Wives of Henry VIII

English historian and House of Tudor expert David Starkey describes Henry VIII as a husband:

What is extraordinary is that Henry was usually a very good husband. And he liked women -- that's why he married so many of them! He was very tender to them, we know that he addressed them as "sweetheart." He was a good lover, he was very generous: the wives were given huge settlements of land and jewels -- they were loaded with jewels. He was immensely considerate when they were pregnant. But, once he had fallen out of love... he just cut them off. He just withdrew. He abandoned them. They didn't even know he'd left them.[4]

The six women who were married to Henry VIII, in chronological order:

Henry's first marriage lasted nearly 24 years, while the following five lasted less than 10 years combined.

A mnemonic device to remember the names of Henry's consorts is “Arrogant Boys Seem Clever, Howard Particularly”; a mnemonic for their fates is "Divorced, beheaded, died; annulled, beheaded, survived". There are also two rhymes:

King Henry VIII,
To six wives he was wedded.
One died, one survived,
Two divorced, two beheaded.

and

Boleyn and Howard lost their heads,
Anne of Cleves he would not bed,
Jane Seymour gave him a son – but died before the week was done,
Aragon he did Divorce,
Which just left Catherine Parr, of course!

Though technically, the first rhyme should be "Annulled, annulled, died; annulled, beheaded, survived" as his marriage to Anne Boleyn was annulled before her beheading.

It is often noted that Catherine Parr survived Henry, but Anne of Cleves also survived him and was the last of his queens to die (although her marriage to Henry had already been annulled). Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour each gave him one child who survived infancy: two daughters and one son. All three of these children eventually ascended to the throne as King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I.

Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn were first cousins and were both beheaded. Jane and Anne Boleyn were second cousins; Catherine Howard and Jane were second cousins as well. Several of Henry's wives worked in service to another wife, typically as a lady-in-waiting. Anne Boleyn served Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour served both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Howard served Anne of Cleves.

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536; Spanish: Catalina de Aragón) was Henry's first wife.[7][8] In modern sources, her name is most commonly spelled Catherine, although she spelled and signed her name with a "K," which was an accepted spelling in England at the time.[9] After the death in 1502 of Arthur, her first husband and Henry's brother, a papal dispensation was obtained to enable her to marry Henry, though the marriage did not occur until he came to the throne in 1509. Catherine became pregnant in 1510, but the girl was stillborn. She became pregnant again in 1511 and gave birth to Henry, Duke of Cornwall, who died almost two months later. She gave birth to a stillborn boy in 1513, and to another boy who died within hours in 1515. Finally, she bore a healthy daughter, Mary, in 1516. It was two years before she conceived again; the pregnancy ended with a short-lived girl. It is said that Henry truly loved Catherine of Aragon, as he professed it many times.

Henry, at the time a Roman Catholic, sought the Pope's approval for an annulment on the grounds that Catherine had first been his brother's wife. He used a passage from the Old Testament (Leviticus Chapter 20 Verse 21): "If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an impurity; he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” Henry had begun an affair with Anne Boleyn, who refused to become his mistress. (He had already ended an affair with Anne's sister, Mary Boleyn.) Despite the pope's refusal to annul the marriage Henry separated from Catherine in 1531. He ordered the highest church official in England, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, to convene a court. On 23 May 1533,[8] Cranmer ruled the marriage to Catherine null and void. On 28 May 1533, he pronounced the King legally married to Anne (with whom Henry had already secretly exchanged wedding vows). This led to England breaking from the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England.

William Shakespeare, in the play Henry VIII, called Catherine "The queen of earthly queens" (2.4.138).

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (c.1507 – 19 May 1536) was Henry's second wife and the mother of Elizabeth I. Henry's marriage to Anne and her execution made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval at the start of the English Reformation. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (born Lady Elizabeth Howard), and she was of nobler birth than Jane Seymour, Henry's later wife. She was dark-haired with beautiful features and lively manners; she was educated in Europe, largely as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France.

Anne resisted the king's attempts to seduce her and refused to become his mistress as her sister Mary Boleyn had been. It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne. He wrote a love letter that provides evidence of some level of intimacy between them, in which he admires her "pretty duckies" (breasts).[10] It eventually became clear that Pope Clement VII was unlikely to give the king an annulment, so Henry began to break the power of the Catholic Church in England.

Henry dismissed Thomas Wolsey from public office and later had the Boleyn family's chaplain Thomas Cranmer appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1533, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service.[11] She soon became pregnant and there was a second, public wedding service in London on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid. Soon after, the Pope launched sentences of ex-communication against the King and the Archbishop. As a result of Anne's marriage to the King, the Church of England was forced to break with Rome and was brought under the king's control.[11] Anne was crowned Queen Consort of England on 1 June 1533, and she gave birth to Henry's second daughter Elizabeth on 7 September. She failed to produce a male heir, her only son being stillborn. Henry grew tired of her and had their marriage annulled. Thomas Cromwell devised a plot to execute her.

