Katherine of Aragon: England's First Renaissance Queen

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

In preparation for International Women's Day this Wednesday, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb takes a look at a Queen whose reputation has largely been shaped by her husband's midlife crisis. History does not see much further than Katherine of Aragon's so-called failure to provide Henry with a son and heir, and this means something very important about her has been missed - that Katherine was raised to become England’s first Renaissance Queen.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to art historian Dr. Emma Luisa Cahill Marrón about how Katherine and Henry worked together over two decades to create a Renaissance court that attracted Europe’s greatest writers, artists and thinkers.

This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So much of our picture of Queen Catherine of Arrigan has been shaped by Henry VIII's midlife crisis.
0:12.8	We have reduced this extraordinary woman to mere biology.
0:16.4	We have gazed intently at her so-called failure to provide a sun and air in reality the tragedy of multiple stillbirths and infant mortalities
0:25.4	and also her husband's inability to see that Mary could be a ruling Queen and we haven't seen much beyond it.
0:31.6	And this means we've missed something very important about her.
0:35.6	That Catherine was England's first Renaissance Queen.
0:40.0	She and Henry together created a Renaissance court that patronised writers, artists and intellectuals.
0:46.4	Over the course of nearly two decades, they worked together to attract Europe's greatest talent
0:51.8	and to explore new ways of depicting and thinking about the world.
0:55.6	Catherine remained a Catholic but like Thomas Moore and Arasmas of Rotterdam, she was a reforming Catholic
1:02.4	who took inspiration from the works of scholars returning to original sources and drawing on the learning of classical antiquity.
1:10.2	These scholars were called humanists at the time.
1:13.8	To talk about the Renaissance upbringing and flourishing of Queen Catherine, I'm joined by a scholar who is working on this formidable woman.
1:21.6	Dr Emma Luisa Cahill-Madon is an art historian who was awarded a doctorate for her thesis on Queen Catherine of Oregon
1:29.0	and Renaissance culture, art and magnificence in the construction of the image of female power at the University of Mercy in 2022
1:36.6	and has published many journal papers on aspects of this research.
1:40.2	She's preparing two books, a publication of her doctoral dissertation and a new biography of Catherine.
1:52.6	One of the images of Catherine that we don't often have put to us is of her as a Renaissance queen.
2:00.2	And I'd love to start by thinking about this in the context of the education she received.
2:06.0	Is it fair to say that the daughters of Isabella Castellan, Fernando of Oregon, were amongst the most cultured women of their time?
2:14.0	Yes, actually there were the most cultivated women of their time
2:18.2	and this is said by people like Juan Luis Vivas, a leading humanist at the time later on.
	...

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