Queen Isabel I of Castile became pregnant in early 1485, but her condition did not prevent that she spent most of her pregnancy in the military campaign against the Muslim Kingdom of Granada. Isabel was not the sword-wielding, front-line female warrior imagined by some. She was, however, a recognised mistress of some of the more important arts of war. Strategy, logistics, planning, even field medicine, were her specialities. She was her own army’s quartermaster general, as well as its inspiration and morale-booster.
During the late spring and summer of 1485 she moved around Andalucía, following the campaign closely. Isabel and her troops finished warring for the year in September, and the Royal Court travelled from Andalucía to Alcalá de Henares for the winter and for the impending birth. In this town just north-east of Madrid, the royal family installed itself in the great fortified Archbishop’s palace that had been recently reformed by Cardinal Mendoza. The interiors were hung with tapestries, velvet or painted with colourful frescoes, ornamented with silver and cloth of gold.
It was to one such ornate bedroom that the heavily pregnant queen retired to deliver a daughter. The future Queen consort of England born on the night of 15-16 December 1485. Her mother, it is to be presumed, remained as courageous and self-controlled as ever during childbirth. One visitor to her court reported later:
‘I have been informed by the ladies who serve her in her chamber that, neither when in pain through illness nor during the pains of childbirth … did they ever see her complain, on that, rather, she suffered them with marvellous fortitude’,
The baby girl was healthy. She was checked by the midwives and washed in a little brass basin before being handed to her mother. The new infanta of the royal House of Trastámara was a beautiful, petite and plump child, with blue eyes, fair skin and red-golden hair. Her veins flowed with Spanish, Portuguese, and English blood. Her birth brought the queen’s childbearing to an end: Isabel was thirty-four years old.
Isabel and Fernando’s chroniclers, who sometimes had to present their work for royal approval or correction, dutifully reported the event, but showed little excitement, this was, after all, a fifth child and a girl, the fourth daughter. She had a brother, Juan, and three sisters, Isabel, Juana and María. The little infanta hardly looked set to play a part in settling any future succession to the crowns of Castile or Aragon. ‘The monarchs would have been happier with a boy, because having just one male heir was a worry to them’, noted a chronicler. The celebrations coincided with the Christmas festivities. The Cardinal of Spain gave a party for the royal couple, and the nobles and ladies of the court. There was jousting and more partying in the chilly, muddy streets of Alcalá.
The name chosen was significant. She was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Catherine of Lancaster, or Catalina in her native tongue, the daughter of the English prince John of Gaunt who married King Enrique III of Castile. It was an early indication of the destiny they had in mind for her. Maybe she was also named for Saint Catherine of Alexandria, who had been a princess, a scholar and martyr to her faith, considered beautiful, dignified and intelligent.
Queen Isabel’s treasurer, Gonzalo de Baeza, kept detailed records of the baby’s early days, from the name of her first nurse, Elena de Carmona, to her christening by the Bishop of Palencia, when she wore a gown of white brocade lined with green velvet and edged in gold lace. Dutch olanda linen was used to make her sheets, pillowcases, nightshirts and bibs. Scarlet Florentine cloth was ordered to make clothes, fresh cotton was used to stuff her crib mattress, a brass basin was used for washing her, and she owned a perfume sprinkler. Katherine of Aragon was born during the war against the kingdom of Granada, but she spent her first Christmas in the warmth of a court, and a monarchy, at rest.
Catherine of Aragon: Henry’s Spanish Queen by Giles Tremlett
The Six Wives and Many Mistresses of Henry VIII: The Women’s Stories by Amy Licence
Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII’s True Wife by Amy Licence
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
ellievsbear
