Let’s step back in time to around 1545—two years into her marriage to Henry—and imagine a typical week at court. While records don’t survive for every detail of every day, extensive household accounts, letters, and ambassadorial reports allow us to reconstruct much of Catherine’s routine.

Monday: Morning Prayers and Accounts

Catherine began each day with prayer, often in a small private chapel attached to her royal apartments. Like many pious Tudor nobles, she kept a devotional schedule aligned with the hours of the day—matins at dawn, lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline at night.

On Monday mornings, Catherine might review household accounts. The queen’s household was immense, including dozens of maids of honor, ladies-in-waiting, musicians, tailors, laundresses, and kitchen staff. Keeping them fed and clothed required vast resources. Catherine was known for her careful attention to such matters, approving payments, overseeing orders for luxury fabrics, and ensuring her livery carried the appropriate royal insignia.

Tuesday: Receiving Petitioners and Diplomats

As queen, Catherine often held a kind of informal court of her own. Noblewomen would present petitions, seeking her intercession with the king for pensions, pardons, or favorable marriages. Ambassadors sometimes visited her apartments to deliver gifts or messages, aware that the queen could influence Henry’s mood.

On Tuesdays, it was common for Catherine to receive such guests in her outer chambers, seated beneath a cloth of estate. Carefully choreographed etiquette determined how far a visitor could approach, whether they knelt, and who was allowed to kiss her hand.

Though these gatherings might seem purely social, they were crucial political moments. By granting or withholding favor, Catherine built networks of obligation and loyalty.  shutdown123