What if history took a different turn?
Join me as I dive into the life of Arthur Tudor, the Prince of Wales who was destined to be king, but whose untimely death altered the course of history.
We’ll explore his upbringing, his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and the intriguing “what-ifs” that could have changed England forever.
Was he the king that never was, or the legend that could have been?
Discover the secrets of the Tudor dynasty and imagine a world where Arthur Tudor ruled! Don’t miss this deep dive into history’s greatest “what if”! See the video below, or read the transcript (scroll down).
And here’s my video on “Did Catherine of Aragon and Arthur Tudor consummate their marriage?”:
Transcript:
Imagine a world where Henry VIII never became king. Instead, his elder brother, Arthur Tudor, the firstborn son of Henry VII, came to the throne, ushering in a new Camelot-like golden age.
What if England had never broken from the Catholic Church? What if the Reformation never happened?
Today, I’m diving into the life of Arthur Tudor, the Prince of Wales, who was groomed for greatness, but whose untimely death changed the course of history forever.
Join me as we explore his life, his legacy, and the tantalising “what-ifs” of what could have been.
Arthur was the eldest child of King Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, and his wife, Elizabeth of York. Lancastrian Henry VII had become king on 22nd August 1485 after defeating the Yorkist king, Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He’d then united the royal houses of Lancaster and York by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV, on 18th January 1486, something he’d vowed to do in 1483 while in exile.
In the early hours of 20th September 1486, St Eustace’s Day, just eight months after their wedding, Elizabeth of York gave birth at St Swithun’s Priory in Winchester. Henry and Elizabeth had chosen Winchester for the birth of their first child because the city was believed to be the legendary capital of King Arthur’s Camelot and the site of his castle. Henry VII hoped that his son, named after the famous king, would usher in a golden age for England.
The prince’s birth was met with great celebration, with bonfires lighting up the streets and the Te Deum sung in Winchester Cathedral. The arrival of a healthy heir so early in the Tudor dynasty was indeed a momentous occasion, it showed that God blessed this new royal house.
On 24th September 1486, the infant prince, wearing a mantle of crimson cloth of gold furred with ermine, was christened in a grand ceremony at Winchester Cathedral. His baptism had been delayed to allow his godfather, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, time to travel from Suffolk to Winchester, and for the cathedral to be made ready for the prince’s christening. It appears that Arthur was born a bit prematurely, so preparations were still underway.
As the christening day arrived, the royal family and nobility gathered in Queen Elizabeth’s apartments, while Arthur’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville, waited at the cathedral to stand as his godmother. However, after a three-hour delay, with the Earl of Oxford still en route, King Henry VII appointed Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby and Arthur’s step-grandfather, to stand in as godfather. The baby was then baptised and named Arthur by John Alc*ck, Bishop of Worcester, with Oxford arriving just in time.
Following the christening, the little prince was taken to the altar, where he made an offering, or was helped to make an offering, and then Oxford offered him for confirmation, this part of the ceremony being performed by the Bishops of Exeter and Salisbury. The party then processed to the shrine of St. Swithun, where hymns were sung, and then the christening party enjoyed the traditional spices, hypocras and wine. Arthur was then carried back to his nursery by his aunt, Cecily of York, amidst the glow of burning torches, where he rejoined his mother.
The event was meticulously planned according to the detailed ordinances written by Arthur’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Her ordinances, prepared during Elizabeth of York’s pregnancy, laid out every aspect of the birth and christening of a royal child—from how the church should be decorated with rich fabrics and carpets to the use of a silver font and the procession order.
The cathedral had been adorned with lavish cloths of gold, and the font was covered in fine fabric and raised so that all could witness the ceremony. Margaret even specified the roles for the nobility, from the duchesses carrying the infant and the chrisom, to the earls bearing the prince’s train. The grand procession was lit by 200 torches, with the christening party gathered in perfect order.
Towards the end of October 1486, the royal nursery was set up at Farnham Palace in Surrey, the former Bishop of Winchester’s palace. It was overseen by Elizabeth, Lady Darcy, who had been in charge of Arthur’s mother’s nursery, with Arthur being cared for by his wet-nurse, who was either Katherine Gibbs or Caroline Gibbons. Three royal “rockers” were also appointed to gently rock the baby prince’s cradle. In 1487, Henry VII earmarked 1000 marks per year for his son’s household. I used the National Archives currency converter to get an idea of how much this was in today’s money, Unfortunately, it only goes up to 2017, but it gives us an idea. It is worth approximately £446,000 and in 1490 could pay the wages of a skilled tradesman for 22,222 days, so for nearly 61 years! It’s a huge amount and it does make you wonder what it was spent on!
