The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon

The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII by James Anthony Froude. Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) was Queen of England (1509-1533) as the first wife of King Henry VIII and previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Prince Arthur. The mythic element cannot be eliminated out of history. Men who play leading parts on the world’s stage gather about them the admiration of friends and the animosity of disappointed rivals or political enemies. The atmosphere becomes charged with legends of what they have said or done—some inventions, some distortions of facts, but rarely or never accurate. Their outward acts, being public, cannot be absolutely misstated; their motives, being known only to themselves, are an open field for imagination; and as the disposition is to believe evil rather than good, the portraits drawn may vary indefinitely, according to the sympathies of the describer, but are seldom too favourable.