Myth-buster: Did Katharine of Aragon really die in the arms of Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby?

One of the most persistent myths about Katharine of Aragon’s last hours is that she died in the arms of her Spanish lady-in-waiting and friend Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby.[i] Maria “who has faithfully served her [Katharine of Aragon], and who has always comforted her in her hours of trial”, had received letters patent of denization and married William Willoughby, Baron Willoughby de Eresby, in 1516.[ii] Katharine of Aragon and Henry VIII had financed Lady Willoughby’s marriage, giving her a dowry worth eleven hundred marks. She was so much favoured by Katharine that it was said that the Queen loved her “more than any other mortal”.[iii] In July 1534, Maria, whose only daughter married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was forced to leave Katharine’s service. Distressed, Chapuys recorded this fact, writing that “even a Spanish lady who has remained with her all her life, and has served her at her own expense, is forbidden to see her”.[iv]

“I heard say that my mistress is very sore sick again”, Maria wrote in a letter to Secretary Thomas Cromwell on 30 December 1535. She desired to see Katharine, but she needed a special licence from the King. “I pray you remember me of your goodness”, she urged Cromwell, “for you did promise me to labour the King’s Grace to get me licence to go to her Grace afore God send for her; for, as I am informed, there is no other likelihood but it shall be shortly”.[v] Maria feared that she would be unable to see Katharine for the last time, but Cromwell was unmoved and failed to reply.

Maria decided to defy both Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, and on 1 January 1536, she travelled on horseback through snowy weather to the remote Kimbolton Castle, Katharine of Aragon’s residence. She reached her destination at six o’clock in the afternoon and knocked at the castle’s doors. Katharine of Aragon’s servants were dismayed to see Maria, whom they did not expect. Maria claimed she had a fall from her horse while travelling. She was distressed and, in a bid for sympathy, told Katharine’s chamberlain that “she thought never to have seen the Princess Dowager again by reason of such tidings as she had heard of her”. But the chamberlain demanded to see the licence, which Maria did not have. “It was ready to be showed”, she replied, but when she left Kimbolton after seeing Katharine for the last time, the chamberlain wrote on 5 January that “since that time we never saw her” nor “any letters of her licence hither to repair”.[vi] Katharine of Aragon died two days later, on 7 January 1536.

 

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[i] I found that the earliest reference to this myth comes from the 1962 biography Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk: A Portrait by Evelyn Read. It was repeated in subsequent biographies including the 1970 A Crown for Elizabeth by Mary M. Luke, 1977 Women of Action in Tudor England by Pearl Hogrefe and 1996 The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser.

[ii] Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 2, n. 238.

[iii] Ibid., n. 201.

[iv] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, n. 1013.

[v]  M.A. Everett Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, Volume 2, pp. 208-9.

[vi] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, n. 28.