Place Name
Named in 1935 it is one of a cluster of streets connected with the Tudor period. Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536) was Queen of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII. The fiercely intelligent, thoughtful and popular Catherine was the daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Following her first short-lived marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne in 1501, she served as ambassador – the first female ambassador in Europe – of the Aragonese Crown to England in 1507. She married her deceased husband’s brother, the recently crowned Henry VIII in 1509. Richmond Palace had been built by Henry’s father Henry VII on the site of the former Shene Palace which had been severely damaged by fire when the king and his court were there for Christmas 1497. Henry junior used the new palace, and it is where his first wife, Catherine gave birth to a son, also called Henry, in 1510. Joy swiftly turned to sadness when the infant died a month later. The couple also had one daughter, later to become Mary I, but the lack of a male heir infuriated her husband. By 1525 Henry had fallen for Anne Boleyn and sought to have his marriage annulled marking the start of the English reformation. As for Richmond Palace that was left for another of his former wives. Richmond Council writes: “Richmond now became a home for discarded queens – first for Catherine and her daughter Mary while Henry courted and married Anne Boleyn. Later it was given to Anne of Cleves [Henry’s third wife] as part of her divorce settlement. Both Mary and Elizabeth made more use of Richmond during their reigns. Elizabeth was particularly fond of Richmond as a winter home..”
