To: NYer
Henry 8th needed out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon for political reasons, not for lack of an heir.
Catherine's nephew (Charles V) became the Holy Roman Emperor and united the Houses of Burgandy and Hapsburg. Henry understood that being married into such a family would eventually threaten his sovereignty with vassalage and the very independence he had been fighting for against France.
ANY child that Henry and Catherine would produce would eventually threaten England's independence because of dynastic succession. This, in part, explains why the English were so opposed to Mary's marriage to Philip II.
Henry and Catherine's daughter Mary married Philip for political reasons and the result was an eventual subordination of English sovereignty to the Holy Roman Empire.
The only way out was for Henry to get out of that family, hence putting Catherine away. Just as the only way for England to preserve its independence was to overthrow Mary.
83 posted on
03/16/2006 1:17:01 PM PST by
sanormal
To: sanormal
Your timeline's off.
Mary Tudor didn't marry Philip of Spain until AFTER she was legitimated and crowned queen (1553) - long after Henry was dead and after Edward VI's reign in between. So Henry didn't make ANY decisions based on Mary's marriage . . . because at that point he'd been dead for years.
101 posted on
03/16/2006 7:49:26 PM PST by
AnAmericanMother
(Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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