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Claire | June 18, 2018
In autumn 1528, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, papal legate, was sent to England by Pope Clement VII to hear the case for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, at a special legatine court with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who’d been made the Pope’s viceregent. Campeggio managed to stall things for […]
Claire | April 11, 2015
Good Friday 1533, the 11th April, was a big day for Anne Boleyn because it was on that day that Henry VIII ordered his council to recognise Anne Boleyn as his righful wife and queen. While Henry was meeting with his council, his new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was working on the annulment of […]
Claire | January 5, 2014
On this day in history, 5th January 1531, Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VIII forbidding him to remarry, and threatening him with excommunication if he took matters into his own hands and disobeyed Rome: “At the request of the Queen, forbids Henry to remarry until the decision of the case, and declares that if […]
Claire | May 28, 2013
On 28th May 1533, five days after the special court at Dunstable Priory had declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer proclaimed the validity of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn after a special enquiry at Lambeth Palace. The proclamation was just in time for Anne Boleyn’s coronation pageantry, which […]
Claire | April 20, 2013
On 20th April 1534 Elizabeth Barton, a Benedictine nun who became known as “the Nun of Kent” or “the Holy Maid of Kent”, was hanged for treason at the gallows at Tyburn along with Father Edward Bocking (a monk and Barton’s spiritual adviser), Richard Masters (her parish priest), Richard Risby (warden of the Observant Friary […]
Claire | July 12, 2012
Thank you so much to Catherine Fletcher, historian and author of “The Divorce of Henry VIII: The Untold Story from Inside the Vatican”, for this guest article. You can read my review of Catherine’s book over on our review site – click here. Over to Catherine… In the six years it took Henry to end […]
Claire | May 28, 2012
Following on from the decision of the special court held at Dunstable, and Cramner’s declaration that Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid and had been annulled, Cranmer proclaimed the validity of Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn on this day in 1533. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had already been married four months, […]
Claire | May 23, 2012
After the brutal events of 1536, we rewind just three years to May 1533 when Anne Boleyn was preparing for her coronation, her moment of triumph. On this day in history, 23rd May 1533, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared that Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon had been annulled: “My lord of Canterbury gave sentence […]
