The historical drama The Six Wives of Henry VIII was broadcast in 1970, with Martin Ratcliffe
as "Prince Arthur".
In 1972, BBC2 aired a historical miniseries titled The Shadow of the Tower, with "Lord
Arthur, Prince of Wales" played by Jason Kemp.
Ancestors References
Endnotes
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links "Intimate Strangers", a popular account of
the sweating sickness theory.
Portraits of Arthur, Prince of Wales at the National Portrait Gallery, London