The RSJ Article Prize Winner 2019: A Queenly Affinity? Catherine of Aragon’s Estates and Henry VIII’s Great Matter

Catherine of Aragon’s support during Henry VIII’s campaign to annul their marriage relied on an affinity formed through her estates, specifically through the familial and regional connections between the queen and her local officials, tenants, and councillors. Using receivers’ accounts, land indentures, royal grants, and household accounts, this article traces the legal, administrative, and political activities of the men and women who served the queen. Existing scholarship of early modern queens’ estates has focused on the legal status of the queen’s council and the solvency of her household, but Catherine’s use of her estates demonstrates that their primary importance was as a source of authority, legitimacy, and independent patronage.