(Cover image – © Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)
Towards the remaining six years or so of her marriage to the King, Catherine’s ‘bad luck’ and misery only seemed to be growing worse and worse with the arrival of the Boleyn sisters and his taking of more mistresses during the early years of the 1520s.
But whilst Catherine might have held onto hope that the Lord would still bless her with a healthy living son to appease her desperate and distant husband or that he might finally accept the daughter she had gone to great effort to bear him as his sole and rightful heir, what history had in store for her proved to be a threat she would have to fight to the bitter end—and we all know what end that was.
Despite taking numerous mistresses and showing a lack of romantic interest in his wife, Henry was still making regular visits to his wife’s chambers and playing the ‘dutiful’ husband—making sure that he was always seen as respectful, gentle and almost as if he were a loving husband towards Catherine whenever they were in public. Whether or not this continued behind the curtains, it’s hard to tell.
However, it seems that with the arrival of the Boleyn sisters, and with the King’s affair with Mary Boleyn paving the way for her sister to catch the King’s eye, acted as a turning-point in the King and Queen’s relationship as suddenly, according to historical records, in 1524, the King ceased entirely to have sexual relations with his wife, no longer visiting her bedchamber as he normally would.
Now Catherine, who was at this point plagued with gynaecological problems stemming from her age and probably an early on-set of menopause, would have been shocked and quite frankly embarrassed to see that her husband no longer found her desirable or wished to perform his husbandly duties to share a bed with her. But she was no dumb woman, nor would she have pretended to ignore the significance of what this meant.
She would have known that this symbolised more than just her husband preferring his mistresses over her, but that this showed that, with her husband showing increased interest in one of her ladies-in-waiting Anne Boleyn, her husband was beginning to question the validity of his marriage.
Astonishingly, he would prove to be the very first King to seek a divorce from his wife or question the validity of it or even say that his wife was infertile, but he wouldn’t be the last!
In fact, one of the most notorious cases of a royal marriage riddled with both infertility /and/ infidelity was the marriage of French monarchs King Henry II and his wife, Queen Catherine de Medici. Their marriage might have been a little more scandalous in comparison to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (except with them not actually divorcing) as the first ten years of their marriage proved to be childless which posed great danger to Catherine was the penalty for a barren queen ‘could also include annulment, banishment, or life in a convent’ {1}. And although the couple did go on to have 10 children together, their marriage was notorious for seeing Henry legitimatize his bastard son with his long-term mistress Diane de Poitiers but that Catherine was so desperate to get an heir that she drank the urine of pregnant animals and even had holes drilled into the ceiling of her husband’s mistress’ chamber so she could watch and gain lessons on how to conceive. What made it even worse was that Henry had a deformity on his penis which made it difficult for him to even try to conceive, the details I won’t go into in order to spare your mind from the gory details. {1}
Back to our Catherine—as stated beforehand, Catherine would have known what her husband’s official decision to no longer visit her bedchamber symbolised, especially since three or so years later, the realisation of what this meant would hit home with the King taking his new mistress Anne Boleyn’s presence to a whole new level by stating that he seriously questioned the validity of his marriage and whether God was punishing him for marrying his brother’s lawfully-wedded wife by refusing to give him the son and heir he desired.
. . .
The year 1527 would be the year where Catherine’s worst fear would begin to become a reality; that she was being replaced and that her (and her daughter’s) future were uncertain.
After all, the humiliation that Catherine had faced at the hands of her husband was beginning to become unbearable. By 1525, Henry Fitzroy, the King’s six-year-old illegitimate son by his former mistress Bessie Blount, had not only been paraded in front of the court (possibly as a snide towards Catherine), given the significant titles of Duke of Richmond and Somerset but had been given a grand household—there were even rumours that Henry was beginning to consider him as his heir and possibly legitimizing him.
Their daughter Mary might have been ‘unofficially’ considered the Princess of Wales but she had never been formally granted the title, giving the impression to many within the court that Henry had forgotten about his daughter and turned his attention to his illegitimate son. However, this certainly was not the case as Henry had arranged for his daughter to spend three years in the Welsh Marches (alike his brother and wife had during their brief marriage just thirty years beforehand) which meant that Henry must have still thought about his daughter and there is no indication of any love lost between them as he spoke and interacted with his daughter very fondly.
Henry’s new mistress though, the mysterious and much-younger-than-the-Queen Anne Boleyn, was proving to be a humiliating obstacle that was hard to overcome.
