Everybody was aware of Fuensalida’s [Spanish ambassador to the court of Henry VII of England] failing except the ambassador himself. After the disastrous colloquy on June 21, Fuensalida was refused an audience with Henry for more than a month. When he was finally granted one, De Puebla, Catherine, even Bishop Fox, all begged him to be careful this time. To them all Fuensalida replied airily that he knew how to talk to kings. This he proceeded to prove.
Henry received him almost jocularly. He said he heard from Stile that Ferdinand was holding high festival at Burgos, and he supposed the newly married King had had no time to attend to state affairs. Fuensalida replied that Ferdinand never let pleasure interfere with business; he was strong enough to attend to both. It was too bad, he added, that Henry was not.
Henry controlled himself, and continued more gruffly on the subject of Joanna. He did not believe she was mad, he repeated, but saw clearly that she would not be permitted to marry, though Ferdinand might yet find he would need all his friends. Fuensalida took this as a threat. His master, he answered proudly, was so great a king he feared no enemies in the world.
”We’ll see,” said Henry sourly and the conversation continued in increasingly acid tones. Fuensalida did not know how to do anything but oppose blunt refusals and make blunt demands.
Henry met his insistence that a date be fixed for Catherine’s public betrothal with stony contemptuous silence, and a few minutes later, gave him a curt dismissal. He did not see the King again for six weeks.
Note:
A quick note on Joanna. Henry VII began to hear rumors of Joanna, Catherine of Aragon’s sister (bother daughters of Ferdinand II). Specifically, it was said that, after the death of her husband, she had gone mad with grief (in fact, that she had started showing signs of mental illness well before that). She didn’t get out much after that, and this started many rumors about how she wasn’t actually mad, but was being imprisoned or mistreated by her father. Henry VII fully believed these rumors, and later in his life became almost obsessed with the idea of marrying and ‘rescuing’ her from her predicament. He asked about her constantly when with the Spanish ambassadors, but ultimately, nothing became of it.
Unfortunately, as we’ve previously seen in /r/TheGrittyPast, the rumors of her madness weren’t rumors.
Source:
Mattingly, Garrett. “Part I: A Spanish Princess (1485-1509); Chapter 4, Section iii” Catherine of Aragon. New York: Quality Paperback , 1990. 105-6. Print.
Further Reading:
Harri Tudur / Henry VII of England
Catalina de Aragón (Catherine of Aragon)
[Ferrando / Fernando II / Ferran (Ferdinand II of Aragon) / “Ferdinand the Catholic” / Ferdinand V of Castile / Ferdinand III of Naples[(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon)
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