The Other Tudors by Philippa Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

back to the time of his subjection under the orders of his father and would be ruthlessly denied.
    Henry VII set about cutting down the size of Catherine’s establishment while she languished in political limbo. In December 1505 Catherine was invited to Court for Christmas. The King then closed her household at Durham House and told her that henceforward she would live at Westminster with a handful of servants (five ladies, a master of the hall, treasurer and physician), completely at his financial mercy. She was given a small suite of rooms as far away from Prince Henry as possible; he only saw her at church and when she was invited to join formal occasions. Her father, Ferdinand, sent her occasional gifts, but he expected her to use her tenuous position at court to work on his behalf.
    It is sometimes amazing how badly parents can misjudge their children. The King had promised Henry that he would marry Catherine, then told him, no. Catherine was still there at Court; not only regal, young and lovely, but also living in fear and poverty because of his father. The situation could not fail to arouse in Prince Henry every emotion from sexual interest and a chivalric desire to rescue her, to an impotent pity that he could not do so, and a resultant despising of his father and hatred of his own powerless situation.
    Despite his confined existence at his father’s Court, Henry was developing into a remarkable young man. By the time he was 16, Henry was described as extremely handsome, over six foot tall and well muscled. However, the King still treated his son and heir like a child, refusing him a separate household and doling out pocket money to him. These humiliations would never be forgotten; King Henry VIII would never allow anyone, by his estimation, to demean or belittle him in any way.
    In 1508, aged 17, Henry began appearing in tourneys and jousts himself. He was magnificent and the people loved him, courtiers and commoners alike. He was not praised merely because he was the King’s son; it would have been almost impossible for him to survive in the jousting field unscathed if he had not had the strength, skill and judgement to do well. He truly was a remarkable athlete.
    There were no reported rumours about any sexual liaisons before Prince Henry’s marriage; however, he was a healthy, handsome young man and Westminster was a big palace; Henry VII could not have watched his son all the time. When Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn, there was a vicious and certainly unfounded rumour that he had had affairs with Anne, her sister Mary, and their mother, Elizabeth Boleyn, who had been one of his own mother’s ladies! Henry’s response was, ‘Never with the mother’, although if she had been one of those ladies, young and lovely, it had at least been a viable possibility. 24
    In the last years of his reign Henry VII suffered from ill health, as did his aging mother. The Prince must have chafed under their control. In March 1508 the second half of Catherine’s dowry arrived in England and there was no reason now why the marriage should not take place within a few months, as previously agreed. However, in 1509, as Henry became ill, plans for the Prince’s marriage were proceeding, but with little mention of Catherine. The two foremost contenders were Margaret of Angoulême and Catherine’s niece, Eleanor.
    In April 1508 the King finally realised that Ferdinand had no intention of allowing him to marry Joanna and that the negotiations carried out through Catherine (all based on her father’s lies) had been designed to gain advantage for her own marriage. Catherine suffered as a result; she was excluded from the May festivities in 1508. Her accommodation was moved at Easter to rooms over the stables. Her food was sometimes inedible and was enlivened only by occasional gifts from her friends. Her clothes were threadbare , her servants’ worse, and she was forced to sell the plate and jewels that had originally formed