Catherine of Aragon arrived in Plymouth, England, on 2 October 1501. Nearly sixteen years old, she had come from Spain to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son and heir of Henry VII.

Catherine was the youngest surviving daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Her proposed marriage to Arthur formed part of an alliance between their kingdoms and the Tudor monarchy, which had taken the English throne only sixteen years earlier.

Her journey to England had been difficult. An earlier attempt to cross the Bay of Biscay was abandoned because of severe weather. Catherine sailed again from Laredo on 27 September and encountered further storms before her fleet reached Plymouth five days later. She received a warm welcome before beginning the journey towards London.

Catherine and Arthur met in early November and were married at St Paul’s Cathedral on 14 November 1501. The marriage was brief. Arthur died at Ludlow on 2 April 1502, leaving Catherine a teenage widow in England.

She remained in the country and in 1509 married Arthur’s younger brother, shortly after he became Henry VIII. Their marriage lasted for more than twenty years before Henry sought an annulment. The dispute over the marriage became part of the conflict with papal authority that led to England’s break with Rome.

Catherine’s arrival at Plymouth had been intended to secure an Anglo-Spanish alliance through marriage to the heir to the English throne. Within a few months, the reason for her presence in England had changed completely.