On June 22, 1527, Henry told Catherine that their marriage was over.
Catherine was stunned and wounded, but determined. She made it clear that she would not agree to a divorce. She was convinced that there had been no impediment -- lawful, moral or religious -- to their marriage, and that she must continue in her role as Henry's wife and queen.
Although Henry continued to show Catherine respect, he forged ahead with his plans to obtain an annulment, not realizing that Clement VII would never grant him one. During the months of negotiations that followed, Catherine remained at court, enjoying the support of the people, but growing isolated from the courtiers as they abandoned her in favor of Anne Boleyn.
In Autumn of 1528, the pope ordered that the matter be handled in a trial in England, and appointed Cardinal Campeggio and Thomas Wolsey to conduct it. Campeggio met with Catherine and tried to persuade her to give up her crown and enter a convent, but the queen held to her rights. She lodged an appeal to Rome against the authority of the court the papal legates planned to hold.
Wolsey and Henry believed Campeggio had irrevocable papal authority, but in fact the Italian cardinal had been instructed to delay matters. And delay them he did. The Legatine Court did not open until May 31, 1529. When Catherine appeared before the tribunal on June 18, she stated that she did not recognize its authority. When she returned three days later, she threw herself at her husband's feet and begged for his compassion, swearing that she'd been a maid when they'd wed and had always been a loyal wife.
Henry responded kindly, but Catherine's plea failed to deter him from his course. She in turn persisted in appealing to Rome, and refused to return to the court. In her absence, she was judged contumacious, and it looked like Henry would soon receive a decision in his favor. Instead, Campeggio found an excuse for further delay; and in August, Henry was ordered to appear before the papal curia in Rome.
Furious, Henry at last understood he would not get what he wanted from the pope, and he began to look for other ways to resolve his dilemma. Circumstances may have seemed cast in Catherine's favor, but Henry had decided otherwise, and it was only a matter of time before her world would spin out of her control.
And she wasn't the only one about to lose everything.
Next: The New Chancellor