Over-Analyzing All the References in Six: "No Way"

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

I’ve been meaning for a while now to write out analyses of all the songs in Six, looking at all the historical and pop culture references in them, but i’ve had a lot of trouble finding the focus and motivation to do so during all this self isolation. I started this series in like….April? But here we finally are. Hope you enjoy it. I plan on putting up one for each song, hopefully at least one a week for a while. I need a purpose!

Today, we’re looking at Catherine of Aragon’s feature - No Way. The entire song has a heavy Latin beat. The Spanish background is probably why Maria is the drummer in the band specifically. The writers of Six said at BroadwayCon that this was the first song they wrote for the show, but it’s also the song that’s gone through the most revisions.

Dialogue and lyrics in the show are in bolded font and my commentary is in italics. :)

The UK Tour cast of Six, with Catherine of Aragon (played by Lauren Drew), at the center. (Credit: Johan Persson)

Aragon: But there’s only one you need to hear from tonight. (City name), I’m about to win this competition. Maria, give me a beat.

So, since the day I arrived in England, let’s just say my faith had been tested on more than one occasion.

This refers to Catherine’s famed religious faith. Catherine was the youngest daughter of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, the joint rulers of Spain, who famously pushed out the Muslim Nasrid dynasty from the Emirate of Granada in Spain. Although they promised that the Muslims and Jews of Granada would be allowed to live in peace in the Treaty of Granada, this was broken later after an uprising in 1499, and Muslims were forced to either become Christians or leave Spain. So with that public background, Catherine’s intense religious faith is pretty understandable.

Isabella was also known privately for living an austere, temperate lifestyle, which must have affected her daughter as well.

First things first, I was shipped off from Spain on the night of my sweet sixteen to marry some prince called Arthur and I’m like “okay”.

Catherine was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales (the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York), when she was three years old and married him in November 1501, when they were both 16. Apparently the couple had written letters to each other in Latin, but found out when they met that they couldn’t talk, as they had learned different Latin pronunciations.

After their marriage, the couple moved out to Ludlow Castle on the border of Wales for Arthur to rule as Prince of Wales and preside over the Council of Wales nad the Marches. However, after only a few months, both of them became ill and Arthur died in April 1502.

Portrait of either Mary Tudor or Catherine of Aragon by Michael Sittow (usually attributed as Catherine of Aragon)

Arthur, prince of Wales, painted during Arthur's marriage negotiations, c.1500

But then Arthur died, so naturally I’m imprisoned for seven years. Really helped with the grieving process, you know, but I’m still like, “okay.”

After Arthur’s death, Catherine faced a lot of trouble. By the terms of her marriage contract, if she returned home to Spain, King Henry VII had to return her 200,000 ducat dowry (half of which he hadn’t even received yet).

King Henry was broke and totally couldn’t afford this, so he would not allow Catherine to leave England. He briefly considered marrying her himself (after his wife Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after trying to give him another son to replace Arthur), but eventually it was decided that she would marry Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, Duke of York. However, he was five years younger than her, so they had to wait for him to grow up. His father also continually delayed their marriage.

For the next seven years, Catherine lived in near-poverty in London. She had to sell many of her goods to survive and was not often seen at court due to the shabbiness of her clothes. So although she wasn’t literally imprisoned, her father and father-in-law’s squabbles basically led to her living in really terrible conditions for many years.

A 1509 woodcut of the coronation of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Henry’s heraldic badge, the Tudor Rose, is shown above him, while Catherine’s, the pomegranate, sits above her. (Joyfull Medytacvon to All Englande, Stephen Hawes)

But thank God they rescued me just in time to marry Prince Henry… my dead husband’s brother. Okay, so I’m thinking “bit weird”, but if you’d seen him back in the summer of ‘09. Let me tell you he was okay.

She finally married Henry after his father’s death and his ascension to the throne in 1509. They were married for the next 24 years and for many years, they appeared to be quite in love.

