On this day in history, 31st January 1510, Catherine of Aragon went into premature labour and gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. Fray Diego, her confessor, reported that the loss of the baby occurred “without any other pain except that one knee pained her the night before.”
What was heartbreaking about this miscarriage was that Catherine’s abdomen stayed rounded and kept growing, leading her physician to concluded that she was still pregnant and that she had lost one of a pair of twins. Even though she began to menstruate again, it’s understandable that Catherine and Henry clung on to that hope and Catherine went into confinement in March 1510 to await the birth of the remaining twin. The birth never happened, it was a phantom pregnancy and Catherine’s abdomen began to return to normal. How heartbreaking!
You can read more about this miscarriage in my article Catherine of Aragon Goes into Premature Labour – 31st January 1510 and about Catherine’s pregnancies and miscarriages in The Pregnancies of Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon
Also on this day in history…
- 1547 – Thomas Wriothesley announces the death of Henry VIII to Parliament and Edward VI is proclaimed King
- 1574 – Birth of playwright Ben Jonson
