Page:The Queens of England.djvu/289

 KATHARINE OF ARRAGON, QUEEN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH. The subject of this notice was the fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and first saw the light at Alcala di Finari on the 15th of December, 1485. She had only reached her fourth year when the conquest of Granada made the beautiful and romantic Alhambra her home, and the happy days of her childhood were passed in its exqusite halls. The educa- tion of the infanta was carefully attended to. The most learned men were called in to instruct her, and the queen her mother, acknowledged to be one of the most highly educated women of her time, superintended her studies. At an early age Kath- arine had made a considerable proficiency in Latin, a language she never in after-age neglected. Few princesses were ever born under more brilliant auspices. The offspring of two sovereigns in their separate rights, the purest blood of Castile and Arragon mingled in her veins. Katharine was only seven years old when Columbus, through the aid of her mother, sailed in quest of a western continent, and justified by his successful discoveries the encouragement afforded him by his liberal and enterprising protectress. But as the brightest mornings are often followed by the darkest days so was the early and brilliant youth of the infanta succeeded by the gloom which shrouded her life soon after she exchanged the sunshine of her natal clime of Granada for the cloudy and chilly one of England. In 1 501, before she had completed her sixteenth year, the hand of Katharine was solicited by Henry the Seventh for his eldest son Arthur, a prince of great promise, but ten months younger than himself, having but just completed his fifteenth year. The treaty of marriage was concluded, and the infanta, attended by a noble train, left Granada for Corunna, whence she was to embark for England, never more to behold her native land. Katharine arrived not until October, when she 249