On 29th November 1489, at Westminster, when he was three years old, Arthur was honoured as a Knight of the Bath, and the following day, he was formally created Prince of Wales. He was also made Earl of Chester. The little prince could already ride, being recorded as riding to the steps of Westminster Hall.
That same day, his newborn sister, who had arrived the night before, was baptised and named Margaret after their grandmother and godmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. Arthur’s younger brother, the future Henry VIII, was born on 28th June 1491, and another sister, Mary, on 18th March 1496. Sadly, three of his siblings—Elizabeth, Edmund, and Katherine—did not survive childhood, with Katherine passing away on the day she was born. It was at this point that his household began to change, with his nurse and rockers ending their service to him and the young prince becoming surrounded by men instead, who were personally vetted by his father. Despite the king involving himself in planning his son’s household and education, Sean Cunningham notes that records show that Henry VII only visited Arthur formally at Farnham on four occasions, and that by his death in 1502, Arthur had only seen his family on a handful of occasions, which seems very sad to us today. He had a very different upbringing to his younger brother, Henry, who would become king and who was brought up in a nursery presided over by their mother.
Arthur’s biographer, Dr Sean Cunningham, notes that Henry VII learnt by what had happened to the ill-fated Edward V, when he came to the throne after his father Edward IV’s death in 1483, and did all he could to ensure that nobody would be able to take custody of Arthur if Henry VII died while he was young, or usurp his place. Cunningham explains, “Arthur would not be ruled or governed by great men. His upbringing would be entrusted to people who had proved their loyalty by working their way up the ranks of service to Henry VII and his family.”John Alc*ck, Bishop of Worcester, and Peter Courtenay, Bishop of Exeter, advised the king on Arthur’s upbringing, and his education was guided by notable scholars, including John Rede, former headmaster of Winchester school; the French poet and orator Bernard André, who, according to Cunningham, “nurtured a curriculum that was meant to advance his pupil’s ability very rapidly between the ages of ten and fifteen”. It is often said that the English Humanist and physician Thomas Linacre, who also tutored Erasmus, taught Arthur, but there doesn’t seem to be firm evidence for this, although he did play a role in teaching Arthur’s siblings at Eltham.
Arthur also probably learnt French from Giles Duwes, who also taught music. Historian David Starkey describes Arthur’s childhood as “driven” and “solitary,” which shaped him into a “model prince” with a strong sense of responsibility as the eldest child. He also describes him as intellectually gifted, though his public demeanour was notably formal and reserved. However, Cunningham points out that we don’t actually know what Arthur’s character was like.
In 1492, Henry VII named his six-year-old son lieutenant, regent and governor of the realm while the king was in France campaigning, but, of course, Arthur wasn’t in charge by himself, he was simply heading the royal council. And in that same year, Arthur was sent to the Welsh Marches to lead the Council of the Marches and to continue his education and prepare for his future role as king. There, based at Ludlow and Tickenhill, he was supported by men close to the king, men that could by trusted, like Jasper Tudor, the king’s uncle; Rhys ap Thomas and Sir William Stanley, who were all influential in Wales and the Marches, and later by men like Sir Richard Pole, Sir Richard Croft and Sir Henry Vernon.
A future King of England needed a wife, and marriage negotiations for Arthur began when he was just two years old. In 1489, as part of the Treaty of Medina del Campo, Arthur was contracted to marry Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the renowned Catholic monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. This was the perfect match as it united two important European powers. The treaty was sealed by proxy weddings at Woodstock in 1497 and again at Tickenhill Manor in 1499.
Catherine’s journey to England began on 21st May 1501 when the fifteen-year-old princess left her home at the Alhambra Palace in Granada. She embarked on a grueling 500-mile trek to the port of A Coruña in Galicia, only to face rough seas that forced her ship to land near Bilbao. Determined to bring his future daughter-in-law safely to England, King Henry VII sent one of his best captains, Stephen Butt, to navigate the treacherous Bay of Biscay. After another stormy voyage, Catherine and her party finally reached the shores of Plymouth, Devon, on 2nd October 1501.
Although Catherine had arrived in England, her journey was far from over. She still had to travel through the West Country to London, enduring the seasonal November rains. King Henry VII, eager to meet his son’s bride, couldn’t wait until the planned meeting at Lambeth and set off for Dogmersfield. On 5th November, at Easthampstead, the king met up with Arthur, who’d travelled from the Marches, and the next day they reached Dogmersfield.
