Past Op-Ed: The King and The Great Whore

By Evan Rothera

When the our children’s children’ children sit down to record the history of this world upon the parchments, the treatment of Queen Katharine of Aragon at the hands of her husband, King Henry VIII of England, and the Great Whore, Anne Boleyn, must be recorded so the contemporaries of these future historians understand how the Queen was maligned, wronged, castigated, humiliated, insulted, tormented, and subjugated, all so that a monarch who was little more than a gigantic spoiled child could marry a woman of such questionable character that even the cruelest or commonest woman of the night would scarcely deign to be seen with her in public.

That the king could have his head turned by such a woman is an insult to both the alleged greatness of his spirit, and surely it is beyond the comprehension of even the wisest and most prescient of men, but sadly, for England, for Rome, for Europe, and ultimately for the world, the King allowed himself to be lead by an organ other than his heart and initiated a battle against his loyal and devoted wife which would last for years and destroy them both in the end.

This tale of tragedy and woe has roots in the days of Henry’s youth for, originally the Queen was to be married to the King’s older brother Arthur, but he died shortly after their marriage, which had not been yet consummated, thereby binding her in no way to the dead prince. The kings of England and Spain, unwilling to break what had promised to be a profitable alliance, decided that Katharine and Henry should be married and while they were, and happily for many years, their union, though chaste and pure, produced but one child, the Princess Mary. To the king, who was desirous of a male issue and who would have one regardless of the cost, another solution had to be found, and his solution was the Great Whore, Anne Boleyn.

The king, never a man of patience, expected that he would simply be able to tell the queen that he was finished with her, take a mistress, and have life proceed as normal, despite the fact that he would have committed the sin of adultery. Unsurprisingly, the Queen refused and thereby ensued one of the longest, bitterest battles ever fought between monarchs (save King Henry II of England and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, which I am sure all of us in this fine court remember quite clearly).

The queen, in the right from the start, would not allow her philandering, morally questionable husband to simply toss her aside, as if she were so much refuse; she fought him with every weapon in her intellectual arsenal (which was far more expansive than that of the king’s). Ultimately, like Moses did unto the Pharaoh, the King continued to hardened her heart, continued to plague the Holy Father in Rome for a divorce, and furthermore continued the senseless fight when he was decided against by Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio.

It there is any doubt that Katharine of Aragon was anything less than a loving wife and excellent queen, when she was told, by the Imperial Ambassador [Chapuys], that her nephew, Emperor Charles V was prepared to invade England and restore her to her rightful place, and was waiting for her command to do so, she refused, and maintained that she was still loyal to her husband and that while she thanked her nephew for his efforts, she would not have her husband deposed.

Katharine did not care for her the riches of the king, the power and status of the position as queen, and did not fight to retain her place for selfish, materialistic reasons. She fought out of love. A love for her daughter, whom she did not want to see declared a bastard and therefore forfeit the right to inherit the throne. She fought to the death (there is significant evidence that she was poisoned, though whether on the orders of the King or the Great Whore is unknown). When she died, the Great Whore and the king were heard to lift their voices in praise and hosannas, as if some miracles had been preformed for their convenience, notwithstanding the fact that they had torn down, humiliated, beaten, tormented, harassed, and ultimately killed a woman who was far more gracious, kind, gentle, intellectually advanced, noble, just, and pious than they could ever hope to be.

When the King and his Great Whore burn in Hell for all eternity, we will know and be cognizant of the fact that only then has justice truly been accomplished.