Henry VIII, Wolsey, and Queen Catherine
"His Majesty is twenty-nine years old and extremely handsome; nature could not have done more for him. He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom; a great deal…
From: 1519 C.E. To: 1529 C.E.
Location: Windsor Castle, Windsor, United Kingdom
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Readings in European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources by James Harvey Robinson, 1906.
The Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani, thus describes Henry VIII, Queen Catherine, and Wolsey, in 1519:
His Majesty is twenty-nine years old and extremely handsome; nature could not have done more for him. He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the king of France; very fair, and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing that Francis I wore a beard, he allowed his own to grow, and, as it is reddish, he has now a beard that looks like gold. He is very accomplished, a good musician, composes well, is a most capital horseman, a fine jouster, speaks good French, Latin, and Spanish; is very religious,—hears three masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days. He hears the office every day in the queen's chamber,—that is to say, vespers and compline.
He is very fond of hunting, and never takes his diversion without tiring eight or ten horses, which he causes to be stationed beforehand along the line of country he means to take; and when one is tired he mounts another, and before he gets home they are all exhausted. He is extremely fond of tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of finest texture. He gambles with the French hostages, to the amount occasionally, it is said, of from six thousand to eight thousand ducats in a day.
He is affable and gracious, harms no one, does not covet his neighbor's goods, and is satisfied with his own dominions, having often said to me, "Sir ambassador, we want all potentates to content themselves with their own territories; we are satisfied with this island of ours." He seems extremely desirous of peace.
He is very rich. His father left him ten millions of ready money in gold, of which he is supposed to have spent one half in the war against France, when he had three armies on foot: one crossed the Channel with him, another was in the field against Scotland, and the third remained with the queen in reserve....
The queen is the sister of the mother of the king of Spain, now styled King of the Romans. She is thirty-five years old and not handsome, though she has a very beautiful complexion. She is religious, and as virtuous as words can express. I have seen her but seldom.
The cardinal of York is of low origin, and has two brothers, one of whom holds an untitled benefice, and the other is pushing his fortune. He rules both the king and the entire kingdom. On my first arrival in England he used to say to me, "His Majesty will do so and so." Subsequently, by degrees, he forgot himself, and commenced saying, "We shall do so and so." At this present he has reached such a pitch that he says, "I shall do so and so." He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He alone transacts as much business as that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils of Venice, both civil and criminal; and all state affairs likewise are managed by him, let their nature be what it may.
Early in 1527 King Henry VIII determined to obtain a divorce from Catherine, and soon announced to her that they must separate. Wolsey then reluctantly induced Pope Clement VII to send a legate, Cardinal Campeggio, to England, who, with Wolsey, was to hold a court to determine whether the dispensation granted to Henry to marry his brother's widow was sufficient and valid under the circumstances. The trial was begun in May, 1529. When Queen Catherine was called upon in court she rose from her chair and came to the king, and, kneeling down at his feet, said:
"Sir, in what have I offended you? or what occasion of displeasure have I given you, intending thus to put me from you? I take God to be my judge, I have been to you a true and humble wife, ever conformable to your will and pleasure; never contradicting or gainsaying you in anything; being always contented with all things wherein you had any delight or took any pleasure, without grudge, or countenance of discontent or displeasure. I loved, for your sake, all them whom you loved, whether I had cause or no; whether they were my friends or my enemies.
"I have been your wife these twenty years or more, and you have had by me divers children; and when you had me first, I take God to be my judge, that I was a maid. Whether it be true or no, I put it to your own conscience. If there be any just cause that you can allege against me, either of dishonesty, or matter lawful to put me from you, I am content to depart, to my shame and confusion; and if there be none, then I pray you to let me have justice at your hands.
"The king, your father, was, in his time, of such an excellent wit, that he was accounted amongst all men for wisdom to be a second Solomon; and the king of Spain, my father, Ferdinand, was accounted one of the wisest princes that had reigned in Spain for many years. It is not, therefore, to be doubted, but that they had gathered as wise counselors unto them, of every realm, as in their wisdom they thought meet. And I conceive that there were in those days as wise and well-learned men, in both the realms, as be now at this day, who thought the marriage between you and me good and lawful. Therefore it is a wonder to me what new inventions are now invented against me. And now to put me to stand to the order and judgment of this court seems very unreasonable...
“I humbly pray you to spare me until I may know what Counsel my friends in Spain will advise me to take; and if you will not, then your pleasure be fulfilled." And with that she rose up and departed, nevermore appearing in any court.
Catherine's friends, however, induced the pope to evoke the case to Rome, and so quite removed the whole matter from Wolsey’s control. He thereby forfeited the king's favor, and Sir Thomas More was appointed chancellor in his stead. A few months after the trial (October, 1529) we find Wolsey writing piteously to the disappointed monarch.
Most gracious and merciful Sovereign Lord:
Though that I, your poor, heavy, and wretched priest, do daily pursue, cry, and call upon your Royal Majesty for grace, mercy, remission, and pardon, yet in most humble wise I beseech your Highness not to think that it proceedeth of any mistrust that I have in your merciful goodness, nor that I would encumber or molest your Majesty by any indiscreet or inopportune suit; but that the same only cometh of an inward and ardent desire that I have continually to declare unto your Highness how that, wot unto God, I neither desire nor covet anything in this world but the attaining of your gracious favor and forgiveness of my trespass.
And for this cause I cannot desist nor forbear, but to be a continual and most lowly suppliant to your benign grace. For surely, most gracious king, the remembrance of my folly, with the sharp word of your Highness' displeasure, hath so penetrated my heart that I cannot but lamentably cry and say, "It is sufficient." Now withhold thy hand, most merciful king. Forgive and ye shall be forgiven….
Your Grace's most prostrate, poor chaplain, creature, and beadsman,
Thomas, Cardinal York, most unhappy.
Robinson, James Harvey. Readings in European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources. Vol. 1. Ginn and Co. 1906.
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