Queen Catherine of Aragon was the victim in A Tudor Murder (Case #11 of Travel in Time).
Profile
Catherine was the Queen of England with blonde hair and brown eyes. At the time of her death, she was seen wearing a high waisted light orange-blue long dress with light orange diamonds patterns and blue puffy sleeves, which was also adorned with multiple crystals and pearls. Additionally, she also sported matching earrings and a long pearl necklace. Additionally, she wore a blue headdress with light orange linings, matching crystals and pearls.
Murder details
Catherine was found dead in the royal palace's throne room with half of her face torn off eighteen years prior to her historically-consistent death. After autopsying the body, Janis revealed that the killer had hacked Catherine's right ear off when they killed her. Additionally, Janis told Nebet and the player to look for a morning star, which was the only possible murder weapon that was used to kill Catherine. She also found were traces of leech slime on the body, which was often used by Renaissance people for a pseudo-medical procedure called "bloodletting". However, there was no bloodletting wounds on Catherine's body, meaning that it was the killer who used leeches.
Later on, Nebet and the player found a bloody morning star at Houndsditch Passage. Theo then confirmed it as the murder weapon. He also found traces of red hairs mixed in the gore sample on the morning star. Seeing that Catherine had blonde hair, Theo deduced that the red hair was from the killer, meaning that the killer had red hair.
Meanwhile, the team also found Catherine's missing ear inside a bucket of food scraps. Per Theo, there were traces of ointment on the ear. After finding out that the ointment was used in the Tudor times to treat smallpox scars and that Catherine never had smallpox, Theo was able to confirm that the killer had smallpox scars.
Relationship with suspects
Catherine's husband, King Henry VIII, threatened her to have her head chopped off, thinking that she was having an affair with Frenchmen. French musketeer Alexandre Devereaux had actually come to London as a messenger of the Entente Cordiale Society, which wanted a truce between England and France, instead of going there as King Francis I's envoy. After King Henry refused to hear him, Devereaux approached Catherine, who was outraged at his supposition that she would dare go against her husband. Catherine also accused Lady Anne Boleyn of making her husband unfaithful towards her and sentenced beggar Dudley to two days in the stocks after rejecting Dudley's suggestion of becoming her peasant liaison officer. Mangy Lion tavern owner Agnes Manners vandalized Catherine's portrait despite her love of the Queen because of her complaining all the time about the tavern's condition.
Killer and motives
The killer turned out to be Agnes.
Agnes admitted that she overheard Devereaux discussing the possibility of a truce in the Franco-English war with Catherine. Agnes felt betrayed, as she had already lost two sons in the war. Thus, on her hot cross bun delivery to the Queen, Agnes grabbed a morning star mace and bashed Catherine in the head, despite Catherine actually denying the truce agreement. King Henry had Agnes thrown into the dungeon until he could decide on her real punishment.
Trivia
- Outside the Criminal Case universe, Catherine of Aragon was the Queen of England from June 1509 until May 1533 as the first wife of King Henry VIII and previously the Princess of Wales.
Case appearances
- A Tudor Murder (Case #11 of Travel in Time)
- Murder Is No Joke (Case #13 of Travel in Time; mentioned)
- Till Death Do Us Part (Case #15 of Travel in Time; mentioned)
