How can we explain the seeming paradox of King Henry IX — the son of the most Catholic Defender of the Faith King Henry VIII and pious Queen Katherine of Aragon — breaking with the Roman Catholic Church in 1558?
To understand this, we need to consider Henry IX’s formation. Just 18 months after his parents’ glittering joint coronation at Westminster Abbey, Prince Henry was born on New Year’s Day 1511 to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.
The romance between Henry and Katherine is one of the great love stories of history, so it is easily forgotten that she had previously been married to Henry’s brother, Arthur: at their wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1501, the young Henry had walked Katherine down the aisle, and it is probably at that point that he conceived his desire for her.
She was his first love and marrying her was one of the first acts of his new reign. Until her death in 1536, he demonstrated his utter devotion to her by inscribing their intertwined initials on his armour, featuring her badge — the pomegranate — alongside his rose throughout his palaces, and even defying convention by wearing her favours in the lists.
The couple shared a love of music, dancing, entertainments and magnificence. Henry liked to hunt, Katherine to hawk; both rode fearlessly. They had both been highly educated and could converse in Latin and French as well as English, as some rueful ambassadors discovered. Their shared love of learning and patronage, and their mutual taste in devotional and theological works, explains many of the riches of the Royal Collection today.
In 1524 Venetian Marino Sanuto observed that Henry and Katherine were two separate bodies animated by one spirit and one mind. Theirs was almost a joint rulership: Henry trusted Katherine and was advised by her. Katherine’s parents, Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, had adopted the motto tanto monta — each as important as the other — and it could equally have been applied to Henry and Katherine.
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