Arthur Tudor’s whole existence was in service to his father’s political ambitions. He was descended from families on both the Yorkist and Lancastrian sides of the recently concluded civil war, and he was deliberately named by his father after the legendary king who unified all of England. His marriage to Katherine of Aragon provided a Spanish alliance that would counterbalance England’s enemies, and certainly seems to have also been a love match. Arthur himself was very serious about the crown he would one day inherit.
Until he died unexpectedly at the age of 15, of a disease that modern scholars have been unable to identify. Fortunately for the succession, he had a brother, who would go on to become England’s next king as Henry VIII.
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