(11 June 1509 - 28 May 1533) (divorced)
In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding the marriage of his brother, Prince Arthur, to Katherine of Aragon.
In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, after only 20 weeks of marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry, who after a little debate succeeded him to the Dukedom of Cornwall in October 1502, and the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503.
Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Katherine, youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen very shortly after Arthur's death. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, and they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impedement of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish Ambassador set out to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of consummation. The young Henry's age, only eleven, prevented cohabitation and the parties were thus required to wait. Isabella's death in 1504, and the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, changed Katherine's position. Her father, Ferdinand, preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated. Catherine was left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daughter ambassador, allowing her to stay. Devout, she began to believe that it was God's will that she marry the prince.
Henry VII died on 22 April 1509; soon after his burial on 10 May the new Henry VIII suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Katherine, curtailing the causes of hesitation concerning Catherine – over the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage portion. The new king maintained that it had been his father's dying wish that he marry Katherine.
On 23 June 1509, Henry led Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for the coronation, which took place the following day. it was a grand affair: the king's passage was lined with tapestries and laid with fine cloth. Following Henry's coronation by the archbishop of Canterbury, there was a grand banquet in Westminster Hall. As Katherine wrote to her father, "our time is spent in continuous festival".
Soon after the coronation, Katherine conceived, but the child – a girl – was stillborn on 31 January 1510. About four months later, she again became pregnant. On New Year's Day 1511, the child – Henry – was born. After the grief of losing their first child, the couple were pleased to have a boy and there were festivities to celebrate, including a jousting tournament. Unfortunately, however, the child died seven weeks later.
It was reported in 1510 that Henry was conducting an affair with one of the sisters of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.
Katherine miscarried again in 1514, but gave birth successfully in February 1516 to a girl, Princess Mary. Relations between king and queen had been strained, but they eased slightly after Mary's birth. Henry had had very few mistresses; the most significant was Bessie Blount for about three years in 1516 onwards. Katherine did not protest, and in 1518 fell pregnant again with another girl, only for her to be stillborn.
Henry became impatient with Catherine's inability to produce the heir he desired. Henry wanted a male heir to consolidate the power of the Tudor dynasty, and Catherine was now past the age of child-bearing. Henry had three options: legitimise Henry FitzRoy, which would take the intervention of the pope and would be open to challenge; marry off Mary as soon as possible and hope for a grandson to inherit directly, but Mary was an undersized child and was unlikely to conceive before Henry's death; or somehow reject Katherine and find someone else. The third was the most attractive possibility to Henry.
Around this time, Henry conducted an affair with Mary Boleyn, Katherine's lady-in-waiting at some point between 1519 and 1526. There has been speculation that Mary's two children, Catherine and Henry, were fathered by Henry, but this has never been proved and the King never acknowledged them as he did Henry FitzRoy. In 1525, as Henry grew more impatient, he became enamoured of Mary's sister, Anne Boleyn, then a charismatic young woman in the Queen's entourage. Anne at first resisted his attempts to seduce her, and refused to become his mistress as her sister Mary Boleyn had.