January 1 - The birth of a son for Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII
8 Video Views·May 5, 2023
Hi, I'm Clare Ridgeway, founder of the Tudor Society and Amberlin Files websites and also
author of some Tudor history books including this one, On This Day in Tudor History.
Now I'm going to come to you each day with a fact, a On This Day in History fact, and today
is the 1st of January so I'm going to share with you one of the events that I've written about
in my book under the 1st of January. So today's event takes us back to 1511 in the reign of Henry
VIII. On New Year's Day 1511, Queen Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall.
His birth was met with celebrations throughout England, bonfires, wine flowing through the streets
of London, cannons firing, pageants, banqueting and jousts. He was, after all, King Henry VIII's
only son and heir. A few days after his birth, little Henry was christened at the chapel of
observant friars at Richmond. The French king, Louis XII, had been chosen to be one of his
godfathers and so sent a golden cup and salt as christening gifts. William Warren, Archbishop of
Canterbury, was the other godfather and Margaret of Austria was his godmother, although she did not
attend. The prince was then put under the care of Elizabeth Points and a staff who included four
rockers to rock his cradle and help him sleep, yeomen and grooms and a physician. All the care
in the world could not prevent his death shortly after the celebration pageants at Westminster
on the 22nd of February 1511, just 52 days after his birth. It is not known what caused his death
but infant mortality was high in Tudor England. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were devastated.
They'd lost their baby, their little prince Hal and the heir to the throne.
Little did Henry VIII know that it would be another 26 years until he had a surviving
legitimate son and heir. I'm Clare Ridgway from the Tudor Society bringing you on this day in
Tudor history events each day. Please do subscribe below so that you can catch up with these videos
every day. Take care, bye-bye.