Catherine and Anne: rival queens

Catherine of Aragon
daughter and sister of reigning queens.
Public domain

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine was born in December 1485, the fifth child and fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. In March 1489 at the age of three she was betrothed to Henry VII’s son Prince Arthur at Medina del Campo in what Henry regarded as a diplomatic coup for his still insecure dynasty. 

Isabella had received little formal education but she made sure that her daughters learned Latin, and this was the language with which Catherine first communicated with Arthur. Her daughters were also taught music, dancing, needlework, falconry, horse-riding and hunting. She was later to sew her husband’s shirts, and continued to do so after her marriage broke up - much to the fury of Anne Boleyn. Surprisingly, no attempt was made to teach her English, and when she did learn to speak it, it was with a strong Spanish accent.

Catherine at the age of 11
by Juan de Flandres,
showing the red hair she had
inherited from Isabella
Public domain

In May 1501 she finally set off from the Alhambra for England. She and her future husband were both 13. She did not reach Plymouth until October. She and Arthur were married in St Paul’s Cathedral on 14 November. The wedding night is the most disputed in English history. Was the marriage consummated? 

After the wedding she accompanied Arthur to Ludlow Castle, the border fortress that was the temporary home of the Prince of Wales. On 2 April 1502 the prince died. Catherine returned to London and settled into Durham House on the Thames. As a childless widow, her position was vulnerable. Far from ordering her back to Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella wanted her to marry again and they set their sights on Arthur’s brother, Henry, now the heir to the throne, and six years younger than Catherine.

Legally, Catherine was Princess Dowager of Wales. But was she? Her ‘lady mistress’, Doña Elvira insisted that she was still a virgin. Ferdinand and Isabella took the claim seriously, but there was no way of verifying it. In 1503 it was agreed that Catherine should marry Henry, and both the English and Spanish sides agreed that a papal dispensation was needed. The wording of the dispensation allowed for the fact that the marriage had 'perhaps' been consummated.

Over the next few years Catherine was often ill and depressed and she was short of money while Henry VII and Ferdinand squabbled over her dowry. In 1505 on the eve of his 14th birthday, Prince Henry denounced the marriage treaty. This was a diplomatic ploy in order to extract more of the dowry from Ferdinand.  

Catherine as queen

Then just when her fortunes were at their lowest ebb, Henry VII died on 21 April 1509. On 11 June Catherine married Henry VIII.

Catherine's badge as queen,
the crowned pomegranite

Advocate of Spain: When a queen married, she was faced with a potential conflict of loyalties. Her marriage had been arranged by her parents for diplomatic reasons and she was expected to further the interests of her native country. But as queen, she also owed loyalty to her new country and it was often a difficult balancing act to reconcile the two.

Catherine was always fervently pro-Spanish and at first she furthered the interests of her father, Ferdinand. This meant supporting Henry's war against France. When he left for France in June 1513 she became ‘Regent and Governess of England, Wales and Ireland’. This meant that she could raise armies, appoint sheriffs, approve church appointments and control the nation’s finances.  But she was dismayed when her father backed out of the war and signed a peace treaty with France. After this her loyalty was to England.

Margaret of Austria

The Hof van Savoye
Margaret's palace at Mechelen
where Anne Boleyn served as fille d'honneur.
Public domain

Margaret is best known in Britain because in 1513 the 12-year-old Anne Boleyn became one of her maids of honour. What is less well known is that she was one of the most successful rulers of the early sixteenth century. One of the best English-language sources for Margaret is Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens (Oneworld, 2016) on which much of this post is blamed.

She was born in 1480, the only daughter of Duchess Mary, the heiress of the Duchy of Burgundy, and her husband, Maximilian of Habsburg (which is why she is known as Margaret of Austria). She was named after her English step-grandmother, Margaret of York, the sister of Edward IV. Her mother died after a riding accident in 1482, leaving her to Margaret's guardianship. Her brother, Philip, became sovereign of the Low Countries, with Maximilian acting as regent.

