Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The story of the English Revolt against Catholicism begins with King Henry VIII. In the early stages of his reign, he was a well-meaning, informed and obedient Catholic, but as he advanced in age, he allowed his inordinate desires of the flesh to get the better of him. In an all-consuming aspiration to attain for himself a male heir to his throne, which his wife of 24 years, Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella, seemed unable to give him, he sought to divorce her—what’s more, with the consent of the Catholic Church—a marriage which had already been firmly established, requested by Henry’s father, King Henry VII, prior to his death—his wish honored shortly thereafter, and this marriage was then solemnized in the Franciscan Church at Greenwich.
Catherine had arrived in England at age fifteen to be married to Prince Arthur, Henry’s brother and heir to the English throne. A few months later, Arthur was struck down with a fever and died. She was then betrothed to Henry. At first, he sought dispensation to marry her due to a canonical law which stated that it was forbidden in the Catholic Church to marry a brother’s widow, and it was granted, as Catherine had professed that the marriage to Arthur was never consummated. Thus, Henry and Catherine were married.
Eighteen days after his marriage to Catherine, as custom demanded, Henry traveled from Greenwich to the Tower of London in preparation for his crowning. In June, 1509, the king and queen paraded through the city amid much pomp and splendor. The following day, he and his bride processed from the palace to the abbey; there he was anointed and crowned king by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham.[1]
The relationship between Henry and Catherine over the next fifteen years had proven to be a happy one, although he allowed himself to be tempted into having extramarital affairs — one that produced an illegitimate child, Henry FitzRoy.[2] Catherine suffered a series of tragic miscarriages and still births. After six pregnancies, only one daughter survived, Princess Mary and, finally they were a family of three.
As time passed and Catherine advanced to the age of forty, she could no longer bear children. Henry’s hope for a male heir was shattered. Six years older than Henry, Catherine began to withdraw from the activities of court life that Henry still enjoyed.
With all this, Henry’s attention turned to the long-necked, swarthy complexioned and reportedly not-very-handsome home-wrecker, Anne Boleyn[3] (1501-1536), Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, and he was besotted. He did all he could to seduce Anne in order to make her his mistress, but she refused his advances. Her sister, Mary,[4] already had been the king’s mistress and gained little from it but scandal. Anne demanded that the king marry her.
In such a state of mind, Henry found the self-justification to seek an annulment from Catherine. He used the great excuse that he believed God had punished him for marrying his brother’s widow, stating that his marriage had been “blighted in the eyes of God,” and that an annulment and re-marriage would put things right with God. Henry believed that he would then finally have a son. Catherine would have to understand. But Catherine refused to go quietly.
Henry contested the validity of his marriage to Catherine with the argument that the union of a man with the wife of a brother was contrary to the law of God and, therefore, the papal dispensation that he was given by Pope Julius II was invalid. At that time annulments were practically unheard of, and the Catholic Church did not allow them except in the most unusual cases. It was determined that the reason for Henry’s petition was invalid. To grant Henry’s petition for annulment, Pope Clement VII had to be convinced that there existed a justifiable theological and canonical reason for marital dissolution. The Catholic Church had always taught that divorce and remarriage is merely adultery by pseudonym, according to Christ’s own teaching.[5]
It took seven years, the unexpected pregnancy of Anne Boleyn, and an excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church for Henry to eventually get his divorce (but not his annulment), against the Pope’s advisement. The marriage between Henry and Catherine of Aragon was annulled in April, 1533, by the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.[6] And that was only the beginning of his serial marriages. Once Henry had a taste of ridding himself of his wife when she was no longer useful to him, he became increasingly unpredictable, tyrannical and hostile towards his subsequent wives. Henry’s first marriage lasted nearly 24 years, while the remaining five totaled less than 10 years, combined.
Protestant scholar Cleland Boyd McAfee, D.D., broaches the subject of Henry’s marriage in his study of the King James Version of the Bible:
“There arose presently the question, or the several questions, about his marriage. It sheds no glory on Henry VIII, that they arose as they did; but his treatment of them must not be mistaken. He was concerned to have his marriage to Anne Boleyn confirmed, and there are some who think he was honest in believing it ought to be confirmed, though we need not believe that. What happened was that for the first time Henry VIII., found that as sovereign of England he must take commands from a foreign power, a power exercising temporal sovereignty exactly as he did, but adding to it a claim to spiritual power, a claim to determine his conduct for him and to absolve his people from loyalty to him if he was not obedient. It arose over the question of his divorce, but it might have arisen over anything else. It was limitation on his sovereignty in England. And he let it be seen that all questions that pertain to England were to be settled in England, and not in another land. He would rather have a matter settled wrong in England than settled right elsewhere. That is how he claimed to be head of the English Church. The people back of him had always held to the belief that they were governed from within, though they were linked to religion from without. He executed their theory. That assertion of English sovereignty came during the eventful years of which we are speaking.”[7]
There is much about Henry VIII that no country would willingly care to admit of its leader. Henry was a typical Prince of the Renaissance—rapacious, hedonistic, and licentious, with a lust for power that increased as he grew older. He convinced himself that he was the anointed instrument of God, released from obedience to the divine law of the Catholic Church and the human law of the state. His selfishness, pride, and greed led him on until he had molded himself as the unopposed autocrat of England. In complete disregard of fifteen hundred years of Church history, he repudiated the primacy and supremacy of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
At age 42, following Henry’s decision to break with Rome in 1530, he initiated his membership with the Protestant Church. He declared himself as Supreme Head of the English Church in the Act of Supremacy in 1534, and he assumed supremacy in his reign over religious matters in order to marry Anne Boleyn. The title Defender of the Faith was revoked by Pope Paul III, since Henry’s act was regarded as an attack on “The Faith” and Henry was excommunicated.
