Реферат: Henry Viii 2 Essay Research Paper Henry

were calculated to develop the natural masterfulness of Henry’s character.

He had long shown to discerning eyes, like those of Sir Thomas More,

that he would contradiction in nothing. Without being guilty of notable

profligacy in comparison with the other monarchs of his time, it is doubtful

if Henry’s married life had ever been pure, even from the first, and we

know that in 1519 he had, by Elizabeth Blount, a son whom, at the age of

six, he made the Duke of Richmond. He had also carried on an intrigue

with Mary Boleyn which led to some complications at a later date.

Such was Henry when, probably about the beginning of the year 1527,

he formed a violent passion for Mary’s younger sister, Anne. It is possible

that the idea of the divorce had suggested itself to the king much earlier

than this (see Brown, “Venetian Calendars”, II, 479), and it is highly

probable that it was motivated by the desire of male issue, of which he

had been disappointed by the death in infancy of all Catherine’s children

save Mary. Anne Boleyn was restrained by no moral scruples, but she

saw her opportunity in Henry’s infatuation and determined that she would

only yield as his acknowledged queen. Anyway, it soon became the one

absorbing object of the king’s desires to secure a divorce from Catherine,

and in the pursuit of this he condescended to the most unworthy means.

He had it put about that the Bishop of Tarbes, when negotiating an

alliance in behalf of the French king, had raised a doubt as to the Princess

Mary’s legitimacy. He also prompted Wolsey, as legate, to hold with

Archbishop Warham a private and collusive inquiry, summoning Henry to

prove before them that his marriage was valid. The only result was to give

Catherine an inkling of what was in the king’s mind, and to elicit from her

a solemn declaration that the marriage had never been consummated.

From this it followed that there had never been any impediment of

“affinity” to bar her union with Henry, but only the much more easily

dispensed impediment known as publicae honestatis. The best canonists