29 September 1528 A.D. DOVER, KENT: Cardinal Campeggio arrives in England
29 September 1528 A.D. DOVER, KENT:
Cardinal Campeggio arrives in England
Ridgeway, Claire. “29 September 1528—Cardinal Campeggio
arrives in England.” The Anne Boleyn
Files. 29 Sept 2015. http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/29-september-1528-cardinal-campeggio-arrives-in-england/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAnneBoleynFiles+%28The+Anne+Boleyn+Files%29http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/29-september-1528-cardinal-campeggio-arrives-in-england/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAnneBoleynFiles+%28The+Anne+Boleyn+Files%29.
Accessed 29 Sept 2015.
29 September 1528 – Cardinal Campeggio arrives in England
Posted
By Claire on
September 29, 2015
On
this day in history, 29th September 1528, the papal legate, Cardinal Lorenzo
Campeggio, landed at Dover on the Kent coast. He had been made papal legate in
June 1528 in preparation for hearing the case for the annulment of the marriage
of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon at a special legatine court.
Click here to read more about him and the legatine
court at Blackfriars.
Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/29-september-1528-cardinal-campeggio-arrives-in-england/#ixzz3n8CsEZb5
Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/29-september-1528-cardinal-campeggio-arrives-in-england/#ixzz3n8CsEZb5
Ridgeway, Claire. “Cardinal Campeggio and the Legatine
Court.” The Anne Boleyn Files. 29
Sept 2010. http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/cardinal-campeggio-and-the-legatine-court/.
Accessed 29 Sept 2015.
Cardinal Campeggio and the Legatine Court
Posted
By Claire on
September 29, 2010
Cardinal
Lorenzo Campeggio
On this day in history, 29th September
1528, the papal legate, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, landed at Dover on the Kent
coast. In early 1528 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s right hand man, had
written to Pope Clement VII outlining Henry VIII’s demand that the case for an
annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon be decided in England by
Wolsey and a visiting papal legate, who would act with the full authority of
the Pope. On the 13th April 1528, a papal bull had empowered Cardinal Wolsey as
the Pope’s viceregent “to take cognisance of all matters concerning the King’s
divorce” and Campeggio had been made papal legate in June 1528 in preparation
for hearing the divorce case.
On
the 8th December 1528, Cardinal Campeggio arrived in London but Eric Ives
explains how his “powers were not complete” which necessitated “further
wearisome and unsatisfactory negotiation with the papal Curia.” This lack of
authority was actually a papal stalling tactic. Things were made worse for
Henry VIII and Wolsey when Catherine of Aragon produced Pope Julius II’s
dispensation for her to marry Henry. This put a spanner in the works and caused
delays with the case. In the meantime, Campeggio met with Catherine and advised
her to join a convent, something which would allow the marriage to be annulled
easily. However, Catherine believed that she was Henry’s true wife and queen
and would not agree to taking the veil. Henry VIII and Wolsey then played
dirty, threatening Catherine with separation from her daughter, Mary, if she
would not obey the King. Instead of submitting to the King, Catherine fought
back by appealing to Rome against the authority of Wolsey and Campeggio to try
the case at a Legatine Court. She had the support of the people and men like
John Fisher (Bishop of Rochester), Archbishop Warham and Cuthbert Tunstall
(Bishop of London).
Campeggio
could only stall for so long and formal proceedings finally began on the 31st
May 1529 at the Legatine Court at Blackfriars. On the 21st June, Catherine of
Aragon gave what David Starkey calls “the speech of her life”. She approached
her husband, knelt at his feet and gave the following speech in slightly broken
English:-
“Sir,
I beseech you for all the love that hath been between us, and for the love of
God, let me have justice. Take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor
woman, and a stranger born out of your dominion. I have here no assured
friends, and much less impartial counsel… Alas! Sir, wherein have I offended
you, or what occasion of displeasure have I deserved?… I have been to you a
true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure,
that never said or did any thing to the contrary thereof, being always well
pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance,
whether it were in little or much. I never grudged in word or countenance, or
showed a visage or spark of discontent. I loved all those whom ye loved, only
for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or
enemies. This twenty years or more I have been your true wife and by me ye have
had divers children, although it hath pleased God to call them out of this
world, which hath been no default in me… When ye had me at first, I take God to
my judge, I was a true maid, without touch of man. And whether it be true or
no, I put it to your conscience. If there be any just cause by the law that ye
can allege against me either of dishonesty or any other impediment to banish
and put me from you, I am well content to depart to my great shame and
dishonour. And if there be none, then here, I most lowly beseech you, let me
remain in my former estate… Therefore, I most humbly require you, in the way of
charity and for the love of God – who is the just judge – to spare me the
extremity of this new court, until I may be advised what way and order my
friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if ye will not extend to me so
much impartial favour, your pleasure then be fulfilled, and to God I commit my
cause!”
In
this speech, Catherine also reminded Henry that his father, “The Second
Solomon”, and her father, had considered “the marriage between you and me good
and lawful”. She ended her speech still on her knees, though Henry had tried to
raise her up twice during her speech. She then asked for the King’s permission
to write to the Pope to defend her honour, which he gave. Catherine then
curtseyed and instead of walking back to her seat walked straight out of court,
ignoring the crier who called for her to return to her seat. As her receiver
general, Griffin Richards, told her that she was being called back, Catherine
was heard to reply, “On, on. It makes no matter, for it is no impartial court
for me, therefore I will not tarry. Go on.” And with that she left the Legatine
Court. What a woman!
Over
the next month, Henry VIII tried to prove that Catherine had consummated her
marriage to his brother, Arthur, but Catherine had already signed protestations
of her virginity and Bishop John Fisher shocked the court in his defence of
Catherine’s virtue, quoting from the Book of Matthew and saying:-
“Quos
Deus conjunxit, homo non separet. ‘What therefore God has joined together, let
not man put asunder.’ And, for as much as this marriage was made and joined by
God to a good intent, I say that I know the truth; which is that it cannot be
broken or loosed by the power of man.”
He
then said that he was so convinced of Catherine’s cause that he would lay down
his life for it. Which, of course, he did in the end.
Henry
VIII then sent Wolsey and Campeggio to see Catherine, to try and bully her into
submission, but this failed miserably. In the meantime, on the 13th July, Pope
Clement approved Catherine’s appeal, although Catherine was not to hear of this
for some time. In desperation, Campeggio tried another stalling tactic, in July
1529 he announced that the court would adjourn until October, for a summer
recess due to the fact that it was “reaping and harvesting” time in Rome, a
time when courts did not sit. Henry VIII was furious but the Legatine Court was
suspended, never to sit again because then the news reached England that
Catherine’s appeal had been successful. It was a huge blow for Henry, who had
expected the court to pass sentence and rule in his favour on the 23rd July.
Henry
VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was not annulled until nearly 4 years
later, in May 1533 when Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and his court ruled that
Henry and Catherine had never been legally married and that the King’s marriage
to Anne Boleyn, which had taken place in secret on the 25th January 1533, was
valid. A pregnant Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England just days later.
Sources
- The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives,
p96
- Catherine of Aragon: Henry’s Spanish Queen, Giles Tremlett – Due for release in the UK on 4th November 2010, Chapters 37 “Defiance”, 38 “Ghostly Advice” and 39 “Carnal Copulation”.
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