Your favourite of Henry VIII's Wives?

[Australian]

I feel sorry for Catherine of Aragon, being treated like that. She should have gone back to her home country and takent the throne of Castile, she was so close to the succession of the Castilian throne but her father and Henry VII wanted her to marry Henry VIII.

Anne of Cleves is also interesting, and lucky!

I liked Jane Seymore and Catherine Parr, i cant remmeber which one of these two women tried to get henry to reconcile with Princess Mary

Anne Boleyn was just nasty lol. She made Princes Mary play nanny to her daughter Elizabeth, what an insult!

 

[Duquesita]

Well, Catalina had an older daughter, Juana ( called "Juana la Loca", "Crazy Juana"), who inherited the throne, and was imprisoned by her own father and son (Emperor Carlos V) in a convent in Tordesillas (Valladolid). Her son Carlos was the heir and Catalina had no way to be queen of Castilla.

There was another sister between Juana and Catalina, though: María, who married the King of Portugal and was the only child of the Catholic Kings who led a happy life.

 

[sirhon11234]

I feel sorry for Catherine of Aragon, being treated like that. She should have gone back to her home country and takent the throne of Castile, she was so close to the succession of the Castilian throne but her father and Henry VII wanted her to marry Henry VIII.

Anne of Cleves is also interesting, and lucky!

I liked Jane Seymore and Catherine Parr, i cant remmeber which one of these two women tried to get henry to reconcile with Princess Mary

Anne Boleyn was just nasty lol. She made Princes Mary play nanny to her daughter Elizabeth, what an insult!

Jane Seymour was the one who tried to get Henry to reconcile with Mary.

 

[lexi4]

I feel sorry for Catherine of Aragon, being treated like that. She should have gone back to her home country and takent the throne of Castile, she was so close to the succession of the Castilian throne but her father and Henry VII wanted her to marry Henry VIII.

Anne of Cleves is also interesting, and lucky!

I liked Jane Seymore and Catherine Parr, i cant remmeber which one of these two women tried to get henry to reconcile with Princess Mary

Anne Boleyn was just nasty lol. She made Princes Mary play nanny to her daughter Elizabeth, what an insult!

I feel sympathy for women of that period in general. Catherine and Anne were both treated like brood mares by Henry. And Anne lost her life in the end.
Lexi

 

[Russophile]

I feel sorry for Catherine of Aragon, being treated like that. She should have gone back to her home country and takent the throne of Castile, she was so close to the succession of the Castilian throne but her father and Henry VII wanted her to marry Henry VIII.

The English didn't want her to go back. She came with a lot of money and servants, etc. Henry VII was a greedy man, remember. . .

 

[ysbel]

Jane Seymour was the one who tried to get Henry to reconcile with Mary.

Mary was first able to come back in Henry's presence because of the influence of Jane Seymour. She and Elizabeth were first raised back to the ranks of Princesses under the influence of Katharine Parr. I've heard that Anne of Cleves was kind to Mary but I've also heard that Mary shunned Anne of Cleves because Henry had first planned to match his wedding to Anne with a marriage to a Protestant German prince for Mary which she was opposed to.

 

[ysbel]

Well, Catalina had an older daughter, Juana ( called "Juana la Loca", "Crazy Juana"), who inherited the throne, and was imprisoned by her own father and son (Emperor Carlos V) in a convent in Tordesillas (Valladolid). Her son Carlos was the heir and Catalina had no way to be queen of Castilla.

There was another sister between Juana and Catalina, though: María, who married the King of Portugal and was the only child of the Catholic Kings who led a happy life.

Yes Juana married Philip the Beautiful of Austria. It sounded like she had schizophrenia, sad. Isabella escorted her to the boat she would take to marry Philip and was heartbroken when Juana took to the boat and left her without even saying or waving goodbye. Catherine was several years younger and probably didn't know Juana that well but I have heard she was the favorite daughter of Isabella.

Henry VII wanted the dowry more than he wanted Catherine of Aragon. When his eldest son died, he intentionally cut the provisions for Catherine's household down drastically so that she would be forced to use the plate that came as part of her dowry. The reason for this is that she wasn't supposed to use the plate but he wanted money more than plate so he was hoping to force her to use the plate to invalidate that part of the dowry so he could go back to Ferdinand and demand money instead.