After Anne Boleyn’s long-awaited annulment, which never came, it finally took an irrevocable breach with the Holy See before they wed in 1533. But she was unable to give Henry the son he desperately needed and their marriage ended tragically for Anne. She was executed on patently false charges of witchcraft, incest, and adultery on May 19, 1536. Anne was painted in the worst possible terms to suggest that no man, not even a king among men such as Henry, could be expected to put up with a woman of such depraved and voracious sexuality. Her daughter, Elizabeth, would become England’s most notorious queen. Following her daughter Elizabeth’s coronation as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe.[8] Marriage to Henry VIII: May 28, 1533 – May 17, 1536 (2 years, 11 months, 19 days); annulled, then beheaded.
Anne Boleyn was replaced as queen by Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward VI, who died shortly after giving birth to him. It is strongly believed that she is the mistress who disposed of Anne, who was executed just 10–11 days before Jane’s marriage to the king. The daughter of a knight, she was of lower birth than most of Henry’s wives. Finally, a year later, Jane gave birth to a healthy, legitimate male heir, Edward, but Seymour died twelve days later, presumably because of post-natal complications. This apparently caused her husband genuine grief, as she was the only queen to receive a proper Queen’s burial; when the King died in 1547, he was buried next to her. Marriage to Henry VIII: May 30, 1536 – October 24, 1537 (1 year, 4 months, 24 days); death from complications of childbirth.
Anne of Cleves (September 22, 1515 – July 16, 1557) was Henry’s fourth wife, for only six months in 1540, from January 6th to July 9th. Anne of Cleves was a German princess. It has been stated that Henry referred to her as “A Flanders Mare“, which may or may not be true; nevertheless, the label has stuck with Anne. Her pre-contract of marriage with Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, was cited as grounds for an annulment. Anne agreed to this, claiming that the marriage had not been consummated, and because she hadn’t resisted the annulment, was given a generous settlement, including Hever Castle, former home of Henry’s former in-laws, the Boleyns. She was given the name “The King’s Sister”, and became a friend to him and his children until his death. She outlived both the King and his last two wives, making her the last of the six wives to die. Marriage to Henry VIII: January 6, 1540 – July 9, 1540 (6 months, 3 days); annulled.
Catherine Howard (c.1521 – February 13, 1542) was Henry’s fifth wife between 1540–1541, she was young and gay, and he often referred to her as “the rose without a thorn”. Sixteen days after he was free of Anne, they married; Henry was 49 and Kathryn was 19. Kathryn managed to lift the King’s spirits; however, she was flirtatious by nature and sought the attention of other men. Rumors led to evidence of infidelity and Kathryn was executed and buried near Anne Boleyn. Marriage to Henry VIII: July 28, 1540 – November 23, 1541 (1 year, 3 months, 26 days); beheaded.
Catherine Parr (1512 – September 5, 1548), also spelled Kateryn, was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII, 1543–1547. On January 28, 1547, after a reign of 37 years, 9 months and 6 days, Henry VIII died at Whitehall Palace at age 56.
Catherine was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and his wife Maud Green. Catherine showed herself to be the restorer of Henry’s court as a family home for his children. Catherine was determined to present the royal household as a close-knit one in order to demonstrate strength through unity to Henry’s opposers. Perhaps Catherine’s most significant achievement was Henry’s passing of an act that confirmed both Mary’s and Elizabeth’s line in succession for the throne, despite the fact that they had both been made illegitimate by divorce or remarriage. Such was Henry’s trust in Catherine that he chose her to rule as Regent while he was attending to the war in France and in the unlikely event of the loss of his life, she was to rule as Regent until nine-year-old Edward came of age.
Catherine also has a special place in history as she was the most married queen of England, having had four husbands in all; Henry was her third. She had been widowed twice before marrying Henry. After Henry’s death, she married Thomas Seymour, uncle of Edward VI of England, to whom she had formed an attachment prior to her marriage with Henry. She had one child by Seymour, Mary, and died shortly after childbirth. Mary’s history is unknown, but she is believed to have died as a toddler. Marriage to Henry VIII: July 12, 1543 – January 28, 1547 (3 years, 6 months, 16 days); his death at the age of 56.
The wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort[9] wedded to Henry VIII of England between 1509 and 1547. After his first divorce, when he appealed to the pope who denounced him, he then turned to those who had no belief concerning the subject and had divorce written into English law. The six women married to King Henry VIII were, in chronological order:
- Catherine of Aragon (divorced, died while detained under guard at Kimbolton Castle, mother of Mary I)
- Anne Boleyn (executed, mother of Elizabeth I)
- Jane Seymour (died days after giving birth to Edward VI)
- Anne of Cleves (divorced, outlived the other wives)
- Catherine Howard (divorced and later executed)
- Catherine Parr (widowed)
So much for Henry’s revolving door of wives. Did he commit bigamy? Yes. He married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, because she became pregnant, a few months before his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon was ended. It is clear that he went through with the act of marrying Anne Boleyn when he was already married to Catherine. He was a biga