by Anne Penny

Created on: January 26, 2010

The day that Catherine of Aragon was buried, January 29 1536, was a fateful day for Ann Boleyn who had supplanted Catherine in the affection of Henry the VIII and who had been pronounced Queen of England.

 Ann had married the king in secrecy in 1533. She was already pregnant and very obviously so at her coronation on May 29. Henry was ecstatic at the sure prospect of a male heir, for Catherine had produced only one live daughter, Mary, and for a powerful Tudor monarch a son and heir were essential. Sadly for Henry, Ann was unable to oblige as in September 1533, she gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth. This was her first failure of duty to the king and Henry began to question this sign of God’s displeasure towards him in not granting his wish for a son.

 Catherine of Aragon was 24 when she had married Henry in 1509. She had been a widow for seven years, since the death of her young husband Arthur, older brother of Henry. Her second marriage was happy in the early years, marred somewhat by the birth of a stillborn daughter. However, in 1511 to great national rejoicing, a son was born to Catherine and Henry. Alas, the boy lived for only a few weeks, a tragedy followed in 1513 by yet another son, this time stillborn. Numerous miscarriages occurred through these trying years but at last in February 1516 Catherine gave birth to a healthy baby, but it was a girl –Mary. Henry began to think that God was punishing him by not allowing him to have a son, a feeling reinforced when Catherine gave birth for the last time in 1518, to another girl who lived only briefly.

 Henry the VIII noticed Ann Boleyn in 1523 when she returned to England from the French court where she had spent some years. Henry was immediately attracted to the striking young woman with such French ways and was surprised when she refused to become his mistress. Ann continued to hold him off for some years. Henry began to accept that Catherine would bear no more children; his desperation for a son grew stronger and the only way seemed to be to rid himself of his wife and take a new one.

 Henry was besotted by Ann Boleyn; she was not, it seems, in love with the king but she was clever and ambitious and in 1533 having explained away and repudiated his marriage to his brother’s widow, Henry secretly married Ann. There was the immediate promise of a son and Henry was ecstatic at the prospect but he was disappointed yet again, when on September 6, Ann Boleyn gave birth to a

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