2nd April 2015
513 years ago today Arthur Tudor Prince of Wales died at Ludlow Castle, aged just fifteen. His young bride, Katherine of Aragon, was left a widow in a strange country with a very uncertain future. There are many illnesses proposed as the cause of death, including cancer and tuberculosis – in The King's Curse and The Constant Princess I suggested sweating sickness.
Arthur, unlike his younger brother Henry VIII, had been prepared to rule since birth – he had even been named after a legendary king, and his mother taken to Winchester for his birth: the heart of the old kingdom. We cannot know how he might have ruled – but I would argue that he must have been a less tyrannical leader than his brother. Might he have kept England Roman Catholic, and been loyal to Katherine, who married them both? Could Katherine and Arthur have produced a surviving son? Certainly Arthur was popular and full of promise, and his death was a terrible blow for his family and the dynasty.