Wives of Henry VIII

The six wives (queens consort) of Henry VIII of England were, in order: Catherine of Aragon (annulled), Anne Boleyn (beheaded), Jane Seymour (died, childbirth fever), Anne of Cleves (annulled), Catherine Howard (beheaded), and Catherine Parr. It is often noted that Catherine Parr "survived him"; in fact Anne of Cleves also survived the king and was the last of his queens to die. Of the six queens, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour each gave Henry one child who survived infancy — two daughters and one son, all three of whom would eventually succeed in the throne. They were King Edward VI, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.

Theoretically however, Henry VIII only had two wives, as opposed to six in practice. Henry considered his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be non-void when he appealed to the Pope in Rome for a divorce after twenty years of marriage. Catherine failed to produce a son, instead suffering several miscarriages and still-births before having a healthy baby girl. He claimed that Catherine had not been a virgin when he had married her and that, as stipulted in the Bible, the marriage could never be legal because Henry had married his elder brother's widow. The Pope refused him and so Henry was forced to break England's longstanding relationship with Rome and formed the Church of England, appointed himself head so that he could file a divorce.

Henry's second marriage to Anne Boleyn was also annulled because it was conducted in private, whilst he was still married to Catherine of Aragon. Anne gave Henry a daughter as well but, after being accused of witchcraft and of seeing other men, suffered public execution by sword.

Jane Seymour, Henry's wife after Anne was executed, was a legally-binding marriage and Jane succeeded in producing a male heir (Edward) to the throne. For these reasons Jane was probably Henry's true love, but unfortunately she passed away just days after giving birth to their son.

Following her death, Henry planned to marry Anne of Cleves. Unfortunately, her German portrait was deceiving in illuminating her facial qualities a lot more, making her look more beautiful than she really was. Her pre-contracted marriage acted as the reason for annulment but he kept her in court as a lady-in-waiting and a family friend.

Catherine Howard, wife number 5, was found to be guilty of pre-marital adultery and she was swiftly executed, making annulment more than fitting.

Henry's last wife, Catherine Parr, was his second legally-binding marriage, although she outlived him. After Henry's death, Catherine went on to marry Jane Seymour's brother, Thomas Seymour, whom she reputedly had always loved.

Wives

1. Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536; Spanish: Catalina de Aragón) was Henry's first wife. After the death 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 take place until after he came to the throne in 1509. Catherine bore him a daughter, in 1516 Mary I, but no sons who survived past infancy.

Henry, then a devout Roman Catholic, sought the Pope's approval for an annulment on the grounds that the marriage was invalid because Catherine had first been his brother's wife. Henry had begun an affair with Anne Boleyn, who is said to have refused to become his mistress (Henry had already consummated an affair with and then dismissed Anne's sister (Mary Boleyn), and Anne wanted to avoid the same treatment). Despite the pope's refusal, Henry separated from Catherine in 1533. In the face of the Pope's continuing refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine, Henry ordered the highest church official in England, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury to convene a court to rule on the status of his marriage to Catherine. On May 23, 1533, Cranmer ruled the marriage to Catherine null and void. On May 28, 1533 he pronounced the King legally married to Anne Boleyn (with whom Henry had already secretly exchanged wedding vows, probably in late January 1533). This led to the break from the Roman Catholic Church and the later establishment of the Church of England.

2. Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pembroke (1501 – May 19, 1536) was Henry's second wife and the mother of Elizabeth I of England. Born into the English aristocracy, Anne was educated in France from 1514 until 1521. Returning to England in 1522, she was one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. She caught the eye of Henry VIII who proposed marriage to her in 1527. An intellectual who believed in the Divine Right of Kings and certain aspects of the new Protestant religion, Anne played a major role in the English Reformation. She was crowned queen consort in 1533, but after the birth of Princess Elizabeth (a girl was of no use to Henry) in September of that same year, she failed to successfully carry another pregnancy to term.

She was unjustly accused of adultery, incest, witchcraft and treason so that the King could remarry and produce a legitimate male heir; after an unfair trial, she was beheaded. Before her death at age twenty-eight, she joked that, "I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck." Some people believed that she was a witch, and covered her evil mark with a necklace. There were also rumors that she had six fingers on one hand. She is remembered today as one of the most courageous women of her time.

3. Jane Seymour (c. mid-1508–October 24, 1537) was Henry's third wife. He first became attracted to her while she was one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting, and it is popularly believed she is the reason he disposed of Anne. After their marriage in 1536, she gave him his only male heir, later Edward VI, but died shortly after birth of puerperal fever.

4. Anne of Cleves (September 22, 1515 – July 16, 1557) was Henry's fourth wife, for only six months in 1540, from January 6 to July 9. She has become known as "The Flanders Mare" because the king is said to have disliked her appearance. Her pre-contract of marriage with Francis, Duke of Lorraine, was cited as grounds for an annulment. Anne agreed to this, claiming that the marriage had not been consummated, and she was given a generous settlement, including Hever Castle, former home of Henry's former in-laws, the Boleyns. She was given the name "The King's Sister", and became a friend to him and his children. She outlived both the king and his last two wives.

5. Catherine Howard (1520/1525? – February 13, 1542) was Henry's fifth wife 1540–1542, sometimes known as "the rose without a thorn". Henry was informed of her alleged adultery on November 1, 1541. After being deprived of the title of Queen, she was beheaded at the Tower of London. The night before, Catherine spent hours practicing how to lay her head upon the block, and her last words were for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul. She was buried next to her cousin Anne Boleyn. Her ghost is said to have haunted Henry for years later, and was even heard screaming by others.

6. Catherine Parr (about 1512 – September 7, 1548), also spelled Katharine, was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII 1543–1547. She has a special place in history as the most married queen of England, having had four husbands in all. She had been widowed three times in rapid succession. After Henry's death, she married Thomas Seymour, uncle of Edward VI. She had one child by him, Mary, and died in childbirth. Mary's date of death is unknown.

Mistresses

See Henry's mistresses

He kept many of them in his private mansion called Jericho where Fitzroy was born. Aside from Mary Boleyn and Elizabeth Blount, the only other two who are known by name are Lady Hastings (whom he may briefly have slept with around 1510) and Mary Shelton (1535). Mary was the daughter of Anne Shelton, Anne Boleyn's aunt.

Miscellanea

Marriage lengths

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