Claire | September 29, 2014
On 29th September 1528 Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, papal legate, landed at Dover on the Kent coast. He had arrived in preparation for hearing the case for the annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, at a special legatine court. You can read more about this in my article […]
Claire | July 3, 2014
On Wednesday 3rd July 1533, Catherine of Aragon’s chamberlain William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was instructed to inform his mistress that she was to recognise her new title of “Princess Dowager” and to refrain from referring to herself as “Queen”. The annulment of Catherine’s marriage to Henry VIII had been declared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer on […]
Claire | June 21, 2014
On 21st June 1529 King Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon appeared in front of Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio at the Legatine Court at Blackfriars. In 1528, Cardinal Wolsey had been made the Pope’s vice-regent in order “to take cognisance of all matters concerning the King’s divorce” and Campeggio had been made […]
Claire | June 18, 2014
On 31st May 1529, a legatine court had opened at Blackfriars in London following Pope Clement VII’s papal bull of April 1528 empowering Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, as the Pope’s viceregent, “to take cognisance of all matters concerning the King’s divorce” along with Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, who had been made papal legate in June 1528. Campeggio […]
Claire | May 23, 2014
We’ve left the brutal events of May 1536 behind and now we’re counting down the events of 1533, to Anne Boleyn’s moment of triumph: her coronation. I thought it would be good to highlight the main events of 1533 as a timeline… 25th January 1533 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn marry in a secret […]
Claire | May 23, 2014
On 23rd May 1533, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer announced the sentence of the special court that had met at Dunstable Priory, Bedfordshire, to examine Henry VIII’s case for an annulment of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The trial had opened on 10th May 1533, following Convocation’s decision that the Pope did not […]
Claire | April 11, 2014
On 11th April 1533 Henry VIII informed his Council that Anne was his rightful wife and Queen and that she should be accorded with royal honours.1 On the same day Thomas Cranmer, the newly consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to the King “Beseeching the King very humbly to allow him to determine his great cause […]
Claire | April 9, 2014
On 9th April 1533, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, received a visit from members of the King’s Council, headed by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. The purpose of their visit was to inform Catherine that Henry VIII was now married to Anne Boleyn and that Catherine was no longer queen. […]
