Catherine of Aragon

First wife of Henry VIII and daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain. She loved and was ferociously loyal to her husband of 24 years. Unable to fulfill her primary duty to bear a son and heir, she was pregnant six times and the only surviving child was Mary.

Catherine was divorced by Henry after a protracted process where she displayed the stubbornness, emotion, eloquence, bitterness and rigid Catholicism of her nature. The separation of England from the Catholic church was the result of the divorce.