Claire | May 28, 2021
I always find it strange at this time of year to switch from writing about Anne Boleyn’s final days in May 1536 to the lead-up to her coronation in May 1533. How different things were just three years apart. On this day in Tudor history, 28th May 1533, over four months after Henry VIII had […]
Claire | June 12, 2019
On this day in Tudor history, 12th June 1530, King Henry VIII got criticised for “the evil life he was leading and the bad example he was setting”. Who had the nerve to speak like this to King Henry VIII? His wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, who was at her wit’s end with her husband’s […]
Claire | January 5, 2018
OK, so it wasn’t Gandalf that said this, it was actually the pope – sorry! Yes, on this day in history, 5th January 1531, Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VIII telling him that he could not remarry while the case for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was still on-going. If […]
Claire | May 31, 2016
On this day in history, 31st May 1529, formal proceedings began into Henry VIII’s case for an annulment at a special legatine court presided over by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio at Blackfriars in London. The case came to nothing when it was adjourned in July 1529 for a summer recess, never to […]
Claire | March 15, 2016
Breaking news! Yes, on this day in history, 15th March 1532, King Henry VIII used “foul language” to William Warham, Archbishop of Canturbury, after the archbishop criticised the king in the House of Lords when Parliament was discussing the proposed annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Carlo Capello, the Venetian ambassador, recorded […]
Claire | March 7, 2016
On 7th March 1530, eight months after the Legatine Court was adjourned having failed to come to any conclusion regarding Henry VIII’s case for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VII forbidding him from marrying again and threatening him with excommunication if the king disobeyed. Click […]
Claire | January 29, 2016
Today is the anniversary of Catherine of Aragon’s burial at Peterborough Abbey in 1536, so I just wanted to pose a question: “Was Catherine of Aragon right in fighting for her marriage and not accepting the annulment?” I’d love to hear your views on this so please do leave a comment. Allow me first to […]
Claire | June 12, 2015
According to Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, on Sunday 12th June 1530 Catherine of Aragon had words with her husband Henry VIII, “exhorting him to be again to her a good prince and husband, and to quit the evil life he was leading and the bad example he was setting.”1 Catherine went on to tell […]
