The six queens of Henry VIII

Divorced, beheaded and died.
Divorced, beheaded survived.
I'm Henry VIII I had six sorry wives,
Some might say I ruined their lives. 

~ Horrible Histories

If you know me, you have probably realised that I have a big interest in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in European history. My main interest is the Swedish royal dynasty Vasa, but I never say no to watching or reading about the English Tudors.

The Tudor dynasty is far more frequently portrayed in popular culture than the Vasas and I recently came across a documentary in four parts about the six wives of Henry VIII (1491-1547) that from what I have understand is made by BBC and where historians Suzannah Lipscomb and Dan Jones tell the stories of the six queens.

I really enjoy watching a documentary about the six queens and the focus is very much on them throughout the four episodes. I do feel sorry for all of them even though Anne Boleyn seems to have been quite cruel to be honest.

On the annual big Swedish book sale in 2005, I bought Antonia Fraser's book The six Wives of Henry VIII translated into Swedish by Margareta Eklöf. It was over ten years since I read it, so it was nice to have a reminder of them even though the documentary (for obvious reasons) was not as thorough as the book was.

The queens all deserve posts in my Historical Women series, but I will give you a short overview of each of them here.

Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) is the first of Henry's wife and they seem to have actually loved each other from the beginning. She originally came from Spain at the age of 15 to marry Henry's older brother Arthur in November 1501, but he died pretty soon after their wedding. Henry VIII's father, king Henry VII, then said that Catherine could marry prince Henry instead if Catherine's father (Ferdinand II of Aragon) could send her dowry in advance. For some reason Ferdinand did not do this and Catherine was left without money to even buy for food. Seven years later, in 1509 Henry VII died of tuberculosis and Henry VIII was now king and free to marry whoever he wanted and he chose Catherine who he actually seems to have loved.

Their struggle (and failing) to get a healthy child is well-known and the only one who lived through the first few weeks was their daughter who would later be known as king/queen Mary I. What is far lesser known I think is Catherine's  war victory over the Scots.

Henry named her regent while he was at war against France in 1513 and the Scottish king James IV saw a chance to invade England. Catherine however countered with sending two armies and leading a third one and at the battle of Flodden Field on 9 September king James was killed.

Catherine really seems to have been a pretty fierce fighter and she did not give up her husband without a fight. She was forced to do so in the end and live the rest of her life in poverty.

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (c 1501-1536) was made queen in 1533 when she married Henry with a promise that he would give him a son. What surprised me was how soon after Catherine's death Anne was beheaded. I thought there was at least a year apart and not only a couple of months. One can definitely say that she must have fallen from grace as fast as she rose to it.

She too failed to give Henry a living son. The only living child they got was king/queen Elizabeth I.

She was accused of having affairs with several of the male court members (among others her own brother!) and was beheaded in May 1536. The documentary does not seem to think she was guilty of the claims but rather that she was a flirty person in a very flirty court who did not really know how to tread on the fine line of flirting without upsetting her husband.

Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (c 1508-1537) is often described as pretty meek. She became engaged to Henry the day after Anne's excecution in 1536.

Jane rewith his oldest daughter Mary whom she seems to have befriended and cared for.

She died only days after having given birth to hers and Henry's son king Edward VI in October 1537.

Anna von Kleve (1515-1557) (Or Anne of Cleves as she is usually called in English.) came from Germany to marry Henry in 1540.

When Jane died, Henry sent out his painter Hans Holbein the younger to look for a new wife. Among other ones, he painted the portrayed above to the right and the one of princess Christine af Denmark whose involvement with Henry I will get to later.

Anna von Kleve

Henry was suspicious, so he decided to disguise himself and seek her up. If she would recognise him, he decided she was the love of his life. She did not recognise him at all and of course being approached by a man in discguise scared her. (Based on the #metoo-movement I cannot say that I blame her either.) Henry also found her ugly saying she looked like a horse.

The marriage therefore was annuled after only a few months and this is one of the main problems I have with the documentary. They sort of leave her story unfinished showing no interest in her life after the divorce even though she got a really powerful position as The king's beloved sister. She also befriended Henry and cared for his children. She also outlived both Henry and his other wives and got to see Mary I being crowned.

Jane Seymour

The fact that this is left out is a bit confusing based on the title of the documentary. It seems that even though it was a documentary in four episodes about his wives, the leading character in it was still really Henry.

Catherine Howard (c 1523-1542) was the cousin of Anne Boleyn and she was married to Henry almost as soon as his marriage to Anna of Cleves was annuled.

As was the tradition of Henry's wives, she did not last long. In five years, he actually had four failed marriages.

Catherine was accused of treason for commiting adultery with the male courtier Thomas Culpeper and was beheaded in February 1542.

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr (c 1512-1548) was to be Henry's last wife. They married in 1543. She had been married twice before and really knew how to take care of both him and his children. It seems like she had a keen eye to Thomas Seymour, the brother of Henry's third wife Jane. When the king proposed however, she must have thought she could not refuse him.

She was far more political than I would have thought to be honest. She too is also often portrayed as meek. She tried to urge Henry on to finish the reformation, but the bishop of Winchester put a stop to it.

Henry died in 1547 and Catherine left the court after Edward VI's coronation. She married Thomas Seymour, but died in childbirth only a year later.

Christine af Denmark

That was a very shortened version of the life of each of Henry's queens. Overall I liked the documentary, but there were a few things that they could have thought about. Like I said, the leaving out the rest of Anne of Cleves life in England did not fit into the focus of the documentary.

Another thing really bothered me even though I cannot say it surprised me either. They hosts said that Henry was not keen to leave the throne to one of his daughters because every time a woman had tried to rule England before it had ended in civil war. While this is true, they completely left out the fact that the civil war parts of the female rulers's reign was not really their fault, but caused by men not wanting a woman to rule at all...

I also find it rather ironic that the woman who played Anne Boleyn looked a bit like Catherine of Aragon. It was like the play I saw of Swedish king Erik XIV's life at the castle in Kalmar this summer where the court musician was more or less a clone of the 16th century king while the man playing Erik did not look at all like him.

And last of all I would also have liked them to include Henry's proposal to the Danish princess Christina (The portrait above to the right is the one Hans Holbein the younger made that I mentioned above.), daugther of king Christian II and his wife Isabella of Austria, who is said to have refused him saying that she only had one head and she would very much like to keep it!