in the parish of Aston, then in the suburbs of Birmingham. During these years Henry VII’s eldest son Arthur was being prepared for his royal future, which included his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1501, but Arthur died the following year, probably before the marriage was consummated. In 1503 Queen Elizabeth died and the king’s attention was turned to protecting his surviving son, Prince Henry, whose accession was only a few years away. Rogers’s father by the same Christian name was engaged