#no shade to ives but 'aragonese faction' was smth of a misnomer...

[fideidefenswhore]

In 1536, Henry VIII’s Court was a hotbed of faction. Religion and politics had become dangerously entangled, with a cluster of lower status ‘new men’ advocating religious reform around Queen Anne Boleyn, and a conservative, traditionally religious ‘Marian’ faction of nobles focused on Henry’s eldest daughter Princess Mary. The death of Mary’s mother, Catherine of Aragon, in January 1536 had done nothing to lessen the conservatives’ ardour for her cause. If anything, with the obdurate Catherine gone there were hopes that Mary could now be restored to the line of succession – the legal loophole bona fida parentum allowed for a child conceived ‘during the good faith of its parents’ to be considered legitimate, without the danger of declaring Catherine and Henry’s marriage a true union.

'Bound to Obey and Serve' The Queenship of Jane Seymour, Lauren Johnson