So seven years later, we’re still trying for an heir. He’s trying really hard and I’m like “okay”, and he starts coming home late. “I was just out with my ministers!” But there’s lipstick on his ruff. And I’m like “okay”.

Records indicate that Catherine of Aragon was pregnant at least six times and possibly up to nine times between 1509-1518, but most of her children either were miscarried or stillborn (so they were DEFINITELY still trying for that heir); only three survived the birth, and only one, Princess Mary, survived past two months of life. Catherine was always known as a highly intelligent and religious woman, but as more and more of her children died, she became increasingly devout and more interested in academic matters, particularly in ensuring the education of her daughter.

Although Henry VIII is notorious today for having six wives and sleeping with lots of women, for the time period, he really wasn’t too terrible. His grandfather Edward IV, for example, had many documented mistresses and at least five illegitimate children. Henry, in contrast, only had three confirmed mistresses and one acknowledged illegitimate child, and was fairly discreet about his extramarital affairs. He did indeed have a romantic relationship of some sort with three of his wives before marrying them (Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Katherine Howard), but it’s unclear whether sex was involved with these relationships before marriage.

The timeline of the show “seven years later” points to Catherine becoming aware of Henry cheating on her in 1516. We DO know that Bessie Blount’s relationship with Henry lasted many years and may have actually started in 1514, when she was 16 years old, Henry was 23, and Catherine was 29. It’s unclear what Catherine knew about Henry’s affairs historically, but she definitely was aware of them by 1519, when Henry Fitzroy, Henry’s son with his mistress Bessie Blount (yes, Bessie on the bass), was born and formally acknowledged by Henry.

Suddenly, he wants to annul our marriage, move some side chick into my palace and move me into a convent! Now, now, now, now, I just don’t think I’d look that good in a wimple, so I’m like “No way.”

The timeline here is of course being very shortened. Catherine’s last pregnancy was 1518, Henry only began to pursue Anne Boleyn seriously around 1525, and he didn’t start trying to annul his marriage until probably around 1527. He did not succeed in getting an annulment until 1533, after he’d established his own church of England.

Henry’s request for an annulment wasn’t really that unusual, and such requests were often granted. In fact, Louis XII of France had had his marriage to his first wife Joan annulled by the Pope in 1498 just so he could marry the widow of the FORMER king of France, even though the grounds for his annulment were apparently very weak. Joan then joined a convent, just as Henry suggested for Catherine. Honestly, the Pope would likely have granted Henry his annulment if Catherine’s nephew were not the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who during all this literally sacked Rome and captured the Pope. So the Pope was obviously under serious pressure to not annul the marriage.

The Pope did send a legate, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio to England to hear the case for the annulment, and Campeggio actually advised Catherine to join a convent. However, Catherine refused, partly because of her own belief that she was Henry’s true wife and queen and also likely for fear that her daughter Mary would be illegitimized. Her actions were also motivated by her religion, as she truly believed that it would be a sin to deny that she was Henry’s wife. Even in her very last letter to Henry before her death, after he abandoned her and had put her in increasingly terrible housing for years and kept her from seeing her daughter, referred to him as her husband and herself as his wife and queen.

“move some side chick into my palace” - There are a few things to dissect here. First, Anne Boleyn was already living in the same palace as Henry and Catherine even before Henry noticed her. Anne was Catherine’s maid of honor, and thus, lived at court along with many many other nobles and aristocrats. Second, “my palace” - the court actually was constantly on the move and usually spent a few months at one palace or house before moving on to another. This was pretty practical, as modern plumbing didn’t exist and after the large court had been in one place for a while, the palace would get rather, ah, smelly, and need lots of cleaning.

What Catherine likely is referring to here is the fact that in December 1528, Henry set Anne up with her own “very fine lodging…close to his own,” as reported by a French diplomat of the time.

