I’m sure we’re all, at least to some extent, aware of the infamous King Henry the Eighth. You’ve heard of him, right? If it’s not ringing a bell, here’s a hint; his wives were divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. That’s right! It’s the King of Wife-Killing – I mean England, way back in 1509. Sadly, Henry is mostly known for killing his wives, and his wives are mostly known for being his wife. Although I will mostly be discussing Henry, I will briefly explain what his wives did besides marrying him as well.’’
Henry was born on June 28, 1491, as the youngest child of three and the second son of King Henry the Seventh, and Queen Consort Elizabeth of York. Henry actually had about six or seven siblings, but only two of his siblings made it past infancy. So while the parents were happy to have another son instead of a blasted daughter, Henry wasn’t very important to them. Why should he be? He was just a safety precaution in case his older brother, the very important heir to the throne, Arthur died.
Henry was given numerous titles in various positions and countries under England’s rule, for the sole purpose of making sure none of the other established families got control of those positions. This way, his father could keep personal control, and no one else could. There really isn’t a lot of written history on Henry’s childhood because he wasn’t supposed to be king, but we do know that he still received a first-rate education from tutors, became fluent in Latin, French, and knew at least a little Italian.
Most importantly, however, we know that Henry took part in helping with the ceremonies involving his older brother’s courtship with Catherine of Aragon. It was important that Catherine be married into the English Royal family to keep bonds between the country tight, and to make sure that the new royal family, the Tudors, had a country backing them in case of coups and rebellions.
Sadly, the 15-year old Prince Arthur died of the sweating sickness after being married to Catherine for only 5 months. With Arthur gone, Henry was suddenly in the spotlight as the new heir to the throne. Since Henry was the only son left of Henry the 7th, he was kept guarded at all times and wasn’t allowed out in public. As I mentioned earlier, the Tudor family had only just become the ruling family. More specifically, Henry the 7th was the first Tudor to sit on the throne. This meant that if the Tudors wanted to stay in power, it was very important for Henry’s son to take the throne.
Catherine of Aragon, who was now a widow, was left in a limbo as to what her role in the English empire would be for quite some time. Once Henry turned 14, he rejected the idea of marrying Catherine, making things between Spain and England quite tight. But when Henry’s father died in 1509, the now 17-year old King Henry the Eighth decided that, yes, he will marry Catherine. Henry and Catherine were married in a small and private ceremony and then went to a very grand and lavish coronation.
After his coronation, Henry made it pretty clear as to what would happen to people who stood in his way. Henry had two of his father’s most unpopular ministers, charged them with high treason, and then promptly had them executed. He then returned some of the money that he claimed the ministers had stolen to the public. Despite killing those two, however, Henry actually freed and pardoned some people that his father had locked up because he believed them a threat to the Tudors’ claim to the throne.
Catherine eventually got pregnant, but had a miscarraige. Four months after that, she was pregnant again and gave birth to a baby boy. Henry and Catherine were so happy to have a son, the heir to the throne, that they celebrated with festivities, including a two-day joust. Unfortunately, the boy died seven weeks later. Catherine had two more miscarraiges – both sons – in 1513 and 1515.
Also in 1513, while Catherine was pregnant with the previously mentioned son, Henry waged war with the King of France, leaving Catherine in charge of England as Queen Regent. Catherine took great joy and pride in making sure everything was done correctly, leading battle plans, and eventually even went into a battle herself. Scotland, France’s ally at the time, also joined in the war against England. They headed over to England, and Catherine began making plans to defend her country. Despite being pregnant, Catherine rode into the battle, fully armored, and gave an amazing speech to her army, telling them to defend their territory. England won, killing the Scottish King, and Catherine returned home.
When Catherine finally was able to have a child that survived, it was a daughter, whom they named Mary. Although the couple hoped they would have a son, that baby girl, after all was said and done, would eventually be heir to the throne and rule over England as a queen from 1553 until her death in 1558.
Catherine’s inability to produce a male heir to the throne made her marital relationship really suffer, leading Henry to have several affairs. One of the affairs he had was with a woman named Mary Boleyn, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. Henry went on to have an illegitimate son, while Catherine ended up miscarrying again.
Henry, falling completely out of love with Catherine, ended up falling for a woman name Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of his previous affairs, if you recall. Henry tried his best to woo her, but Anne actually refused to be his mistress.
With the chances of Henry having a male heir looking slimmer every day, Henry felt forced to look for other options at getting one. His main three options were to legitimize his illegitimate son, which would have to be run by the Pope and was therefore unlikely, or to marry his daughter Mary off and hope for a grandson, but Mary was too young to have children before Henry’s death. His last option was to divorce Catherine and marry another woman who could bear his sons.
Henry ends up going for the last choice and starts looking for a way to have his marriage annulled. After around four years of trying numerous things to have his marriage annulled, Henry finally banishes Catherine from court, and gives all of her rooms to Anne Boleyn. Although Henry is the one who wanted to get divorced despite Catherine’s opposition to it, people close to Henry said that the divorce was a very depressing and isolating time for him.
In 1532, Henry gets support from the French king on his marriage to Anne, and he marries her in a private ceremony. Soon after, Anne gets pregnant and the couple have a second wedding ceremony in 1533. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declares Henry’s marriage to Catherine null and void, and his marriage to Anne to be valid. This demoted Catherine from Queen Consort to princess dowager, seeing as she was married to the previous King Arthur, and promoted Anne to being Queen Consort.
Anne prematurely gave birth to a daughter in 153, and they named the daughter Elizabeth, after Henry’s mother. Something that isn’t said about Anne Boleyn enough is that she was actually a very intelligent woman for her time. That being said, her wit and opinions that made her desirable as a mistress, weren’t so pleasing to Henry as his wife. Anne refused to be submissive to Henry and apparently could get a bit violent.
Henry eventually became Supreme Head of the Church of England, making England a protestant country, causing the Pope and the Cathlolic church to excommunicate Henry and Thomas Cranmer. Many people were outraged by the religious changes, reforms, and suppressions and Henry was quick to put people under the axe if they dared try to rise against him.
In 1536, however, there was a rebellion, now coined the Pilgrimage of Grace. Somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 rebels were lead by Robert Aske and some of the northern nobility. Henry told the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for telling him their concerns, and then let them go home. When more violence from the rebels inssued, though, Henry declared the leaders to have commited treason, and executed about 200 rebels.
In 1536, Catherine of Aragon died, giving Henry tremendous joy. So much so, that he even wore yellow to her funeral, with a white feather in his bonnet. Anne then got pregnant again, but was very anxious about what gender the child would be, as she knew what the consequence would be if she had another girl.
Sadly for Anne, however, she ended up miscarrying a son after hearing that Henry had been, possibly fatally, injured in a jousting tournament. Anne had several enemies at court, including her daughter-in-law, Princess Mary. These enemies began saying things to Henry, accusing Anne of various things in an attempt to get her executed. While Anne was recovering from her miscarraige, Henry’s new mistress, Jane Seymour, was moved into new living quarters.
The nail in the coffin for poor Anne was when her brother refused the Order of the Garter, getting him and four other men arrested. George was then accused of committing treasonous adultery and incest with the Queen. Although the so called “evidence” of adultery and incest was unconvincing, George and Anne were found guilty. George and the four other men were executed on May 17, 1536, and Anne was beheaded on May 19, 1536. To Henry’s credit, though, he took great care in making sure that the executioner was well trained, so as to not make Anne suffer for too long.
I hope I’ve made it clear enough that Henry did more than just kill his wives, and his wives did more than just marry him. There will be another article uploaded to Sightline soon, explaining Henry’s other 4 wives.