of Austria, sister of Philip the Handsome, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor. Philip had married Joanna, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; when Isabella died, it was Joanna, her eldest child, and not her husband Ferdinand of Aragon, who inherited the throne of Castile. Ferdinand and Philip were at loggerheads over Joanna’s inheritance and any suggestion that Henry VII was planning to ally himself to Philip would have annoyed Ferdinand greatly.
Margaret of Austria had first married John, Crown Prince of Spain, in 1497, but he died only a few months later. In 1501, Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, who died in 1504. now Henry VII put pressure on Philip the Handsome, pushing him to forward this marriage. A treaty of friendship was signed between Henry and Philip in London, on 20 March 1506, one element of which promised Henry VII the hand of Margaret, along with a dowry of 300,000 crowns and an annual income of 30,000. In addition, Prince Henry was to marry Eleanor, the daughter of Philip and Joanna, and Princess Mary was to marry their eldest son Charles, who was heir to Spain through his mother and to the Holy Roman Empire through his father.
Neither side seems to have pushed the marriage; Margaret herself was opposed to the union. Late in 1506, however, circumstances changed. Philip the Handsome died suddenly on 25 September, and Henry immediately approached Ferdinand, asking for the hand of his newly widowed daughter, Joanna; she had had six children with Philip – Charles, Ferdinand, Eleanor, Isabella, Mary and Katherine – which boded well for new princes and princesses of England.
On 15 January 1506, Philip the Handsome and Joanna had been stranded in England by a storm when their ship was damaged; Philip was on his way to Spain to attack Ferdinand, who was refusing to give up control of Castile to Joanna, as rightful heir. Prince Henry was sent to Winchester to meet Philip who had landed at Melcombe Regis, near Weymouth, Dorset. Joanna had stopped at Wolverton Manor, Dorset, as she was suffering from a bout of illness.
Philip and the young Henry took to each other immediately and were able to talk in French. Philip the Handsome was everything the Prince thought a king should be – handsome, religious, brave, aggressive in war, fond of wine, women (he enjoyed a string of casual sexual encounters) and song. Henry VII met the pair just outside Windsor the following day. During the month of the visit, Henry and Philip were constantly in one another’s company. The King spent extravagantly to impress Philip and everything was sumptuous and exuberant. On 10 February Joanna joined the party at Windsor.
On leaving England Philip and Joanna went on to Spain. There they formulated a truce with Ferdinand who withdrew from Castile; however, when Philip died, on 25 September 1506, the cause was rumoured to be poison, administered on the orders of Ferdinand. Henry was devastated by the news of Philip’s death. The loss of someone he admired raised an interesting mention of his mother’s death and the effect that it had on the boy. He wrote to Erasmus on 17 January 1507:
‘The news of the death of the King of Castile, my wholly and entirely and best-loved brother, I had reluctantly received very long before your letter … For never, since the death of my dearest mother, hath there come to me more hateful intelligence … because it seemed to tear open again the wound to which time had brought insensibility.’17
When Henry VII had met Joanna during this visit to England, albeit for a few days, he had expressed romantic feelings for her: ‘If when she was in England I had acted as I secretly wished, I would by every means have prevented her leaving my court. But I was prevented by my Council.’18 He told the Spanish Ambassador that he believed her to be unhappy rather than mad. He said Philip the Handsome’s unfaithfulness obviously upset her. He, on the other hand, would love and cherish her.
Joanna appears to have suffered some kind of nervous debilitation. Her symptoms were depression (partly brought on by her husband’s public infidelities) and a habit of forthright speech. The symptoms might indicate manic depression. Despite this, in England at least, the marriage was considered seriously. Dr Roderigo Gondesalvi de Puebla, the Spanish Ambassador in London from 1487, wrote to Ferdinand: ‘… the English seem little to mind her insanity, especially since I have assured them that the derangement of her mind would not prevent her from bearing children.’19
Ferdinand kept Henry VII dangling, right up until his death in 1509. In March 1507, Ferdinand wrote to his daughter Catherine, whom he was using as a go-between:
‘She [Catherine] must tell the king that it is not yet known whether Queen Juana [Joanna] be inclined to marry again, but if the said Queen should marry again, it shall be with no other person than with the King of England … But the affair must be kept most secret; for if Queen Juana should hear anything about it, she would most probably do something quite to the contrary.’
Catherine wrote to Joanna, despite his advice, in October 1507:
‘… the great affection he [Henry VII] had felt and still feels towards your Royal Highness from that time [the meeting in 1506] until now, is well known … I do not doubt but that your Highness will become the most noble and the most powerful Queen in the world.’20
In reality, Ferdinand had no intention of letting the heiress of Castile out of his hands. He may very well have exaggerated Joanna’s grief and depression on her husband’s death, and had her confined as a madwoman. She was sent to the castle at Tordesillas, near Valladolid in Castile, the place where her grandmother was incarcerated after a metal breakdown. Poor Joanna finally died in 1555, having spent almost 50 years in confinement.
The ‘Joanna Affair’ led to the only recorded quarrel between Henry VII and his son. The King had received a letter telling him that Ferdinand’s negotiations had been a sham and he was never to have Joanna. He called the Prince in to sympathise. Henry, with a lack of tact, was unenthusiastic and gave his opinion that Joanna was mad and the King was too old to be considering marriage. The King was extremely angry at such a blunt assessment of the situation and shouted at his son. One of the court ladies reported to the Spanish Ambassador, ‘He scolded the prince as though he would kill him.’21
The Prince had another reason to throw cold water on the thought of his father remarrying. If there should be more princes, this could only be bad news for young Henry. He had the worrying example of his grandfather, Edward IV, before him; his brother George, Duke of Clarence, had tried to usurp his throne and his other brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had actually deposed the rightful heir, Edward’s son. All too often royal brothers had a habit of plotting to extend their own power and influence at the expense of the king and the kingdom.
However, as time passed, Henry remained the only son. As such, one of the first responsibilities of the new Prince of Wales was to contract an eligible marriage alliance. As early as June 1503, it was agreed that Henry and Catherine should marry the following year when he would be 14 and Catherine would be 19 years old.
A series of delays to Catherine and Henry’s marriage followed, however. Isabella’s death in november 1504, leaving her inheritance of Castile to Joanna, meant that Ferdinand of Aragon lost part of his enormous importance in European politics, as his area of direct influence was now in Aragon alone. Trade treaties drawn up under Isabella were cancelled, and it looked very much as if Ferdinand would be unable to pay the second half of Catherine’s dowry of 100,000 crowns. In Prince Henry’s name, the King arranged a formal protest by his son against the proposed marriage that had been made.
This left Henry VII in a strong position; he still had Catherine in England, complete with the papal dispensation for her marriage to her late husband’s brother, and could resurrect the union at any time he wanted. He was also free to look elsewhere for a better match, or use the promise or threat of the marriage of the Prince of Wales in his continental diplomacy.
In 1504 Henry had expected to go to Ludlow, to enjoy at least limited power and freedom. Instead he was kept at Court under his father’s watchful eye. He was the precious only son; if the King died, young Henry could be crowned and secure before any of the rival claimants even knew of the death. Henry VII and his mother, Margaret, wanted to keep both eyes on the Prince of Wales.
Everything we know about Henry indicates he hated this life. He was handsome and healthy; he was surrounded by servants and friends to whom his