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon before Papal Legates at Blackfriars, 1529, by Frank O. Salisbury (~1910)

You must agree that, baby, In all the time I’ve been by your side,
I’ve never lost control, No matter how many times I knew you lied.

This is one of many references in the song to Catherine’s famous speech before the Legatine court in June 1529. The purpose of this court was to listen to testimonies and rule on the validity of Henry and Catherine’s marriage. Catherine literally got down on her knees in front of Henry and gave an amazing speech straight to him about her innocence. Afterward, she got up, curtsied to Henry, and walked out of the court. She would not return no matter how many times she was called back.

In the speech, she specifically said:

“I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure, that never said or did any thing to the contrary thereof, being always well pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or much. I never grudged in word or countenance, or showed a visage or spark of discontent.…”

Have my golden rule, Got to keep my cool. Yeah, baby.

“The Golden Rule” usually refers to the maxim that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. This actually makes a lot of sense in this context, as Catherine clearly wanted Henry to treat her with the love and humility she showed him. In fact, the Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys described Catherine as “the most virtuous woman I have ever known and the highest hearted, but too quick to trust that others were like herself, and too slow to do a little ill that much good might come of it.”

Here, it’s also a reference to the wealth of Spain and her royal credentials. There’s also gold throughout Aragon’s Six costume and her historical portraits.

And even though you’ve had your fun, Running around with some Pretty, young thing.

This refers to Anne Boleyn, who was 16 years younger than Catherine of Aragon and 10 years younger than Henry. This is also a possible reference to the Michael Jackson Song “Pretty Young Thing,” although the phrase has shown up many times before and since that song.

And even though you’ve had one son With someone who don’t own a Wedding ring.
No matter what I heard, I didn’t say a word. No, baby. (You know she never said a word.)

As I noted earlier, Henry’s only acknowledged illegitimate offspring was Henry Fitzroy, with Bessie Blount. FitzRoy was a common surname of the illegitimate offspring of royalty, as it literally means “son of the king.”

I’ve put up with your Sh... Like every single day. But now it’s time to Shh, and listen when I say...

I like that Catherine never actually curses in her song, although she gets close to it. It seems to be a nice touch for a character known to be so pious.

Joanna of Castille, by Master of the Legen of the Magdalen, ~1495-1496

You must think that I’m crazy, You wanna replace me, baby there’s N-n-n-n-n-n-no way.

This may be a reference to Catherine’s tragic older sister, Joanna, who is known historically as “Juana la Loca,” or Joanna the Mad. Joanna was the heir presumptive to the crowns of Castille and Aragon after her brother, elder sister, and nephew all died young. She technically became Queen of Castille in 1504 upon the death of her mother Isabella. However, her father Ferdinand had her declared insane and imprisoned; poor Joanna was imprisoned from 1506-1516 by her father (who ruled as regent in her place). Her son Charles I, who ascended to the throne, kept her in prison for the rest of her life. She was in prison from 1506 to 155, when she died at 1575, even though there was no sign that she was insane before her confinement (she later did get a bit paranoid and insane, as anyone would if you’d been confined unjustly for many decades).

If you think for a moment, I’d grant you annulment, just hold up there’s N-n-n-n-n-n-no way.
No way. No way. There’s N-n-n-n-n-n-no way.

Catherine steadfastly refused to agree to the annulment of her marriage despite intense pressure from Henry and various priests and nobles.

So you read a bible verse that I’m cursed ‘cause I was your brother’s wife,
You say it’s a pity ‘cause quoting Leviticus, I’ll end up kiddy-less all my life.

Well, daddy, weren’t you there When I gave birth to Mary? Oh, you don’t remember? (Daughters are so easy to forget.)

Henry based the case for his annulment on Leviticus 20:21: “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it [is] an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” A Cambridge university lecturer in Hebrew, Robert Wakefield, wrote a letter in favor of the divorce in which he interpreted that the original Hebrew of the Leviticus verse stated that the marriage would specifically without “sons” rather than being childless. Wakefield also argued that the pope had no authority for the dispensation for Henry and Catherine’s marriage, since it violated scriptural law rather than church laws. Henry clung to this interpretation rather fiercely.

