Katherine of Aragon & Cardinal WolseyCatherine’s judgment that Wolsey was the instigator o

Katherine of Aragon & Cardinal WolseyCatherine’s judgment that Wolsey was the instigator of her troubles should have due weight. She was not inclined to hysteria, and the discipline of morethan twenty years’ experience of court and diplomatic intrigue, acting on anintelligence naturally strong and alert, had given her an insight into character and motives unsubtle, it is true, but usually sound and shrewd. She should have known both Henry and Wolsey better than anyone else. She believed that Henry would never have thought of a divorce if Wolsey had not suggested it, and that the expedient had occurred to Wolsey as the best method of safeguarding his pro-French policy by removing from Henry’s side the Emperor’s chief friend in England and substituting a French princess. Catherine’s view, sharedin 1527 by most of the diplomats in London and generally by the court and thecity, has much to recommend it. Garrett Mattingly, Catherine of AragonThere was no open rift between the King and Queen. Whilst awaiting the Pope’s decision, they appeared together in public, continued to dine and spend time together in private, and showed each other every courtesy. But Katherine knew herself to be watched; several of her women were Wolsey’s spies, bribed by gifts, financial inducements and even sex, and every letter she sent or received was scrutinised before it reached its destination. Each attempt she made to see Mendoza in private was blocked. It was not surprising, therefore, that she incorrectly blamed Wolsey for what was happening, a view that was to be shared by many other people, notably Charles V. It was inconceivable to her that Henry himself could have instigated these proceedings.Alison Weir, Henry VIII: King and CourtKatherine had come to loathe Wolsey, believing him an enemy of Charles and imagining him to be the main instigator of the divorce, but his spectacular fall, and its consequences, shocked even her.Julia Fox, Sister queens: the noble, tragic lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of CastileAnne’s faction was continually afraid that the cardinal would wheedle his way back into Henry’saffection. Catherine, however, had begun to feel some sympathy for Wolsey. Perhaps it was having amutual enemy in Anne Boleyn that softened her. It was not until November 1530 that Wolsey’s enemiesmanaged to ensure treason charges were brought against him. Catherine was central to these charges.Chapuys reported that Wolsey was being accused by some of plotting to have the pope excommunicateHenry if he did not treat his wife with proper respect and dismiss Anne Boleyn from court. Henry laterdeclared that Wolsey had intrigued ‘both in and out of the kingdom’. There had been, it was claimed, signsof ‘sinister practices made to the court of Rome’. Wolsey had, indeed, been advising Chapuys about howbest to advance Catherine’s cause. At one stage he had even urged Chapuys on to ‘bold and immediateaction’ in reply to Henry’s own manoeuvres.Wolsey was arrested and, though he had been ill for a long time, refused to eat. He died of naturalcauses as he was being taken to the Tower of London on 29 November 1530. He thus saved himself theignominy of long-term imprisonment, execution or both. He went to his death fully aware that the titanicclash of wills between Catherine and Henry had caused his downfall. ‘This is the just reward that I mustreceive for my worldly diligence and the pains that I have taken to do the king service and satisfy his vainpleasures,’ he said as, with his final words, he regretted having served Henry more loyally than god.Wolsey’s parting message to Henry was that he should study his own conscience ‘in the weighty matter yetdepending … [to decide] whether I have offended him or no’. That ‘weighty’ business, Cavendishconfirmed, was none other than ‘the matter newly begun between him and good Queen Catherine’. Theonce all-powerful cardinal thus became the first major casualty in the battle between Henry andCatherine. Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon: Henry’s Spanish Queen -- source link

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