Hardtimes Her mother's death was a bitter personal blow for Catherine. Coincidentally, on the very day Isabella died, Catherine had written to her, anxiously enquiring about her health. 'She had', she said, 'no other hope or comfort than that which comes from knowing that her father and mother are well.'1 But, by a cruel irony, Isabella's death also devalued Catherine's worth in the royal marriage market. This is because the union of Castile and Aragon, on which the power of Spain depended, was a purely personal one: it was created by Isabella's marriage to Ferdinand and (at least in theory) it was dissolved by her death. Catherine, the daughter of the Catholic Kings, was one of the great catches of Europe; Catherine, the daughter of the widowed Ferdinand, King once more only of the insignificant realm of Aragon, was a paltry prize. Was Ferdinand an ally worth bothering with? Was Catherine a daughter-in-law worth having? These were the questions Henry VII now pondered.
