Catherine of Aragon - in Art and Media

In Art and Media

Over the years, numerous artistic and cultural works have been dedicated to her, written about her, or mentioned her, including some by her husband Henry VIII, who wrote "Grene growth the holy" about and for her, and Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated "The Education of Christian Women" to her.

Catherine of Aragon has been portrayed in film, television, plays, books, and other forms many times, and as a result she has stayed very much in popular memory. There has never been a film or television series where she is the main character although an arguable exception is the first episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII which is told from her point of view and where she is portrayed by Annette Crosbie. There are also many novels, songs, and poems written about her. Shakespeare's play Henry VIII is tremendously successful in recreating, with great accuracy, Catherine's statement about the legitimacy of her marriage at the court in Blackfriars before King Henry, and Catherine's portrayal is very sympathetic therein. However, most of the rest of the play is an attempt to absolve many, especially Henry VIII, and the timing of key incidents (including Catherine's death) are changed and other events are avoided (the play makes Henry nearly an innocent pawn in the hands of a dastard Cardinal Wolsey, and the play stops short of Anne Boleyn's execution).

Although Catherine is often portrayed in film and on stage as having possessed the stereotypical Spanish traits of dark hair and eyes as well an olive complexion, existing portraits and contemporary descriptions depict her as having had blue eyes, fair skin, and reddish-blonde hair, not uncommon for Spaniards from the northern regions of Spain, such as those from her father's land of Aragon. Furthermore, she was part English, through her ancestors, Katherine of Lancaster and Philippa of Lancaster, who were both daughters of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.

She is often played with a Spanish accent; from most reports, this is accurate, as she never fully mastered the English language.