The really sad thing about Catherine is that Henry VIII really did have affection for her at first and wanted to marry her. He was King by this time and could do whatever he wanted so if he hadn't wanted to marry her he could have just sent her back home. Undoubtedly Catherine thought Henry must have been her knight in shining armour after all the ill treatment that she had received under Henry VII and it must have been a cruel shock to hear that her knight in shining armour wanted to cast her aside for Anne Boleyn.

Technically speaking the original Pope shouldn't have granted Henry and Catherine marriage in the first place but he was swayed by both England and Spain at the time. However, by the time that Henry VIII wanted a divorce from Catherine, the current pope was in the bad position of putting aside a ruling of a predecessor which he didn't want to do.

For the record, Henry was criticized and heavily ridiculed by both Protestants and Catholics for his pursuing of Anne Boleyn. Martin Luther was quoted as saying 'Der junke Heinz, der will Gott sein' This cad, Henry, always wants to play God'. The general consensus was that while Henry claimed that he ruled by the right of God, he was unwilling to place himself under God's commandments.

 

[Australian]

I've heard that Anne of Cleves was kind to Mary but I've also heard that Mary shunned Anne of Cleves because Henry had first planned to match his wedding to Anne with a marriage to a Protestant German prince for Mary which she was opposed to.

Yes I have heard about this too. I also heard that Princess Mary and Anne of Cleves later became friends and Mary requested that Anne of Cleves ride in her coronation carriage.

I also read regarding the death of Katherine Howard, that after she was beheaded, Anne of Cleves was hopeful for a remarriage between her and Henry and since it wasnt the case, Anne of Cleves felt hostility towards Catherine Parr claiming that "Why would the King choose this woman, seeing as though her previous marriages had many faults" Something along those lines.

 

[ysbel]

Well Katharine Parr had been married off to Baron Burrough a much older man at the tender age of 15 and then to another older man Lord Latymer when she was 20.

I remember reading that Lord Latymer was beheaded for treason but his Wikipedia biography doesn't mention that.

That would be the only reason I could think of that Anne of Cleves would have disapproved of Katharine Parr's earlier marriages.

I doubt seriously if Anne would have wanted to re-marry Henry. For the divorce he gave her a palatial residence and a sizable annual income that totally dwarfed his daughters' She was the richest independently wealthy woman in England at the time and with no annoying husband to hold the strings of her purse.

 

[lexi4]

Well Katharine Parr had been married off to Baron Burrough a much older man at the tender age of 15 and then to another older man Lord Latymer when she was 20.

I remember reading that Lord Latymer was beheaded for treason but his Wikipedia biography doesn't mention that.

That would be the only reason I could think of that Anne of Cleves would have disapproved of Katharine Parr's earlier marriages.

I doubt seriously if Anne would have wanted to re-marry Henry. For the divorce he gave her a palatial residence and a sizable annual income that totally dwarfed his daughters' She was the richest independently wealthy woman in England at the time and with no annoying husband to hold the strings of her purse.

Indeed.

 

[ysbel]

Now that I think of it, Katharine Howard was kind to little Elizabeth, giving her precedence at the Queen's table calling her 'my little cousin' I believe Elizabeth's grandmother was the sister of Katharine's father.

But Mary was too much for Katharine's little self-confidence. Katharine acted haughty around her and both women were uncomfortable so Mary left the court.

 

[Australian]

Queen Mary also ordered that Anne of Cleves was to have a most magnificent funeral. I read that she was on affectionate terms with Princess Elizabeth and the most startling thing i read was that oin her tomb at Westminster Abbey, which is somewhat hard to find, it only had her initials on her tomb "AC" and only in the 1970's they added "Anne of Cleves-Queen of England"

 

[lexi4]

Katherine Parr included Elizabeth in any type of famiy life. She supervised the education of both Mary and Elizabeth and sought out the best tutors she could find. William Grindal and Roger Ascham were among the tutors Katherine Parr chose.

