EILEEN BATTERSBYponders Catherine Howard and the first World War
BY THE TIME young Catherine Howard (c1520-1542) became the fifth wife of Henry VIII on this day 472 years ago, he was a confirmed bad husband. The king had already dispatched his second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was Catherine’s cousin, and his marriage to wife number four, Anne of Cleves, had only lasted six months and ended in an annulment. He married Catherine nine days after divorcing Anne, with whom he remained good friends.
Catherine’s wedding day, July 28th, 1540, was also the day of the execution of Henry’s faithful adviser Thomas Cromwell. Few, it seemed, could bargain on sustaining the good favour of a capricious monarch.
Henry was no longer the handsome Renaissance prince he had once been. He was 49, immensely fat and suffering from a variety of unattractive physical ailments. Catherine was beautiful, somewhere between 17 and 22. And having been born into a privileged aristocratic Catholic family, she was precocious and, apparently, sexually aware. Her personality made it easy to invent and/or embellish a past when Archbishop Thomas Cranmer prepared treason charges against her of unchastity before marriage and adultery during it. The charges included having a previous relationship with her girlhood music teacher. Catherine was beheaded in the Tower of London on February 13th, 1542.
Another royal marriage that ended unhappily, through no fault of either partner, was that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) and his wife, Sophie. Together they had three children, one of whom, a daughter, lived until 1990. A fourth child, a son, was stillborn in 1908.
The archduke, as the heir presumptive to Emperor Franz Josef, had married Countess Sophie Chotek in 1899 against much opposition. Members of the imperial house of Habsburg were only allowed to wed into either reigning or formerly reigning royal dynasties. But against the wishes of the emperor and the pope, Franz Ferdinand did marry Sophie.
Although he had only been third in line to the throne, Franz Ferdinand became significant following the suicide of his cousin, Crown Prince Rudolf, who had died with his mistress in his Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889. This was further compounded by the death of Franz’s father, Karl Ludwig, the emperor’s brother, in 1896.
Franz Ferdinand was appointed inspector general of the Austro-Hungarian army and travelled to Bosnia for a troop inspection in June 1914. Because it was in a military context, his wife, who was forbidden to be at his side for state occasions, could accompany him. Emerging nationalism had dominated Franz Josef’s 68-year reign, which ended with his death in 1916, and on that late June morning in 1914 in Bosnia, the world would witness its full impact.
The royal couple arrived in Sarajevo and were soon greeted by a grenade, which the archduke tossed out of their car. Later, a young student, Gavrilo Princip, rushed forward towards the car and opened fire on the royal visitors. Sophie was killed almost instantly, while her distressed husband begged her to live. Franz Ferdinand died shortly afterwards.
Exactly one month later, July 28th, 98 years ago today, Austria declared war on Serbia. The first World War had begun.