Initially, the meeting was almost thwarted by Don Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish ambassador, who insisted on following tradition, which dictated that the bride and groom should not meet before the wedding. However, Catherine graciously agreed to see her future father-in-law. King Henry was pleased with what he saw and soon after, Arthur was introduced to his bride. The evening concluded with Catherine entertaining the royal party with music and dancing, where she danced with her ladies and Arthur joined in with Lady Guildford. The following day, Catherine resumed her journey to London, and Arthur also made his way to the capital to prepare for the wedding.
Arthur was pleased with his bride-to-be, praising her beauty in a letter to her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand.
On 12th November 1501, the wedding pageantry began with a lavish procession which escorted Catherine through the streets of London to St Paul’s, and then to Lambeth Palace where she stayed the night. The procession comprised six different pageants to entertain the princess as she processed through the city.
On Sunday, 14th November, the Feast of St Erkenwald, Arthur and Catherine, who were both 15, were married in a grand ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral. Arthur’s younger brother, ten-year-old Henry—who would later become Catherine’s second husband—escorted the bride from the bishop’s palace to the cathedral, while her train was held by Arthur’s maternal aunt, Lady Cecily of York.
The bride processed through the overcrowded cathedral on an elevated platform that stretched the entire length of the nave, allowing her to reach the altar. The marriage ceremony took place on a tall, tiered platform in the centre of the nave, amidst much fanfare.
Catherine’s wedding gown, made of white satin, was designed in the traditional Spanish style, featuring a farthingale and “many pleats.” Her face was veiled with white silk, adorned with a border of gold, pearls, and gemstones. Prince Arthur, her bridegroom, was also dressed in white satin, matching his bride’s elegance. Arthur was tall and slim with auburn hair and the hooded eyes of his father and paternal grandmother, while his bride was shorter and is thought to have been fair of hair and complexion.
The ceremony began with the reading of the marriage agreements between England and Spain, followed by the announcement of Catherine’s dowry. She was also presented with letters patent confirming her endowment and surety. Then came the religious part of the ceremony: the exchange of vows and the mass. Afterwards, Catherine was escorted out of the cathedral by the young Henry, to the sound of trumpets, while Arthur prepared to greet her at the door of her chamber.
While the people of London celebrated with a pageant featuring a fountain flowing with wine, Catherine and Arthur enjoyed a lavish wedding banquet. The festivities continued for two weeks, filled with jousts, masques, and feasts to celebrate the joyful occasion.
The events following the traditional bedding ceremony remain uncertain. Years later, when her second husband, Henry VIII, sought to annul their marriage on the grounds that it was incestuous—claiming she was his brother’s widow—Catherine steadfastly insisted that her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated. According to English sources, Arthur famously boasted the morning after their wedding night, “Bring me a cup of ale, for I have been this night in the midst of Spain!”, while a hearing in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1531, at the time of the Great Matter, heard a witness testimony from Juan de Gamarra, who had been a boy in Catherine’s service at the time of her wedding. He stated that the prince had got up early the morning after and that when he, Gamarra, had entered Catherine’s rooms her ladies were concerned for Catherine and disappointed with the Prince. Gamarra stated:
“Francisca de Cáceres, who was in charge of dressing and undressing the queen and whom she liked and confided in a lot, was looking sad and telling the other ladies that nothing had passed between Prince Arthur and his wife, which surprised everyone and made them laugh at him.”
I’ll give you a link to my video answering the question “Did Catherine of Aragon and Arthur Tudor consummate their marriage?” where I go into more detail on this topic. It’s important because although the marriage may have lasted less than six months, as Dr Sean Cunningham points out in his biography of Arthur, “the consequences of his wedding led to one of the most crucial turning points of English history – Henry VIII’s divorce and England’s break from the authority of the Pope in Rome”, so it had a huge impact.
But back to 1501. Arthur and Catherine arrived in Ludlow in mid-December, taking up residence in the castle there. They spent the Christmas period at Ludlow as newly-weds. Their time as man and wife was sadly cut short by Arthur’s death at Ludlow on 2nd April 1502. Contrary to popular opinion, there’s no evidence that Arthur had been a sickly child, and it appears that he was taken ill shortly after celebrating Maundy Thursday on 24th March, but was fine at the beginning of Holy Week. There are a number of theories about his death, including testicular cancer and tuberculosis, but records show that he was, as Cunningham points out, “gripped by a violent illness that took him from his normal active self to death within a few days”. It appears likely, particularly as Catherine was also recorded as being ill at the time, that he succumbed to something like sweating sickness, which was known for its speed in killing people. This fits with reports of the royal family not travelling to the area following his death and citizens of Worcester not making offerings at his funeral “because of the sickness that then rained amongest them.”
