The young prince, a few months after, sickened and died, much regretted by the nation.
{1502.} Henry, desirous to continue his alliance with Spain, and also unwilling to restore Catharine's dowry, which was two hundred thousand ducats, obliged his second son, Henry, whom he created prince of Wales, to be contracted to the infanta.

The prince made all the opposition of which a youth of twelve years of age was capable; but as the king persisted in his resolution, the espousals were at length, by means of the pope's dispensation, contracted between the parties; an event which was afterwards attended with the most important consequences.
The same year another marriage was celebrated, which was also, in the next age, productive of great events; the marriage of Margaret, the king's eldest daughter, with James, king of Scotland.

This alliance had been negotiated during three years, though interrupted by several broils; and Henry hoped, from the completion of it, to remove all source of discord with that neighboring kingdom, by whose animosity England had so often been infested.

When this marriage was deliberated on in the English council, some objected, that England might, by means of that alliance, fall under the dominion of Scotland.

"No," replied Henry, "Scotland, in that event, will only become an accession to England." {1503.} Amidst these prosperous incidents, the king met with a domestic calamity, which made not such impression on him as it merited: his queen died in childbed; and the infant did not long survive her.