One of the most brutal and savage monarchs in English History was King Henry VIII. He
even ordered the executions of two of his own wives with them losing their heads inside
of the Tower of London. Many of his closest friends were executed, and many of his closest
courtiers sought to try and get advancement in the King’s eyes, and they would stab
each other in the back to do this. Thomas Cromwell for example even suffered, a man
considered the closest of friends with Henry VIII, and he would fall from grace and would
lose his head also. But Henry VIII is most well known for the fact he had six wives,
and these were women who were not treated very well at all. A number were shunned, verbally
subjected to onslaughts of criticism and abuse and Henry VIII was known for not being the
best husband. He would regularly throughout his reign visit a number of his mistresses,
of whom he had children with. His wives were meant to just accept this and put up with
this terribly treatment. But what is the story of the disgusting abuse of Henry VIII’s
six wives?
Henry VIII’s first wife and longest marriage was with Catherine of Aragon. She had previously
been married to Henry’s dead brother Arthur, who was deemed the heir to the throne, but
Catherine was virtually held under house arrest by his father Henry VII. He refused to pay
back the large dowry payment which brought significant wealth into England, and because
of this Henry VII even considered marrying the young girl himself. But when Henry VIII
married Catherine, initially the couple were rather happy, despite Henry regularly seeing
mistresses. This must have been heartbreaking for Catherine, seeing her husband sneak off
to bed with another woman from court such as Mary Boleyn, but it was inside of her household
that Catherine saw significant danger to her marriage. Henry VIII’s hunting ground for
mistresses and new fancies was inside of Catherine’s ladies in waiting, she would later lose her
husband to one of them.
But Catherine suffered greatly throughout her marriage with a significant amount of
problems giving birth to children. The Queen had many miscarriages and stillbirths, as
giving birth during the Tudor Period was incredibly dangerous and risky for mother and child.
This cause a significant degree of strain on her marriage as Henry expected Catherine
to produce him an heir and in particular a son who would inherit the throne and carry
on the Tudor dynasty. It was this that eventually forced the King to annul his marriage with
her, as the King went to huge steps to do this. His attention had been caught by a captivating
young woman at court named Anne Boleyn, and she refused to take the Henry VIII’s bed
until he had sorted out his marriage with Catherine. However what happened next was
incredibly insulting and savage to Catherine, his long standing wife.
The Pope would not grant Henry VIII his divorce, and because of this he turned his back on
the Pope and split from the Catholic Church declaring himself the Supreme Head of the
Church of England. This plunged England into uncharted territory and religious turbulence,
and Catherine was then forced out of the royal apartments, being made homeless and she then
was placed under house arrest. Catherine believed she was the King’s only Queen, but she was
then placed in many different castles and palaces and was banned from seeing her daughter
Mary. She was not allowed to see any of her friends, and was cruelly held under lock and
key. She left her room only to attend mass, and at Kimbolton Castle she passed away after
being shunned and held under house arrest for a number of years. The way her husband
treated her was disgraceful, and he said he would allow her and Mary I to see each other
if they acknowledge Anne Boleyn as the Queen. This was refused. When she died on the 7th
January 1536, the King was told the following day, and distastefully he and his wife Anne
Boleyn celebrated greatly this news.
But Anne Boleyn also had her fair share of ill and poor treatment at the hand of the
King. Henry VIII to begin with was greatly frustrated when she refused to take to his
bed, but no-one could have predicted the King’s wrath and how his second wife would face this.
In almost exactly the same manner as Catherine of Aragon’s downfall came, Anne Boleyn after
marrying the King suffered with miscarriage and problems with providing the King the son
he wanted. She did give birth to a daughter named Elizabeth, who later went on to be Elizabeth
I and the woman who became the greatest monarch of the Tudor Period. Henry’s disappointment
with having a son continued, and Anne suffered a severe miscarriage following the King’s
accident on the tiltyard. Henry at the time had his attention turned to Jane Seymour,
one of Anne Boelyn’s ladies in waiting and of course he then started seeing her, and
he became to court her. With this he asked Thomas Cromwell his trusted friend to search
for a way out of his second marriage.
This saw Anne Boleyn shockingly accused of adultery, incest and treason. These were all
false charges made up by Cromwell, and they captivated the King and he believed this.
With this 5 men were accused of sleeping with the Queen and plotting the death of Henry
VIII. But Anne Boleyn was then brought to the Tower of London under arrest, and was
placed on trial there. She was chastised by the judges, who had already found 5 men guilty
and these were then executed on Tower Hill. But Anne Boleyn was already deemed guilty,
and was sentenced to death. The abuse of Anne Boleyn entered mostly around her reputation
following this, and the falsities she faced. She was led out to Tower Green where a swordsman
struck her head clean off, but it’s believed she was practically murdered with the charges
against her being nothing but lies. With this she can be seen as a victim of the King’s
will and power, and Anne Boleyn is seen as a tragic figure. But she forced the King’s
hand, and her need to marry the King came at the expense of Catherine of Aragon.
Jane Seymour is seen as a tragic wife of the King, however throughout her short time married
to Henry VIII she seemingly had a better experience than his other wives did. She’s sometimes
regarded as ‘the only one Henry truly loved,’ but this is based on the fact he gave the
King his greatest wish, a son. She gave birth to King Edward VI, but days after giving birth
it was clear she was very ill. She then died on the 24th October 1537 inside of Hampton
Court Palace, in the very rooms that she gave birth to the heir. She did suffer a miscarriage
it’s believed before her successful birth, but what is shocking about Jane’s death
is that after she died the King was looking rather quickly for wire number 4. Jane Seymour
is certainly one of the King’s wife who escaped the King through death.
