On 23rd May 1533, Henry VIII’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared that the king’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had been annulled. It was a good job really, as Henry VIII had already taken a second wife, Anne Boleyn, and she was pregnant with his child and just about to be crowned queen!
You can read more here or watch the video below:
So that’s two marriages he’s had annulled now, Cranmer must have thought ‘here we go again’, he had been a good friend of Anne Boleyn, she had been his patron and was very sad when she had been sentenced to death, he had wept the morning of 19th May when he informed Alexander Ales the theologian that she had died that day, Ales then told him of the horrific dream he had had only the night before, Cranmer had declared the kings first marriage valid and his second one legal, now he was going to have to do it all over again, one wonders what this churchman really thought of Henry V111, the king loved him and on his deathbed wished for his presence, he was later condemned to die by the flames on the orders of Queen Mary, he had been shocked at the allegations against Anne and was the only one who spoke in her defence, having written the king a letter, he suspected as did his fellow men that the charges were without foundation and now he was at Dunstable where years before, the king had been trying to have his first marriage annulled, Cranmer probably thought he was glad he had decided to enter the church and not bother with marriage, his king and master certainly did not set a particularly fine example!
Madge is lovely by the way!