Ultimate Fate
Catherine spent her final days being transferred from castle to castle, ever more dilapidated and dreary. Her final days were spent at Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdonshire.
Catherine had steadfastly refused to be addressed by her new title "Dowager Princess of Wales" and at Kimbolton ignored those who did not address her as Queen. Those royal envoys sent to have her swear the oath that recognized Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn as lawful and their heirs as legitimate were met with explosions of anger. "I am Queen and Queen I will die," she reportedly said.
That sense of identity was made apparent when she refused to transfer her crown jewels to Anne Boleyn or hand over family baptismal cloths for the christening of Anne's daughter, Elizabeth.
Enraged at Catherine's obstinacy, Henry forbade her to see their daughter, Mary, now named a bastard. Shortly before her death, Catherine would urge Mary to "speak few words and meddle nothing." It would prove a recipe for survival.
On January 7, 1536, Catherine finally died at the age of 51. At the time, rumors ran rampant that the king had poisoned his former wife. An autopsy performed on her body, however, found a "completely black and hideous" tumor grown around her heart, believed today to be related to the cancer melanotic sarcoma.
The king refused to spend more than "was requisite or needful" on Catherine's funeral and had her buried at Peterborough Abbey (now Cathedral), not far from Kimbolton Castle. Apart from the king's niece, Lady Eleanor Brandon, no representative from the royal family was present. Only in the 20th century would the markings on Catherine's grave be changed to read "Queen of England."
Anne Boleyn's witticism that Catherine of Aragon "is my death and I am hers" would prove correct. Four months after Catherine's death, Henry would execute his second wife.
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