The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History — David Hume — John Shaqi
The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History
David Hume · en
Finding that Spanish etiquette would not be observed in England, Katharine
made the best of matters and received Henry graciously, though evidently
her Latin and French were different from his; for they were hardly
intelligible to one another. Then, after the King had changed his
travelling garb, he sent word that he had a present for the Princess; and
led in the blushing Prince Arthur to the presence of his bride. The
conversation now was more easily conducted, for the Latin-speaking bishops
were close by to interpret. Once more, and for the fourth time, the young
couple formally pledged their troth; and then after supper the Spanish
minstrels played, and the ladies and gentlemen of Katharine's suite
danced: young Arthur, though unable to dance in the Spanish way, trod an
English measure with Lady Guildford to show that he was not unversed in
courtly graces.[4]
Arthur appears to have been a slight, fair, delicate lad, amiable and
gentle, and not so tall as his bride, who was within a month of sixteen
years, Arthur being just over fifteen. Katharine must have had at this
time at least the grace of girlhood, though she never can have been a
great beauty. Like most of her mother's house she had pale, rather hard,
statuesque features and ruddy hair. As we trace her history we shall see
that most of her mistakes in England, and she made many, were the natural
result of the uncompromising rigidity of principle arising from the
conviction of divine appointment which formed her mother's system. She had
been brought up in the midst of a crusading war, in which the victors drew
their inspiration, and ascribed their triumph, to the special intervention
of the Almighty in their favour; and already Katharine's house had assumed
as a basis of its family faith that the cause of God was indissolubly
linked with that of the sovereigns of Castile and Leon. It was impossible
that a woman brought up in such a school could be opportunist, or would
bend to the petty subterfuges and small complaisances by which men are
successfully managed; and Katharine suffered through life from the
inflexibility born of self-conscious rectitude.