Pages

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Question from Roo - Catherine's reaction to the Divorce

Please help if you can.
Wjsat was Catherine of aragons reaction when henry went to so much trouble to divorce her?
If anyone has any information reguarding this question then please inform me.
Roo x-x-x
Age: 12

2 comments:

  1. Hello Roo,

    Of course we can't totally know what Catherine's private reaction was, but
    in public she fought all of Henry's efforts to divorce her, so my guess is
    that she wasn't too pleased! I personally think that it was a combination
    of anger at being set aside by Henry (whom I think she genuinely loved)
    and also losing her status as Queen since she was to be called and given
    the status of Dowager Princess of Wales. There was also the question of
    what the divorce would mean for their daughter Mary and her legitimacy.

    Pretty much any book on the Six Wives (Antonia Fraser, David Starkey,
    Alison Weir, etc.) will go into lots of detail and will give more
    analysis of Catherine's reactions and motivations. If you have access
    to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, that is another place
    to start.

    Cheers,
    Lara

    ReplyDelete
  2. Catherine of aragon was not at all happy when she found out henry wanted a divorce.
    Catherine wanted to remain married to him which she tried so hard to maintain with him but henry took no notice of her pleas.
    Henry went to pope Clement vii and asked for a divorce but the pope would not give him one so his only option was to break with the church of Rome , order that all the monastries and churches to be stripped of their wealth and power and then be burned down.
    The divorce meetings took place in Bridewell place it took Henry ten years to get a divorce from catherine he was hoping and he thought that it would not have taken as long as it did.
    During the time pope Clement had fallen ill and died and a new pope was now leader of the church of Rome who was to become pope Paul iii he had to carry on where the last pope left off. Now it was down to him to give Henry the divorce he so desperately wanted.
    When it was nearly all over Henry surprised them all when he made himself supreme head of the church of England which means a new religion had been founded which was called lutherenism named after a man named martin luther.
    lutherenism was 1534`s equivelent of protestantism today.
    1534 was the time Henry was a very happy man his divorce was final,and had been final for two years,a time when Henry was now married to the woman who was by now queen and with a child and also this was the time when the Act of Supremacy was passed.
    This was an event that was to change the course of history forever the one good thing that King Henry viii of england did for us.
    If it was not for him we may still be all living in a catholic world where everyone would be a catholic.
    At the end of all this catherine was an upset and angry and lonely woman.
    she had lost her husband,her queenship,her home at hampton court catherine had been made princess dowager and transferred to kimbolton house with a few maids being reduced by the day seperated from her daughter Mary where it was dark and damp and as a result suffered ill health.
    Catherine died in 1536 virtually on her own in her apartments at kimbolton.
    also this was the year that Henry`s second marriage was in trouble and would soon be coming to an end within a matter of months.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated so your replies may not show up immediately. Please be patient. Thanks!