Dissolving Royal Marriages

This book offers a chronological and geographical study of royal divorce cases from the Middle Ages through to the Reformation period.

Dissolving Royal Marriages adopts a unique chronological and geographical perspective to present a comparative overview of royal divorce cases from the Middle Ages through to the Reformation period. Drawing from original translations of key source documents, the book sheds new light on some of the most prominent and elite divorce proceedings in Western history, including Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The comprehensive commentary that accompanies these materials allows readers to grasp, for the first time, how the constructs of canon law helped shape the legal arguments on which specific cases were founded, and better understand the events that actually unfolded in the courtrooms. In his case-by-case exploration of elaborate witness statements, extensive legal negotiations and political wrangling, d'Avray shows us how little the canonical law for the dissolution of marriage changed over time in this fascinating new study of Church-state relations and papal power over princes.

This analysis of royal marriage cases across seven centuries explains how and how far popes controlled royal entry into and exits from their marriages. In the period between c.860 and 1600, the personal lives of kings became the business of the papacy. d'Avray explores the rationale for papal involvement in royal marriages and uses them to analyse the structure of church-state relations. The marital problems of the Carolingian Lothar II, of English kings - John, Henry III, and Henry VIII - and other monarchs, especially Spanish and French, up to Henri IV of France and La Reine Margot, have their place in this exploration of how canon law came to constrain pragmatic political manoeuvring within a system increasingly rationalised from the mid-thirteenth century on. Using documents presented in the author's Dissolving Royal Marriages, the argument brings out hidden connections between legal formality, annulments, and dispensations, at the highest social level.

Addresses Early Modern representations of chastity and adultery, as well as matrimony and its dissolution in both the private and public realms, including the most well known marital dissolution, that of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

From the author of Royal Mistresses and sixteen entertaining and informative biographies of interesting women comes this is an uncensored account of bizarre royal marriages and the cruelty of nine centuries of marriages of Princes of Wales and monarchs to titled virginal European princesses and teenage aristocrats who they did not love. Princes married to gain huge dowries from their wives or military alliances with powerful countries but often preferred seductive mistresses to their wives who, as Princess Diana observed on her 'Secrets' videotape, were used as 'baby factories.' Young Princess Isabella of France was a romantic and was shocked to discover her new husband in love with gay Sir Piers Gavaston. His homosexual relationship caused so much jealousy at court and Gaveston was murdered. Equally, young and romantic Princess Anna of Denmark found her middle-aged husband King James I in love with the charismatic handsome courtier ennobled as Duke of Buckingham. Both these royal husbands spent long periods ignoring their arranged brides and only visited their bedchambers to fulfill their duty and attempt to sire 'the heir and the spare' so their dynasty would carry on the line. Tall, handsome, virile King Charles II was a sex addict and sired fifteen children out of wedlock and ennobled five of his illegitimate sons as dukes. He spent little time with his arranged bride, the young Portuguese Princess Catherine whose dowry he squandered on seductive mistresses and flaunted Restoration beauties like Nell Gwyn, Barbara Villiers and Louise de Keroualle at court. King Charles' virginal teenage bride made the mistake of falling in love with her husband, but Catherine was unable give him an heir so spent much of her married life alone. Charles let a riotous life heading a court obsessed with sex. He conducted state affairs from the luxurious apartment in Whitehall Palace, the suite he had given, arrogant and debauched mistress Barbara Villiers who bore him 6 illegitimate children and hated her rival, Nell Gwyn. George Augustus, Prince of Wales, found his mail order bride, Princess Caroline, so physically repugnant he called for a glass of brandy and only consummated a marriage made for her large dowry to pay off his debts. Edward VII had at least fifteen mistresses. These facts were hidden from the public who believed in the fairy story that a royal wedding meant the bride and groom lived happy ever after. These fascinating true stories reveal how money and power were seen as more important than love. The final chapters describe how after centuries of unhappy royal wives, Prince William and Prince Harry have been allowed to marry for love alone. In the 21st century, Prince William and Prince Harry, painfully aware of their mother's unhappy marriage and its damaging effects on her have stood out against the system which the Queen has finally modernised and allowed them to marry for love. They have both chosen as wives who are highly intelligent university graduates, stylish girls who after a few 'princess lessons' about protocol and who they should curtsey to have changed the system which made so many young wives deeply unhappy.

The laws which govern the marriages of the British royal family have led to heartbreak, farce and confusion, and are unfit for the twenty-first century. In an era that values human rights and free choice, there is little certainty over questions as fundamental as the effect of marrying a Roman Catholic, or of marrying without the Queen's consent. Question marks still hang over the legal basis for royal civil marriage. Obscure acts of Parliament have threatened to render members of the royal family illegitimate and prevented others from following their hearts. Drawing on a wide range of sources including once-secret files in the UK's National Archives, The Rights & Wrongs of Royal Marriage recounts episodes from the eighteenth century right down to the present day that would not look out of place in Yes, Minister or The Mikado. Professor Rebecca Probert, the leading authority on the marriage law of England and Wales, is as characteristically clear when explaining the complexities of royal marriage law as she is in her other groundbreaking studies. Her prose is concise and elegant, and full of historical anecdotes that will have royalists and republicans alike laughing aloud and wide-eyed with astonishment.