In the foreground, a woman kneels, pleading. The man she is addressing is recognisable as Henry VIII, his face half in shadow, and eloquent of conflicting emotions. Presiding from behind, the worldly, somewhat sinister presence of Cardinal Wolsey.

The painting dramatises a moment in the slow divorce between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, which mirrored the even more momentous divorce between England and the Catholic Church. The Pope had appointed as his legates to try the case for divorce Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio. We see the moment when Catherine kneeled before her husband, and made her direct appeal, in broken English:

I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble and obedient wife.
- Catherine

It is related that Wolsey's scarlet cardinal's robe is based upon that used on stage by the actor Henry Irving in a production of Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII'.

Additional Information on
Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon appearing before Cardinal Wolsey and the Papal Legates at Blackfriars

The original plan for the East Corridor, as set out by the Fine Arts Commissioners in 1847, was quite different from what we have today. It was to have contained such subjects as A Druidical Sacrifice and The Phoenicians in Cornwall on the one hand, with The Emancipation of Negro Slaves on the other. This ill-assorted scheme was abandoned early on, but it was not until 1907 that the new Liberal Government set up a committee for completing the decoration of the Palace of Westminster.