Top historians attend Katharine of Aragon festival

Eight historians are to give new insights into the life and times of Katharine of Aragon at an annual festival.

Peterborough Cathedral has been honouring the Tudor queen's life for many years. She was buried there in 1536, having died at Kimbolton Castle in Cambridgeshire.

Talks curator Jackson van Uden said: "We're bringing recent ground-breaking history to Peterborough."

Speakers include the "Tudor Trio" and renowned historian Alison Weir, who returns to the festival discuss her new Cardinal Wolsey novel.

Mr van Uden said: "We've gone bigger this year, with more tours, more opportunities to access the cathedral - and eight talks as opposed to six last year."

Spanish princess Katharine was the first of Henry VIII's six wives, until her failure to produce a male heir led to the king divorcing her to marry Anne Boleyn.

Mr van Uden said he was delighted historian and novelist Ms Weir was returning to speak at the festival, which runs 24 January-1 February.

"When I was eight, I made my mum go down [to the festival] in mid-January, in the pouring rain, to get a signed copy of her book Henry VIII: King and Court, so for me it's a full circle moment to invite her back," he said.

The Tudor Trio are friends and historians Kate McCaffrey, Dr Owen Emmerson and Dr Nicola Tallis.

Ms McCaffrey and Dr Emmerson made headlines when they helped discover a 1527 Book of Hours that belonged to Thomas Cromwell, who was Henry VIII's chief minister after Cardinal Thomas Wolsey fell out of favour.

The trio will bring Katharine's world to life through her books and jewels, as well as examine how she used portraiture and patronage to shape her image as queen and consort — shaping the cultural landscape of Henry's court.

Among other topics, Dr Nikki Clarke will examine the lives of her ladies-in-waiting and Estelle Paranque will consider the influence of the French on the tumultuous events of the 1530s, when Henry broke with the Catholic church in Rome over the Pope's refusal to annul his marriage to Katharine.

Mr van Uden said: "My thinking behind the programme was to get some new and younger voices as well, we'll do more 'in conversation' talks and we've got a BSL-signed event [British Sign Language] make it more accessible.

"We've also got a talk about Mary, Queen of Scots, who was buried at the cathedral until 1612, so we wanted to look Katharine's life, but also more of the Tudor context."

The Scottish queen was executed at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1587 by Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth I, who was her cousin.

She was reburied in a lavish tomb at Westminster Abbey by her son James VI of Scotland, about a decade after he became James I of England in 1603.

She lies next to the tomb of... Elizabeth I.

Cathedral dean, the Very Reverend Christopher Dalliston, said: "This festival gives us an opportunity to reflect on Katharine's extraordinary legacy, not just a victim of a volatile king but a person of real importance in her own right; a diplomat, a pioneer of education for women and girls, and a leader."

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