An infamous mnemonic device to remember the fate of all six of King Henry VIII’s wives
goes as follows: “divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.”
Needless to say, King Henry has a less than favorable reputation when it comes to the
subject of his personal life.
Though we often look back and think of him as the overweight tyrant he became in his
later years, it can be easy to forget that he had once been a well liked, good looking,
athletic celebrity in his youth.
He was, at the time of the early 16th century, a popular, charismatic figure and the most
eligible prince in Europe.
So how did this promising, young monarch become so cruel and end up executing two of his wives?
Henry VIII took the throne in 1509 and this is also when he married his first wife, Catherine
of Aragon.
If you watched our other video, “The Worst Breakup in History,” then you probably already
know how this marriage ended.
Though Catherine wasn’t executed, her pride was damaged when she was ostracized and humiliated
by her public rejection from the king.
So why did he treat her this way?
To understand what was going through Henry’s mind, we must remember that he was a product
of his time.
During this period in history, it was imperative that Henry produce a son and heir to inherit
the throne and Catherine had only been able to deliver one girl, the future Queen Mary
I.
The rest of their children had either been miscarried or stillborn.
In Tudor England, image was everything and a failure to produce a male heir was a direct
hit against Henry’s fragile ego.
His masculinity felt threatened and he wanted to ensure that everyone knew it wasn’t his
fault.
He had portraits and sketches of himself drawn to exaggerate his masculine features, make
him look taller, add in a large bulge under his outfit to emphasize the size of his…
well, private area.
He participated in many sports such as hunting, jousting and tennis.
He wanted to make it known that he was a strong leader and the epitome of virility.
So, it was easier to place the blame on Catherine than to confront the possibility that he could
have any shortcomings of his own.
We think the greatest influential factor for leaving his first wife, however, came from
the seductive powers of one woman: Anne Boleyn.
It is very possible that Anne Boleyn was aware of the king’s insecurities and that she
played them to her advantage – very well, we might add.
Some say she was motivated by family ambition.
She appealed to his vanity while simultaneously keeping him wanting more.
She did this by denying his advances.
When Henry would buy her expensive gifts, she’d refuse them.
She was “playing hard to get” in a very high-stakes game.
In hindsight though, this was an ingenious tactic for alluring the king because it fueled
his interest and caused him to be completely infatuated with her, practically to the point
of worship.
There are some claims that the traditional English song, Greensleeves, was composed by
King Henry VIII for his love of Anne, mainly due to the lyrics “cast me off discourteously,”
which are thought to refer to Anne’s initial rejection of him.
This, however, is only speculation since there is no real definitive evidence for the origin
of the tune.
Nevertheless, once Anne Boleyn entered the picture, Queen Catherine had to go.
Anne Boleyn promised to grant Henry the son and heir he desperately wanted - a very tempting
bargaining chip - but only if he made her his wife and queen.
She would not settle for less and would also not enter his bed, refusing to sleep with
him until his first wife was out of the way.
Henry moved mountains to divorce his first wife, motivated by his lust for Anne.
When he failed to get approval from the Pope, Henry took matters into his own hands.
He established his own church, The Church of England, and separated England from the
Roman Catholic Church.
This caused division in his country, the start of a feud between Catholic citizens and Protestants.
Henry then granted himself his divorce and married Anne.
Once they were married, however, Anne Boleyn’s powerful hold over the king started to slip
from her grasp.
She had the title that she wanted but no longer possessed her bargaining chip to play and
there was intense pressure on both Henry and Anne to produce a son, especially now that
he had uprooted his entire country just to be with her.
Anne did fall pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby, but it was a girl, the future
Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was bitterly disappointed, and Anne would start sliding on a downwards
slope from here.
After this, Anne’s future pregnancies would end in two more miscarriages, which made her
increasingly vulnerable.
Her influence on the king waned and she was in a very precarious situation.
It is easy to imagine that she would have been feeling intensely stressed by this point,
recalling what happened to her predecessor, Catherine.
It can be speculated that, based on the unique circumstances of how they came together, Henry
may have felt a certain level of resentment against Anne for pushing him to the point
of dividing his country, separating from Rome.
When she couldn’t keep up her end of the bargain by providing him with an heir, this
must have delivered another humiliating blow to Henry’s image.
He was also growing increasingly older, impatient and more desperate to have a son.
Additionally, Henry’s interest was being redirected towards another woman named Jane
Seymour.
The foundation of his relationship with Anne was falling apart.
Anne’s downfall hit rock bottom when she was attacked with accusations for committing
adultery with multiple men, including her own brother.
Supporters of Anne Boleyn today would argue the possibility that these treasonous offenses
were fabricated to eliminate Anne from the scene, possibly so that Henry could start
fresh with his new love, Jane.
After all, a lot of the evidence that was used against Anne seem a little phony.
Innocent actions, such as dancing with her brother, were used as testimony.
At the time though, no one would have been bold enough to jump to Anne’s defense and
there were a lot of people who resented her for the shameful treatment of Catherine of
Aragon.
Even the fact that Anne had alibis for 12 of the occasions when she was thought to be
committing adultery did not seem to matter.
Though she was never actually on trial for witchcraft, there was a myth circulating that
she had bewitched the king into marrying her.
