At the age of eleven, he was formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, a daughter of the powerful Catholic Monarchs in Spain, in an effort to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France and Scotland.

The question over whether Arthur and Catherine had consummated their marriage was much later, and in a completely different political context, exploited by Henry VIII and his court.

[10] On 29 November 1489, after being made a Knight of the Bath, Arthur was appointed Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester,[11] and was invested as such at the Palace of Westminster on 27 February 1490.

[12] As part of his investiture ceremony, he progressed down the River Thames in the royal barge and was met at Chelsea by the Lord Mayor of London, John Mathewe, and at Lambeth by Spanish ambassadors.

[4] His education was subsequently taken over by Bernard André, a blind French poet and Augustinian friar,[15] and then by Thomas Linacre, formerly Henry VII's physician.

[17] Arthur was a very skilled pupil and André wrote that the Prince of Wales had either memorised or read a selection of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, a good deal of Cicero and a wide span of historical works, including those of Thucydides, Caesar, Livy and Tacitus.

[28][29] In March 1493, Arthur was granted the power to appoint justices of oyer and terminer and inquire into franchises, thus strengthening the council's authority.

[4] Arthur was served by sons of English, Irish and Welsh nobility, such as Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, who had been brought to the English court as a consequence of the involvement of his father, Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, in the crowning of pretender Lambert Simnel in Ireland during Henry VII's reign.

[32] Henry VII planned to marry Arthur to a daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, in order to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France.

[34] Since Arthur, not yet 14, was below the age of consent, a papal dispensation (i.e., waiver) allowing the marriage was issued in February 1497, and the pair were betrothed by proxy on 25 August 1497.

He was welcomed with pageants of the Nine Worthies, introduced by King Arthur, by Queen Fortune, and by Saint George defending a maiden from the dragon.

[37] In October 1499, Arthur, referring to Catherine as "my dearest spouse", wrote: "I cannot tell you what an earnest desire I feel to see your Highness, and how vexatious to me is this procrastination about your coming.

[39] Arthur wrote to Catherine's parents that he would be "a true and loving husband"; the couple soon discovered that they had mastered different pronunciations of Latin and so were unable to easily communicate.

[24] On 14 November 1501, the marriage ceremony finally took place at Saint Paul's Cathedral; both Arthur and Catherine wore white satin.

Following the ceremony, Arthur and Catherine left the Cathedral and headed for Baynard's Castle, where they were entertained by "the best voiced children of the King's chapel, who sang right sweetly with quaint harmony".

She was undressed, veiled and "reverently" laid in bed, while Arthur, "in his shirt, with a gown cast about him," was escorted by his gentlemen into the bedchamber as viols and tabors played.

[42] After residing at Tickenhill Manor[43] for a month, Arthur and Catherine headed for the Welsh Marches, where they established their household at Ludlow Castle.

[44] Arthur had been growing weaker since his wedding,[45] and Henry VII thus seemed reluctant to allow Catherine to follow him, until ultimately ordering her to join her husband.

[49] After Henry's constant support of the claim that Catherine's first marriage had been consummated, an annulment was issued on 23 May 1533,[71] while the King had already married Anne on 25 January.

In 2002, following the initiative of canon Ian MacKenzie, Arthur's funeral was reenacted with a requiem mass at Worcester Cathedral, on occasion of the quincentenary of his death.

[75][76] The stained-glass image of Arthur Tudor praying is in the west window of the nave in St Laurence's Church in Ludlow, Shropshire where he died at the castle in 1502.

[78] Arthur has been featured in several historical fiction novels, such as The King's Pleasure, by Norah Lofts, Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory and Katherine, The Virgin Widow, by Jean Plaidy.

In The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory, Catherine promises Arthur to marry his brother, thus fulfilling not only her own destiny of becoming Queen of England but also the couple's plans for the future of the kingdom.

[79] The Alteration, by Kingsley Amis, is an alternate history novel centred on the "War of the English Succession" during which Henry VIII attempts to usurp the throne of his nephew, Stephen II, Arthur and Catherine's son.

[citation needed] In 1972, BBC2 aired a historical miniseries titled The Shadow of the Tower, with "Lord Arthur, Prince of Wales" played by Jason Kemp.