1505 - Henry Repudiate's his Engagement

In 1505, the topic of Henry Katherine’s engagement remained tense. While their fathers, Henry VII and Ferdinand II of Spain argued over financial matters, the young couple existed in a marital limbo. It is Katherine who suffered most from this stand-off: living in a state of perpetual poverty but being unable to ask her former and future father-in-law for money, due to the rules of court etiquette. Financial concerns aside, her spiritual life was also impacted when she was unable to take confession in her native language. 

In June of 1505, around his fourteenth birthday, Prince Henry is instructed by Henry VII to secretly, but formally, denounce his betrothal to Katherine. The reason he gives is that he was too young to consent at the time the betrothal was made. 

Henry VII has orchestrated this turn of events so that he can keep his options open for the most propitious marriage alliance and neither Katherine nor her family are informed. 

In the October of 1505, a letter was received from the Pope which was addressed to Prince Henry but referenced Katherine’s ‘husband’ - suggesting that it referenced an older complaint. In this letter, the Pope recommends that Katherine should spend less time on pious activities such as prayer an fasting, and more on producing children. This letter in itself could be seen as a representation of the lack of agency Katherine had over her own life at that point.