This day in Tudor history, 3rd July 1533, was a bad day for Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII.
Not only did Catherine have a sore foot from treading on a pin and a bad cough, but she was also told that she had to stop calling herself queen. Catherine was not going to obey that order, though!
In this video (and transcript below), I share Thomas Cromwell’s letter to Catherine’s chamberlain, Lord Mountjoy, on this matter, and also give Catherine’s reaction to it.
Transcript:
On this day in Tudor history, Wednesday 3rd July 1533, Catherine of Aragon’s chamberlain William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was instructed to inform Catherine that she was to recognise her new title of “Princess Dowager” and to refrain from referring to herself as “Queen”.
Henry VIII had married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, on 25th January 1533, the annulment of his marriage to Catherine had been declared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer on 23rd May 1533, following Convocation’s ruling, and Anne Boleyn had been crowned queen at Westminster Abbey on 1st June 1533, yet Catherine was still calling herself “queen”.
Mountjoy’s instructions were sent in a letter written by Thomas Cromwell on behalf of the King’s council. Here is an excerpt:
“As the King cannot have two wives he cannot permit the Dowager to persist in calling herself by the name of Queen, especially considering how benignantly and honorably she has been treated in the realm. She is to satisfy herself with the name of Dowager, as prescribed by the Act of Parliament, and must beware of the danger if she attempt to contravene it, which will only irritate the feelings of the people against her. If she be not persuaded by these arguments to avoid the King’s indignation, and relent from her vehement arrogancy, the King will be compelled to punish her servants, and withdraw her affection from his daughter. Finally, that as the marriage is irrevocable, and has passed the consent of Parliament, nothing that she can do will annul it, and she will only incur the displeasure of Almighty God and of the King.”
Lord Mountjoy, Sir Robert Dymok, John Tyrell, Gryffith Richards and Thomas Vox delivered the instructions to Catherine at Ampthill and then reported back to Cromwell:
“To the effect that on Thursday, 3 July, they found her lying on a pallet, as she had pricked her foot with a pin, and could not stand, and was also sore annoyed with a cough. On our declaring that our instructions were to her as Princess Dowager, she took exception to the name, persisting that she was the King’s true wife, and her children were legitimate, which she would claim to be true during her life.
To our assertion that the marriage with Anne Boleyn had been adjudged lawful by the universities, the Lords and Commons, she said the King might do in his realm by his royal power what he would; that the cause was not theirs but the Pope’s to judge, as she had already answered the duke of Norfolk. To other arguments, that she might damage her daughter and servants, she replied she would not damn her own soul on any consideration, or for any promises the King might make her.
She did not defend her cause upon obstinacy, nor to create any dissension in the realm, but to save her own rights; and as for the withdrawing of the King’s affection from her, she would daily pray for the preservation of his estate ; but as she sues by his licence, she trusts in so doing to lose no part of his favor. In fine, she will not abandon the title till such time as a sentence is given to the contrary by the Pope. She asked for a copy of these instructions, which she would translate into Spanish, and send to Rome.”
The words “Princess Dowager” in the report were obliterated by Catherine. She did not agree with the title being used in reference to her, she would not accept it, as she had not accepted the annulment of her marriage and the king’s subsequent marriage. Catherine would believe that she was the king’s true wife and his rightful queen consort until her dying day, and believed that Henry VIII was putting his soul in mortal danger by his actions.
Poor Katherine, a cough is horrible and they didn’t have proper medicine in those days, and to suffer a sore foot to, I can see her raising herself on her pallet and trying to reply to Mountjoy and the others in between coughing and spluttering, news such as this would have depressed her more, she must have cast her mind back to the dark days of her early widowhood when she was in a kind of limbo, now she was in a sense back there again, but then she had been young, her father was still alive and she could allow herself to hope, now she was old abandoned by her dear husband and was being told in no uncertain terms to desist in calling herself queen, Mountjoy must have winced when he was ordered to see Katherine to tell her the news, they all knew how obstinate and argumentative she could be, how she baffled with her strong sense of justice and inherent right in her own belief that she alone was queen, when told the law of the land had made Anne Boleyn queen she replied cleverly that the king could do what he wished in his own country, but until the pope ordained it, she would not stop using her correct title which was of course Queen, Katherine really must have feared for Henry’s soul, she knew he had damned himself but he was enthralled by this wicked woman who once had been her lady in waiting, and now had taken her own cherished place at the kings side, she took the letter from Mountjoy and he left, she then took up her quill and must have violently put a huge line across the words, Dowager Princess of Wales then a copy was sent to Rome, but in the years that followed no help ever came from Rome or Spain the country of her birth, Chapyus would often write to his master Katherines nephew of the way she was treated but she was in a sense alone, her faith more than anything gave her strength and the will to go on, she had her loyal servants and friends who still addressed her as queen, and bowed and curtseyed, but it was Anne Boleyn who enjoyed the honours in Hampton Court, in Greenwich in Whitehall, who occupied the chair of state next to the king, who the court now paid obeisance to, Katherines stoicism is to be admired, she was in fact made of the stuff of martyrs because she could have had a much easier path in life, had she been compliant to the kings wishes, the misery of her final years was only superseded by her rivals own fall from grace and terrible death, both Henry V111’s first two queens were treated far more worse than the others.