My most dear lord, king and husband, the hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me to commend myself to you... For my part, I pardon you everything... Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Politicians
Catherine of Aragon
First wife of King Henry VIII of England (1485-1536). The youngest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, she was married briefly to Henry's elder brother Arthur (1501-1502), then to Henry himself from 1509 until their controversial annulment in 1533. She served as regent of England in 1513, winning the Battle of Flodden against the Scots while pregnant. A patron of Renaissance humanism, friend of Erasmus and Thomas More, and dedicatee of Vives's pioneering book on women's education, she refused to accept the annulment and died at Kimbolton Castle in 1536, having unwittingly triggered the English Reformation through her steadfast defiance.
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Catherine of Aragon's Other Quotes
I choose what I believe, and say nothing. For I am not as simple as I may seem.
God never called me to a nunnery. I am the King's true and legitimate wife.
I would rather be a poor beggar's wife and be sure of heaven, than queen of all the world and stand in doubt thereof by reason of my own consent.
If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History.