Children honour Katharine of Aragon

[Beorn]

MORE than 300 school children transformed a drab and wet Peterborough day into a vibrant and colourful celebration of the life of Tudor queen Katharine of Aragon.
They joined civic leaders and dignitaries to commemorate the 474th anniversary of the burial of Katharine - Henry VIII's first wife - at Peterborough Cathedral.
The occasion was marked with a special service at Peterborough Cathedral, after a procession from Peterborough Museum.

Many of the youngsters were clad in traditional Tudor costumes and gowns but, in a nod to the cold weather, they covered them up in 21st century coats for the procession from the museum in Priestgate to the cathedral, which houses Katharine's tomb.

At the head of the procession was the Mayor of Peterborough, Cllr Irene Walsh, and dignitaries from the Spanish Embassy, in tribute to the queen's Spanish roots.
The procession crowd followed musical Tudor ensemble Hautbois, to the delight of shoppers who stopped to watch the parade.

Peterborough City Council international links officer Elizabeth Storr said: "Apart from honouring an important queen who had a significant role to play in Tudor England, the service provides an excellent opportunity to instill a sense of pride in the city."

The programme for the service saw children from eight schools perform Tudor songs, music, dance and choral pieces in honour of the much-loved Queen. For the first time ever, the performances were beamed onto large screens in the cathedral.

During the hour-long service, wreaths of flowers in red and yellow - the colours of the Spanish flag - were laid upon Katharine's tomb by Cllr Walsh, along with representatives from the Embassy of Spain, members of the Anglo Spanish Society, the Hispanic Society of Peterborough and schoolchildren.

To mark the end of the celebrations, schoolchildren joined a candlelight procession yesterday evening, from the Town Hall to the cathedral.
Katharine of Aragon was born on December 16 1485 in Alcales de Heranes, in Madrid, Spain.
She became the first of Henry VIII's six wives in 1509.
His attempts to annul their marriage so he could marry Anne Boleyn led to the Church of England's break with Rome.
As Katharine refused to acknowledge Henry as the head of the new church and Anne as his new wife, he kept her a virtual prisoner in Kimbolton Castle near Huntingdon, where she died in January 7 1536.

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[antonio]

England preserves its grateful to their greatest along the centuries and expressed it by insightful ceremonies like that. In Spain that Queen would be long forgotten, if not or dispissed as an old fashioned woman "nada enrollada"/"not cool at all". This fucking country well deserves all the economical crises the Lord and Global Markets would discharge upon us. On my account I'm a previsory man ready for the worst: "ande yo caliente y ríase la gente"/ "be thou safe and dry, don't matter people think or laugh" (Quevedo)