The expectations of women have almost always been disproportionate to their abilities and their humanity. But for a woman to be claimed responsible for not only the sex of her child, but whether the pregnancy is successful or whether the child survives must have been heartbreaking and stressful for his women, but also frustrating as hell. I think the relationship between Henry and his own infallibilty and he and his belief that God would either not grant him children or male issue dependent on his marital statis is an interesting paradox because the ideas stem from not only he as a man and a king but he as a roman catholic. It is still eveident in roman catholicism today that God decides when a couple should have a baby etc, most would not follow the rules of no contraception these days but it is still a common theme. As is also the idea that people with great faith will be rewarded and or punished due to their actions and their repentence. Henry was battling with two great aspects of his life when he found himself disappointed with the outcomes of his wives pregnancies, his wives, namingly Kathryn and Anne (although he had the same expectations of all his wives, it was never his fault) and with God. It is an interesting paradox that although he believed his wives to be accountable for their words actions and reproduction, he treated them as if they had god like status by holding them entirely accountable for the outcomes of their pregnancies. He also held them accountable for matters of state and his outcomes of diplomacy. Why else would he throw off every wife he had when things went bad?

Yeah i was going all Freud lol have too many friends who are psychologists (im not seeing them professionally tho lol) I have a very good friend who is well known round the world as a gay activist, he has a phd in psychology but is a big believer in Freud, go figure! Then again i think henry did place too much on the shoulders of his women, and his council, he expected them to be perfect, and the job description involved fixing his mistakes before they happened. Its the same as many peoples relationships with god, some sort of epiphany occurs, say a masked ball, the person becomes a born again christian, good things happen and then the person expects that nothing bad will ever happen to them again, and then when something bad does happen, the person blames god not themselves, then changes their faith! Except Henry was king, so he could just have their heads cut off….whenever i read alice in wonderland, i cant help but see a lot of him in the red queen. I understand the references refer to her as elizabeth, or in many ways Victoria, but personally, i see henry, in a dress, yelling “ORF WITH HER HEAD!!!”