FREE ESSAY ON THE KING'S GREAT MATTER

THE KING'S GREAT MATTER

THE KING'S GREAT MATTER
The Spanish-English marriage alliance of Catherine of Aragon and Prince Arthur was
arranged when the children were very young. Catherine traveled to England only to face
tragedy when her young husband, Arthur died in 1502.Henry VII wanted to marry Catherine
to his younger son, who would be, Henry VIII so that he did not lose the dowry money from
Catherine's parents and to secure some other agreements between the two countries. In the
Catholic Church, it was forbidden to marry the wife of a deceased brother. A papal
dispensation was required for the marriage. It was easily obtained from Pope Julius II.
Henry VII died before the marriage took place but Henry VIII immediately married
Catherine once he became King. Many people involved questioned the validity of this
dispensation. Catherine's mother, Isabella did not like the idea of her daughter being
remarried and requiring a document from the Pope to have it done. But, once Henry VII
died and Henry VIII proceeded with the marriage, no one mentioned the dispensation or the
validity of it until Henry decided that he needed a grounds for divorce. Under the
circumstances of Henry not wanting to be with his wife anymore, he proposed many
doctrines that had been insignificant until then.
Henry and Catherine actually had a fairly good marriage. The biggest problem in the
marriage was lack of ability to produce a male heir. This was very important to Henry.
They tried several times but were not successful. The couple did have one child that
lived but, it was a girl named Mary. After many miscarriages and years of disappointment,
Catherine began to get much older and lose much of her attractiveness. Henry not only
began to lose interest in his wife, but he also began to worry about not having a son to
succeed him on the throne. This was when the King's great matter began.
Throughout this time period, Cardinal Wolsey, an advisor to Henry and very powerful in
the Catholic Church, moved closer and closer to Henry. As the relationship progressed
Henry became more distant to Catherine. Wolsey spied on Catherine and she thought he
acted against her always. She began to believe that Wolsey had always hated her and
possibly that she had always hated him also. She held him responsible for the promotion
of Henry's bastard son, for tempting the King of France to break the word agreed at
Madrid and plunging Europe into war, for ruining the alliance between the two countries,
and for seducing the pope and the Italian states. She also held Wolsey responsible for
Henry's irritability.
It isn't surprising that Catherine also blamed Wolsey for Henry wanting to divorce her.
But, Catherine was not the only one with this idea. The ambassador, the emperor, Reginald
Pole, Catholic controversialists, and Catholic writers ever since have agreed that Wolsey
was probably the instigator.
Catherine's thought that Wolsey had put the ideas of divorce into Henry's head was very
reasonable. She believed that Wolsey thought this was the best way to safeguard his
pro-French policy by removing Catherine and replacing her with a French princess. Wolsey
was serious about his French alliance and did hope to arrange a French marriage. He also
feared Catherine. He knew that he needed to get rid of her so that he get closer to the
king and help him handle his affairs. Most of the time, Cardinal Wolsey was looking out
to better himself and his policies. 
Catherine was wrong about a few things though. She did not blame Henry for any of this.
She felt he had been manipulated and took up for him every chance she had. She was wrong
about Henry. He was not the innocent person she thought he was. 
Protestant writers have told the story according to Henry, that his conscience had
separated him from Catherine. But, still many have said that it was simply out of desire
for another woman. 
Henry's want for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon has also been attributed to his
health. During the years 1527 -28, it was obvious that his health was on the decline. In
1524, he suffered from a head injury while jousting with the Duke of Suffolk. This injury
is said to have caused him many severe headaches and possibly an alteration in behavior
and character. His character began to change slowly after this. He went from a happy
leader, fairly good husband and interested in his people to an irritable, suspicious, and
selfish king. In the same year he also suffered from an ulcer in his leg which
contributed to his irritability and impatience. 
Someone told Henry that he had been living in sin with his brother's wife. The name of
who told him this was never released. Henry's arguments of his marriage to Catherine
being invalid consisted of two sections. The first section argued that the union of a man
and the wife of his brother was contrary to the law of God and that any papal
dispensation pretending to allow it was worthless. The second section argued that the
particular dispensation granted by Pope Julius II, which he had married Catherine under,
was invalid. His first argument contained several parts. The first part was two texts in
Leviticus. Leviticus 18:16 reads 'Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's
wife: it is thy brother's nakedness' and Leviticus 20:21 reads 'If a man shall take his
brother's wife, it is an impurity: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall
be childless.' Henry and his advisors could not just use these scriptures. They advisors
had to prove that they were true under all circumstances and were out of reach of all
papal authority.
However, the texts from Leviticus that Henry used were contradicted by a text from
Deuteronomy. This text read: 'When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without
children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another, but his brother shall take
her, and raise up seed for his brother.' In order for Henry's arguments to succeed he had
to somehow get rid of this text from Deuteronomy. It was attacked in many ways. Some
argued that the text from Deuteronomy was a ceremonial or respective interpretation of
the law that was allowed to the Jews but, like circumcision, was dissolved by the coming
of Christ. Others argued that this text was only permissible under certain rare
conditions, none of which was present in Henry's case.
Henry, Wolsey, and a few other advisors had been meeting privately to discuss how the
proceedings of the divorce should take place. These secret meetings were how the whole
process came to be known as the king's great matter. The plan was not to involve Rome at
all. Cardinal Wolsey and Warham were going to hold a secret court in England. They were
going to call Henry in, charging him with living in sin with his dead brother's wife.
