Six Wives by David Starkey

Hollybrand spoke according to a written text. How Catherine and her Spanish suite had hitherto overcome the language barrier is anyone's guess. As Plymouth traded with Spain, there would have been Spanish speakers among the merchant community. There were probably some resident Spaniards too – though they were regarded as a disorderly lot and were treated with disdain by metropolitan Spaniards. English and Spanish churchmen no doubt conversed in Latin, in which language Catherine herself was also able to communicate. Finally, her newly acquired French would have been put to the test by her more sophisticated hosts, including Lord Broke, who had spent two years' exile in Brittany. 10

        Hollybrand himself probably combined the roles of merchant and minor royal bureaucrat as collector of the customs on wine in the port of London. He, too, was to become a part of Catherine's life, as Treasurer of her household as Princess of Wales. 11
        Beyond Amesbury the quality of the roads improved and Catherine was supplied with a 'chair' or chariot as an occasional substitute for her litter. The intention was now that she would make rapid progress towards London. But at Dogmersfield near Fleet in Hampshire, where Catherine was due to spend the nights of 5 and 6 November in a manor house belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, her iron schedule was suddenly broken. For Henry VII could contain his impatience no longer. The King would see his future daughter-in-law and introduce her to his son. And nothing would stop him. 12

12. Meeting

    H enry VII's decision to snatch a semi-licit glimpse of Catherine before her arrival in London was a last-minute one (the meeting does not appear in her itinerary); nevertheless, its effect was carefully considered. The King was accompanied by a reporter (probably a herald), who wrote up the event and turned it into the prologue to the official account of Catherine's reception and marriage. The herald's prose was purple, like most modern royal reporters'. He was also determined, like his royal master, to milk his story for all it was worth. 1
        Once again, the modern parallel is striking. For the early Tudors, like the Windsors, played the card of Family Monarchy, and turned the rites of passage of family life – the births, marriages and deaths – into public pageants. There was already a strong medieval tradition to this effect. But Henry VII, seated shakily on his throne, carried it to fresh heights in an attempt to curry popularity. And Catherine, like another young Princess of Wales, seemed typecast to play a starring role in this royal charade.
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    Henry VII was staying at Richmond. He had just rebuilt the palace, with its fantasticated cluster of onion domes, and renamed it after the earldom he had held before he became King. Now, on 4 November, as though reluctant to leave his new creation, he did not set out till the afternoon. The short November day was soon spent, and the King and his party had to put up unexpectedly at Chertsey Abbey, with only a few miles of their journey accomplished. The next day he made better time and the morning mists had barely cleared when he left. The day turned out fine and sunny and the route was a pleasant one, through the southern part of the forest of Windsor. Soon the royal party was at a full gallop until it reached Easthampstead, on the western border of the forest, near Wokingham. Here took place the first piece of family theatre, in the form of a public meeting between the King and his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales. 2
        Arthur was riding from his principality of Wales to his wedding in London. He was already well used to public events. When he had been received by his future subjects, as on his entry into London in 1499, he had been gravely courteous; when he had greeted his father, he had been elaborately deferential. So it was on this occasion. The inhabitants of Easthampstead were also used to frequent royal