“The marriage of Prince Henry, Duke of York, and Lady Mary Howard only lasted about three years. The conflict seems to have arisen when Prince Henry discovered that Lady Mary had no particular religious feelings; she had not truly converted to the Awakened faith.
This appears to have triggered one of Prince Henry’s melancholic episodes. This episode was punctuated by load outbursts where he and the Lady Mary raged at each other. After several months, Lady Mary would renounce her conversion and retire to a nunnery.
This loud religious disagreement between two prominent people appears to have upset the current delicate religious balance in England, so it was suggested to Prince Henry that he might want to visit his son Duke John of Julich-Cleves-Berg. Prince Henry would take the hint. In a rather large spectacle at court, he would announce that he had been too long away from his children (ignoring that half of them were in England) and must leave England. He would also resign as Lord Chancellor at this point.
In the wake of Prince Henry’s absence, Sir Thomas More was selected to fill the office of Lord Chancellor. To counter act this appointment, Thomas Cromwell was promoted to Lord High Treasurer.”
Melantha Jones, “Religious Acceptance in Renaissance England”
“One of the more significant historical fallacies from the 1500s is the merging of Protestants and Awakeners. The two movements are actually separate. The later refers to a specific group and ideology that spawned the Awakened Church and its fourteen official branches. The Protestants refers to all those that disagreed with the preeminence of the Catholic Church. The amalgamation of these two movements come from the fact that the Awakeners were definitely the loudest group (this was mostly due to Prince Henry Tudor) though not the largest.
Additionally, several prominent Protestants would use the the ideology of awakening to describe their own religious experiences. As such it is appropriate to refer to both of the movements as the Awakening.”
Lise Marie Peters, “The Awakening of Europe”
“Prince Henry first heard of Princess Renée’s heresy trial while visiting his son Duke John Tudor. Having recently gotten divorced due to his ex-wife’s false conversion, hearing of a woman who was standing by her principles must have inspired him. For, instead of returning to Navarre at the end of his visit, Prince Henry traveled to Ferrara.
There Prince Henry, in what has been immortalized in three movies, two plays, and sundry books, staged a prison break. Acting with the assistance of his old friend Cesare Borgia [1], Prince Henry would spirit Princess Renée and her children out of the country.
Upon reaching Navarre, Prince Henry and Princess Renée were married.”
Isaac Laab, “Henry Tudor, Heretic and Father of Kings”
[1] No one quite knows why Cesare Borgia assisted Prince Henry. The best guess is that the ensuing upheaval was beneficial in some way, or at least amusing.
“Rumors have circulated throughout history on how Prince Henry rescued Princess Renée and her children. Popular ones include that the small group swung from rooftop to rooftop, that Prince Henry and Princess Renée dressed as old women to escape, and that Cesare Borgia would hold off pursuers single handedly to allow them to escape before succumbing. This last one is completely false, for his bones were recently examined and the causes of death is definitively old age.”
William Richards, “Italy and the Awakening”
“The whole of Ferrara is in uproar. I have always thought that Prince Henry’s reputation had outgrown the man, but I must say now that I do not think the tales have grown loud enough. “
Letter from Italian nobleman to his father