Lead: Increasingly desperate to produce an heir to the throne, Henry VIII cast around for a way to get rid of his inconvenient queen.

Tag: "A Moment in Time" with Dan Roberts.

Content: They put the proposal to her. She was to abdicate her marriage and retreat to a nunnery. Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England, made no reply. The next day her husband joined in the campaign, "all the world," he said, "agreed that their marriage was unjust, unless you volunteer to enter the nunnery, you will be forced to go. Again she listened quietly.

The next day she gave her reply. Catherine insisted she had come to the king as a virgin, would never go into a nunnery and would live and die as a married woman. To Cardinal Woolsey who pleaded with her on his knees to the deputation of English bishops, each time she refused. The problem was, for all her integrity, Catherine was becoming an inconvenience.

The bloom had long been off their marriage. She was loyal and devoted, but still 5 years his senior. By the mid-1520s, Henry was still in his prime. Though faithful at first, the royal eye began to wander fairly early in their marriage and a steady stream of sexual partners had flowed through the king's bedroom.

Henry's problem with Catherine was not a sexual one. The queen's great difficulty was that their union had not produced a male heir and given the dynastic chaos of the previous 100 years, Henry was not about to risk the future of the crown in the hands of his only legitimate child at the time, Princess Mary.

Henry's mounting frustration was complicated by his growing infatuation with Anne Bolyn, but Anne refused to be his mistress, she wanted to be queen. All would be well, he reasoned, if he rid himself of his wife and married Anne, who would produce the male heir. But Catherine refused to get the idea. She was very popular with the common people, believed herself to be in the right, and refused to go.

Thus Henry set in motion the events that led eventually to his divorce and the break between England and the Roman Catholic Church. Catherine was separated from her daughter Mary and died in 1536 after years of abuse and uncomfortable living. She never gave in. When the news of her death reached Henry in London, he dressed from head to toe in yellow and celebrated the event with a mass, a banquet, and dancing. Catherine would inconvenience the king no more.

"A Moment in Time" is produced at the University of Richmond. This is Dan Roberts.

Resources

Dowling, Maria. "A Woman's Place? Learning in the Wives of Henry VIII," History Today. (Great Britain), 1991 41 (June): 38-42.

Fraiser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Knopf Publishing Company, 1992.

Mattingly, Garrett. Catherine of Aragon. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1941.

Scarisbrick, J.J. Henry VIII. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

Copyright 1994 by Daniel M. Roberts, Jr.