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in the hope of producing a male heir.
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Henry had already “produced a male heir” with Catherine..

a couple of them in fact...

One at least was a healthy boy who Henry insisted be taken out soon after he was born into the freezing weather to be baptized in the unheated palace chapel ...the baby caught cold and died...

Henry had about 6 children with Catherine of Aragon..

Only Mary survived past infancy..

Nana, Henry VIII sired Henry FitzRoy, The Duke of Richmond with Betsey Blount. The boy was hale and hearty until an epidemic of some sort (The Sweats) carried him off. He also sired a fine strong male child with Mary Carey, sister of Anne Boleyn, and a fine healthy daughter, too. (The Careys are still hot stuff in Olde Blighty.) In fact, Mary was a royal mistress before, and apparently during and after the Ann Boleyn deal went down.

So, Since H8 was capable of fathering boy-children who lived, hje actually had some pretty good dynastic reason to dump Catherine of Aragon, or vice versa. One problem was that he had had to get a Papal Dispensation to marry her in the first place. And your Pope, he no lika change-a the deal once-a he gotta da money, capisce? Especially with a bunch of crazy Spaniards trying to burn Rome-town down! He did offer Queen Catherine a way out ... go to a nunnery! IMHO, she shoulda.

These annulments for big-time guys with heir problems were the norm, rather than the exception. I personally think that had H8 not been trying to prove what a brilliant theologian he was, the deal could have been done on the QT ... except for trying to swipe all that monastic property.

Ah well, it all worked out for the best. Those Anglicans have the best Church Jumble Sales! And their service can have enough ceremony, vestments, song, smells, and bells to satisfy any wandering Papist.