On 18th February 1516, in the early hours, Queen Catherine of Aragon’s fifth pregnancy1 ended with the birth of a healthy baby girl. This little girl, the future Queen Mary I, was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich.
After nearly seven years of marriage, Henry VIII was disappointed that the baby was just a girl but when Sebastian Giustinian, the Venetian Ambassador, congratulated him on the birth and commented that “the State would have been yet more pleased had the child been a son”, Henry expressed hope for the future, saying, “We are both young; if it was a daughter this time, by the grace of God the sons will follow.”2 Unfortunately, sons did not follow. Catherine’s final pregnancy ended in the premature birth of a stillborn daughter in November 1518.
You can read more about Catherine’s pregnancies in my article The Pregnancies of Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon and you can find out more about Mary I in the following articles:
- 30th September 1553 – Mary I’s Coronation Procession
- 1st October 1553 – Coronation of Mary I
- The Myth of Bloody Mary
- Mary I Facts
- Elizabeth and Mary Part 1
- Elizabeth and Mary Part 2
- Elizabeth and Mary Part 3
- The Coronation of Mary I
- Anne Boleyn and Bloody Mary
Also on this day in history…
- 1503 – Henry Tudor, the future Henry VIII, was created Prince of Wales.
Notes and Sources
- Some say that this was Catherine’s sixth pregnancy.
- Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 2: 1509-1519, 691, p285
Picture: Detail of Mary from The Family of Henry VIII (c.1545)
