![]() ![]() ![]() Seven years later, his brother Henry VIII succeeded to the throne and married Katherine. It was during that Christmas that it first became apparent that Arthur’s health was in decline. We know that Katherine was homesick for Spain, and being so far from her family in a cold country in the depths of winter must have been hard, but that was not the only thing to make her sad. She had been married little more than a month when she spent her first Christmas in England, and it was not observed in the traditional way, for the young couple had left court on 21 December and were on their way to Ludlow Castle at a time when they would normally have been enjoying the festivities. Henry’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, came to England in 1501 to marry his older brother Arthur. ![]() That was sometimes the reality of the festive season for the hapless wives of Henry VIII. Christmas in Tudor England is always described as a season of great feasting and revelry, but, then as now, it was a time when sadness was more poignant. ![]()
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