ABSTRACT
In 1501, Prince Arthur – the son of Henry VII and heir to the English throne – was married to Katherine of Aragon. This involved a flamboyant set of ceremonial events in London to welcome the arrival of the princess and her entourage during October and November of that year. The information provided in the Heralds' accounts includes detailed descriptions of the various wagons, devices, and allegorical characters required to stage the pageants at a number of places throughout London. Some of the poetic scripts used to describe the tableaux scenes are also recorded. There are a number of different accounts of the marriage ceremonies. Interestingly, one of the versions indicates a desire that the spectacular events should be more than simply a celebration of a royal marriage by the élite of the royal household and court. The reconstruction of moments from a biography of an anonymous reader is on deliberately tenuous ground.
