The Six Wives of Henry VIII

King Henry VIII (1491-1547) married six times, for various reasons.

His Wives were:

1. Queen Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536); she was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. First married to Henry´s elder brother Arthur, but he died soon later, and she was married to Henry. Instead of the son he hoped for, she bore him the future Queen Mary I. They were divorced (after Henry broke with the Roman church) in 1533.

2. Queen Anne Boleyn (1501-36); she married Henry in 1533 and bore him the future Queen Elizabeth I, instead of -again- the son he hoped for. A stillborn son followed (1536), and the same year, she was found guilty of supposed adultery. She was beheaded on 19 May.

3. Queen Jane Seymour (1509-37); they were married a few days after Queen Anne was executed. In 1537, she bore the desired son, the later King Edward VI, but she died 12 days later.

4. Queen Anne of Cleves (1515-57); the marriage was negotiated by Thomas Cromwell. Henry was looking forward to his wife as long as he just knew an (advantageous?) painting by Hans Holbein. After Queen Anne arrived in England, the marriage was annulled, and Cromwell was executed in 1540.

5. Queen Catherine Howard (d. 1542); she was a younger cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn. A while after their marriage in 1540, she was charged with several sexual affairs before and while she was married, found guilty, and beheaded in 1542.

6. Queen Catherine Parr (1512-48); she had been married before to two older men already (she survived them), and she became Henry´s final wife in 1543. Soon after the King´s death in 1547, she married a former friend (Thomas Seymour) and died in childbirth the following year.

The signatures below are:

(1) Catherine of Aragon as "Ekatherina, the quene", (2) Anne Boleyn as Queen, (3), Jane Seymour as Queen, (4) Anne of Cleves as "Anna, the dowager of Cleves", (5) Catherine Howard (her Christian name only), (6) Catherine Parr as "Katherina Regina, KP" (Katherine Parr), and (7) in different hand-writing "Kateryn, the Quene Regente, KP".