 

[Australian]

In 1782, a gentleman by the name of John Locust discovered the coffin of Queen Catherine at the ruins of the Sudeley Castle chapel. He opened the coffin and observed that the body, after 234 years, was in a surprisingly good condition. Reportedly the flesh on one of her arms was still white and moist. After taking a few locks of her hair, he closed the coffin and returned it to the grave.
The coffin was opened a few more times in the next ten years and in 1792 some drunken men buried it upside down and in a rough way. When the coffin was officially reopened in 1817, nothing but a skeleton remained. Her remains were then moved to the tomb of Lord Chandos whose family owned the castle at that time. In later years the chapel was rebuilt by Sir John Scott and a proper altar-tomb was erected for Queen Catherine.

Catherine Parr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(I know wikipedia is not trustworthy, but i have read this same thing in several books on Catherine Parr)

 

[Duquesita]

Ysbel ( I love your nick, btw ), Juana is said to have suffered from some kind of paranoia, not schizophrenia, in the same way his paternal grandmother suffered it.

 

[Russophile]

Isn't Juana and her husband interred with Ferndiand and Isabella in, Seville? I think? Or was it Granada? I can't remember. We were there 2 1/2 years ago. Went to both churches. Gorgeous!!
No wonder Catherine of Aragon was a strong woman, came from her stock!

 

[Ithil]

I voted for Catherine of Aragon. My second choice would have been Catherine Parr. Anne Boleyn was, I don't deny, an amazing woman but she was very cruel to Mary, just like Henry VIII also. No wonder Mary turned out the way she did!!

 

[Russophile]

Anybody catch that a new season of "The Tudors" is coming out?

 

[MarquisofPembroke]

Hi I am new here!
My favorite of Henrys wives was Queen Anne Boleyn. I feel that she was an amazingly outspoken woman for her time. I find it such an amazing story between she and Queen Catherine of Aragon (my 2nd favorite wife); that their differences continued to play out through their daughters for years after they were both gone.

 

[Polly]

Here is my take on Henry VIII's wives:

Catherine of Aragon:

Promised to her when he was a child. Married her, under immense pressure, and sired one daughter - Princess Mary. Divorced Catherine and broke with the Church of Rome to marry,

Anne Boleyn, mother of the Great Gloriana, aka Queen Elizabeth I, one of Britain's most intellectually accomplished monarchs, if not the most, since the Plantangenant, Henry II. Trumped up charges against Anne, Elizabeth's mother (his only official 'murder') enabled Henry to marry,

Jane Seymour, whom all evidence supports, he genuinely loved, at least as much as he'd loved Anne Boleyn. The mother of his only son, Jane died of puerperal fever (a common ailment), and to assuage his genuine grief at her death, and to consolidate Protestant alliances, Henry was persuaded to then marry,

Anne of Cleves, a clever and discerning woman who was, intellectually, Henry's match, and a woman who skilfully managed the marriage's annulment, upon which he married,

The very young and pretty Catherine Howard, a scion of a prominent family who had great ambitions to see a Howard on the throne. Some might remember that the Howards tried, so very hard, to deny Elizabeth her throne. Catherine, was manipulated by her ambitious family and finally brought to ruin by her sexual adventures. Caught, in flagrante delicto, there was absolutely nothing that King Henry could do to save her. What Catherine did was, according to the law of the land in its day, High Treason. Reports exist which assert that Henry wept for Catherine because he could do nothing to save her.

Katherine Parr, Henry's last wife, outlived him. In my view, least said about her, the better..

Henry VIII may well have been a King who brought trauma and relgious and social dislocation to his country. I can't argue with that.

However, in my opinion, he most cruelly and jealously killed but one wife (and one, of course, is quite enough), but not six.

Despite everything, Henry VIII was a man of immense intelligence, with a highly developed, educated and well-formed mind, which only one of his children, obviously, and according to historical record, inherited.

It's such a pity that he didn't live in C21 when he would have been so gratified to know of the immense admiration which his most accommplished a clever child, Elizabeth I, still enjoys, after 500 years.

