KING HENRY CONTEMPLATES MARRYING ANNE BOLEYN

An imagined musing by the King when he was wanting to divorce his older wife Katherine of Aragon (who failed to give him live male heirs), anticipating remarriage and heirs with Anne Boleyn.  He was convinced he could sire sons following the birth of his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Somerset, by former mistress Bessie Blount in 1519, and equally convinced that Katherine’s failure to give him heirs was divine punishment for marrying a woman who had been his brother’s (Prince Arthur’s) wife. The Pope would not grant him a divorce, but he went ahead and also broke with the Church of Rome.

I am sure that I can do the deed
Of planting in a good queen my seed.
Bess Blount that I ‘knew’ some time ago
Had a red head boy next year to show.
The queen I now have will not give me a heir
But Anne, who is younger, is waiting out there,
Will gladly be taken, bridal, like a horse,
When the Pope of Rome shall grant me my divorce.
It was my mistake to take my brother’s wife;
One who has not wed is my hope for new life.