Henry VIII, Shakespeare, Longland, Catherine, & Divorce

Henry VIII, c. 1520
Eleven years into the
marriage
with Catherine of Aragon

Pollard, Albert Frederick. Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906.
 

Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon was canonically forbidden, for better or worse, according to Mr. Pollard.  
 

Mr. (pope) Julius 11 was unsure in 1503 whether he could grant a dispensation.  In context, "conciliarism" versus "papal superiority to councils" was still at bar, a matter that was forever settled by Vatican 1, 1870.  But, in 1503, Mr. Julius 11 was uncertain about his own authority.

Catherine’s Confessor was reportedly removed for insinuating the impediment.[1] Mr. Pollard offers us this wonderful source. 

Cardinal Warham also shared this view of the canonical impediment.   

Mr. Pollard says “extraordinary fatalities” resulted.  Four children were still born or died shortly after birth.

The lack of heirs was bothering Henry.[2]  Henry was not immune to superstition, to wit, that perhaps God was judging him and Catherine.

Allegedly, Mr. Longland, later bishop of Lincoln, and Henry’s Confessor held that the impediment existed. 

Shakespeare puts the suggestion in Longland’s court in Henry VIII, Act 11, scene 4, to wit[3]:

KING HENRY VIII:  

My lord cardinal,
I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
I free you from't. You are not to be taught
That you have many enemies, that know not
Why they are so, but, like to village-curs,
Bark when their fellows do: by some of these
The queen is put in anger. You're excused:
But will you be more justified? You ever
Have wish'd the sleeping of this business; never desired
It to be stirr'd; but oft have hinder'd, oft,
The passages made toward it: on my honour,
I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,
And thus far clear him. Now, what moved me to't,
I will be bold with time and your attention:
Then mark the inducement. Thus it came; give heed to't:
My conscience first received a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd
By the Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador;
Who had been hither sent on the debating
A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: i' the progress of this business,
Ere a determinate resolution, he,
I mean the bishop, did require a respite;
Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
The bosom of my conscience, enter'd me,
Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
The region of my breast; which forced such way,
That many mazed considerings did throng
And press'd in with this caution. First, methought
I stood not in the smile of heaven; who had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
If it conceived a male child by me, should
Do no more offices of life to't than
The grave does to the dead; for her male issue
Or died where they were made, or shortly after
This world had air'd them: hence I took a thought,
This was a judgment on me; that my kingdom,
Well worthy the best heir o' the world, should not
Be gladded in't by me: then follows, that
I weigh'd the danger which my realms stood in
By this my issue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together: that's to say,
I meant to rectify my conscience,--which
I then did feel full sick, and yet not well,--
By all the reverend fathers of the land
And doctors learn'd: first I began in private
With you, my Lord of Lincoln; you remember
How under my oppression I did reek,
When I first moved you. [emphasis added]

 

However the marriage or non-marriage began, some hope revived with the successful birth of Mary in 1516.  However, it was a "male heir" that he desired. 

But, more miscarriages occurred.  We may surmise that the issue of conscience continued.

 

Another serious complication was the issue of “female” royals.  Mary Beaufort was a Lancastrian heir, but her son, Henry VII, took the throne in 1485. 

 

As an aside, it was Mary Beaufort who would found and fund the "Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity" at Cambridge. But back on point.

 

Aside from the many miscarriages and the potential female for the throne, there were geo-political concerns.

There was the fear of absorption by way of marriage. In later history, that fear would be more fully realized when Mary would marry Philip of Spain...and the "Marian persecutions" would ensue. By way for female royals in marriage, Brittany lost its independence.  The Netherlands were tethered to Spain...and that too would have long innings for the Dutch Reformed later in the century.  Bohemia and Hungary were absorbed by Austria. Henry's councilors were aware of these issues.

 

Divorce was one solution.  Clement VII simply counseled taking a second wife.  The Pope had done that with the King of Castile—he took a second wife due to the sterility of the first wife.  Henry had precedents and hopes for an early and favorable answer from the Pope.

Henry’s marriage Catherine:  June 11, 1509 to May 23, 1533.  23 years, 11 months, 19 days.  Annulled?  We call it the “divorce that never was.”

 

The story of Cranmer will get mixed up in the mess…torn from scholarly inquiries to canonico-politico ones.

---

[1] Pollard, ibid., 29.  Contains a footnote from the Calendar, Spanish Papers, ii.8 to this effect.

[2] Pollard, ibid., 29. Cites Calendar of Venetian State Papers, 1509-1519, 479.

[3] Shakespeare, William. The History of Henry VIII. Open Source Shakespeare.  http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry8&Scope=entire&pleasewait=1&msg=pl accessed July 23, 2013.