Precursors to Queen Catherine's Political Crisis

Name: Precursors to Queen Catherine's Political Crisis
Start: 1518

Type Event Region England Time 1518

By 1518 Henry VIII had been married to Catherine of Aragon for nearly twenty years, with only the young Princess Mary surviving, making the successio…

Timeline

1516–1518English court · EnglandHenry VIII's marriages had produced only one surviving child, Princess Mary; the early death of infant sons left the king deeply anxious about the continuation of the Tudor dynasty. Court discussion began over whether Queen Catherine's marriage was invalid because she had previously been married to Henry's brother Arthur, and the shadow of a succession crisis deepened.
1518London · LondonDuring the 1518 London peace conference, Wolsey and others quietly explored diplomatic solutions to the succession problem, including a marriage alliance with a French princess. These probes were not yet public, but they showed that Henry's dissatisfaction with his current marriage had shifted from the private sphere to political planning, setting the stage for the divorce crisis of the 1520s.

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Catherine of Aragon
The Six Wives of Henry VIII — Alison Weir (1991)