You’re just so full of Sh... Must think I’m naive. I won’t back down, Won’t Shh, And no, I’ll never leave

You must think that I’m crazy, You wanna replace me, baby there’s N-n-n-n-n-n-no way.
If you thought it’d be funny To send me to a nunnery, honey, there’s No way.

It’s quoted all over the place that when a convent was suggested to Catherine, she said “God never called me to a nunnery. I am the King’s true and legitimate wife.” However, I can’t find any primary sources supporting this, so it’s possible this is just a myth. However, it’s a great and memorable line that clearly illustrates Catherine’s viewpoint that she was actually Henry’s wife and that lying about that would be a sin.

As I mentioned earlier though, the sources seem to indicate that Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio actually advised Catherine to join a convent - it might not have been Henry who said it first.

18th-century copy of a lost original portrait of Catherine of Aragon

You’ve got me down on my knees,

As I noted earlier, Catherine really did get down on her knees in front of Henry VIII at the Legatine Court to plead her innocence.

There’s a double meaning to this though, as there was a long tradition of English queens consort begging for the king to be lenient toward one person or another on their knees. This was usually a planned charade, which allowed the king to look strong while also merciful. In 1331, Philippa of Hainault famously begged her husband Edward II to forgive the builders of a scaffold that had broken under her feet and sent her and numerous other noble women tumbling. Edward was furious, but his wife’s plea struck him, and the builders were not punished. In 1347, Philippa successfully begged for leniency for the six burghers of Calais after the city finally surrendered to Edward II. Edward had planned to behead the men, but released them into her custody instead; she fed and clothed them and returned them to Calais.

Catherine of Aragon herself had performed this function years earlier, in 1517. For a lot of reasons which I won’t dwell on here, over 1,000 citizens in London rioted and attacked a ton of foreigners and shops throughout the city. 14 of the main instigators were hung, drawn, and quartered. However, when 278 men, women, and children were charged with high treason for their actions in the riots, Catherine of Aragon went on to her knees before Henry to beg for lenience. Afterward, nearly of all of these people were pardoned.

Therefore, by going down on her knees before Henry, Catherine was not just pleading to him as a woman and a wife but as a queen to her king. Both of them would have recognized the importance of this gesture.

Please tell me what you think I’ve done wrong.
Been humble, been loyal, I’ve tried to swallow my pride all along.
If you could just explain a single thing I’ve done to ‘cause you pain, I’ll go…No?

You’ve got nothing to say? I’m not going away, There’s no way.

Here are several more references to Catherine’s speech at the Legatine court:

Alas! Sir, wherein have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure have I deserved?… I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife, ever comfortable to your will and pleasure, that never said or did any thing to the contrary thereof, being always well pleased and contented with all things wherein you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or much. I never grudged in word or countenance, or showed a visage or spark of discontent. I loved all those whom ye loved, only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or enemies.

If there be any just cause by the law that ye can allege against me either of dishonesty or any other impediment to banish and put me from you, I am well content to depart to my great shame and dishonour. And if there be none, then here, I most lowly beseech you, let me remain in my former estate…

You must think that I’m crazy, You wanna replace me, baby there’s N-n-n-n-n-n-no way.
You made me your wife, So I’ll be queen till the end of my life!

Catherine was true to her word and referred to herself as queen and to Henry as her husband to the very end of her life. She wrote a letter to him before she died which reportedly said (there are some authenticity questions around the letter, but everyone seems to agree that this tracks with Catherine’s general beliefs and attitude at the time of her death):

Catherine’s grave at Peterborough Cathedral

My most dear lord, king and husband,

The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired.

….Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.

Katharine the Quene.

So clearly, I had the most to deal with from the king. And I hit that top C so you know, donde está my crown?