Henry would plead guilty and the private court would then sentence him and the marriage
to nullity. But, they ran into a problem. Catherine found out what the plan was. Her
nephew was Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He had much power in Rome and over the papacy.
She wrote letters and sent them to Charles for help. In her letters, she told him the
entire story and appealed the case of the divorce to Rome. 
In 1527, Wolsey was in a hurry to get to France. He was trying to beat Catherine's
letters to Charles for help. He knew that if Charles heard the story he would threaten
Pope Clement VII so that he would not dare dissolve the marriage. However, Wolsey did
have an alternative plan. It is a good thing he did because he did not beat her letters
to Charles. In June 1527, Charles troops attacked Rome and put the Pope up as prisoner.
Wolsey went to France and signed the Treaty of Amiens. This protested that no action of
the Pope would be valid while he was under duress and proposed that Wolsey, himself,
preside over the cardinals in this time of trouble. Wolsey was afraid that Charles would
provoke the Pope to do something while under imprisonment. Wolsey's next plan was to make
comments to Henry's ambassador with Charles that there was a rumor going around in
England about the divorce between the king and queen and that there was some questions
from the French concerning the validity of marriage and the papal dispensation for the
marriage. He also said that the queen had heard of the rumors and was very upset. He did
to place doubts in Charles mind about what Catherine had told him. 
Henry and his most trusted advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, began to fall away from each other a
bit. Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. She hated Wolsey and he did not want them married
because he wanted Henry to marry a French princess to benefit himself. They began going
separate ways in trying to achieve this divorce. While Wolsey tried to make peace in
France and to organize a way to rescue the pope from Charles power, Henry went behind his
back and had a document drawn up by his secretary, William Knight, that would manipulate
the pope. Henry was going to take the document to the Pope himself to get him to sign it.
He thought that the pope would appreciate a more personal approach. The pope did have a
history of giving people divorces, so Henry really did not think he would have a problem
either. He probably would not have had if it was not for Charles V. Henry's sister, the
Queen of Scotland, had no problem getting a divorce from the pope after she had been
having an affair with a married man. Henry IV of Castile was allowed by the pope to take
another wife to bear him children because his first wife could not. In 1498, Pope
Alexander VI allowed the King of France to have a divorce so that he could marry the
ruler of Brittany. Both of Henry's sister Mary's husbands had received divorces from the
pope.
The document that Henry had written by his secretary contained many ideas that the Pope
would agree with but in-between-the-lines he added the dissolution of the marriage
between him and Catherine. Wolsey found out about Henry's ideas but did not do anything
because he knew that the papacy would not fall for it. 
Wolsey wanted to get a Decretal Commission signed. This document would say that if he
proved certain things concerning the marital dispensation then he could declare the
marriage null and void. This case contained four things. The first was, the dispensation
had been obtained under false pretenses because it was said Henry asked for it, when he
didn't even know what it was and was only twelve years old. The second was,it stated that
it was issued to prevent war between England and Spain but at that time there had been no
problems between the two countries. The third was, the dispensation had been granted by
Pope Julius II out of his gratitude for two great leaders, Henry VII and Isabella of
Castile but they were both dead before the marriage even took place so the validity of
the document did not really exist. The fourth was, at the age of fourteen, Henry had
protested against the marriage and no one paid any attention to him.
Pope made changes in the document Henry sent. This angered Henry because he thought the
Pope was being provoked so, he sent troops to protect the Pope and free him from the
Emperor. The Pope finally issued a decretal commission that the case could be tried in
England. It was sent by Cardinal Campeggio who had been given strict orders not to
actually go through with it. Following orders, he caused many delays. 
During this time, Cardinal Campeggio, along with Cardinal Wolsey mentioned to Henry that
maybe Catherine would enter a religious house to spend the rest of her days in peace. If
she agreed to this then the divorce proceedings could have been cancelled. Henry liked
this idea so he sent Wolsey and Campeggio to talk to her about it. Catherine listened
respectively to the cardinals but told them that she would not agree to do that.
The brief of the marital dispensation issued by Pope Julius II was brought up from Spain
which caused some added problems and delays. On June 15, 1529 the legatine court opened
at Blackfriars in London. Henry and Catherine were both called to appear. When Catherine
was called into court, she kneeled at Henry's feet and begged of him to have mercy on
her. She pleaded with him on how she had been a wonderful wife to him and she did not
understand his reasoning to get rid of her as his wife. She meant the things she said to
him but she also wanted to show the court that she did not agree with what Henry was
trying to accomplish.
The legatine court in London was not successful and the proceedings were also called back
to Rome. However, the court in Rome was not successful either. No matter how many things
that Henry tried to turn around and justify to prove his argument, they did not work.
Eventually, Henry went ahead and married Anne Boelyn according to his own opinion without
the consent of the pope. Of course, this did not make things any brighter with the Pope
or the church heads. On August 8, 1533 Pope Clement VII issued a bull commanding Henry to
restore Catherine as his wife and put away Anne in ten days or he would suffer
excommunication. If he didn't comply, then the support of Charles V, all other Christian
princes, and Henry's own subjects would be called upon to carry out the terms of the bull
by force of arms. After this, Henry seperated from the Catholic Church, because it would
not allow the divorce, and formed his own church in which he was the head of it. This way
he could do whatever he wanted. Henry's great matter had turned into a matter that
affected the entire country of England and probably all of Europe.