d Catherine and her youthful brother-in-law.[60] No doubt was
entertained but that the Pope would grant the necessary dispensation,
for the spiritual head of Christendom was apt to look tenderly on the
petitions of the powerful princes of this world. A more serious
difficulty was the question of the widow's dower. Part only had been
paid, and Ferdinand not merely refused to hand over the rest, but
demanded the return of his previous instalments. Henry, on the other
hand, considered himself entitled to the whole, refused to refund a
penny, and gave a cold reception to the proposed marriage between
Catherine and his sole surviving son. He was, however, by no means
blind to the advantages of the Spanish matrimonial and political
alliance, and still less to the attractions of Catherine's dower; (p. 027)
he declined to send back the Princess, when Isabella, shocked at Henry
VII.'s proposal to marry his daughter-in-law himself, demanded her
return; and eventually, when Ferdinand reduced his terms, he suffered
the marriage treaty to be signed. On 25th June, 1503, Prince Henry and
Catherine were solemnly betrothed in the Bishop of Salisbury's house,
in Fleet Street.

[Footnote 60: _Sp. Cal._, i., 267.]

The papal dispensation arrived in time to solace Isabella on her
death-bed in November, 1504; but that event once more involved in
doubt the prospects of the marriage. The crown of Castile passed from
Isabella to her daughter Juana; the government of the kingdom was
claimed by Ferdinand and by Juana's husband, Philip of Burgundy. On
their way from the Netherlands to claim their inheritance, Philip and
Juana were driven on English shores. Henry VII. treated them with all
possible courtesy, and made Philip a Knight of the Garter, while
Philip repaid the compliment by investing Prince Henry with the Order
of the Golden Fleece.[61] But advantage was taken of Philip's plight
to extort from him the surrender of the Earl of Suffolk, styled the
White Rose, and a commercial treaty with the Netherlands, which the
Flemings named the Malus Intercursus. Three months after his arrival
in Castile, Philip died, and Henry began to fish in the troubled
waters for a share in his dominions. Two marriage schemes occurred to
him; he might win the hand of Philip's sister Margaret, now Regent of
the Netherlands, and with her hand the control of those provinces; or
he might marry Juana and claim in her right to administer Castile. O