November 30 - Henry VIII gets told off by Catherine of Aragon AND Anne Boleyn

Hi, welcome to today's On This Day in Tudor History with me, Claire Ridgeway, author of On This Day in Tudor History, as well as quite a few other Tudor history books. Okay, where am I taking you today? Well, I'm taking you to the reign of King Henry VIII, and a bit of a bad day for King Henry VIII. For On This Day in Tudor History, the 30th of November the Feast of Saint Andrew, Henry VIII was reproached by the two main women in his life, his wife Catherine of Aragon, and the woman that he wanted to marry, his sweetheart Anne Boleyn. An angry Catherine of Aragon confronted her husband regarding his poor treatment of her, which she considered the pains of purgatory on earth. And then when the king sought comfort from Anne Boleyn, she reproached him for giving Catherine the upper hand. Oh dear, a bad day. Let me tell you a little bit more about the king's experiences that day, which are taken from a dispatch by Eustace Chapuis, the imperial ambassador, who was writing to his master, Emperor Charles V. Now according to Chapuis, Catherine of Aragon complained to her husband, the king, that she had long been suffering the pains of purgatory on earth, and that she was very badly treated by his refusing to dine with and visit her in her apartment. In answer, the king said that Catherine had no right to complain, for she was mistress in her own household, where she could do what she pleased. And he explained that he had not dined with her, because he'd been busy with affairs of government. What a great excuse. Regarding Catherine's complaint about not visiting her apartments, Henry VIII said that she ought to know that he was not her legitimate husband, as innumerable doctors and canonists, all men of honour and property, and even his own almanac, Dr. Lee, who had once known her in Spain, were ready to maintain. And that should not the pope, in conformity with the above opinions so expressed, declare their marriage null and void, then in that case he, the king, would denounce the pope as a heretic, and marry whom he pleased. Then, according to Chapuis, Catherine replied that he himself, without the help of doctors, knew perfectly well that the principal cause alleged for the divorce did not really exist. And she said, and I love this, that she cared not a straw for his almanac's opinion on the matter, saying, he is not my judge in the present case, it is for the pope, not for him to decide. As for the opinion of the doctors of Paris and other universities, she reminded the king that he knew very well that the principal and best lawyers in England had written in her favour, going on to say, indeed, if you give me permission to procure counsel's opinion in this matter, I do not hesitate to say that for each doctor or lawyer who might decide in your favour and against me, I shall find one thousand to declare that the marriage is good and indissoluble. After further words on the matter, the king was recorded as having then left the room suddenly, and Chapuis describes him as very disconcerted and downcast. But, if the king thought that he would be able to find comfort in the arms of his sweetheart Anne Boleyn after Catherine had had this go at him, he was sadly wrong. Chapuis reported that Anne gave him a telling off too, and here are the words that Anne is said to have reprimanded him with. Did I not tell you that whenever you disputed with the queen, she was sure to have the upper hand? I see that some fine morning you will succumb to her reasoning, and that you will cast me off. I have been waiting long, and might in the meanwhile have contracted some advantageous marriage, out of which I might have had issue, which is the greatest consolation in this world. But alas, farewell to my time and youth spent to no purpose at all. Oh dear, Henry VIII was having a really bad day, wasn't he? It almost makes you feel sorry for him. Of course, Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was eventually annulled, but it wasn't annulled until May 1533, shortly before his second wife, who he had already married by that point, Anne Boleyn, was crowned queen. She was of course crowned queen at Westminster Abbey on the 1st of June 1533. So Anne, who was already sort of getting exasperated with the situation, and the fact that she was waiting and waiting, and in the meantime she could have married and had children, had a much longer wait than anticipated. Thank you for joining me. You can subscribe to the channel by clicking around about there. You can hit the bell to be notified as videos go live. But they do go live on a daily basis at the moment, and for those of you asking, I am planning on continuing them into the year 2020 as well, with dog and cat cameos too. You can just see Teasel's nappy as she goes up the stairs there. So yes, lots more to come. Thank you for joining me. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.