Catherine of Aragon
Henry VIII of England's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Henry's rupture with Rome and the English Reformation were caused by Pope Clement VII's reluctance to declare Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void. Catherine was the youngest child of Spanish monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. She wed Prince Arthur, King Henry VII of England's oldest son, in 1501. The year after Arthur passed away, she was soon engaged to Prince Henry, Henry VII's younger son. However, the marriage was postponed until her fiance succeeded to the kingdom as Henry VIII in 1509 due to animosity between England and Spain at the time and Ferdinand's unwillingness to pay the whole dowry.
The couple enjoyed their happy life for a while. While he was fighting the French, Catherine was an effective regent because she shared her husband's intellectual diversity (1512–14). Six children, including two males, were born to Catherine between 1510 and 1518; however, all save Mary (who would go on to become the queen of England from 1553-58) either died at birth or were stillborn. Henry's need for a legitimate male heir prompted him to request an annulment from Rome in 1527 on the grounds that the union had broken the biblical ban on a man marrying his brother's widow. Catherine made a request to Pope Clement VII, arguing that since her first marriage to Arthur had never been consummated, her union with Henry was legitimate.
The pope put off giving the annulment for seven years in order to avoid upsetting Catherine's nephew, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V. In July 1531, Henry and Catherine finally divorced. He had the marriage to Catherine annulled by his own archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, on May 23, 1533, five months after he married Anne Boleyn. The Act of Supremacy, which was approved by Parliament, declared the king to be the head of the English church and rejected all papal authority in England. Henry made Catherine spend her final years away from any public life, despite the fact that she had always been beloved by the English people.
