The Tudors: Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. (fundraising for free education)

I first became interested in the Tudors after reading a book called Mary the Queen. I knew nothing about her at the time, so it was a good introduction to Bloody Mary, taking a look at her in a way that most history books wouldn't necessarily have presented her. She was called Bloody Mary because her reign saw a very high death toll as she tried to bring the country back to Catholicism.

Mary Tudor was the eldest child of the infamous King Henry VIII. This was quite the dysfunctional family, really, yet the Tudors caused some pivotal changes in England and Britain. The Tudor line started with Henry VII, but he is probably the least famous of all the Tudors. His second son, wasn't expected to be in line for the throne when his father died. It should have been his brother Arthur, but his untimely death left the way open for Henry VIII.

Henry and his wives.

Royal marriages were often planned to form useful alliances with other countries and Arthur's was no different. Catherine of Aragon was a Spanish princess and from a young age arrangements were being made for Arthur to marry her, forming a Spanish alliance against France. When he was 11 the betrothal was made official and in 1501, when he was 14, they were married. Five to six months later, in 1502, both he and Catherine fell ill and she recovered only to learn that he had died.

In order to continue forward with the Anglo-Spanish alliance, young Henry was betrothed Catherine and they were married in 1509 when he ascended the throne. The marriage seemed a perfect match and a happy one, but was plagued with Catherine's pregnancies ending in still births. A son, Henry, died at just 7 weeks old then things seemed hopeful to improve after the birth of Mary. Sadly, this successful birth was followed by yet another still birth.

Henry desperately wanted a male heir and when it became clear that his now aging queen was not going to be able give him one he tried to get the marriage invalidated on the grounds that she was married to his brother. The church wouldn't annul the marriage, and Catherine swore that the marriage to Arthur was never consummated. In order divorce her, he had to go against the pope. This was not something he took lightly, in fact it haunted him off and on throughout his life. However, these were the beginnings of the Church of England and a separation from the Catholic church. In order to annul this marriage he needed it to be sanctioned by God and the only way to do that without the pope’s blessing was to effectively head up his own church.

Catherine was a princess of Spain, so she was well looked after following the divorce, even if she was banished from court. What Henry chose to do not only went against the Church, but also against royal tradition, especially when he went on to marry outside of royalty with his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

From the moment he took the throne, Henry made it clear that he would not tolerate anyone who got in his way. He was ruthless in the way he dealt with things, yet as terrible as it must have been for those around him I often wonder how different things would be if Catholicism had remained the one Christian religion. Did he start the change that allowed people the religious freedom to begin honouring God in their own way?

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