Lesson V: The King's Wives (part 2)

Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr

When last we saw Good King Harry, he had just had his unfortunate second wife beheaded. He married his third wife, Jane Seymour, eleven days after the execution in a secret ceremony. She had been one of Anne Boleyn's ladies in waiting, and was about as different from the spirited, sometimes sharply sarcastic Anne as could be. Jane was quiet, demure, and obedient, and Henry seemed to find her gentle ways very soothing after all the troubles with Anne and his divorce. Little is known of her personally, however, perhaps because she was so quiet. Only once did she speak on a political matter, when she went on her knees to beg Henry's mercy on behalf of a group of men who had marched in protest against the King's break with Rome. (Jane had been saddened by the dissolution of the monasteries and had secretly favored the protesters, who wanted the monasteries restored.) Angered, Henry ordered her to rise, reminding her of what had happened to her predecessor when she had meddled in his affairs. She never spoke up in such a way again.

This marriage also did not last long, but in this case it was a natural death that ended it. Henry's long-awaited son, the future Edward VI, was born on 12 October 1537. Just twelve days later, his mother was dead from puerperal fever (then called childbed fever because it always struck women within a few days of giving birth) and Henry was a widower.

Jane Seymour - Henry VIII's third wife

In 1540, after much negotiation, Henry settled on a fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. As usual, it was partly a political alliance, since Cleves (now part of Germany) was a Protestant nation and Henry needed allies against the powerful Catholic countries of France and Spain. But Henry also found her portrait pleasing, though he later decided that the painter, a well-known portrait painter called Hans Holbein the Younger, had greatly exaggerated her beauty. After several months of marriage, Henry was still not attracted to his bride (though contemporary descriptions say she was quite pretty), and said that the marriage had not been consummated. But the political situation had also changed during those months, which meant that it might be possible to end the marriage if a suitable excuse could be found. Luckily for Henry, it was learned that her previous marriage contract had not been formally revoked, and on these grounds, the marriage was annulled. Anne, having decided she preferred England to her native country, was given houses and money enough to live in comfort for the rest of her life as Henry's "good sister". She never remarried, but remained friends with her stepdaughter Mary in particular -- Anne was only a year older, and the two women got along well despite their religious differences.

In July of 1540 Henry married again, to another Catherine, who was first cousin to Anne Boleyn -- Catherine's father, Lord Edmund Howard, was a brother of Anne's mother, Lady Elizabeth Howard. Despite this, though, the two women had never met. This was partly because of the age difference, as Anne was about 15 years older, but also because Catherine's branch of the family was impoverished and relatively unimportant. Anne was never fond of her cousins, either, and the feeling was mutual, though Catherine did become fond of Anne's daughter Elizabeth.

Anne of Cleves - Henry VIII's fourth wife

Catherine was only about 16 when the 49-year-old Henry first became interested in her. Her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, had raised her, but the Duchess had let the girl run wild. Catherine was a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves, and as that marriage dissolved, Henry began to notice the pretty, lively young Catherine. There are no known portraits of her (the image here is only guessed to be of her), but her contemporaries generally agreed that she was lovely as well as graceful and kind-hearted, all of which the king greatly admired. He called her his "rose without a thorn". Unfortunately he did not realize that she was also highly emotional and flighty.

Catherine had at least two lovers previous to the marriage, and continued one affair even afterwards. She'd had no interest in marrying Henry and made little secret of the fact that she found the now seriously overweight king unattractive. But her ambitious father pushed her into the marriage -- then abandoned her to her fate as soon as the king realized her infidelity. She was probably 18 years old at most when she was executed on 13 February 1542, beheaded on Tower Green, after admitting that she was justly condemned for the crime of adultery.

The ill-fated cousins finally met in death. Catherine was buried at the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the grounds of the Tower of London, next to Anne Boleyn.

Catherine Howard - Henry VIII's fifth wife

Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth and last wife, was probably his most fortunate choice. (Interestingly, her mother, who had been a lady in waiting to Katherine of Aragon, had named her daughter after the former queen.) This Catherine loved another man, Thomas Seymour, uncle of Edward VI, but when the king expressed interest in marrying her himself, she was forced to put aside her hopes of marrying Thomas. At 31, she was twenty years younger than the king, and though childless, was already twice-widowed and had much experience with caring for invalids, which by now the king virtually was. His legs had sores that would not heal, and he was too overweight to walk far. But this Catherine was gentle, patient, and loyal, and was a great comfort to Henry.

She was also a comfort to her stepchildren. She persuaded Henry to restore Mary and Elizabeth to the royal succession, and was kind to both of the girls, who had been much neglected emotionally and sometimes even financially. Mary got along well with Catherine despite their differences in religion, for Catherine followed the reformed faith, almost too eagerly. In fact, she narrowly escaped becoming the third of Henry's wives to be executed, for she was well-educated and loved to debate theology. But religion was the trickiest of issues in these times, and any extreme was dangerous. Several Catholic courtiers, alarmed by Catherine's growing influence on her husband, drew up a warrant for her arrest because she owned certain banned books on religion. Catherine was warned of this, however -- Henry may have arranged for this warning, in fact -- and when next her husband tried to engage her in debate, she quietly accepted his opinions, saying that she had only ever argued with him in an attempt to learn and distract him from his illness. The warrant was destroyed, and Catherine escaped.

After Henry's death, Elizabeth went to live with her stepmother and her new husband, Thomas. But this marriage, made for love on Catherine's side, at least, was not a very happy one (see Lesson 8), and she died shortly after giving birth to her only child, a daughter named Mary, who probably died young.

Catherine Parr - Henry VIII's sixth wife

Google Sites

Report abuse