www.dailymail.co.uk A letter from Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon is expected to bring up to £35,000 ($55,700) at auction.
In the note dated October 3, 1529, the Spanish-born Queen asks a cardinal from her home country begging the pontiff’s help in halting the king’s bid to annul their marriage because she had failed to produce a son.
Let's go back to the beginning. After a reign of nearly 24 years, King of England, Henry VII, died in 1509.
After the death of his elder brother Arthur in 1502, Henry became heir to the English throne. Shortly afterward, Henry V111 obtained the papal dispensation required to allow him to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. This sort of thing was allowable back then.
In the note dated October 3, 1529, the Spanish-born Queen asks a cardinal from her home country begging the pontiff’s help in halting the king’s bid to annul their marriage because she had failed to produce a son.
Let's go back to the beginning. After a reign of nearly 24 years, King of England, Henry VII, died in 1509.
After the death of his elder brother Arthur in 1502, Henry became heir to the English throne. Shortly afterward, Henry V111 obtained the papal dispensation required to allow him to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. This sort of thing was allowable back then.
englishhistory.net So, poor Catherine, eight years older than her husband, was passed between brothers, without any say in the matter, and charged with the role of a baby-maker to Henry V111.
For twelve years, Queen Catherine's sons died in childbirth or immediately afterward but she produced a daughter. The passionate hope of the country that she might still produce a surviving male child had been constantly disappointed. When in her 40s she had "certain diseases" which made it impossible that she should be again pregnant, and Henry had for two years ceased to cohabit with her. He had two children still living—the Princess Mary, Catherine's daughter, then a girl of eleven, and an illegitimate son.
For twelve years, Queen Catherine's sons died in childbirth or immediately afterward but she produced a daughter. The passionate hope of the country that she might still produce a surviving male child had been constantly disappointed. When in her 40s she had "certain diseases" which made it impossible that she should be again pregnant, and Henry had for two years ceased to cohabit with her. He had two children still living—the Princess Mary, Catherine's daughter, then a girl of eleven, and an illegitimate son.
www.dailymail.co.uk Henry, acutely aware of the importance of securing a male heir during his reign, was worried that he had only one surviving child, Mary, to show for his marriage to Catherine. So the king asked Cardinal Wolsey to appeal to the pope to annul the marriage.
Pope Clement VII’s eventual refusal to grant the divorce led to division with the Roman Catholic Church, and on to Henry appointing himself head of the Church of England and taking many more wives.
And so a king's dissatisfaction with his first wife and his inability to produce male offspring led to a split in religion and changed the way Christians lived.
I feel so sorry for all the women back then. When did the divide between men and women's status begin? Surely we were created equal. I'd like to say, women have a better control over their lives now, but that's not so in many countries and cultures.
Pope Clement VII’s eventual refusal to grant the divorce led to division with the Roman Catholic Church, and on to Henry appointing himself head of the Church of England and taking many more wives.
And so a king's dissatisfaction with his first wife and his inability to produce male offspring led to a split in religion and changed the way Christians lived.
I feel so sorry for all the women back then. When did the divide between men and women's status begin? Surely we were created equal. I'd like to say, women have a better control over their lives now, but that's not so in many countries and cultures.
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