We can clearly see that there is more than one reason why Henry wanted to gain an annulment to Catherine in 1529, and that it wasn’t purely down to reasons all diplomatically related. Although saying this, it’s also clear that the diplomatic situation at the time was a huge contributing factor for the failure. It most definitely did slow down the progress Henry made in achieving his annulment.
At the time of the annulment, it was known that the Pope was hugely influenced by Charles V, who at the time was the Holy Roman Emperor. Due to Charles’ role he had the ability to sway the Popes decision and therefore played a huge part in the matter of the Pope allowing the annulment to be granted. Unfortunately for Henry, Charles V was the nephew of Catherine of Aragon, and would therefore would obviously the oppose the matter of the annulment, most probably due to the shame it would bring to his family, and also due to the fact that he didn’t want to see his aunt get hurt.
In Source 3 it strongly argues the point that this diplomatic situation was key to Henry’s attempt at getting an annulment, leading to failure. It is abundantly clear that due to his role as the head of the Catholic church, The Pope had a lot of control over many of the European countries and influenced a lot of the decision making processes that were undertaken. It was clear to Henry that the only way Henry woud sucessfuly achieve in getting his annulment granted would be to get permission from the Pope, as thw Pope was in Charles V’s imprisonment, this was starting to look like an almost impossible task.
To make the possibility of annulment even more implausible, is the fact that Catherina was the aunt of Charles. SSource K is shown to further support this point where it says that “I have quite made up my mind to become an imperialist and live and die as such”. Here we can clearly see how hard it would be for Henry to negotiate an annulment because we now see that the Pop had agreed to follow Charles as an imperialist and goes to the extent of saying he would “live and die as such”.
Another diplomatic situation that stacked against Henry, was the lack of allies he had, and especially the fact that he had no powerful allies to support him in his struggle, or powerful enough to oppose the Pope and Charles. With it looking that Henry had absolutely no diplomatic power or control in this situation, it was looking that he would stand almost no chance in changing the mind of the Pope and Charles into agreeing to the annulment. Although it’s beginning to look like diplomatic status was the only reason that caused the failure in the annulment, there were other factors such as Wolsey.
At this point in time,Wolsey was widely unpopular, especially in England. He had previously had huge influence amongst the ranks of the courtiers, but they now felt no need to obey his orders. Due to this, he justlike Henry had very few allies, and the few he did have weren’t powerful enough to help him in his cause. Due to this he was faced with great issues when it came to convincing Campeggio that Henry had plausible reason to gain an annulment. Arguably the biggest fault of Wolsey, would be his very poor relations with the Vatican and the papacy.
Source J says that Wolsey’s only real hope at obtaining Henry’s annulment would be to turn the people on Charles and gain more powerful allies such as France, it’s made clear in this source that these are his aims, when it states that ‘Wolsey rises all his means to bring the Emperor into hatred, and Francis into favour, but its hard work, to fight against nature’, the source also acknowledges how hard it will be to do so.
Saying this, Source J also says that “Anne Boleyn is... come hither, and the King has lodged her in a very fine lodging, which he prepared for her himself” which effectively translates to it saying that Henry is showing great interest in Anne Boleyn. Source J proceeds to say that, “I see they mean to accustom the people by degrees to endure her, so that when the blow comes it may not be thought strange. ” It appears to ne that the French Ambassador is saying that Henry has already begun the plans to have Anne as his queen, which goes against everything he said a moth earlier to the Aldermen of London, where he said that if he was to marry again, it would be to Catherine.
In Source I it is clear that Catherine is refusing to accept Henry’s claim that their marriage was invalid, which gives us another reason to understand why Charles V was in such strong opposition to the annulment. Campeggio writes, “she assured me that she would never do so (make a profession of chastity); that she intended to live and die in the estate of matrimony, into which God had called her, and that she would always be of that opinion, and would not change it. ” It appears to be the case that Campeggio was adamant that Catherine was convinced that her and Henry’s marriage was legitimate in the eyes of good.
Due to Catherine’s passion about this point, it explains why Charles was also desperate that the annulment wasn’t allowed so it didn’t bring shame to his aunt. In conclusion I believe that when combined, both sources K and I suggest that the diplomatic situation was a factor in the failure to gain an annulment. However it is clear throughout all three sources, that this wasn’t the only reason, as gaining an annulment would always be a difficult task, regardless of what diplomatic situation Henry was in at the time. Although saying this, it’s abundantly clear that the diplomatic situation was the main reason for Henry securing the annulment he wanted so much.
