Annulment

• Reasons of annulment w Catherine of Aragon

  • no male heir
  • believed lack of son was punishment from God because he'd married his brother's wife
  • Book of Leviticus claimed such marriage was unlawful
  • believed Popes didn't have power to allow such marriage w own sister-in-law therefore he never been married to her in the sight of God
  • attraction to Anne Boleyn
• Why was case for annulment so weak?

  • Leviticus claimed a man who married his brother's wife would be childless as result yet henry had daughter Mary
  • C of A always claimed marriage w Arthur not been consummated therefore no true marriage
  • Pope Julius II had granted special 'dispensation' to allow marriage in 1509 - no Pope would accept Henry's argument that he had exceeded his powers in doing this
  • Catherine more popular in court than Anne
• Opposition to annulment 


  • Catherine - if she agreed to H's demand would make her daughter Mary a bastard & mean she lived as Henry's mistress all this time
  • Catherine also refused a papally inspired compromise whereby she would go into nunnery & thereby dissolving her marriage & allowing Henry to remarry
  • Charles V - Catherine's nephew & most powerful man in Europe. 1527 his troops captured Rome & thus Pope Clement VII was effectively his prisoner