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relations between the monarch and his
consort cooled, Henry sought to have the
marriage annulled on the ground that even
a pope had lacked the authority to autho-
rize a marriage under such fundamental
divine prohibitions. From 1526 onward
Henry VIII's attempts to secure the nullifi-
cation of his marriage were thwarted by
Catherine's refusal to cooperate and the
interference of her nephew, C HARLES I of
Spain, to keep the pope from granting Hen-
ry's wishes. Finally in 1533 Henry repudi-
ated papal authority and obtained a decree
of divorce from an English court. He thus
was freed to marry his mistress, Anne
Boleyn, who bore him yet another daugh-
ter (the future Elizabeth I). Throughout
this process Catherine had maintained her
personal dignity and a firm regal insis-
tence upon her rights. She continued to
maintain her long-established popularity
among the English people, even as she
was forced to live in a minor royal resi-
dence until her death.
The bitter dispute over Catherine of
Aragon's rejection by Henry VIII was the
precipitating issue in the English Reforma-
tion. It also disrupted the Anglo-Spanish
alliance that had strengthened Spain's
hand in the opening phase of the I TALIAN
W ARS . That alliance would be renewed
briefly during the reign of Catherine's
daughter, Mary Tudor (1553-58), Eng-
land's last Catholic ruler.
Catherine of Aragon (Library of Congress)
was arranged by his father, Henry VII, to
promote political and commercial ties for
the Tudor dynasty with the increasingly
powerful Spanish monarchy. When Arthur
died in 1502 it was immediately proposed
to marry Catherine to his younger brother,
Henry, but the matter was delayed over the
question of a papal dispensation required to
celebrate a marriage between a man and his
brother's widow. It was not until the prince
succeeded his father in 1509 that he and
Catherine were wed. The marriage was at
first a happy one, but of Catherine's six
children only one survived infancy. That
child, the future Queen Mary I, was consid-
ered by her father to be an insufficient
guarantee for the survival of the Tudor
dynasty in an era of political instability. As
Catherine of Bragança (Catherine
of Braganza, Catalina) (1638-1705)
Portuguese queen-consort of England
Daughter of J OHN IV, the first king of Por-
tugal's new B RAGANÇA dynasty, Catherine
married Charles II of England in 1662.
 
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