Anne of Cleves was wife number 4 for Henry VIII, and her treatment when she arrived in
England was terrible. Henry selected her over her sister Amalia, and with this she was brought
from Germany to marry the English King. The marriage was arranged based solely really
on an image painted by Hans Holbein. Anne of Cleves was painted well by Holbein, and
Henry saw the image and thought she was stunning, and the negotiations were looked over by Thomas
Cromwell. However Anne did not know much about Henry VIII, and regarding her looks it was
said that, ‘"Her hair hanging down, which was fair, yellow and long ... she was apparelled
after the English fashion, with a French hood, which so set forth her beauty and good
visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her.”
However it was said that she was rather old looking for her age, and when Henry VIII met
her things did not go well. It was said, ‘[The King] so went up into the chamber where the
said Lady Anne was looking out of a window to see the bull-baiting which was going on
in the courtyard, and suddenly he embraced and kissed her, and showed her a token which
the king had sent her for New Year’s gift, and she being abashed and not knowing who
it was thanked him, and so he spoke with her. But she regarded him little, but always looked
out the window .... and when the king saw that she took so little notice of his coming
he went into another chamber and took off his cloak and came in again in a coat of purple
velvet. And when the lords and knights saw his grace they did him reverence.”
But Henry VIII then turned on her, and he called her ‘The Mare of Flanders,’ and
said she was not beautiful. He was highly critical of her looks and he believed that
he had been conned, almost like people get catfished now in the modern times. Henry tried
to get Cromwell to sort the mess out and to get him out of the marriage, but it was impossible
to do this, and the King later turned on Cromwell. Anne of Cleves did rather well out of the
divorce proceedings, and she was given large amounts of money and estates, but she was
slandered greatly. The King claimed that she was not a virgin, and he slated her looks
and with this, Anne’s reputation was damaged. But as mentioned she probably did the best
out of Henry’s wives, living out the rest of her life in places such as Hever Castle,
the former Boleyn family home.
Catherine Howard was the young teenage girl who became Henry VIII’s fifth wife, and
it’s believed she was between 15 and 19 years old when she married the 49 year old
Henry VIII. By this time he was grotesque and large, but Catherine Howard was a girl
who incurred the brutal wrath of Henry VIII, and the scandal that gripped his royal court.
Catherine was married with the King on the 28th July 1540 at Oatlands Palace, however
shortly after marrying there was great accusation levelled against Catherine. She was a troubled
girl, and it’s believed her music teacher as a child assaulted her or had inappropriate
relations with her. She was certainly groomed by him, and it was claimed that she was not
a virgin when she married the King. However she began to take a keen eye on one of the
King’s favourite courtiers, Thomas Culpepper. He was a man who it was said, ‘had succeeded
in the Queen’s affections,’ and they wrote a love letter to each other.
But it’s believed in Spring 1541, that the pair were having secret liaisons, assumed
to be relations and these meetings were facilitated by Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford the widow of
George Boleyn, the brother of Anne Boleyn. But many who learned of this bribed Catherine
for favours themselves for their silence, and a number were appointed to her royal household
if they kept their mouths shut. But Thomas Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury then
tried to investigate, and he uncovered the stories that Catherine had relations with
men before she married the King, including Francis Dereham one of her secretaries. A
love letter to Culpepper was found and her and Dereham were executed, but whilst the
King was praying in the Chapel at Hampton Court on the 1st November 1541, he was informed
of Catherine Howard his wife’s infidelity. Things moved very quickly, and she was stripped
of her title of Queen and was then sent to the Tower of London. Culpepper and Dereham
were executed at Tyburn, and Catherine was then executed by axe on Tower Hill. She was
not granted the privilege of a sword to take her life, and was to die by the commoner’s
axe. Her head was taken off, and she was a woman who was considered abused by many men
throughout her life. Her marriage to the King was a sick one based on the King’s lust,
but it had brutal endings for Catherine.
But the King’s final wife Catherine Parr, number 6 could easily have gone the same way
as Catherine Howard with her losing her head. However she managed to outlive the King, and
many believe she was a nurse to Henry VIII but this wasn’t entirely true. Catherine
Parr was very different, and her 3rd husband was the King. She had been married before,
and she was seen as a talented writer and scholar. She was a staunch protestant which
was very dangerous at the time, and because of this many treated her with suspicion. Catheirne
was sought by a number of the King’s Catholic officials who even drafted up a warrant for
her arrest. Her religious views were seen as shady as many believed that she was turning
King Henry VIII against Catholicism completely. Stephen Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester
saw it as his ambition to destroy Catherine Parr and he drew up an arrest warrant for
her. It was believed that the King was attracted to her close friend Katherine Brandon the
Duchess of Suffolk who could have been wife number 7. With this arrest warrant, many believed
Catherine Parr could have faced execution, and even burning at the stake for being a
heretic. However as the King was getting very ill and down with his health issues, Catheirne
appealed to his softer side and they resolved their differences regarding religion. However
it was close as the King could have taken her head also, but the the King died and Catherine
was granted a rather significant allowance each year, and was allowed to remain a Queen
dowager.
But Henry VIII’s six wives all had elements of their marriages with the King which were
incredibly dangerous and horrifying. Two of them lost their heads, many lost their reputations
and suffered greatly at the hands of many members of the royal court. Today the King
is considered the most brutal King that England has ever had, and the way he treated his wives
was nothing short of disgusting.
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