The Real Wives of Henry VIII

Why do we overlook Catherine of Aragon?

8 December 2022

Author: Maria Jones

Opinion

I've often felt that we massively overlook Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII had six wives, yet almost all of our focus is on Anne Boleyn. There are a few reasons for this: Henry's determination to marry her, whether from undying love or desperation for a male heir, is often given as the main reason for the Break from Rome which changed the course of English history forever; she was the first of his queens to be beheaded - something previously unthinkable; and it was Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, who went down as one of the most notable monarchs in our history.

So what about Henry's other wives? In all fairness, Catherine of Aragon gets a lot more attention than Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard or Katherine Parr (maybe equal with Jane Seymour, it's hard to do the maths), but most of this attention is a by-product of Anne now being on the scene. But for Henry's 38-year reign, Catherine was his wife for 24 of them. That's over half his time on the throne and significantly longer than any of his other marriages (and I think Catherine herself would have argued that they were married for 27 years - until her death in 1536 - as she called herself the rightful Queen of England and refused to acknowledge the annulment right up until the very end). If she was his wife for so long, why is her part in history so often overlooked, or reduced to a role in Anne's story?

I think the most important thing to consider here is that from the reign of Elizabeth I, we have seen Anne Boleyn in her eyes - her beloved mother, cruelly taken from her when she was just 3 years old. At the time of 'The King's Great Matter', the public was pretty much in full support of Catherine - she was their beloved Queen and they didn't want to see her cast aside in favour of the 'Other Woman', an essential nobody. But history is written by the victors. Perhaps if Mary I, Catherine's daughter, had ruled for longer or more successfully, had maybe produced an heir to displace Elizabeth, we'd remember Catherine more. But to Elizabeth, Anne was the most important of Henry's wives and Catherine really was just a supporting character.

Jane Seymour wasn't 'the only wife Henry truly loved'

8 December 2022

Author: Maria Jones

Opinion

Jane Seymour has gone down in history for two things: being the only one of Henry's six wives to give him a (living) son, and being the only one of Henry's six wives he truly loved.

The first point is undeniably true - try as the others might, the “best they could do” was give him daughters (we won't get into that). For almost 20 years of his reign, Henry was obsessed with having a male heir. It's the reason he broke from Rome in order to end his first marriage after the Pope wouldn't let him, irrevocably changing the course of English history, it's the reason he ended his second marriage so dramatically (having your wife beheaded seems more than a little extreme), and it's the reason why Jane Seymour was 'the love of his life'.

Do I think he didn't truly love Jane Seymour? No. He did - or at the very least, he believed he did, which really amounts to the same thing. But I also think he 'truly' loved Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Katheryn Howard and Katherine Parr (sorry, Anne of Cleves). Look at the trouble he went to marry Anne Boleyn - changing an entire country's religion just so he could have his first marriage annulled. But he'd also gone to a lot of trouble to marry Catherine of Aragon before her. If either one of those women had given him his male heir, it's unlikely he'd have looked elsewhere. Sure, he'd have had his affairs, but annulments and beheadings would have been off the table.

So the questions I ask are these: if Jane Seymour had given him a daughter, would Henry have mourned her the same way? What if she'd had a daughter and lived, but been unable to produce a male heir the same as Catherine and Anne? Would he have overlooked these 'faults' because he loved her so much? Unlikely. Sooner or later, he'd have found or fabricated some reason to give her the chop. Sorry. Even if she'd had her son, lived, and caused no political trouble (like pretty much all of his other wives), Henry would have strayed and still had his affairs with the next pretty young woman to walk into his court.

Yes, Henry loved Jane Seymour, and remembered her fondly for the rest of his life (he was even buried next to her). But to him, her most endearing qualities were giving birth to a son, and dying before she could cause any trouble. I'm not sure those are things I would want to be loved for.