In the feudal dynasty of China, it was too easy for the emperor, who was the emperor, to depose the queen. He just had to find her and say that her virtue was a loss, and he could get her into the cold palace. But in order to divorce Queen Catherine, King Henry VIII, took 8 years to break up with the Pope, to achieve his goal. So, why is it so difficult for him to divorce?
(stills from Henry VIII)
1. Marriage opposed by the church.
Speaking of which, the marriage between Henry VIII and Queen Catherine was strongly opposed by the Pope from the beginning.
It turned out that Henry VIII had no chance to inherit the throne, but because his elder brother, Prince of Wales, Arthur died young before he could succeed to the throne, he became the heir to the throne of Tudor dynasty.
However, although the elder brother passed away, he left behind Princess Catherine.
Speaking of which, Catherine's family background is extremely noble. She was born in the Spanish royal family. Her father was King of Spain Ferdinand II, and her mother was Queen Castia Elizabeth I .
Since Spain was the largest European power at that time, Henry VII personally proposed to Arthur to marry Catherine, and hoped to form an alliance with Spain through marriage.
However, with Arthur's death, it is necessary to make the alliance between his two countries lose its bond. So Henry VII used all his skills to force Catherine to marry Henry VIII, who was only 12 years old at the time.
One is a widowed sister-in-law and the other is a brother-in-law. Such a combination is impossible to be allowed in Catholicism.
Catherine is a devout Catholic and naturally strongly opposed it. As a result, she suffered from the torture of Henry VII, humiliation, beating, and all kinds of abuse methods.
In order to save his life, Catherine had to surrender to Henry VII and agreed to marry his brother-in-law Henry VIII, who was only 12 years old.
In order to legalize the marriage, at the instruction of Henry VII and Catherine's mother Elizabeth I, Catherine said that she and Prince Arthur of Wales have no husband and wife.
Due to Henry VII's unremitting operation, the Pope finally made a formal judgment that the marriage between Catherine and Arthur was invalid, and agreed that her union with Henry VIII was a legal marriage.
(Katherine's stills)
2. The dirty marriage in God's eyes.
1509, with the death of Henry Old, 18-year-old Henry VIII ascended the throne, and Catherine officially became the queen of England after being crowned.
The queen of the mother and mother, Catherine, was very considerate to Henry VIII, and at the same time, she was full of kindness to the people, so she won the love of the people.
In more than 20 years of marriage, Catherine gave birth to six children for Henry VIII. However, except for Mary who survived, everything else died. This made Henry VIII, who had always longed for a successor, begin to doubt the marriage. Especially in theological scriptures, the prophecy of "There will be a last resort" is clearly written for the uncle to marry a widowed sister-in-law. This made Henry VIII very uneasy.
Henry VIII believes that the reason why he has never been able to obtain children is entirely because of the fulfillment of God's Word. Therefore, he thought his marriage to Catherine was “a dirty marriage in the eyes of God”, so he decided to divorce. And use this prophecy as one of the basis for divorce to show the rationality of one's own divorce.
At the same time, Henry VIII also proposed that Catherine has been unable to give birth to a prince for the royal family for many years, and now she is over 40, so it is even more impossible to give birth to children. For the sake of England's future stability, she must divorce.
(stills from Anne Bolin)
3. The real reason for divorce.
In fact, the main reason why Henry VIII made various reasons was that he was eager to divorce Catherine because he fell in love with Catherine's female servant Anne Bolin.
The young and beautiful Anne Bolin was born into an English nobleman. She received a good court education. She is not only proficient in various languages, but also very fashionable.
1525, Anne Bolin became Catherine's waitress. Her elegant temperament and beautiful and intelligent appearance soon attracted Henry VIII.
Although Henry VIII used luxurious jewelry and gorgeous clothes to please her, and even wrote many love letters for her, Anne Bolin looked down on these things. She accepted Henry VIII's pursuit, but always refused to have sex with Henry VIII on the grounds that she "will never give birth to an illegitimate child." He also stated that unless Henry VIII was a formal marriage to her, she would not accept such unsincere courtship.
Henry VIII, who was blinded by love, was eager to get Anne Bolin. On the other hand, he also believed that Anne Bolin was the one who could solve his heir problem for him, so he was eager to get Anne Bolin. Bolin has a legal marriage.
1527, Henry VIII wrote a secret letter to the Pope, in which he wrote many seemingly reasonable reasons for divorce from Catherine.
(Pope)
4. No permission for divorce is obtained.
Henry VIII's divorce request was a tricky thing for the Pope.
1: Catholicism has always advocated monogamy and opposed divorce.
As early as when Henry VIII and Catherine were married, although the church ruled that Catherine and Arthur had no husband and wife, and agreed to be married to Catherine and Henry VIII, it still caused a lot of noise in society at that time. The Pope's reputation has had a bad impact.
Now, if you agree to the divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine, it will not only make everyone re-record the old things, but will also cause irreversible harm to the Pope's sacred and inviolable authority.
The second is Catherine and her parents' Spanish royal family. In order not to damage their reputation and dignity, they firmly believe that this is a legal marriage and firmly disagree with the divorce.
3 is that Catherine has a very powerful nephew, Charles V. He is both the king of Spain and the king of the Roman Empire, so the Pope dared not guilty of him.
However, the Henry family has always been devout Catholics and has maintained an alliance with the Pope for many years. Therefore, the cunning Pope did not intend to offend him, so he delayed the divorce in no time.
5. Henry VIII, who was separated from religion for divorce.
Henry VIII saw that the Pope had no intention of supporting his divorce appeal, and was eager to have a successor, so he simply broke up with the Pope and expelled Catherine from the palace, and then secretly married Anne Bolin.
1533, Anne Bolin became pregnant.
Henry VIII created Protestantism in order to legalize marriage. And at his instruction, Protestant Archbishop Thomas Cranmai declared his marriage to Catherine invalid, and at the same time declared that his marriage to Anne Bolin was completely legal.
On the third day of the announcement, Henry VIII held a grand coronation ceremony for Anne Bolin, and Anne Bolin officially became the second queen of England.
Although it took Henry VIII to dissolve his marriage with Catherine for 8 years, he broke up with the Pope and left the Roman Catholic Church, which made his prestige among Catholics plummet. In addition, he promoted the Protestant Reformation, which triggered the contradiction between the old and new religious believers. This also laid the turbulent factors for the future of the Tudor dynasty.
(Reference historical materials: "History of Britain III - Early Tudor")
