Despite this, Catherine and Dereham may have parted with intentions to marry upon his return from Ireland,
agreeing to a precontract of marriage.
However, her previous relationship with Dereham was known by most of the staff at her childhood home,
and Anne began receiving requests for favours in exchange for their silence.
When questioned,
the queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid,
but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship.