Catherine of Aragon

About Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) was a pivotal religious and political figure in English history, primarily remembered as the first wife of King Henry VIII. As the Infanta of Spain and daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, her marriage to the English throne cemented a crucial Anglo-Spanish alliance. Her refusal to accept the nullity of their marriage, based on her insistence that her first union with Arthur, Prince of Wales, was never consummated, directly precipitated the English Reformation. This pivotal act, defying both the Pope and her own husband, secured her place as the catalyst for England's break from Papal authority, earning her an influence ranking of #932 on MIT's Pantheon scale.

Despite this profound historical impact, Catherine's modern online footprint suggests a significant attention gap. She registered 2.0 million annualized Wikipedia pageviews in 2025. While an absolute number, this places her under intense scrutiny compared to her historical standing. For context, her importance ranking (#932) is significantly higher than that of Elizabeth I (#14), yet Elizabeth receives only a fraction of Catherine's current traffic (319K views) in this dataset-however, the data indicates Catherine is overattended relative to her HPI rank by a factor of +6x. This suggests her narrative is intensely popular online, perhaps driven by the dramatic aspects of her divorce and subsequent elevation to a figure of Catholic martyrdom.

Interestingly, the momentum data suggests the intensity may not be sustained: her viewership declined by 30% between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, despite an overall year-over-year increase of +5.5%. This indicates that while her story is currently compelling to a broad audience, the peak of modern internet interest may have already passed for the year.