Catherine of Aragon: A Brief Biography

Despite the best efforts of the cardinal diplomacy failed and an annulment was not forthcoming.  The Pope was not in a position to grant a divorce even if he had wished to.  Rome had been captured by the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope was, for a time, accountable to the emperors for his actions.  The emperor was Francis V, nephew to Catherine of Aragon and would not look kindly upon the good name of his family being damaged by a very public divorce.

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It seems unlikely in case that the Pope would have been too thrilled at the idea of annulling the marriage.  Catherine’s earlier marriage to Arthur had been an issue at the time of Henry’s accession, but the previous Pope had granted Henry an indulgence and permission to marry his brother’s widow.  The technical reason for the judgement was that the earlier marriage had not been consummated and was therefore not legal.  Now that it suited his purposes Henry declared that Arthur and Catherine had consummated their union and the Pope had been wrong to grant the indulgence.  For one Pope to concede that a previous Pope’s judgement had been wrong opened up future holders of the office to question his own.  This was not a trend to be encouraged.

Catherine maintained until her dying day that when she had married Henry she had been “a true maid”, but was of course, unable to prove this assertion.  It was she who petitioned for her case to be heard in Rome (where she was receive a more sympathetic hearing) rather than in England, and it was partly due to her persistent refusal to give way that brought matters to their conclusion.

Henry was increasingly frustrated at his inability to secure a divorce and driven by a fierce passion for Anne.  It was Anne herself who led the king’s thinking in a new and radical direction.  She gave him a copy of Tyndale’s “On the Obedience of a Christian Man”, which challenged traditional ideas of clerical hierarchy, and set King Henry’s egotistical mind racing.  If Popes were not necessarily the ultimate spiritual authority in individual kingdoms, then it followed the kings were.  Henry began to think in terms of England as an empire.  Emperors were subject to no authority other than God.

This was the point that Henry declared that the Church in England was not subject to the rulings of the Pope and therefore, neither was he.  He would grant himself his longed for divorce and dare the rest of Europe to comment.  Catherine was ordered to withdraw from court and was never again permitted to see the king.

Catherine went.  As outwardly meek and obedient as ever, she nevertheless consistently refused to admit that her marriage was illegal and that she had never been the legitimate queen.  Henry exacted a terrible toll for this persistent resistance, in that Catherine was separated from her beloved daughter Mary, refusing to allow them even to write to one another.

However it was for Mary’s sake that Catherine found the determination to resist the king’s demands.  If Catherine were to acknowledge that her marriage was invalid, that would make Mary illegitimate and debar her from ever inheriting the throne.  Possibly Catherine believed that one day Henry would come to his senses and put aside Anne, clearing the way for a reconciliation between him and Mary, even if it were too late to save her marriage.

Catherine spent her final few years of life banished and largely alone, except for a few extremely loyal servants who steadfastly continued to refer to her as Queen Catherine.  In the country at large she remained popular as a loyal and faithful wife, jilted by her ungrateful husband.  Women in particular seemed to identify with her predicament and pity her.

When Catherine finally died in 1536, it is said that Henry and Anne wore yellow and danced to celebrate the news.  They believed that with Catherine’s death Anne would now be accepted and the future would be bright for their children.  However this merry scene hid the cracks that were already appearing in Henry and Anne’s relationship.  Sixth months later, Anne herself was to die at the hand of her husband.  Henry had once again moved on, leaving chaos in his wake.