Love Life
Even in the midst of his affair with Anne Boleyn, Henry kept up his contacts with Queen Catherine: he dined in her rooms, he had her make his shirts, and he slept in her bed. Sexual relations, though, are believed to have stopped between the pair around the same time that Henry's interest in Anne Boleyn began. Judging by her character, it would have been highly unlikely that Catherine ever considered her own extra-marital romps. A close relationship she enjoyed with her confessor, Father Diego Fernandez, was the sole cause for speculation, but when Henry ordered that Fernandez must return to Spain, Catherine duly complied. The queen revered her husband and had learned from childhood that royal wives should turn a blind eye to infidelities. Nonetheless, she no doubt faced a daunting task controlling her feelings. Henry VIII is thought to have had at least four mistresses during their 24-year marriage.
Catherine's Rivals
Lady Elizabeth FitzWalter: Henry's eyes first lit on Lady FitzWalter during Catherine's second pregnancy in 1510. The 20-something Lady Elizabeth lived at court with her husband and was second cousin to the king. Her sister was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine. When word leaked of Lady Elizabeth's activities, she was banished to a convent. Enraged, Henry blamed Elizabeth's sister for informing the queen and Catherine herself for upbraiding him for the affair. As the Spanish ambassador wrote, "No one knows how it will end."
Bessie Blount: Always ready to dance or enjoy a joke, Elizabeth Blount was a flousy maid-of-honor who went on to bear, in 1519, the son that the queen so desired. Catherine attended the christening of the baby, named "Henry Fitzroy" (meaning 'son of the king'). Made the highest ranking peer of the realm, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond was expected to be named the king's heir. He would later be proposed as a possible husband for his half-sister, Princess Mary. The match never materialized, however, and Henry Fitzroy, after a brief time at the French court, died at the age of 17 from tuberculosis.
Mary Boleyn: The elder daughter of diplomat Sir Thomas Boleyn, Mary Boleyn was best known for her promiscuity. Francis I of France boasted that he had "ridden" her and a papal representative described her as "a very great and infamous whore." Retained as a maid-of-honor to the queen, Mary's rosy complexion soon caught the notice of Henry VIII. Her affair with Henry began some time around 1520, as 35-year-old Catherine approached an age when fathering a male heir was unlikely. Married off to Sir William Carey, Mary Boleyn herself never profited from her fling with the king. For Anne Boleyn, Mary's younger sister, it was a lesson well learned.
Anne Boleyn: "You will not stop till you have your King, Mistress Anne," Queen Catherine allegedly once quipped to maid-of-honor Anne Boleyn during a card game. Nor did she stop. Learning from her older sister's example, Anne Boleyn conducted a skillful six-year campaign of seduction that ultimately landed her her king. (See Anne Boleyn.) While Catherine's star faded, the king kissed his mistress publicly and favored her without remorse. The French ambassador believed it was so that "when the grand coup comes, it may not appear strange." But it would appear "strange," and England would be forever changed.
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