According to Carlo Capello, the Venetian ambassador, on 15th March 1532 William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, criticised Henry VIII in the House of Lords when Parliament was discussing the proposed annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In response, the King used “foul language to him, saying that were it not for his age, he would make him repent of having said what he did against his Majesty.”
I’d love to have been a fly on the wall, wouldn’t you?
Historian G. W. Bernard writes of how “Warham’s outspokenness did not last” and that he then toed the line. Henry’s threat had obviously shaken him and he was an old man, being around 82 at this time. Warham died on 22nd August 1532, leaving a vacancy which could be filled by a man who would support the annulment wholeheartedly: Thomas Cranmer.
Notes and Sources
- Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 4: 1527-1533: 754
