Connect:What do you need to be a successful king in

the late medieval/Renaissance period-

Make a list of attributes.Think, Pair, Share.

Why did Henry need a divorce?

Background: Wars of the Roses

• Key concepts/ideas:

• Houses of Lancaster and York

• Usurp/Usurpation

• Dethrone/Depose/Deposition

• The Great Chain of Being

• Chivalry

• Legitimacy

• Marital alliances

• child monarchs

• Succession

Henry VII’s route to the throne - far from certain

• It is worth understanding the background to the Wars of the Roses because it gives us an idea of the things that would have been at the forefront of the mind of Henry VIII and the English aristocracy during the crises of succession in the 1520s.

• Read the handout and answer the questions that follow. This will help us gain a firmer understanding of the importance of succession, agains the background of disputed legitimacy, deposition, usurpation, the problems of child successions, and the importance of chivalry and military prowess for the English monarchy and the English aristocracy.

Key events in the War of the Roses - much

simplified!

• The quest for the divorce is not the same thing as the break with Rome. The latter grew out of the former, but it need not have gone that way…

• The reasons why it did go that way are a matter for debate –Was the debate over divorce really a pretext for challenging ecclesiastical and papal authority in England?

• We will come to that question later…

• For now we deal with a separate question:

Origins

• Debate – did Henry’s determination to seek a ‘divorce’ precede his relationship with Ann Boleyn?

• (be aware that ‘divorce’ is shorthand for annulment – divorce itself was illegal in the Catholic church)

Task 1 using the SHP textbook

• Look at sources 9.1 and 9.2 – what is the key difference between these perspectives?

Task 2 using the SHP textbook

• The timeline in 9B is constructed by Eric Ives so it will reflect his interpretation to some extent – but, concentrating on the years 1524-1529, what conclusions would you draw about Henry’s motivation?

Debate

• David Starkey – argues that it was his passion for Anne Boleyn that caused Henry to seek the divorce.

• David Loades – argues that it was really about protecting the succession, with Henry prompted by the French questioning the legitimacy of Mary.

Marriage to Catherine of Aragon

• Henry’s marriage to Catherine was controversial from the beginning…

• It was against Canon law to marry one’s sister-in-law and a papal dispensation was sought from pope Julius II.

• The nature of this dispensation would come under scrutiny 18 years after Henry’s marriage.

• If Henry was going to have the marriage annulled, he would have to prove that Julius II had been wrong…

• His relationship with AB did not start until 1526 at the earliest.

• in 1531 Henry stated that he had not slept with Catherine for 7 years (1524 – 2 years before his relationship with AB).

• But he didn’t start his quest to get a divorce until 1527…

• The big question is whether H’s desire for AB pushed him into a separation that would not otherwise have happened.

Passion for Anne Boleyn?• Henry does not begin making moves towards divorce – it would

seem – until AFTER he began his relationship with Anne Boleyn.

• There is no doubt that Henry’s passion for AB was great – and it may well have acted as a catalyst for some of his actions.

• Henry had a bastard to Bessie Blount in 1519 – Henry Fitzroy – whom he made Duke of Richmond in 1525, suggesting that he was considering him as a potential successor

• Henry’s apparent willingness to legitimize Henry Fitzroy suggests that he didn’t need to divorce Catherine to secure an heir

• although this would have been a high risk strategy since disputed succession was a key cause of the dynastic wars of the previous century.

Worries about the succession

• Henry’s concern with his lack of a male heir precedes his relationship with AB – which started in 1526 – but doesn’t prompt him to seek divorce before 1527.

• His only surviving offspring with Catherine, Mary was born on February 18th, 1516, when Catherine was 36; as the years went on, the question of where Henry was going to find a male heir was ever more insistent.

• Catherine was pregnant for the last time in 1518 at the age of 38 (she was 9 years Henry’s senior) and by the early 1520s was most probably menopausal and unlikely to fall pregnant again.

• In 1521, Henry had the Duke of Buckingham executed on a charge of treason… most probably because he was becoming concerned about the possibility that he might put forward a claim to the throne (he was descended through the Beaufort line – just like Henry!).

• By 1525, Mary was 9 years old but there was no precedent for a female succession – • Henry I on his deathbed in 1135 had ordered his barons to swear fealty to his

daughter Mathilda, and Stephen of Blois promptly arrived to claim the kingship leading to 19 years of civil war.

• The problem with female heirs was that they were intrinsically divisive – suitors at court would be jockeying for position to take her hand. Pleasing one aristocrat would inevitably mean disappointing the others…

• Another possibility was that Mary would be married to a foreign suitor – perhaps the offspring of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, which would be good from a dynastic point of view…. But English aristocrats would not be happy with a foreigner in charge.

Evidence that Henry was increasingly concerned

• In any case, Charles V had rejected a proposed marriage in 1525… before several other marriage alliances were proposed – including one with either Francis I of France or his second son the Duc d’Orelans..

• At this point rumours began to circulate that the French were questioning her legitimacy…

Another motive…• The birth of Henry Fitzroy in 1519 was significant for another

reason:

• It suggested that a) Henry was capable of siring a male heir…

• And b) that there must be some reason why GOD had not given him a son by Catherine…

• It became Henry’s conviction (and perhaps Catherine’s too) that they were being punished by God for some misdeed.

• The very fact that she had several children – including male – that were either stillborn or dying within a couple of months of being born – suggested ‘punishment’ rather than mere infertility.