I would rather be a poor beggar's wife and be sure of heaven, than queen of all the world and stand in doubt thereof by reason of my own consent.
Politicians
Catherine of Aragon
First wife of King Henry VIII of England (1485-1536). The youngest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, she was married briefly to Henry's elder brother Arthur (1501-1502), then to Henry himself from 1509 until their controversial annulment in 1533. She served as regent of England in 1513, winning the Battle of Flodden against the Scots while pregnant. A patron of Renaissance humanism, friend of Erasmus and Thomas More, and dedicatee of Vives's pioneering book on women's education, she refused to accept the annulment and died at Kimbolton Castle in 1536, having unwittingly triggered the English Reformation through her steadfast defiance.
View this figure's profile
Catherine of Aragon's Other Quotes
I choose what I believe, and say nothing. For I am not as simple as I may seem.
God never called me to a nunnery. I am the King's true and legitimate wife.
My most dear lord, king and husband, the hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me to commend myself to you... For my part, I pardon you everything... Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History.
Related Quotes
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
-- Blaise Pascal
Our heart is restless until it rests in you.
-- Augustine of Hippo
Faith seeking understanding.
-- Anselm of Canterbury
I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.
-- John D. Rockefeller
What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me.
-- James Clerk Maxwell
Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.
-- Johann Sebastian Bach