The King’s infatuation with Mistress Boleyn was proving to be a deep one, as Catherine had already experienced with his long-term affair with Bessie Blount, but as per usual, Catherine was convinced that the affair, even if it lasted long, would end just as miserably for the woman as it had for all the others; with the King turning to another woman once he had had his fill of her.
And having sensed that the King was beginning to question his marriage to her, Catherine would do as she always had; played to the King’s favour by being the respectful, dutiful wife that she always had been, especially when it came to her husband’s mistresses.
. . .
You might think that having known the identity of her husband’s latest mistress would have given Catherine the perfect opportunity to make that woman regret the day she seduced the King and make her life a living hell for as long as she slipped into her husband’s bed.
Well, the real answer might surprise you; Catherine was actually quite polite and respectful towards Anne Boleyn, even after she found out about her being the King’s latest mistress.
Of course, this does not mean to say that Catherine did not carry any negativity towards Anne. Any woman would feel hurt and anger towards the woman who was sleeping with her husband, but Catherine did not let that show.
In fact, George Cavendish (the famous biographer of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey) stated that Catherine acted as if nothing was amiss and was most respectful towards Mistress Boleyn;
“And all this while, she being in this estimation in all places, it is no doubt but good Queen Katharine, having this gentlewoman daily attending upon her, both heard by report, and perceived before her eyes, the matter how it framed against her (good lady), although she showed nor to Mistress Anne, nor unto the king, any spark or kind of grudge or displeasure; but took and accepted all things in good part, and with wisdom and great patience dissimuled [dissembled] the same, having Mistress Anne in more estimation for the king's sake than she had before, declaring herself thereby to be a perfect Griselda, as her patient acts shall hereafter more evidently to all men be declared.” {2}
Furthermore, according to George Wyatt (the grandson of Thomas Wyatt who is rumoured to have been Anne Boleyn’s former flame before she married the King), Catherine even advised her ladies not to speak ill of Anne Boleyn;
“Pray for her because the time would come when you shall pity and lament her case.” {3}
and even, at one point, tried to help Anne resist the advances of the King and is famously known for making this remark to Anne during a card game where she attempted to get Anne to show the deformed finger she is believed to have had;
“My lady Anne, you have good hap to stop at a king, but you are not like others, you will have all or none”. {3}
Make of that what you will, it would seem more than likely that the Queen would be civil with her husband’s mistress to prevent any further conflict between either party and it would not be a stretch of the imagination to think that Catherine might have attempted to get this new mistress to stop sleeping with her husband for her own sake (and Anne’s as well as history reveals she had an even worser fate than her predecessor).
Nevertheless, Catherine’s humble and dutiful approach surely did her no favours nor did Anne Boleyn intend to listen to the advice of her mistress as soon Henry would have another shocking piece of news to tell her.
…He planned to divorce her and take his mistress, Anne Boleyn, for a wife.
. . .
On the 22nd of June 1527, Henry announced to his stunned wife that he was divorcing her and that they must separate because they had been living in sin in regard to her first marriage to his brother. Respectfully, he asked her to co-operate with the divorce proceedings and choose a household for her to relocate to until the matter was resolved. Expecting Catherine not to resist, Henry would have been infuriated to hear Catherine say that she would resist any divorce because she was his lawful wife and would reach out to her nephew, Charles (the Emperor of Spain), for his support.
Naturally, this only made things worse for the couple; whilst Catherine was receiving support from her nephew as well as the population of England (who loved her and stood firmly on her side), Henry was not making things easy either.
From autumn 1528 to spring of 1529, both Henry and Catherine suffered from the misery their conflict arising from the divorce arrangements was causing; Catherine had been advised by Campeggio to ‘enter a convent and retire gracefully’—obviously appealing to her strong faith and an attempt to get Henry to win faster—which she naturally refused to do and had been left isolated because of the growing popularity of Anne Boleyn with the courtiers of Henry’s court. As for Henry, his love for Anne Boleyn and desire to have her as his wife was rapidly increasing his irritation with Catherine’s reluctance to accept the divorce, with every step closer he got to getting what he wanted, she pushed him back with her strong-will and determination and with Anne being, Henry hated wasting so much time to put an heir into Anne’s womb.
Catherine had even tried directly appealing to her husband’s heart during the proceedings that took place in 1529 as she is known for having fallen onto her knees before him and speaking these famous heartfelt words;
“Sir, I beseech you, for all the loves that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right. Take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and stranger born out of your dominion. I have here no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel. I flee to you as the head of justice within this realm.