 

[iowabelle]

Polly, I think you're had on Katherine Parr. She was an incredibly educated woman for her age, and it must have required great sacrifice on her part to marry Henry, especially given that he had already killed two wives and that she was in love with Seymour. Being Henry's queen was a less than advantageous or desirable position IMO, particularly after the death of Katherine Howard.

And, in my old age, it has occurred to me that Henry's need for a male heir was, to put it in our language, a grave matter of "national security." Henry needed only to have looked at the turmoil during the years after the wreck of the White Ship and the death of Henry I to have understood the danger he placed England in by leaving no legitimate male heir behind.

I also think he had genuine religious conviction, although to our eyes his actions appear rather opportunistic and self-interested.

He remains my favorite king, despite the fact that he had my ancestor's body dug out of a grave and burned for being a heretic.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

My favorite is Katharine of Aragon, Henry's first and noblest Queen. The amount of dignity and courage she displayed toward the end of her mostly unhappy life continues to astonish me. I would have been terrified of the Tower or of poisoning and would have probably agreed to retire to a convent.

I wonder if she could have looked ahead and seen the long term result of her stance that she was never the true wife of Arthur Prince of Wales, if she could have forseen the break with Rome with it's resulting schism(the creation of the Church of England) would she have continued to hold fast?

As the daughter of the great warrior Queen Isabella she felt it her duty to both protect her dignity, defend what she felt was her only child's birthright and to cling to the tenets of her deep Catholic Faith.

How easy her life would have been if she has caved, but she was made of much tougher and braver stuff.

 

[kbear]

Do you think that adage was coined after this "Be careful what you wish for. . ." ??
I just don't know how they CLEANED the garments! Some had jewels sewn in. And there weren't any good dry cleaners back then!

they didnt clean them they beat them for dust and aired them over the privy trenches (urea fumes something like amonia killing lice as I recall) Sometimes they were sponged but the notion of washing them was experimental/radical at best.

 

[tan_berry]

With all my admiration, sympathy and respect for Catherine of Aragon, I voted Catherine Parr. A young woman married to an old and probably already sick man, and she could find inside her enough tenderness to be a good mother to Elizabeth I and Edward VI. Mary I was already a grown up woman, but I think she was nice to her, too. She was a very intelligent and quite learned for those times young woman, and took care of the education of Henry´s three heirs. I do not like Catherine of Aragon´s stubbornness. She was not smart or flexible enough to avoid so much pain to her and her poor daughter.

Catherine Parr was even a good mother for a while to poor Jane Grey, who had a sadistic,ambitious and cruel mother, niece of Henry VIII.

 

[iowabelle]

I have always been intrigued by Anne of Cleeves. It must have taken great backbone for her to decide to stick it out in England, alone, dependent on the will of this capricious king.

And so very little is known of Anne, after the king put her aside.

Sometimes I wonder if she wasn't a very early feminist.

 

[Al_bina]

My vote goes to Ann Boleyn. She should have something special about her that prompted Henry VIII to revolt against the high and mighty Vatican, renounce his faith, and establish a new church.

 

[tan_berry]

Catherine of Aragon had been queen for more than 20 years, already, when Henry fell for Anne Boleyn. She had put up all the women in her husband´s life. She was an aunt to Carlos V, emperor of the Holy Sacred Empire and king of Spain. It seems she was a consumated and experienced politician, closely related to all spanish ambassadors, an important person for the Pope´s interests. Maybe for all these political reasons she was so stubborn.

 

[Russophile]

Tan, remember she was RAISED a Princess to be Queen of a country. I am sure since her duty was so ingrained as well as it was what she was being born Royal, she wasn't going to let anyone take it from her!

 

[tan_berry]

Tan, remember she was RAISED a Princess to be Queen of a country. I am sure since her duty was so ingrained as well as it was what she was being born Royal, she wasn't going to let anyone take it from her!

You are right, and her daughter had the same terrible destiny, and Anne Boleyn´s daughter would have it, too: noblesse oblige, and royal blood obliges even more. My ingrained commoner soul feels compassion.

 

[Princess B]

i go with anne boleyn

maybe not my favourite otherwise..but she had a tragic end