Although Henry VIII wasn’t the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty, the union of the roses, of the York and the Lancaster, he’s one of the most iconic in history. The second son of Henry VII, Henry became king when he was only seventeen years old. The once athletic, handsome, and ambitious young king envisioned a reign of glories, cultural improvement, and most importantly, he saw himself as the one who would set a powerful and long list of Tudor monarchs. In reality, he was immortalized by history for his long list of wives, and for being the one who broke with the Catholic Church to found the Church of England with the monarch at its head.
Henry ruled for 36 years, from 1509 to 1547. Considering his family background, he had a long reign, and most of it he did along with his first and pious wife Catherine of Aragon. So, talking about his wives is also dealing with his life and visions as a monarch. He was a King who once he realized he could do anything he wanted, resorted to evil practices to achieve them. He even had some sort of pattern with his wives, and even children are taught at school a little rhyme to remember the order in which he married these women.
“Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.” Let’s see who were these women and why some of them were extremely unfortunate.
Catherine of Aragon
Just six weeks after taking the throne in 1509. Henry married Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the Spanish Catholic Kings, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Originally Catherine was betrothed and married to Henry’s brother Arthur; however, he died quite soon after the wedding, and Catherine was then married to Henry.
At first, it was said that both Henry and Catherine seemed very in love as a couple of ambitious youngsters. Catherine got pregnant several times and gave birth to several children, but only one survived, a girl named Mary who would pass into history as the fearsome Bloody Mary, or simply Mary Tudor. Henry was obsessed with keeping the Tudor dynasty, and although he had already an heir, what would secure his bloodline would be a son, something Catherine seemed unable to give him.
Henry was known as a womanizer, and the list of mistresses he had is way longer than his list of wives. While still being married to Catherine, he had an affair with one of her ladies in waiting, Elizabeth Blount. In 1519, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Fitzroy, who was recognized by Henry as his illegitimate son. Still, this didn’t appease him in his obsession with having a legitimate male heir.
Henry started to think that God was denying him a son because he had married the wife of his brother, one of the capital sins. By this time, he was introduced to a beautiful and equally ambitious young woman who would change the history of England forever, Anne Boleyn. But we’ll talk about her in a moment. What’s to know now, is that convinced he had been cursed, he did everything he could to get a Papal annulment of his marriage to be able to remarry and finally have a son.
His quest made him break ties with the Catholic Church, which considered the marriage legitimate. Catherine was still a virgin when she married Henry and was aunt to Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of Austria, basically the most powerful monarch in Europe, and one of Rome’s most important allies. As we’ll see, Henry broke ties with the Church and founded his own protestant religion. He divorced Catherine under his laws and took away her title of Queen. She was deprived of luxuries and denied access to her daughter Mary; Catherine finally passed in 1536.
Anne Boleyn
So, the infamous Anne Boleyn. Anne and her sister married spent their childhood at the French court being educated to being ladies. Much to their father’s wishes, Mary was sent to the English court managing to entice Henry. However, the affair was short and unimportant to the King, he had set eyes on her sister Anne. Knowing that the King would normally take mistresses and then forget about them, Anne played the dangerous game of playing-hard-to-get, which surprisingly worked.
At that time, the Lutheran and Calvinist movements of Protestantism were reaching every single corner of the continent. And although Henry had originally stood against it (he was even named “Defender of the Faith” by the Pope), when Rome failed to grant him his divorce, he started seeing these reformed religions as more convenient. Still, he never considered himself a Protestant. The Boleyns were more adept to these beliefs, and it’s thought it was Anne (instructed by her father and other Protestant leaders) the one who introduced Henry to Reformism and encouraged him to found his Church. And so he did.
Once divorced, Henry married Anne in 1533. They had one daughter the great Queen Elizabeth I, later that year. Since Anne was still young, Henry was optimistic that God would grant him many more children including his so-desired heir. Again, it didn’t happen. Anne had several miscarriages, and soon Henry lost interest in her. Despite her attempts to entice her husband once again, he was already thinking about marrying again, he needed a son and he wasn’t getting any younger.
Anne was accused of adultery and treason. There’s not much evidence about the alleged crimes; most likely Henry made everything up to get rid of Anne Boleyn. The marriage was annulled, and two days later on May 19, 1536, she was beheaded. Their daughter Elizabeth, as it had happened to Mary before was declared illegitimate for a while.
Jane Seymour
Saint Jane Seymour! Jane had always been a secondary player in King Henry’s court. Actually, Jane served as lady-in-waiting for both Catherine and Anne. Moreover, Anne and Jane were related. Their mothers were first cousins meaning they shared a grandmother. But back to the story, Jane’s closeness to Henry VIII started just sometime before things started getting ugly for Anne Boleyn. Just days after the execution of Anne, Henry married Jane. Soon after, Jane announced she was pregnant, making Henry extremely happy.
