W ithin two months of coming to the throne in 1509, the young King Henry VIII had married Catherine of Aragon, and within two years he had a son and heir. Catherine – the beautiful, intelligent and accomplished princess from Spain, and widow of Henry’s older brother, Arthur – had lost her first child, a daughter delivered stillborn, in 1510. But she quickly fell pregnant again, and on New Year’s Day 1511 she gave birth to a boy at Richmond Palace. ere were bonfires in the capital, free-flowing wine, banquets, and Henry held a jousting tournament as England rejoiced over the news. e child, christened Henry, served to secure the Tudor dynasty, and Catherine had earned her choice of image for her heraldic badge: the pomegranate, a symbol of fertility. Alas, the joy was not to last, and the little prince died just seven weeks later. Yet had he survived, then history would have turned out very di erently.