Alas, Sir, where have I offended you? Or what occasion have you of displeasure, that you intend to put me from you? I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever conformable to your will and pleasure. I have been pleased and contented with all the things wherein you had delight and dalliance. I never grudged a word or countenance or showed a spark of discontent. I loved all those whom ye loved only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or enemies. These twenty years and more I have been your true wife, and by me ye have had divers children, though it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, which hath been no fault in me. And when ye had me at the first, I take God to be my judge, I was true maid, without touch of man; and whether it be true or no, you put it to your conscience.
[ A pause. Then:] If there be any just cause by the law that you can allege against me, either of dishonesty or any other impediment, to put me from you, I am well content to depart, to my shame and dishonour. If there be none, I must lowly beseech you, let me remain in my former estate and receive justice at your princely hands.
The King your father was accounted in his day as a second Solomon for wisdom, and my father Ferdinand and was esteemed one of the wisest kinds that had ever reigned in Spain. It is not about them as was thought fit by their high discretion. Also, there were in those days as wise, as learned man, as there are at this present time in both realms, who thought then the marriage between you and me good and lawful.
It is a wonder to hear what new inventions are invented against me, who never intended but honesty, that cause me to stand to the order and judgement of this new court, wherein you may do me much wrong, if you intend any cruelty. For ye may condemn me for lack of sufficient answer, having no indifferent counsel. Ye must understand that they cannot be indifferent counsellors which be your subjects, and taken out of your Council beforehand, and dare not, for your displeasure, disobey your will and intent.
Therefore, most humbly do I require you, in the way of charity and for the love of God, to spare me the extremity of this court, until I may be advertised what way and order my friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if ye will not extend to me so much favour, your pleasure then be fulfilled, and to God I commit my cause.” {3}
. . .
But Henry knew how to push Catherine’s buttons and he did something that no father would ever (or should ever) do to his child if he loved them; separated his child from her mother at a tender age.
As the divorce proceedings carried on miserably for many years, with Henry and Catherine seeking out the Pope and higher powers within the Church to achieve their own end, the one thing that they had both agreed on was Mary.
She had not been compromised at all during the divorce proceedings as she had been moved to her own household and, as sources say, treated as the Princess she was. However, it would be her final (heavily publicised) visit to her mother in Enfield in January of 1532 that would put an end to her somewhat peaceful life and symbolise the final time that mother and daughter would see or hear from one another as Henry, fearful that both mother and daughter would stand with the Emperor against him, he vowed that they might never see or speak to one another again.
Mere months later, after so many years of being moved from place to place, Catherine was moved to the palace at Bishop’s Hatfield in Hertfordshire whilst Mary was also moved to a destination far beyond Catherine’s reach and both were given the order that the King forbade them from communicating.
As if he hadn’t already damaged their relationship, now he was using Mary as a pawn against his wife.
Divorce me now and you might see our daughter, is basically the vibe he was giving off.
Poor Mary, a pawn in her father’s sadistic game.
. . .
Unfortunately for Catherine, it was this, accompanied with Henry’s increased desperation now that in early January 1533, Anne Boleyn told the King she was carrying his child, that broke what little fight she had left and just months later, Catherine was informed that not only had her marriage to Henry been declared null and void but that he was now married to Anne Boleyn and that she was no longer Queen of England but Dowager Princess of Wales.
Overcome with grief, Catherine is said to have sunk to the ground and burst into tears that brought the messengers, Norfolk and Suffolk, to even feel sorry for the disgraced Queen. They also informed her that she was allowed to keep the property she resided in but that she was responsible for financing her servants and household expenses. Defeated, Catherine accepted her fate without resistance.
No longer Queen of England and separated from her beloved daughter, Catherine felt helpless with no one from Spain willing to help her.
In a matter of years, Henry had managed to destroy Catherine’s reputation as a royal and a Queen, remove her from power, separate her from her daughter and practically put her into poverty. All the while, his new Queen Anne Boleyn would enjoy all the things Catherine had earned and quite frankly was entitled to as a royal princess and born Queen.
Catherine’s only hope was to one day be reunited with her daughter and see her take her rightful place as Queen or that her husband might tire of this traitorous woman and undo all that he had done, as Catherine would forgive her husband for being seduced entirely and his wits consumed by enchantments.
But as history will show, Catherine’s time of happiness and hope was all gone and there was nothing more for her but to crumble under her successor’s fingertips…
What will become of our heartbroken, disgraced Catherine? —Find out next time with our final post for Henry’s first wife!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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