The great matter of Henry VIII happens on his second wife

The great matter of Henry VIII happens on his second wife, I was thinking of Catherine of Aragon dying after Mary Tudor is born then he is married to someone that is infertile and producing only daughters like his first but divorcing her would anger the french.
 
He still needs some reason to think that the marriage is invalid, even if it is a shaky one.

Also, not sure the Pope would be as responsive to the French as he would be to the Spanish/Hapsburgs.
 
It wasn't just Clement's situation regarding The Emperor (and he might not have been so loyal to his aunt if Henry was proposing to marry another member of the Hapsburg family) - he would have been stating the that original dispensation was given in error effectively attacking Pope Julius' decision making - the canonical impediment had been dispensed by Pope Julius - now the King would argue that the Pope hadn't the right to do that.
Having said all that different political circumstance might have allowed Clement to fudge the issue and grant the annulment - We know the Church hoped that Catherine might agree to apply to lead a religious life - allowing the pope to give Henry consent to remarry once Catherine said vows and retaining Mary's legitimacy - but Catherine was severely opposed to that idea.

You want an impediment to a second marriage that hasn't already been dispensed at the time of the marriage.
 
He still needs some reason to think that the marriage is invalid, even if it is a shaky one.

Also, not sure the Pope would be as responsive to the French as he would be to the Spanish/Hapsburgs.
My point here is that there is no reason for divorce to be granted but Henry VIII because there is no consanguinity issue and Henry VIII only wants a son and his second wife objects.
 
My point here is that there is no reason for divorce to be granted but Henry VIII because there is no consanguinity issue and Henry VIII only wants a son and his second wife objects.

Yup - depends on who wife number two is but given Henry's character he is by the late 20s going to be desperate for a legitimate male heir - so he will go looking for a reason but it will be quite hard.
However the dodgiest of reasons had been used by other monarch's aka Louis XII (who claimed his marriage to Joan of France was invalid because a it had been contracted before he was 14 and that he'd never consummated it due to her 'deformities')
 
Yup - depends on who wife number two is but given Henry's character he is by the late 20s going to be desperate for a legitimate male heir - so he will go looking for a reason but it will be quite hard.
However the dodgiest of reasons had been used by other monarch's aka Louis XII (who claimed his marriage to Joan of France was invalid because a it had been contracted before he was 14 and that he'd never consummated it due to her 'deformities')

Might Henry dredge up his affair with Mary Boleyn as he did IOTL should things with him and Anne go south?
 
Might Henry dredge up his affair with Mary Boleyn as he did IOTL should things with him and Anne go south?

Ironically Henry did receive a dispensation from Clement before the split covering that exact issue (its why the annulment of Anne's marriage was based on her pre contract to Henry Percy despite his denial of the fact - though the Spanish ambassador said it was due to the King's affair with Anne Boleyn - claiming Clement had dispensed the cause of affinity but not affinity due to an illicit sexual relationship)
 
My idea is Henry VIII marrying a Navarrese infanta after Catherine of Aragon dies and tries to divorce her due to her having only daughters like his first which France stops from happening and Henry still splits from the Catholic Church to marry his mistress, what would be the consequence of this scenario.
 
The political favoritism factor really isn't a factor in the papal decision to reject Henry's case, rather it was that Henry's argument was obviously doomed.

Why?

Henry asserted that the impediment was a matter of Divine Law and no earthly power could dispense it, ever. This was a dumb argument. It was asking the Pope not only to limit his own authority and power forever, but to also repudiate his predecessor (and declare the Church to have taught error), and to invalidate all marriages given such a dispensation, including other royal/noble marriages. Henry was ill advised on this matter. Other, much less problematic arguments were available, yet Henry put forward the most problematic argument possible. There was never any possibility of the declaration of nullity being granted on those grounds. It is as if no one in England bothered to think through the implications and ask the question: would any sane ruler make a ruling that undermines their own authority and limits their own power?
 
But apparently at that time people had somewhat lost the faith in the pope already, but still believed in the king and his divine right (or at least his power).
 
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