The Six Wives of Henry VIII

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This booklet about the six wives of Henry VIII is written and edited by Angela Royston and published by Pitkin (an imprint of Jarrold Publishing). The text is divided into ten sections. Here are the headlines:

(1) Catherine of Aragon

(2) The King’s ‘Great Matter’

(3) Anne Boleyn

(4) Anne’s Downfall

(5) Jane Seymour

(6) From Young to Old… the Changing Face of Henry VIII

(7) Anne of Cleves

(8) Catherine Howard

(9) Catherine Parr

(10) The Heirs

The text is brief, while the illustrations are numerous. The text and the illustrations supplement each other very well. All illustrations are in colour except for a few which are in black-and-white. All illustrations are instructive and helpful.

Henry was born in 1491. He ruled as Henry VIII from 1509 until his death in 1547.

He had a dramatic and turbulent life: he was married no less than six times, and he made sure that two of the six wives were executed.

Henry was rich and powerful. He used his power to reward those who made him happy and to punish those who made him angry. No one was safe. Even influential people could lose everything – their titles, their fortunes, and sometimes even their head – in an instant, if Henry felt they had betrayed him. Here are three examples:

** Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, dismissed and charged with treason 1529, died 1530

** Sir Thomas More, sentenced to death for treason, executed 1535

** Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell, executed 1540

Looking at the names, I have to make an observation: Henry seems to like the name Thomas. Three of the men from his inner circle carried this name. He trusted them at first, but when they disappointed him, he got rid of them.

For more information about Henry, please turn to this booklet from the same publisher: King Henry VIII.

ThHenrrrris booklet gives us the short version of the long story. It presents the six wives one by one, beginning with the following rhyme:

Divorced, beheaded, died,
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

The rhyme tells the fate of the six wives in a condensed form. Here are the names of the six women who were formally married to Henry, in most cases for a rather short time:

** Catherine of Aragon – married to Henry 1509 - divorced 1533 – died 1536

** Anne Boleyn – married to Henry 1533 – executed 1536

** Jane Seymour – married to Henry 1536 – died 1537
** Anne of Cleves – married to Henry 1540 – divorced 1540 – died 1557

** Catherine Howard – married to Henry 1540 – executed 1542
** Catherine Parr – married to Henry 1543 – survived Henry, but not for long; married to Thomas Seymour, her fourth husband, in 1547, she died in 1548

Looking at the names, I have to make an observation: Henry seems to like the name Catherine. Three of his six wives carried this name. He also seems to like the name Anne. Two of his six wives carried this name. Only one carried a different name: Jane.

As a young man and a young king Henry was considered a very handsome man, but during his last years he became extremely fat and not very charming to look at (section 6).

His major concern was the search for a male heir. He had two daughters – with Catherine of Aragon he had Mary (born 1516) and with Anne Boleyn he had Elizabeth (born 1533) - but for him they did not count as heirs.

He had one son who survived him. With Jane Seymour he had Edward (born 1537). He succeeded his father and ruled as Edward VI, but he was taken ill and died while he was still young, so he ruled for only six years (1547-1553).

His daughter Mary ruled as queen 1553-1558, while his daughter Elizabeth ruled as queen 1558-1603. Elizabeth was the fifth and last ruler of the Tudor dynasty. Henry did not think of his daughters as heirs. For him only a son was the real thing. But, as it turned out, both his daughters became queen, and the youngest of them, Elizabeth, ruled even longer than her father (section 10).

When you see this publication, you may assume it is a children’s book, because it is so slim and because there are so many pictures. But in my opinion this assumption is false. If you want a short and colourful account of the six wives of Henry VIII, this booklet is just the right thing for you.

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Angela Royston,
The Six Wives of Henry VIII,
Pitkin, 1999, reprinted 2004, 22 pages 
 

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