The Winchester Marriage
Michael Leech visits the city that is celebrating the anniversary of the marriage of Mary Tudor and the future Philip II of Spain, 450 years ago this month.
Winchester may seem a prosperous, sedate city, but it’s going wild about Spain in 2004. Many events are planned throughout the summer to mark the marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain, on July 25th, 450 years ago. In 1554, the new queen, daughter of Henry VIII, and half Aragonese herself, journeyed here from London to espouse the heir to the Spanish throne. He, in turn, sailed from La Coruna, hoping through this alliance to enforce his opposition to France. Queen Mary’s hope was to re-establish the Catholic faith after her step-brother Edward’s reign of Protestantism.
The age gap was large (she was approaching her fortieth birthday, he eleven years her junior) and the outcome must have seemed questionable, yet a willingness on both sides ensured the costly ceremony was planned and went ahead. The organisation involved in bringing together so many noble visitors, no fewer than 400 royal servants, 125 ships and 3,000 horses, was remarkable, not to mention the conveying of hundreds of messages back and forth between England and Spain.
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