[kabumpo]

If Catherine had accepted annulment and gone to a nunnery, her daughter Mary would have been declared a bastard and lost her opportunity to ever marry, and, of course, lost her right to inherit the throne. Catherine was protecting her only child, as any mother of that time would have done.

[Kenny Bunk]

Kabumpo, turn in your Canon Lawyer Certificate immediately. In accepting the Pope's offer of the highly paid position at ye olde nunnery, Catherine would not have had her marriage annulled, it would be set aside via a subspecies of the "Pauline Privilege," granted to innumerable noblewomen put aside by their medieval husbands for various reasons. As in all things Vaticanal, there's left, right, black, white, grey, and chartreuse. Direct further queries to a Jesuit.

Now true, Mary may well have lost her place in line for the top gig, however, I am sure they would have worked out a sweet deal for her, too. H8 like her pretty well at the start of the mess. Queen Catherine? Not well advised in the negotiating department.