374 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



In the beginning of the next year, being the 

 seventeeth of the king, the Lady Catharine, fourth 

 daughter of Ferdinando and Isabella, King and 

 Queen of Spain, arrived in England at Plymouth, 

 the second of October, and was married to Prince 

 Arthur, in Pauls, the fourteenth of November follow 

 ing : the prince being then about fifteen years of age, 

 and the lady about eighteen. The manner of her 

 receiving, the manner of her entry into London., and 

 the celebrity of the marriage, were performed with 

 great and true magnificence, in regard of cost, shew, 

 and order. The chief man that took the care was 

 Bishop Fox, who was not only a grave counsellor for 

 war or peace, but also a good surveyor of works, 

 and a good master of ceremonies, and any thing 

 else that was fit for the active part, belonging to 

 the service of court or state of a great king. This 

 marriage was almost seven years in treaty, which 

 was in part caused by the tender years of the marriage- 

 couple, especially of the prince : but the true reason 

 was, that these two princes, being princes of great 

 policy and profound judgement, stood a great time 

 looking one upon another s fortunes, how they would 

 go ; knowing well, that in the mean time the very 

 treaty itself gave abroad in the world a reputation of 

 a strait conjunction and amity between them, which 

 served on both sides to many purposes, that their 

 several affairs required, and yet they continued still 

 free. But in the end, when the fortunes of both 

 the princes did grow every day more and more 

 prosperous and assured, and that looking all about 



