This was a very special event for me, as my links with the City go way back to the years when I was a pupil at the City of London School for Girls. In October 2015 I was privileged to be invited to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand to speak at the City of London's annual Quit Rents Ceremony, an ancient ritual that dates back to the Middle Ages and takes place in the Lord Chief Justice's Court in the presence of the Queen's Remembrancer, the only surviving officer of the Court of the Exchequer. You can read my article on the portraits of Margaret Beaufort here at Art.UK: īeyond the Tower Walls (2020) - you can listen to the webinar here: The Old Palace is now a school and I know it well because my daughter was a pupil there. It would be seven long, stressful, penurious years before it was restored to her and she became Henry VIII’s first wife. All her life, she had been brought up as a future queen of England now that destiny had been stolen from her. Her stay at Croydon must have been shadowed by sorrow and anxiety. Meanwhile, with her future still uncertain, Katherine had moved to Durham House she was living there by 6 November 1502. Months would pass before he reached a decision on the proposed betrothal between Katherine and Henry. But, although Henry also wished to preserve the Spanish alliance, he was hesitant. In July, when it was beyond doubt that Katherine was not pregnant with Arthur’s child, Isabella informed Henry VII that her daughter remained a virgin. Doña Elvira, her duenna, was adamant that the marriage had not even been consummated and wrote to Queen Isabella insisting that the Princess remained a virgin. Everyone was aware that, if Katherine had conceived a child by Arthur, her union with Henry would contravene canon law. On 10 May they had sent an ambassador to England with instructions to preserve their alliance with Henry VII, ask for the immediate return of Katherine and her dowry and, if possible, secure the Princess’s betrothal to the new heir to the throne, Prince Henry, who, at eleven, was five years her junior. Her parents, the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, were naturally concerned about her. Late in May, the Queen, Elizabeth of York, sent her page, to Croydon, possibly to check on the Princess’s health, and perhaps discreetly to ask her servants if there were signs of any pregnancy.ĭuring the months Katherine stayed at Croydon, her future remained under discussion. Since the archbishops used the palace as a summer residence, Katherine was probably accommodated in their own chambers, which had recently been partially rebuilt. There had been archiepiscopal buildings on the site since the tenth century.
Katherine chose Croydon and, by 4 May, was lodging there.Īt that time, Croydon Palace was a large, stately courtyard house with opulent chambers, a great hall, a chapel and a great parlour. In fact, Henry VII gave the young widow - she was sixteen - the choice of two residences: Durham House and Croydon Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s residence in Surrey. It is often stated that Henry VIII’s first queen, Katherine of Aragon, lived At Durham House, the Bishop of Durham’s palace on London’s Strand, after the death of her first husband, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales in April 1502. Article for the 125th and final issue of the City of London School for Girls Olds Girls' Asociation
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