Henry VIII’s evidence for annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon discovered 

Henry VIII’s evidence for annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon discovered

A book of legal and philosophical advice, used as evidence by King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell to bring about the annulment of The King’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, has recently been discovered in Cornwall.

The leather-bound tome contained a summary of the theories of the medieval philosopher William of Ockham and found on the shelves of the library at Lanhydrock, a National Trust mansion in Cornwall. Professor James Carley, an American scholar and an expert on the history of Henry VIII’s library, identified the book.

The Professor was thrilled by the discovery. “The book is important not only for its provenance but for the notes entered in it by Henry VIII’s advisers, and no doubt intended for him to see,” he said. “They draw attention to precisely the sort of issues that were so relevant to the king’s policies in the years leading up to the break with Rome.”

King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon just a few short months after ascending the throne in 1509. She had married his older brother Arthur but widowed upon Arthur’s premature death in 1502.

For the most part, they were happy together. That changed in 1525, as Henry had grown impatient with Catherine for failing to provide him with a surviving male heir. The couple had a daughter, Mary, together, but neither of their two living sons had survived past infancy. The King desperately needed a son to succeed him if the Tudor line was to continue.

The Tudor King sought an annulment of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

In the meantime, King Henry entered into a relationship with Anne Boleyn. However, Anne refused to be his mistress, and only agreed to be with Henry if she married her. Driven by lust, Henry sought to seek an annulment from his first wife Catherine, who was now in her 40s and past the age of bearing children, so that he could marry Anne.

But Pope Clement VII refused to give the required dispensations for King Henry to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Nevertheless, Henry married Anne Boleyn in 1533 and began the process of withdrawal from Rome. When Pope Clement declared that Catherine, and not Anne, was the rightful Queen of England, Henry retaliated by passing the Act of Supremacy. The Act established the Monarch, which was him, as the head of the Church of England and marked the beginning of the English Reformation.

This particular episode in Tudor history features prominently in Hilary Mantel’s

. You can read more about the reasons for which Henry VIII sought an annulment of his first marriage here.

The copy of the theories of the medieval philosopher William of Ockham found in the royal library was published in 1495. Ockham wrote in Latin about the limits of the power of the Pope and the independence of the authority of the Monarch. Several relevant passages were marked by King Henry’s lawyers, including one translated as “When it is permitted to withdraw from obedience to the pope”.

The book, which helped ensure Henry VIII’s annulment and eventual break with Rome, was damaged by a fire in 1881, but luckily the fly-leaf survived. Although nothing in the book is written in The King’s hand, the first page bears the number 282 in black ink. Professor Carley identified this significant number as corresponding with an inventory of King Henry’s books that taken in 1542.

The library at Lanhydrock is one of the finest among those belonging to the National Trust. The collection of books predates the building itself, which is a Victorian replacement for the earlier Jacobean building which was destroyed in the fire of 1881. Almost all of the books were saved from the fire, and while their leather covers survived, their spines had to be replaced, making them difficult to identify.

Many of the books in the collection were acquired by Hannibal Gamon, a Cornish scholar, and chaplain, in the 17th century after their disposal of from the Royal collection. They have since sat on the shelves at Lanhydrock, undisturbed until now.

The book in question is currently on public display at Lanhydrock, as a part of the exhibition ‘Monarchy and the Book’.

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