Cecilia Ward developed this project under the instruction of Mills Kelly at George Mason University's Roy Rosenzweig Center.
Almost all events within this timeline have approximated dates. Tudor history is so far in the past that many of the exact dates of events are lost or debated among scholars. Therefore this timeline does not claim to have accurate, precise dating. Here are the general rules followed when assigning dates to events: If there is an accepted date range for an event, the event will bisect the range. For events without a specified "day" they will default to the 1st of a month. For events without a "month" they will either default to Jan 1st, or the 1st of the closest approximation of the chronology when possible. For dates without a "year" the best estimation of year will be used, often times it will bisect two events with known dates as to not mess with the understood chronology. Time of day is not specified in this chronology due to the complexity of pinpointing.
This timeline includes explicit information regarding sex, pregnancy, miscarriage, spousal abuse, and sexual assault on both adults and minors. Due to the nature of the content, it is nearly impossible to add individual content warnings, especially for spousal abuse which is a theme carried throughout nearly all events. Events with mention of sexual violence will be marked with (CW) in the event title.
Catherine of Aragon was the fifth child of Spanish rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella. This meant it was unlikely she would ever become Queen of Aragon. Her best chance at success was to be used in a political marriage to a crown prince of another kingdom.
Catherine’s education was impressive for a girl due to her status as a princess. She was taught manners, philosophy, needlework, Latin, and French. It is assumed she would have also understood some Spanish or Catalan, and eventually learned English from living in England later in life.
Fifteen year old Catherine is sent from her homeland of Spain to live in England with her fiance, Arthur, crown prince of England.
The royal wedding between Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Aragon, was one of celebration. The wedding was full of decorations, guests, music, and dancing. Arthur was easily exhausted by the events so it is unlikely they consummated their marriage that night or even later during their marriage.
Soon after their marriage, Catherine and her first husband Prince Arthur moved to Wales as part of an English custom followed by the Prince of Wales upon maturity. While in Wales, the couple and their entourage caught an illness that claimed Arthur, and the new bride was subsequently widowed.
Because Catherine and Arthur were married for such a short period, Henry VII was able to arrange papal approval for the dissolving of Catherine’s first marriage. Henry VII still wanted her dowry, however, so instead of sending Catherine back to her parents in Spain, Henry VII began to plan for her remarriage. One of the first options presented was that Henry VII could marry his former-daughter-in-law after his own wife had died in Childbirth, though this was denied by Catherine’s parents. Soon after, the question of Catherine marrying Arthur’s younger brother Henry (the future Henry VIII) was raised and accepted by all parties.
Anne Boleyn was born sometime in the first decade of the 1500s, to Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn. The Boleyn’s were a noble family, but not nearly close enough to the royal family to assume that a Queen would be among their ranks. Before Anne’s future marriage, the most royal thing the family had achieved was Thomas Boleyn’s appointment as Ambassador to the Low Countries, a French area that would include modern countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
In November of 1504, Catherine’s mother Isabella died, which followed a long string of grief from the loss of her husband two years earlier, her mother-in-law soon after, and sister-in-law who moved to Scotland. Losing her mother compounded her grief. Grief was not the only stress that befell Catherine at this point in her life. After news of Queen Isabella’s death, many feared the alliance between England and Spain was not as strong as before, leading many, including Prince Henry himself, to ask for the betrothal to be dissolved. These diplomatic quarrels, as well as growing financial problems, for the young princess, caused her much distress.