Things were starting to look bright for the Royal Family since Jane also advocated in favor of Henry’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth. They were recognized once again and invited to court. However, the fairy tale fantasy was soon to be over. On October 12, 1537, Jane gave birth to the long-awaited male heir to the Tudor dynasty. Sadly, Jane didn’t make it; she died of childbirth complications some weeks later. It’s said Jane was Henry’s true love, so when he passed, he asked to be buried next to her.
Anne of Cleves
It took Henry a while to move on from Jane’s death, two years to be more precise. During this time of mourning, her advisors kept telling him he should remarry to secure another heir and create a strong alliance in Europe. After two years, Henry finally decided to follow their advice and chose to marry one of the sisters of the Duke of Cleves from Germany. Henry VIII was a vain man, and to accept marriage, he wanted to make sure that his new bride was beautiful as his previous wives. For that matter, he sent his ambassadors to analyze the beauty of these sisters and even sent artists to make some portraits.
Unfortunately, his advisors wanted him to marry into the Cleves family so bad that they ended up making some alterations to both their descriptions and the portraits to make them more attractive to the King. Henry finally settled for Anne, but at her arrival in 1540, he was disappointed that Anne looked nothing like the portrait he had seen. Despite his attempts to step back from the commitment, he was forced to marry her. Just six months into the marriage, Henry was clear he was not attracted to her at all and couldn’t even perform his duties as a husband. Anne understood and agreed to divorce him. It was the smartest move any of the six wives of Henry VIII ever made. They remained friends until he died in 1547, and she held the unofficial title of the ‘King’s Sister’ until her passing 10 years later. She also remained quite close to Henry’s daughters, whom she loved dearly.
Catherine Howard
Right after the divorce, Henry decided to marry young Catherine Howard, who had served as lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves. She was just 17 years old and was full of life and ambition. By this time, Henry was far from being the handsome athletic King he once was. He was overweight, and a leg complication impeded him to walk properly. Still, Henry was delighted at the beauty and vivaciousness of this young woman that he didn’t even think about anything when he decided to marry her that soon. Just one year after their marriage, rumors of infidelity sparked among the court. Without having a proper investigation, Catherine Howard suffered the same fate as Anne Boleyn, she was trialed and executed on February 13, 1542.
Catherine Parr
Last but not least, we have the last wife and the last Catherine in Henry’s life. Over a year after the execution of Catherine Howard, Henry started to show interest in a more mature woman, widow to one aristocrat, Catherine Parr. She was a beautiful and well-educated woman who didn’t want to marry the King (and who would, knowing the fate of his previous wives) but had no choice to abide. In the summer of 1543, Henry and Catherine married. She’s known for being the one that kept peace between Henry and his daughters and the one who convinced him of putting both of them on the succession line to the crown.
Catherine Parr was a well-known Protestant and tried to push her agenda while being married to Henry. She had many enemies at court who thought Catholicism could reign back. Henry never really declared his Church as fully Protestant, he had merely called for a Reformation, so when Catherine was accused of being a Protestant, he had her arrested for a while. Eventually, she was freed and she became devoted to bringing stability to the court. She also devoted herself to taking care of her stepchildren.
It’s believed that it was Catherine the one that had the biggest influence in court in terms of culture, and she even promoted the role of women in more important matters at court. Henry trusted her so much that he even named her Regent during his absence while pursuing an invasion in France in 1544. Their marriage lasted a bit longer than any of Henry’s marriages after Catherine, but in 1547, King Henry VIII passed at the age of 55. Catherine Parr passed just one year after.
What happened to the Tudor dynasty?
After Henry’s death, his son Edward took the throne as King Edward VI; he was only nine years old. Henry had been obsessively careful with Edward to the point that he barely left his private home away from court to avoid him getting sick of anything. This made him a weak boy, and unfortunately, only six years after accending to the throne, Edward died. He was 15 years old.
As it had been stated in the succession line, Mary succeeded Edward. Her reign was also short but quite turbulent and full of violence. She was determined to bring back the Catholic faith into England and to reverse all the Protestant advances that were made during her brother’s reign. She resorted to violence and assassination. Thus the nickname ‘Bloody Mary.’ After years of dealing with false pregnancies, in 1558, Mary died of uterine cancer complications, she was 42 years old.
Elizabeth took the throne, and as we know it was under her leadership that England experienced what is called a Golden Age; the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth died childless after 45 years on the throne, thus ending the Tudor dynasty. It wasn’t long and lasting, and Henry had envisioned it, but it definitely gave some of the most iconic and most renowned characters in English history.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
