six+wives


 * media type="custom" key="253675"CATHERINE OF ARAGON**

Shortly after becoming king, Henry VIII took Catherine of Aragon as his bride, and they had a daughter, Mary.

However, Henry had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, a servant in the Queens Household in 1522. By 1526 he was trying to get divorced from Catherine so that he could marry her.

The head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, wouldn't allow it, so eventually Henry broke away from the church in Rome, and declared himself the head of a new Church of England. He then granted himself a divorce.


 * ANNE BOLEYN**

He married Anne in 1533, and later that year she gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth who later became Elisabeth I.

Henry soon got fed up with Anne, (apparently she was really grumpy!) so he accused her of meeting other men.

There is a letter from Anne begging Henry to believe in her innocence but he didn't and in 1536 she was beheaded.

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 * JANE SEYMOUR**[[image:redjane.jpg width="208" height="293" align="right" caption="Jane Seymour"]]

11 days after Anne Boleyn had been beheaded Henry married this third wife, Jane Seymour

Jane was from an old and noble family. She was gentle and modest and not grumpy like Anne. She gave birth to a son in 1537, Edward, who would become King after his father. Sadly 12 days later she died.

It is said that Henry loved Jane the best of all his wives and he waited two years before marrying again.


 * ANNE OF CLEVES**

Henry wanted to make a 'good' marriage this time and decided to look all over Europe for a bride. He sent painters to paint any eligible brides so he could see what they looked like. A picture was shown to him of Anne of Cleves and he agreed to marry her without ever having met her!

When she arrived in England, Henry was very keen to meet her but she didn't speak any English and didn't know who he was. She was rather rude to the fat man that came to see her (Henry) and ignored him. Henry stormed out shouting 'I like her not!'

He is said to have found her repulsive and ugly, and called her a horse! He couldn't break his promise to marry her but it only lasted six months.


 * KATHERINE HOWARD[[image:khoward.jpg align="right" caption="Katherine Howard"]]**

20 days after divorcing Anne, Henry married his fifth wife, Katherine Howard

Katherine was a cousin of Anne Boleyn and was only about 15-16 when she came to court. No-one knows here actual birth date, but she was still a teenager when they married. (He was 49!)

She was lively, pretty, kind and a bit of a 'bird brain' but Henry thought she was perfect.

However, she was previously, secretly engaged to one man and possibly a second one too. When the King found out he chopped both the men's heads off, followed by Katherine's in 1542.


 * KATHRYN PARR**

The following year he married for the last time. Kathryn Parr had already been married twice before, but both her husbands had died. She was really in love with Thomas Seymour (Jane Seymour's brother) but she was too scared to refuse the King (which was probably wise!).

Henry was very fat and ill by now and Kathryn was as much a nurse as a wife. She was a kind woman and was the first wife to bring all three of his children to live together under one roof.

When Henry died in 1547, Kathryn quickly married Thomas Seymour (her fourth husband). Sadly he didn't love her as much as she did him and she was very unhappy. She died in childbirth a year later in 1548.