On 3rd July 1533, William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy and Catherine of Aragon’s Chamberlain, was instructed to inform Catherine that she was “to satisfy herself with the name of Dowager” and to stop calling herself ‘Queen’.

In his instructions to Mountjoy, Cromwell wrote that if Catherine carried on using the title of queen then “the King will be compelled to punish her servants, and withdraw her affection from his daughter” and that she would “incur the displeasure of Almighty God and of the King.”

Catherine refused to comply and whenever she saw her new title written in letters, she crossed it out with a pen.

You can read Cromwell’s letter to Mountjoy and an account of what happened when Mountjoy delivered these instructions to Catherine in my article 3 July 1533 – Catherine of Aragon Told to Stop Calling Herself Queen.

Categories: Six Wives

