How did Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII's 1st wife, die?

Question

Did King Henry VIII behead her?

Answer 1

No, he divorced her in 1533 and Katherine became Princess Dowager rather than Queen.
She died in 1536, age 50, probably from cancer, at Kimbolton Castle, England and was buried in Peterborough Abbey.

Answer 2

She was not beheaded. Her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled.

Catherine was the daughter of the famous Ferninand II and Isabella of Spain. They are mostly known for sending Columbus across the seas in search of new natural resources.

Catherine of Aragon was married to Henry's older brother, Arthur, when both were quite young. Arthur died shortly after. Catherine appealed to the Pope to annull the marriage due to lack of consumation (never bedded together). The marriage was annulled.

Catherine then married the next in-line, Henry VIII. Henry VIII annulled the marriage after no male heirs were produced. This was important then because there was no precedent of a supreme Queen (without a King). Henry VIII was obsessed with having an heir. This very issue led to the demise of six wives total in various ways.

The Pope was not very cooperative with Henry VIII in helping Henry VIII move onto a new woman to create a new heir. In reaction to the Pope's opposition to annullment, Henry VIII decided to use the protestent movement which was sweeping Europe, as an excuse to form his own church in which he was the figure head. That is now the Church of England.

As head of the Church of England, Henry VIII declared his marriage to Catherine of Aragon null. Henry VIII then married Anne Boleyn, who was a servent to Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine resided till the end of her life in relative humble circumstance. She never accepted that her marriage was null. She produced one heir with Henry VIII, who later assumed the throne, named Mary.

Catherine is stated to have died of cancer, but some speculate that she was poisoned.

Her daughter, Mary was a devout catholic, and during her reign fervently tried to re-instate catholicism in England, through punishing those who would not accept the catholic church. She is known by many in history as a result as "Bloody Mary."

Mary died as the result of what many think is uterine cancer. After her, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn assumed the throne. Elizabeth I had one of the most long standing and successful reigns of any monarch in European History.

Answer 3

I always thought poison had been a suspect, since Henry was wild in the palace and needed to get his popular wife out of the way, even with so many years already in exile.

Answer 4

It's been suggested that she died of a cancerous growth in her heart. Contemporary sources describe the heart (it was apparently customary to remove the hearts of important individuals after they were dead) as "enlarged and black."

By the way, it was her supplanter, Anne Boleyn, who was beheaded, and so was Henry's fifth wife, Katherine Howard--who was, ironically, a cousin of Anne's.

Answer 5

She lived elsewhere for some time fighting the annulment and died in England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Aragon

Answer 6

She apparently died of the rare cancer of the heart.

Answer 7

No, he was sent to Spain and after died.

Answer 8

Yes, she was beheaded.