The Death of Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales

Arthur Tudor

In late December 1501, Ludlow Castle became the home of young newlyweds, fifteen-year-old Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, and his sixteen-year-old Spanish bride, Katherine of Aragon.

Perched on a hilltop overlooking the River Teme, the ancient and impressive fortress was an important strategic stronghold for control of the Welsh Marches and, as recorded by a chronicler of the time, Arthur and Katherine had been sent there, ‘to keep liberal hospitality and to minister to the rude Welshman indifferent justice.’

There the couple resided for the first few months of their married life, enduring a particularly harsh winter. Spring brought with it no relief from the interminable cold and rain and a visitor to the area recalled ‘the foulest cold windy and rainy day and the worst way [road] that I have ever seen.’

As March drew to a close, tragedy struck. Both Katherine and Arthur fell ill, the cause remains uncertain, however, it is possible that the dreaded sweating sickness was to blame, as it raged around Ludlow at this time.

This was a most deadly and painful disease, greatly feared in Tudor England and thought to have been carried by rodents and ‘transmitted from rodent to human by biting insects’. Death usually occurred within twenty-four hours of the first symptom although in some cases the patient died within a few hours of contracting the disease.

Ludlow Castle (Photo by Ian Capper)

The symptoms started very suddenly and were typical of a viral infection or the flu: a sense of apprehension, headaches, cold shivers, muscle aches and great exhaustion.

This was followed by a hot and sweating stage where the sufferer would feel as though their blood was boiling and was accompanied by an insatiable thirst and delirium.  The patient would also suffer chest pains and encounter difficulty breathing.

Although survival rates were low, not everyone that contracted the sweating sickness perished. In June 1528, Anne Boleyn and her father, Thomas, both fell ill and both, made full recoveries. However, William Carey, Mary’s Boleyn’s husband, was not spared, he succumbed to the sweat on the very day that Anne took to her bed.

We will never know for certain whether this mysterious and lethal disease was the cause of Arthur and Katherine’s illness, as there exist other possibilities like influenza but what we do know is that in this case Katherine proved herself the more resilient.

The tomb of Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales at Worcester Cathedral

On Saturday, 2 April 1502, Arthur Tudor died. According to Katherine’s biographer Giles Tremlett:

‘Arthur’s body was disembowelled, embalmed and filled with spices before being laid out in his chamber at Ludlow… Eventually the carriage bearing his body was dragged through the torrential rains and down roads thick with mud by horses and oxen to Worcester Cathedral. There he was buried.’ (Pg. 103)

Katherine remained alone at Ludlow, a despondent widow in a foreign land.

When news of his son’s death reached Henry VII via his confessor, he immediately sent for his wife, Elizabeth of York, who comforted him with kind words and reminded him that they were both still young enough to have more children.

In private though, the Queen was engulfed by sadness and inconsolable. It was now the King’s turn to try and comfort his grief-stricken wife.

There was one consolation for Henry and Elizabeth— they had a second son —ten-year-old Henry Tudor was now heir.