The Six Wives of King Henry VIII

So good bye and farewell to Anne. Finding himself so vastly disappointed, Henry rushed into the arms of another lady-in-waiting, Miss Jane Seymour. Anne didn’t like that one bit so her devoted husband decided she was an adulterer and sent her to the executioners block – with little Elizabeth only three years old. His third wife, Jane, at last gave him the son he had always hoped for and quite conveniently died right after giving birth.

This then gave Henry, now getting fatter and older, a chance to find a new bride. His handy minister, Thomas Cromwell, rushed to oblige him with the Flemish Anne of Cleves. She turned out to be much homelier than her portrait and Henry divorced her, too, in disgust. (And most likely to Anne’s relief!)

On to the next! Henry had by now become an officially much “older man” who was starting to become seriously overweight and had a bad leg that would ooze pus now and again. You would think that in this condition, Henry would be on the look out for a mature wife, a wife to be his companion rather than lover, a wife that would be a good Queen to his country. Henry was just full of surprises, though, wasn’t he? For whatever reason, his eye fell on Anne Boleyn’s cousin, Katherine Howard. The fact that she was only fifteen didn’t make him hesitate. She was as flirtatious as Lydia Bennet and as pretty as any fifteen year old was expected to be. He wanted her, he got her. A little later the not-too-surprising news came out that she has been beheaded for adultery like her cousin before her. History is so ironic, isn’t it?

At long last, Henry found a seemingly happy, though childless union with a lovely middle aged widow of court, Katherine. There isn’t much to say for Katherine except that she was seemingly perfect. A loving Queen, a thoughtful wife, peace at last settled on the court of England. When Henry at last died, that was the end of Katherine’s fame in history. She packed her bags and went to marry the love of her life, Thomas Seymour (a relative of Henry’s third wife, Jane). I can not say she lived happily ever after. History seldom ever ends that way. But I will say that she was probably the smartest of Henry VIII’s six wives.