Anne Boleyn and then Katherine Howard thought they had married Henry VIII. Then he annulled them both, as he did with his first and fourth weddings, such that they were deemed to have been invalid from the start. However, he had these second and fifth Queens executed for treason in that they committed adultery whilst married to him, even whilst maintaining that they were not. Similarly, Henry absolutely insisted that the dispensation he obtained in made his first ceremony with Catalina de Aragon (above right) completely valid.

Perhaps Henry picked up this habit from his father who insisted that the rebel he sent to Tyburn in 1499 was guilty of treason, which could only apply if he was an English subject, whilst calling him “Perkin Warbeck” from the Low Countries?

Erwin Schrodinger (below left) would, of course understand perfectly. “My cat is alive and dead”. “Anne Boleyn and I were validly married and were not.” “”Perkin” was an English subject and a foreigner.


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  1. I am reminded of the people who are absolutely certain that Katherine of Valois married Owain ap Maredudd but also absolutely certain that Edward IV did not marry Eleanor Talbot, even though the objective evidence for the two marriages is roughly identical. (That is, both were recognised by Parliament.)

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  2. […] think-alike grandson, to Anne Boleyn–he “married” her in a secret ceremony BEFORE his annulment from Katherine of Aragon was finalised… (And people  still somehow imagine Edward […]

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  3. […] that many royals did in fact make secret unions–Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn (also bigamous; his annulment from Catherine was not finalised), Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, George IV and Mrs Fitzherbert, Louis XIV of France and Madame de […]

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