Henry VII and Elizabeth of York were devastated by news of their eldest son’s death, with Elizabeth being recorded as comforting her husband, but then being overcome with grief when she was alone.
Arthur’s body was disembowelled and embalmed and placed in a wooden coffin. His bowels were buried in the castle chapel. Arthur lay in state at Ludlow under a table covered in cloth of gold topped with a large cross and candles, and guarded night and day by torchbearers until 23rd April when he was processed to St Lawrence’s Church in Ludlow accompanied by 80 torchbearers. A dirige was performed and then the following day, masses were sung and alms given to the poor before his remains began their journey in a huge procession to Worcester, stopping at Tickenhill on the way and arriving at Worcester on 27th April.
Arthur’s funeral was held at the cathedral on 28th April 1502 with the senior mourners including Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey as chief mourner; George Grey, Earl of Kent; and George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. They were recorded as listing the prince’s achievements and placing cloths of gold onto his coffin in the shape of a cross. After a gospel reading and the removal of the cloths, the coffin was lowered into a grave just south of the high altar, with the Bishop of Lincoln placing a cross on it and the officers of the prince’s household breaking their staffs of office and casting them into the grave.
It was the end of Henry VII’s dream of his eldest son heralding a new Albion, a golden age as the second King Arthur. Arthur had been brought up to follow in his father’s footsteps; he’d been groomed for kingship since birth. Sean Cunningham explains that he’d “been educated as a scholar, as a political leader and as a self-sufficient administrator […] to instil in the prince the range of skills needed to build successful kingship and the confidence to approach his task with the support of a dedicated affinity.”
We can’t know for sure what kind of king Arthur would have been, but I expect he would have been rather like his father, who was a man intent on personal rule, always involving himself in the business of his royal council, and surrounding himself with men with proven loyalty to him and who knew what they were doing. I think Arthur would have carried on in the same vein as Henry VII. But, of course, it was his younger brother, Henry, who became king at the age of 17 in 1509 when Henry VII died. He was a young man who hadn’t been groomed for kingship – well, he’d had a bit of a crash course following the death of Arthur, and who, in his early reign, preferred to leave business to men like Cardinal Wolsey while he concentrated on better things, like hunting and sport. The brothers weren’t just different in looks, with Arthur looking like his father and Henry more like his mother, I think they were quite different characters, probably a mix of nature and nurture. They’d certainly had different experiences with one being the heir and one the spare, one living in a rather controlled environment away from family and court, and the other having more freedom and being close to family and court. Different upbringings would have resulted in very different men, I feel. So there are so many what-ifs when you consider Arthur and how things would have been different if he hadn’t died in 1502.
Obviously Catherine of Aragon wouldn’t have married Henry and perhaps she would have given Arthur a healthy son. Those seven years of widowhood between April 1502 and June 1509 were seven years of lost fertility when Catherine was between 16 and 23. There would have been more chance of her having a son and heir if she’d had those years married to Arthur. The Tudor dynasty could well have been more secure and England would have avoided the succession crisis of 1553 and James VI of Scotland may never have had the chance to become King of England, as well as King of Scotland.
And would Arthur have abandoned Catherine if she hadn’t provided him with a son? That’s impossible to know, isn’t it? I expect not. I think he would have been far too conservative to do that or to break with Rome to do so, but that’s just my gut reaction.
Perhaps Henry would still have become king, if his brother died without a son, but then he would have had a much shorter reign and probably wouldn’t have married Catherine, but, instead, some other foreign princess, a very different queen consort to those he had.
And what would Henry’s role have been if he hadn’t become king in 1509, if he’d remained the spare, a duke? Would he have been a huge support to his brother? Would he have been happier, I wonder, with being a nobleman than king? Perhaps having more freedom.
So no English Reformation in the 1530s, no Mary I, Elizabeth I or Edward VI, no religious divisions and persecution, or perhaps that would have happened, as in France, but much later.
And I expect Arthur would have been like his father in prioritising peace and focusing on diplomacy, as war was expensive, rather than being like Henry VIII, who wanted to be a warrior king like Henry V and who spent an extraordinary amount of money on military campaigns.
I think Arthur would have been a cautious king, a king who valued security and stability, both financially and diplomatically. England may well have had a golden age under Arthur, it may have thrived and had stability. Who knows? I’m sure I’ll think of lots of other factors as soon as I stop recording, and please do share your thoughts on what would have happened if Arthur had lived to become king and what kind of king he would have been.
