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The Tudors: The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Keywords:
Henry VIII of England, Wife, Anthony Esolen, The Tudors, Catherine Parr, Catherine of Aragon,
Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, England, Anne of Cleves
Publisher:
Date:
History
March 21, 2018
Link & QR Code:
Article length:
http://myvo.cab/AikOb
1058 words
wives of Henry VIII
[1] For more information on the wives of Henry VIII and other counter-intuitive facts of
ancient and medieval history, see Anthony Esolen’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to
Western Civilization.
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The Wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Bo-
leyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard,
Katherine Parr
[2] Keeping track of Tudor history and its many marriages is tricky, particularly with the
serial monogamist Henry VIII. This popular rhyme tells of the fate of the six wives of
Henry VIII:
[3] Divorced,
beheaded,
died; Divorced beheaded survived
[4] Catherine was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and she came
to England in 1501 at the age of 16 to marry Henry VII’s eldest son and heir to the
throne, Arthur.
[5] By 1527 Henry was having serious doubts about his marriage to Catherine. He believed
that he had no sons because God was punishing him for having married his brother’s
wife. He had found a passage in the Bible that backed this belief.
[6] He had also fallen for Anne Boleyn, the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, who had recently
returned to England from the French court.
[7] Catherine refused to grant Henry a divorce or retire to a
convent.
Henry therefore
began the Reformation in England so that he could divorce Catherine without the Pope’s
permission and marry Anne Boleyn.
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[8] Catherine was divorced by Henry in 1533 and died in 1536.
[9] Anne Boleyn was born in 1501. At the age of fourteen she was sent with her sister, Mary,
to the French court as a maid to Queen Claude.
[10] She returned to England in 1522 and attracted many admirers. Her sister, Mary man-
aged to attract the King’s attention and became his
mistress.
[11] In 1526 Henry asked Anne to become his mistress , but she refused because he was
a married man. Henry was determined to win Anne Boleyn and became determined to
divorce Catherine and marry Anne.
[12] The couple eventually secretly married in 1533 after Anne became pregnant. The King’s
second marriage was not popular. Many people believed that Anne was a witch and had
cast a spell on Henry.
[13] When the baby was born in September 1533 Henry was cross that the baby was a girl.
She was called Elizabeth.
[14] Henry and Anne began arguing. Although Anne became pregnant twice more each time
the babies were
stillborn.
[15] Henry was by now tired of Anne and wanted rid of her. He had no intention of waiting
for a divorce so his ministers invented evidence showing that Anne had been
unfaithful
and had plotted the death of the King.
[16] She was found guilty and was executed in May 1536.
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[17] Jane Seymour was a quiet shy girl who attracted Henry because she was so different to
his first two wives, Catherine and Anne.
[18] Henry married Jane Seymour just 11 days after the death of Anne Boleyn. He was 45
years old, Jane was 28.
[19] Although Henry became concerned when Jane did not become pregnant immediately,
he was delighted when she gave birth to a son, Edward, in October 1538.
[20] Henry was very upset when Jane died a month later. On his
deathbed,
Henry requested
to be buried next to Jane.
[21] After the death of Jane, Henry remained single for two years. He had the son that he
had wanted for so long and although Edward was weak and
sickly,
he continued to live.
[22] Having broken free from Rome in the 1530s England was isolated from much of Eu-
rope and Henry’s advisers thought it would be a good idea for him to marry a German
princess and make an alliance with the other great Protestant nation in Europe – Ger-
many.
[23] Two suitable princesses were chosen and Hans Holbein was sent to paint their portraits.
The girls were sisters and daughters of the Duke of Cleves. Henry chose the older
daughter, Anne, to be his fourth wife.
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[24] The 24 year old German Princess arrived in England in December 1539, However, Henry
was
horrified
when he saw her and demanded that his ministers find him a way out of
the marriage. Unfortunately for Henry they could not and the marriage went ahead in
January 1540.
[25] Henry was unable to
consummate
the marriage and the couple divorced
amicably
six
months later.
[26] Anne was well provided for and lived out her days in England in comfort. She
outlived
Henry and died in 1557.
[27] Henry had chosen his fifth wife before his divorce to Anne was finalised. The lady in
question was the 15 year old daughter of Edmund Howard, Kathryn, cousin of Anne
Boleyn.
[28] The marriage took place in July 1540. Henry was 49 years old, overweight and unable
to walk far due to his weight and an injury to his leg that
festered
and refused to heal.
[29] Kathryn was young, lively and
flirtatious.
She was bored with having an old husband
and sought out young friends among the courtiers.
[30] Unfortunately for Kathryn one of the courtiers in question was a man named Francis
Dereham who had known Katherine before her marriage.
[31] He knew that she had had affairs before her marriage and used this to bribe her into
giving him a good position at court.
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