Margaret's brother, Philip of
Habsburg, called 'the Handsome'
though why is not clear from this portrait.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Public domain

Queen in waiting

The Duchy of Burgundy and France had long been enemies, but in 1482 Maximilian signed a peace treaty with Louis XI. By its terms, Margaret was to marry Louis' 13-year-old son Charles. In 1483 at the age of 3 she travelled to France. Two months later, on 30 August, Louis XI died and Charles became King Charles VIII.  However, Margaret was only nominally the Queen of France, because she was still a small child and the marriage was unconsummated. The real power lay with Charles’s sister, the regent Anne de Beaujeu (also known as Anne of France).

Anne de Beaujeu,
'Madame la Grande',
a powerful female role model
for Margaret
Public domain

At the French court Margaret learned the courtly arts of painting and drawing, dancing and music. She learned to write French verse. She was to take these accomplishments back with her to the Netherlands.

Margaret as future Queen of France.
Public domain

At a very young age, therefore, Margaret had experienced two powerful women: Margaret of York and Anne of Beaujeu. She also had the memory of her mother, Mary of Burgundy. But at the age of 11 she experienced her own powerlessness when her marriage to Charles VIII was annulled. Anne de Beaujeu had her eyes on the Duchy of Brittany and its 12-year-old, heiress, Duchess Anne, for her brother. But quarrels over Margaret's dowry meant that she was kept in France for another two years, living in conditions of near poverty. She returned to her father in 1493 but never forgot her humiliation.

Isabella: reigning queen and queen consort

Isabella of Castile
Public domain

Isabella of Castile (1451-1504) was the most remarkable ruler (not just woman ruler!) of her age. Contemporaries recognised her significance. Here are two contemporary quotations from Giles Tremlett's biography. (All subsequent quotations are also taken from Tremlett.)

The queen of Spain, called Isabella, has had no equal on this earth for 500 years.

The queen … is the greatest of all the feminine sex; she not only emulates men, but in spirit, prudence, and strength – not exactly a feminine quality – she matches the great heroes. 

This historian of Spain, Hugh Thomas states: ‘No woman in history has exceeded her achievement.’ 

The marriage of Isabella to Ferdinand of Aragon is often inaccurately described as the union of two crowns. In fact, they were the separate rulers of two realms and the only common institution was the Inquisition. Spain did not become a unified country until the accession of their grandson, Carlos I (Emperor Charles V) to the throne of Aragon. This also made him the de facto ruler of Castile, which he governed as nominal co-regent for his imprisoned mother Juana.

Suggested reading

This is a list of some of the books I have consulted for this subject. There are, of course a huge number of relevant books, but these are all relatively recent and contain a great deal of interesting and important material.

John Adamson, ed., The Princely Courts of Europe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999)
 Helen Castor, She-Wolves. The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (Faber and Faber, 2011).
_______, Elizabeth I. A Study in Insecurity (Penguin, 2018).
Leonie Frieda, Catherine de Medici (Phoenix, 2005).
__________, The Deadly Sisterhood. A Story of Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012).
Nancy Goldstone, Rival Queens. Catherine de’ Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016).
Sarah Gristwood, Game of Queens. The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe (Oneworld, 2017).
John Guy, My Heart is my Own. The Life of Mary Queen of Scots (HarperPerennial, 2004).
Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon. Henry’s Spanish Queen (Faber & Faber, 2011).
Giles Tremlett, Isabella of Castile: Europe’s First Great Queen (Bloomsbury, 2017) 
Anna Whitelock, Mary Tudor. England's First Queen (Bloomsbury, 2009)

Introduction

Margaret of Austria,
Regent of the Netherlands, 1507-30
A deceptively demure portrait of
Margaret as a widow
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels

In the early-modern period, power was dynastic. It centred round the king and therefore inevitably around his family. This meant that at least some women within his family would exercise political power. Through dynastic accident or political circumstances, the sixteenth century in particular saw an unusual number of female rulers. But the seventeenth century also had its share of women rulers – two regents in France, a reigning queen in Sweden, two reigning queens in Britain. The most extreme example of a woman holding political power is found in Russia in the eighteenth century. Because the monarchy was the personal possession of the tsar, he could bestow it on female relatives. As a result, Russia had four reigning empresses.

Regents

The mother of a monarch might be regent while he (or, more rarely she) was young (Mary of Guise, Catherine de Medici, Marie de Medici, Anne of Austria) or absent (Louise of Savoy). 

Louise of Savoy
Public domain

His wife might be a temporary regent while he was absent (Two of Henry VIII's wives, Catherine of Aragon and Katherine Parr, acted as regents when he was in France). When James IV of Scotland was killed at the battle of Flodden, his wife, Margaret, became regent for her infant son, James V.

His sister might also be a regent. Anne de Beaujeu, popularly known as ‘Madame la Grande’, was regent during the minority of her brother Charles VIII of France from 1483-91. From 1682-89 Sophia Aleckseyevna was regent for her brother and half-brother, Ivan and Peter. (This did not turn out well for her!)

A ruler's female relative might be a permanent regent if his domains were too large for him to govern by himself. The Netherlands was governed by three women in succession: Margaret of Austria, the aunt of Charles V; Mary of Hungary, his sister; Margaret of Parma the half-sister of Philip II. 

The other Margaret:
Margaret of Parma,
Governor of the Netherlands
for Philip II
Public Domain

As regents women could sign peace treaties, the most famous of these being the Treaty of Cambrai of 1529, known as the  ‘Ladies’ Peace', between Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy.

Daughters

A ruler’s daughters were invaluable because of their marriage alliances. Isabella of Castile’s councillor of state, Hernando de Pulgar, told Isabella: 

If your Highness gives us two or three more daughters, in twenty years’ time you will  have the pleasure of seeing your children and grandchildren on all the thrones of Europe. 

The Habsburg Empire was built up on these alliances. When Ferdinand and Isabella’s only son, Don Juan, died, their daughters became especially important. Juana became her mother’s heir, and her marriage to Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy led to the unification of Spain and the Netherlands. When their younger daughter,  Catalina, married Arthur, Prince of Wales in 1501 it provided invaluable recognition for the Tudor dynasty.

In 1572 Catherine de Medici secured the marriage of her daughter, Margot, to Henry of Navarre in an unsuccessful attempt to bring about peace between Catholics and Huguenots. 

The court and culture

Portrait of Isabella d'Este
by Titian
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries politics was dynastic and centred on the court. Political power depended on close access to the king. This made it possible for queens and mistresses to exert power, though ultimately this power depended on the consent of their husbands.

As well as being the focus of political power, the court was the centre of culture and it was in this area that the wife of the ruler could exercise considerable influence. 

Isabella d’Este (1474-1539)

This type of cultural power was especially marked in the Italian city states, and the supreme exemplar was Isabella d’Este, the Marchesa of Mantua. She was the daughter of Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara and Modena and his Neapolitan wife, Eleonora of Aragon. She grew up in a court that was a renowned centre of cultural patronage; Duke Ercole had Greek plays translated into Italian for performance, and Duchess Eleonora established her own library, which included Latin works and works of modern poetry. Isabella and her sister Beatrice received the same education as their brothers, becoming proficient in history, Greek and Latin. Isabella also learned to sing and play the lute, and like the rest of her family she was a keen hunter. 

In 1490 the age of fifteen she married Francesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1466-1519). The court of Mantua was already famous for its patronage of artists, and once there Isabella began to amass a collection of works of art for her private apartments. She wrote in 1502: ‘We desire to have in our camerino [little room] pictures with a story by the excellent painters now in Italy.’ At first her collection was housed in the castello di San Giorgio, but from 1519, after the death of her husband they were moved to her studiolo in the Ducal Palace. 

Castel di San Giorgio, Mantua
the initial home of Isabella's collection.

The Ducal Palace, Mantua
home of Isabella's studiolo.

Isabella and Mantegna: From 1460, though with some breaks in his service, Andrea Mantegna was the court painter at Mantua. He was already at work on his Triumphs of Caesar when Isabella arrived in 1490. The two struck up a partnership and she referred to him as her ‘expert in antiquities’.