In the context of Tudor England, I am asked more often about Henry VIII and his almost Eastern-like status as lord of some vast harem. As lusty as Hal may have been, he definitely fell far short of the standards set by many Ottoman sultans. At the same time, Hal loved the ladies. Whether or not he could ever have loved the same lady for a lifetime (Katherine of Aragon, who was Hal's wife for 27 years, more or less, notwithstanding) is anyone's guess. Here is my attempt to clarify the issue.
Henry was married six times to six different women. Maybe. It all depends on what your definitions of marriage are. Katherine of Aragon, a real catch in the European marriage market, had come to England to marry Prince Arthur Tudor, who was at that time Prince of Wales and heir to the throne. The story goes that the sickly Arthur wasn't up to his husbandly duties in the marriage bed, and had thus left poor Kate as good as a virgin as he had found her. But this was the sticking point as to whether or not that marriage had been valid--no consummation, no marriage, no awkward situations with Kate and Hal marrying after Arthur had died.
But what was a convenient truth in 1509 became a thorn in the horny lion's paw in 1526 or so, when Henry decided to be carried away by the lady in waiting Anne Boleyn. Unlike her sister Mary, Anne wasn't willing to settle for being the king's mistress. For her, it was a crown or nothing. It was at this time when Anne had him by the...conscience that Henry began to question his marriage to Katherine. After all, they had nothing but bad luck in the offspring department--stillbirths, miscarriages, and only one weak daughter who could never possibly hold the throne. Clearly, Henry made himself conclude, this was God's displeasure with him for having married his brother's widow.
Katherine maintained the same truth she had held to for all of the years since Arthur's death. They had never been truly married, a fact Henry himself knew to be true. But at this point Henry chose to forget the years of love and life he had shared with Katherine. What was really spinning through Henry's mind? Was he so deeply in love with Anne Boleyn, or had he convinced himself he was in love with Anne Boleyn? More likely, he had finally fallen in love with himself as a supreme leader of all things happening within his realm. He liked the ideas of the Enlightenment to the extent that they validated his personal power over that of Rome, but not to the degree where he would have been willing to share power with his people. To make a long story short, he seized ecclesiastical power in England, replacing the absolute power of the Pope with his own absolute power.
How much of this was Anne Boleyn's influence? It's certain that Anne approached Henry on an intellectual level as equals, and that she may have introduced the ideas of the "new learning" to the king. Yet it's likely that the idea of putting aside one wife for various reasons to take a new and hopefully fertile wife occurred to Henry on his own. Casting aside the Roman Catholic Church, Henry annulled his own marriage to Katherine--a woman whom he had sworn to love with a chivalrous devotion--and left her to slowly weaken and die in the least pleasant royal properties available.
Anne Boleyn never ended up living a fairy tale herself. Already swelling with child, Anne had been shouted down and disrespected by the people of London the day of her coronation. A few months later, that miracle child had the temerity of being born a girl (the future Elizabeth I). Future children were miscarried or stillborn, and Henry came to see that this marriage was also cursed by God. Of all the charges laid against her that brought her conviction of high treason, Anne was innocent of all of them. But Henry was determined to get rid of this queen, and saw this as an efficient means.
Of course by the time Anne Boleyn was kneeling in front of a swordsman brought from France, Henry had not loved her for quite some time. In fact, he was deeply in love with Jane Seymour, a woman who by most accounts was plain, docile, and the complete opposite of Anne. Jane also had been Katherine's lady in waiting, and had a place in Anne's household as well. This marriage, unlike the previous two, had no impediments--both Katherine and Anne were dead. It's been said that of all his wives Henry truly loved Jane, and this may be so. But a little more than a year after marrying Henry, Jane died of the complications of childbirth after delivering Prince Edward. Perhaps Henry both gained and lost his heart's desire, but we have to wonder how long Jane may have stayed in Henry's good graces had she lived.
In 1539, the king was eager to marry again. After all, he only had one son and that son was sickly. He had two useless daughters. Thomas Cromwell, trusted adviser and closet Reformist, suggested Henry look to the German states for a new bride, as an alliance with a Protestant state would strengthen England against Catholicism. On hearsay and on an enhanced personal portrait of the lady, Henry chose Anne of Cleves. At this point he was growing into the obese tyrant of popular legend and really didn't have much to offer as a bridegroom. All the same, he flew into a rage that such an ugly woman could have been brought to him. Whether Anne of Cleves was as ugly as Henry believed is up for debate. Certainly she wasn't the shy and dainty type Henry favored, but nor was she "a mare". She was also kind, intelligent, and much beloved by the English people. Still, Henry refused to bed with her, thus providing a clear exit from the marriage. It's wisely believed that England lost out when Anne of Cleves surrendered her crown--but Anne herself received many royal properties and outlived all of Henry's wives.
Henry seems to have had a taste for sampling the ladies in waiting of his queens. In this case it was Katherine Howard, the silly teenager who could do everything necessary to please and placate an aging king. As part of the powerful Howard family (and cousin to Anne Boleyn) Katherine was encouraged to act delighted with the king, however offensive his moods or his odors. Katherine could handle this task with great aplomb, as she had been entertaining gentlemen in her grandmother's dormitory for years. Technically her crime was that her loose behavior could endanger the succession should she bear another man's child. Her adultery with Thomas Culpepper unfortunately constituted high treason and a date with a sharp ax.
Now, after all of these misadventures, no one expected the king to marry again. But no one was counting on Katherine Parr, a mature lady several times married and with a kind disposition to nurture a grouchy king. Her only liability was a devotion to the Reformed faith at a time when prelates of Henry's church were out to find and condemn Reformers. These men tried to take Katherine down, but her intelligence prevailed, and she was able to convince the king of her innocence. Katherine survived the king and married her true love Thomas Seymour, but she perished in childbirth.
Six wives. Only six wives. That's not so many, considering. I think it's just that the last five all occurred so close together and at the end of Henry's life. And, all right, there were mistresses and babies born on the wrong side of the blanket. I have to wonder what Henry might have thought of Elizabeth, who ended up being a greater leader than any of her kin. Was she Henry's great prince, only female?
The Tudor Dynasty ruled England in the Sixteenth Century. Today Tudor novels and non-fiction are ruling publishing and commanding modern imaginations. What's so blasted interesting about the Tudors? Welcome to an online renaissance faire, where the Tudors are celebrated and explained and we all go in search of why these folks have such attraction for us today. Read on!