Despite unconvincing evidence, she was found guilty and beheaded on 19 May 1536 for adultery, incest, and high treason. After the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth I, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly due to the works of John Foxe. Over the centuries, she has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works.

Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (c. 1508 – 24 October 1537) was Henry's third wife. She served Catherine of Aragon as maid-of-honour and was one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting.[12]

Jane, the daughter of Sir John Seymour, a knight, and Margery Wentworth, was most likely born at Wulfhall, Wiltshire,[13] although West Bower Manor in Somerset has also been suggested.,[14] her birth date is not recorded. She was of lower birth than most of Henry's wives, only being able to read and write a little, but was much better at needlework and household management, which were considered much more necessary.

Jane married Henry VIII on 20 May 1536, at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, the day after Anne Boleyn's execution. Almost a year and a half after marriage Jane gave birth to a male heir, Edward, but she died twelve days later from postpartum complications. Henry suffered genuine grief, as she was the only one of his wives to receive a queen's burial. When he died, he was buried next to her in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves (22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557) was a German princess,[15] Henry's wife and queen consort of England, although not crowned, for just six months in 1540, from 6 January to 9 July. Henry may have referred to her as "A Flanders mare", and the label has stuck.[16]

Her pre-contract of marriage with Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, was cited as grounds for annulment, even though their marriage did not proceed. Anne did not resist the annulment, claiming the marriage had not been consummated and was rewarded with a generous settlement including Hever Castle, the former home of the Boleyns, Henry's former in-laws. She was given the name "The King's Sister", and was a lifelong friend to him and his children. She outlived the King and all his wives, dying at Chelsea Old Manor on 16 July 1557; the most likely cause of her death was cancer.[17] She was buried in Westminster Abbey on 3 August.[18]

Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard (c.1523 – 13 February 1542) was Henry's fifth wife between 1540–1542, sometimes known as "the rose without a thorn". She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII), and niece to Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court, and he secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where Catherine caught the King's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. He was 49, and she was still a teenager, at about 17 years old.

Henry was informed of her alleged adultery with Thomas Culpeper, her distant cousin, on 1 November 1541.[19] Catherine was stripped of her title as queen in November 1541 and was beheaded three months later on the grounds of treason for committing adultery.

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr (1512 – 5 September 1548), also spelled Kateryn, was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII, 1543–1547. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal and his wife, Maud Green. Through her father, Catherine was a descendant of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III. Through John of Gaunt's daughter Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland (Henry's great-great-grandmother), she was Henry's third cousin, once removed. By Henry's paternal descent from another of John of Gaunt's children, John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the two were also fourth cousins once removed.

Catherine showed herself to be the restorer of Henry's court as a family home for his children. She was determined to present the royal household as a close-knit one to demonstrate strength through unity to Henry's opposition. Perhaps Catherine's most significant achievement was Henry's passing of an act that confirmed both Mary's and Elizabeth's line in succession for the throne, despite the fact that they had both been made illegitimate by divorce or remarriage. Such was Henry's trust in Catherine that he chose her to rule as Regent while he was attending to the war in France, and in the unlikely event of the loss of his life, she was to serve as Regent until nine-year-old Edward came of age.

Catherine also has a special place in history as she was the most married queen of England, having had four husbands in all; Henry was her third. She had been widowed twice before marrying Henry. After Henry's death, she married Thomas Seymour, uncle of Edward VI of England, to whom she had formed an attachment before her marriage with Henry. She had one child by Seymour, Mary, and died shortly after childbirth. Lady Mary's history is unknown, but she is not believed to have survived childhood.

Henry was distantly related to all six of his wives through their common ancestor, King Edward I of England,[20] as follows:

• Aveling, S. T. (1890). Heraldry: Ancient and Modern including Boutell's Heraldry. London: Frederick Warne and Co. ISBN 0548122040.
• Boutell, Charles (1863). A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular. London: Windsor And Newton. ISBN 1146289545.
• Brooke-Little, J.P., FSA (1978) [1950], Boutell's Heraldry (Revised ed.), London: Frederick Warne LTD, ISBN 0-7232-2096-4
• Pinces, John Harvey; Pinces, Rosemary (1974), The Royal Heraldry of England, Heraldry Today, Slough, Buckinghamshire: Hollen Street Press, ISBN 0-900455-25-X
• Willement, Thomas (1821), Regal Heraldry: the Armorial Insignia of the Kings and Queens of England, from Coeval Authorities, London: W. Wilson