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it seemed since Katherine's family had since lost their prestige), why not try for their passion?

Well he soon found out why it wasn't good to ignore politics when you marry not just as a man but as the head of a nation: marrying a common subject had many problems. One was that instead of the increased admiration abroad that he craved, he garnered ridicule for her common status and questionable morals (ironically morals she had likely acquired in France). And more importantly for his practical success as a ruler, because she represented only one power faction of his subjects and wielded that power against the others, perhaps even rashly, the others busily worked against her to get her rival, the passive Jane Seymour, on the throne instead. In the end she became so unpopular that Henry had no choice but to give her up, whatever his personal feelings on the matter, because she was doing his crown harm and little good.

The first thing that soured her chances to remain on the throne was of course her inability to have the son that Henry married her for. In the one living daughter and other miscarriages, Henry surely saw his history with Catherin repeating itself. And he didn't want to wait as long this time.

Their relationship and her fate is littered with tragic irony, but one of the bitterest was that sealing her fate was actually Katherine's death from what was rumored as cruel treatment or even poisoning by Anne herself. She would have remained protected as long as Katherine lived, because Henry would have known that if he had Anne executed Katherine would have renewed her legal assertion that they were still married. But since that didn't happen, he told his advisers he wanted out and quickly.

Trumped up charges were produced on adultery with five men, witch craft, and conspiring for the death of the king. Many who testified against here were only refereed to by third parties as hearsay, some were dead and some were not brought to trial because they were not available or were unwilling to come forward. She could not call the men who she knew could testify for her innocence because by the time she was tried they were condemned traitors and their testimony was ineligible. Some of those who testified were hostile to the Queen.

The case could not have been won without the testimony of Lady Rochford, the "witness" to Anne's alleged affair with her brother, could only say that she saw them kissing, allegedly with open mouths, and that they spend a great deal of time

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