Henry VIII

In the beginning, Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon after his brother, Arthur died and left her widowed. However, the marriage did not take place quickly, because his parents did not pay off their payments for the marriage. They died before finishing paying, and then Henry and Catherine were finally able to be married. Then, later on they divorced so that Henry could go and marry a different woman. This reason for divorcing Catherine seems rather unjustified, but one may see it a different way, because of what life was like back then. Also, Henry making himself head of the Church of England makes sense too if one agrees with it being justified for him divorcing Catherine.

When Catherine and Henry got married, they tried to have children multiple times. Their first child was a son, who they named Henry after his father. However, after two months of life, the baby died. This would be the first tragedy of many when it came to trying to have children between Henry and Catherine. Then, his eye caught a different and much more promising face.

This girl Henry saw's name was Ann Boleyn. She was a vivacious girl who liked to flaunt what she had to the men and act a little promiscuous. Henry wanted Ann to be his mistress, but Ann refused man times. She wanted to be queen or nothing with him. Eventually it became too much for Henry to take, and he wanted a divorce so that he could marry Ann and have an heir instead of the children dying every time. However, the pope would not allow him to do such a thing, Henry sought to make himself leader of the Church of England, and succeeded.

However, Henry soon grew tired of Ann, and took a fancy for one of her ladies in waiting. Her name was Jane Seymour, and she was almost the exact opposite of Ann. Jane was quiet, prim, and listened and obeyed commands, unlike Ann, who had her own way of doing things. Another reason Henry wanted to get rid of Ann was that she had not produced a son for him, which they had fought about several times, but was becoming old. So to get Ann out of his hair, Henry charged her with committing adultery and treason, and later on was beheaded.

It seems that yes, King Henry VIII was justified in divorcing Catherine of Aragon. The yearn for a male heir was fervent back then, because of the men being more powerful in the world of government and politics. Because Catherine could not produce, it would only seem logical for Henry to divorce her, because he wanted a male heir, which is completely understandable, since she could not produce a child, male or female for him. It would also be logical for him to make himself the head of the Church of England, since the pope would not annul the marriage. So yes, both issues were logical and justified in a sense.

Website Primary Sources:

http://www.thenagain.info/Classes/Sources/ActSupremacy.html

http://www.tudorhistory.org/henry8/

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/tudor_4.htm

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa35#347

http://www.tudorhistory.org/boleyn/