Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) was Queen of England in 1509–1533 as the first wife of Henry VIII; her lack of a surviving son triggered England's break with Rome. The youngest child of Ferdinand and Isabella, she married Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 1501 and, after his death, Henry VIII in 1509; in 1507 she became the first known female ambassador in European history.

In 1513, while Henry campaigned in France, she was regent for six months and England won at Flodden. Of six pregnancies only her daughter Mary, born in 1516, survived.

By 1526 Henry, infatuated with Anne Boleyn, wanted an annulment; when the Pope refused, he took supremacy over the English church and married Anne. She refused every title but queen and denied Henry's church supremacy, and died at Kimbolton Castle on 7 January 1536. Cromwell said, but for her sex, she could have defied history's heroes.