Catherine of Aragon by Alison Prince Page B

key,” he says. “Half the world consists of key-seekers, you see, and what would they do if keys were not thrown away for them to seek?” I love him so much.
    9th October 1507
    The King is interested in marrying Juana. Catherine is all in favour of it. She has started to think diplomatically now and actually consults Uncle Rod quite often, with a new respect for his opinions. She can see that the alliance Henry hopes to forge with Philip’s father, Maximilian (a brigand of a man, if you ask me), spells out a terrible danger to her father, so any link between England and Spain is to be welcomed.
    Henry is concerned about the question of Juana’s sanity, of course, having heard the tale of the mad coffin-carrying. My uncle assures him that Juana was simply driven beyond endurance by her beloved husband’s flagrant infidelity to her. It is true that she did once attack one of his mistresses with a pair of scissors but, given steady kindness and care, she would very probably recover her stability. Henry was much taken with her during her short visit, and likes to regard her as an ill-used woman who is waiting for him to rescue her. The Tudors are incurably romantic.
    24th December 1507
    Henry’s loan to Maximilian has had the desired effect. Last week the pair of them signed a treaty which pledges them to be allies, and in celebration we are all to have a merry Christmas, officially sanctioned. Free hogsheads of wine have been distributed throughout London, and singing and roistering is well under way. Bonfires burn in the streets and the church bells ring.
    Needless to say, Catherine does not rejoice. She looks narrow-eyed and grim, but I cannot share her concerns at the moment. Today I had a letter from Michel, to read again and again, knowing his hand touched the paper and formed the words. I am as happy as any of the people in the streets, and wish I could join them in their singing and dancing.
    14th January 1508
    Catherine is demanding again that her father must send a new ambassador, but for a different reason this time. We must have a man of good standing, she says. Both she and my uncle (who has not been paid for many years) are too shabby and poor to be treated with any respect at court. It is time Spain was represented by a man of some grandeur.
    16th February 1508
    Ferdinand evidently saw the sense of Catherine’s request. A new ambassador arrived today. His name is Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida, and he is indeed grand – positively arrogant, in fact. He wears his fine clothes with the panache of a matador, and seems to regard Henry as the bull of England – a country which, he says, only understands a rough hand. Catherine enjoys his flamboyant company, but Uncle Rod is appalled. He is in bed with gout, but he sent his son Gonsalvo to warn Fuensalida to tread carefully, as relations between England and Spain are in a very delicate state.
    Fuensalida took no notice but marched straight in to see the King, who has been ill with a chest complaint this winter. No wonder he felt so sure of himself – he had brought with him Catherine’s long-unpaid dowry, 65,000 ducats of Aragon!
    Suddenly, Catherine is back in favour. Fuensalida reported that Henry, though weak and forbidden to talk for long, spoke of her with great warmth and said there was nobody he would rather see as wife to his son.
    â€œDidn’t I tell you!” Catherine said to me this evening, sketching a dance across the floor in her delight. “Now we’ll see!” But I feel uneasy about the new ambassador. Already people are finding him rude and objectionable, and I fear we are in for trouble.
    19th February 1508
    Trouble, indeed. It turns out that the 65,000 ducats does not represent the whole of Catherine’s dowry. The rest is to be paid in jewellery and plate. Henry’s officers asked whether the ambassador had brought these articles with him, and he pointed out that Catherine had been