WI: Catherine of Aragon dies of Cancer earlier

What if Catherine of Aragon dies of Cancer earlier before Henry VIII tried to divorce her.

It might not be possible to do it that early, as we're shifting it by over a decade earlier. However, shifting things back by a few years should be possible. How about this:

1530: Wolsey dies, Henry is now looking for ways to divorce Catherine without asking the Pope, who is now a de facto prisoner of Charles V (OTL).
1531: OTL: Catherine expelled from her rooms in the Palace. ATL: Catherine falls very ill. Henry is genuinely concerned (not least because he might be suspected of poisoning her). She is not moved from her rooms.
1532: Catherine goes through a period of of serious illness. Occaisionally she is well enough to get out of bed and attend court for a couple of days. Henry, in part out of a desire to maintain the appearance of a benevolent monarch, in part because it's clear that Catherine isn't going to live long anyway and partly because the illness has remined him he still has a few slight feelings for her, makes sure to talk with Catherine during these spells and treat her as Queen. Her health deteriorates throughout the year, however, and in September she finally dies.
1533: Henry marries Anne Boleyn, having left a decent spell between Catherine's death and the marriage (it's still in January however).

Anne's protestant beliefs will still tempt Henry, but without the outright break with Rome it's likely that England will still be Catholic. Henry may end up passing an Edict of Nantes style law though tolerating Protestants.
 
Depends how early - if it is say between 1527 and 1530 you can forget the reformation at this period - Henry was and would remain a devout Catholic for his entire life and he was a traditionalist anytime before 1531 or even 2 would have saved his relationship with Rome. You can probably kiss goodbye to Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532 (he remains a minor diplomat and university don), assuming the King marries Anne B (given his obvious attraction to her - probably the first and only time he really fell in love hence the tragic end) at anytime between Catherine's death and OTL date for the marriage (1533) then there must be an increase in the chance of a male heir though no guarantee and incidentally no break with Rome means ironically the chance of Anne surviving as Queen Consort is much higher (in OTL she was not only opposed by arch Catholics but may have been resented by men like Cromwell though that is still debated and it may be that her fall was engineered entirely by the King).
 
Maybe it will just result in another political marriage, depending on how early Catherine would die; and he still has his mistresses. Which would be accepted from a monarch.
 
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