The date is June 1527. King Henry VIII is desperate to get rid of his first wife Catherine who isn’t playing ball with his request for a divorce or annulment. He tries to get her to enter a nunnery as a final straw.

It's true that Henry tried to get Catherine to enter a convent but she was having none of it. Wolsey did indeed tell everyone that she had a disease of her sexual organs but she had gone through the menopause so more children were impossible.

She was just 15 when she came to England and never saw her parents again. She had to stay and marry her first husband Arthur's brother, Henry. Money was very tight for her. She had to wait 8 years before she finally married Henry and there was a six year age gap.

She was incredibly pious in the catholic faith. The Erasmus manual on marriage, really was written about Catherine and Henry! She did lose four children in five years. The pope really was captured by her nephew, buying her a bit of time. They were married for 18 years and in all that time, no one had every suggested that it was invalid. She was steadfast in her will to stay married to Henry and was never going to make it easy to ger rid of her or their daughter Mary. Her sister did indeed end up in a convent and was there for 50 years so she had no wish to go the same way.

If you want to find out more about Catherine of Aragon, check out the sources and places below:

Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII's True Wife - Amy Licence

Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen - Giles Tremlett

Peterborough Cathedral (where she is buried, image 2)