Catalina and Dr. de Puebla

Catalina and Dr. de Puebla are bound together by diplomacy, money, and the question of whom she will marry. As the Spanish ambassador, he carries information between the English and Spanish courts and negotiates over her dowry and widow’s support. But he is not simply her advocate: Catalina doubts his competence, and his attempts to manage the dispute often expose how little control either of them has over the decisions made by kings and parents. Their relationship shifts from an anxious reliance on an intermediary toward a contest over who gets to speak for Catalina’s future.

Diplomatic Intermediary

Their dealings begin amid a dispute over Catalina’s dowry. During a private conversation with Margaret Pole, Catalina identifies the dowry as a source of tension with her father-in-law, Henry VII. The underlying disagreement is specific: Ferdinand II of Aragon had promised a substantial sum but sent only half, proposing that the rest be represented by the plate and treasure Catalina brought for her household. Henry VII demanded the balance in cash. Dr. de Puebla is therefore both the channel through which the dispute is addressed and a representative of a Spanish crown whose financial decisions have helped make Catalina’s position precarious.

Catalina’s uncertainty about the ambassador is personal as well as political. When she considers how to bring about a marriage to Harry Tudor, she thinks that she might ask Dr. de Puebla to suggest the match to Henry VII, but rejects the idea because she does not trust him. In her view, he muddled the contract for her first marriage, and she fears that he could mishandle another. She also cannot safely send her mother a letter explaining her plan, and feels alone in trying to shape events. The relationship thus contains a sharp imbalance: Dr. de Puebla has access to the men negotiating her fate, while Catalina doubts that she can entrust him with her own wishes.

Dowry, Jointure, and the Cost of Waiting

After Arthur’s death, the terms of Catalina’s widowhood make the ambassador’s role more consequential. He tells her that Henry VII owes her a jointure worth a third of the revenues of Wales, Cornwall, and Chester, while her parents are also demanding the return of her dowry. Catalina doubts that the king will pay either the money or the revenues, recalling that her allowance had not been paid even while Arthur was alive. Dr. de Puebla answers that the sums are provided for in the contract, but contractual language offers little immediate security when the parties responsible for honoring it resist the cost.

Catalina understands that her position as a widow is being treated as a financial and dynastic problem. She argues that Henry VII owes her the returned dowry, cannot simply retain her plate, and must provide her jointure; Dr. de Puebla points out that the payment lasts only until she remarries. He expects her parents to arrange for her return to Spain and perhaps already to be planning another marriage. The possibility shocks her. She declares England her home and refuses the assumption that she can be sent away and married again as though her life there had not happened. Dr. de Puebla tells her he will report that she wishes to wait in England, but the account is explicitly a lie: he smiles at her back and privately conceals his disbelief. His courtesy does not amount to confidence in her authority.

The financial terms also shape the ambassador’s negotiations with Henry VII. When the king invites Dr. de Puebla to Whitehall, seats him prominently, and gives him special attention at dinner, the ambassador recognizes that the favor must serve some purpose. In their private discussion Henry VII first proposes to settle the matter by marrying Catalina himself. Dr. de Puebla is taken aback, and raises the possibility that affinity—the relationship created by her marriage to Arthur—could prevent the match. Henry VII says he will seek a papal dispensation and asks whether the first marriage was consummated. Dr. de Puebla answers that it was not, then clarifies that his assurance rests on what Catalina’s duenna said. His statement becomes part of the marriage negotiation, but the scene also shows the limits of his knowledge: he is relaying testimony, not claiming direct experience.

Negotiating Catalina’s Future

Dr. de Puebla does not expect Henry VII’s proposal. He had thought the king would eventually suggest Harry Tudor, and tries to introduce the prince as a more appropriate future husband. Henry VII dismisses the possibility because Harry is eleven, and because his grandmother has insisted that no marriage be planned for him for four years. The ambassador counters that Catalina would still be young then. He also asks whether she might return to Spain to wait, but Henry VII makes departure conditional on her paying the full dowry and finding her own fortune. Dr. de Puebla recognizes that this leaves him with no effective alternative and agrees to write to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

The negotiations later reveal how closely Catalina’s marriage, income, and political standing are connected. Dr. de Puebla tells Henry VII that a betrothal to Harry Tudor would lead Spain to pay the second half of the dowry, end the widow’s jointure, and leave the revenues of Wales, Cornwall, and Chester at the king’s disposal. He presents the match as a resolution to every outstanding financial difficulty. Henry VII, however, hears the personal rejection behind the diplomatic arrangement and asks whether Catalina had desired him. Dr. de Puebla says she had expressed a preference for the king, while explaining that her mother would permit only a return to Spain or a marriage to Harry. His report tries to make Catalina’s position intelligible to Henry VII, but it also allows him to frame her wishes through parental authority rather than her own decision.

Limits of Representation

Dr. de Puebla’s role is defined by mediation, but mediation repeatedly falls short of giving Catalina a voice. He carries the terms of her mother’s letter: if she is not pregnant, she is to remain in the assigned house until certain, claim her jointure through him, and sail for Spain only after receiving the money. If she is pregnant, he is to secure her allowance while the dowry is paid in cash. The ambassador is named as the person through whom these financial instructions should be pursued, while Catalina is expected to report her condition and remain under Doña Elvira’s chaperonage. In this arrangement, even intimate uncertainty is converted into a decision about money, travel, and succession.

Catalina’s later resolve to determine her own future marks the limit of the ambassador’s authority over her. Years of delay leave her impoverished: she sells jewels and plate, including pieces she knows belong to Henry VII, because her household needs food and wages. She had once considered trusting Dr. de Puebla with the idea of marrying Harry, but the evidence does not show him securing that outcome for her. Instead, the relationship exposes the distance between a diplomatic settlement and a life lived under its terms. Dr. de Puebla can carry proposals, explain contracts, and attest to what he has been told; Catalina must bear the consequences and ultimately insists that her destiny is not his, the king’s, or her parents’ to decide.

The marriage dispute also gives their connection a later legal resonance. At the court convened to examine her marriage to Henry VIII, Catalina enters despite having prepared no defense and refusing to recognize the proceedings. She stakes her case on Henry VIII’s reluctance to state openly that she had been Arthur’s wife and lover before marrying him. Dr. de Puebla is not shown taking part in this courtroom scene, and the account does not make him a witness to the truth Catalina later claims to have concealed. His earlier confirmation that the marriage to Arthur was not consummated rests on the duenna’s report. The distinction between testimony, belief, and Catalina’s own secret underscores the central tension in their relationship: he can transmit the account on which diplomacy depends, but he cannot determine what her marriage meant or what she will say about it.