There was nothing that Anne could do or say at this point to prevent her fate, as her
once strong influencing power over the king was now entirely obsolete.
Anne was executed in May 1536 after only three years of marriage.
Henry ordered a skilled, French swordsman to do the job so that the beheading would
be quick and painless.
We suppose that, in a twisted way, this was a final gesture of love.
This made Anne Boleyn the first English queen to be executed.
So how could Henry switch from being head-over-heels in love with someone to then having her killed?
Well, aside from the factors already discussed, there is another idea in the mix, a possible
medical explanation.
Many experts blame a jousting accident that Henry endured, which occurred at a tournament
at Greenwich palace on the 24th of January 1536, not long prior to Anne’s execution.
His horse fell on top of him and he was unconscious for two long hours.
This serious accident reportedly caused a personality change in Henry whereby he transformed
dramatically from being sporty and generous to cruel and tyrannical.
According to the History Channel documentary, “Inside the Body of Henry VIII,” this
accident could well have caused undetected brain damage in Henry, turning him into the
tyrant we think of today.
So, could brain damage have pushed Henry to execute his second wife?
If we had today’s medical knowledge and technology somehow magically transported back
in time to examine him, perhaps then we could know for sure.
Just over a week after Anne was beheaded, Henry quickly moved on and married his mistress,
Jane Seymour.
Who knows what Jane was thinking?
Knowing what happened to the previous queen, it’s easy to imagine that anyone would be
frightened to be in her shoes.
Luckily for her, she gave birth to a son, the future king Edward VI of England.
After the childbirth, however, Jane died from postnatal complications.
She was said to be Henry’s favorite wife out of them all but that may have only been
because she didn’t live long enough for him to grow tired of her.
That and she delivered him a son, of course.
Unbeknownst to Henry, however, Edward would die not long after him.
While in the process of searching for a new wife, Christina of Denmark was considered.
But she refused the offer, supposedly saying to the English ambassador, “Had I but two
heads, I would gladly put one at his disposal.”
Wife number four turned out to be the Tudor version of an online dating experience gone
wrong.
Henry was shown a portrait of Anne of Cleves but when he met her personally, he felt that
the artist did not accurately represent her image.
Henry was very vocal about this, angrily expressing that he found her to be hideous and undesirable.
At one point, he allegedly mentioned that she “looked like a horse.”
Still, Henry was forced to go through with the marriage under political pressure to avoid
endangering his alliance with the Germans.
The couple’s first night as husband and wife was a total disaster.
He was recorded saying “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.”
Unsurprisingly, the marriage was soon annulled under the grounds that it was never consummated.
Despite the insult over her appearance, Anne of Cleves was arguably granted the best ending
out of all of Henry’s wives.
She was ordained the title as “The King’s Beloved Sister” and provided with a generous
settlement, which included Richmond Palace and Hever Castle, home to Henry’s prior
in-laws, the Boleyns.
Anne of Cleves was smart enough not to argue against this transaction, gracefully relinquishing
her title as queen.
Who could blame her?
Knowing what Henry was capable of with his past actions against his previous wives, anyone
in her position would have probably done the same.
The next queen to be executed was Henry’s fifth wife, Katherine Howard.
By this time, Henry was 50, had a nasty ulcerated wound on his leg, and his girth had greatly
increased.
Needless to say, he had become very unappealing from the attractive, young king he once had
been.
Though her exact birthdate is unknown, Katherine Howard was only in her early teens when she
married the king and the contrast would be disturbing by today’s standards.
Still, she managed to amuse the king and he loved her madly, calling her his “Rose Without
a Thorn” and spoiling her with lavish gifts.
Katherine, however, had many secret affairs and liaisons with other men, as well as having
a less than wholesome past with her sexuality.
Her flirtations could probably be construed as understandable though since it would have
only been natural for her to want to be with boys her own age, rather than the old, smelly
king that she was stuck being married to.
Her affairs, however, turned out to be a huge mistake that would ultimately lead to her
downfall once word spread and suspicion grew.
At first, Henry denied the initial accusations against her.
He thought her innocent and didn’t want to believe otherwise.
But as the evidence increasingly stacked up, there could be no denying her infidelity.
Henry was heartbroken and infuriated.
Upon her arrest, it is thought that Katherine broke free from her guards and ran, screaming
down the corridor towards Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace in 1541.
She screamed for mercy but to no avail.
Today this corridor is said to be haunted and some speculate that her ghost can be seen
and heard begging for her life during that moment of utter desperation.
Unlike her cousin and Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard wasn’t graced
with the mercy of a master swordsman to perform her execution.
Instead, she was placed under the axe.
Henry’s sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr was fortunate enough to outlive him,
but not without its fair share of scares.
There were rumors about her reading banned religious books.
Appealing to Henry’s ego was what ended up keeping her alive in the end.
She was said to appease him through self-deprecating tactics, stating, “I am but a woman, with
all the imperfections natural to the weakness of my sex,” and claiming that she yearned
for his wisdom.
Henry accepted her explanation.
At this point in his life, his health was deteriorating and he probably also felt fed
up and tired with the idea of re-entering the dating scene.
What do you think of this story?
Which one of King Henry VIII’s wives do you think had the worst experience?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video The Worst Breakup In History!
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