Katherine asked Henry for time to consider his proposal and gave herself to earnest prayer. The modern historian runs into difficulties when explaining 16th-century attitudes to 21st-century readers. In the spiritual autobiography Queen Katherine published for all the world to read, she declared:. With the execution of Thomas Cromwell in July the Reformation had stalled. The reactionaries had regained the initiative and a major part of their campaign was the removal from office of those they considered to be tainted with heresy.
At the very time that Katherine was weighing her options, a witch hunt begun in Windsor had brought to the stake members of the royal household. More importantly, a widespread plot was underway aimed at destroying the leading reformer, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
The intriguers had to tread carefully because the king was always wary of the purge getting too close to the court and his own personal attendants. Katherine, whose own sympathies lay firmly with the reformers, was well aware that, as queen, she would be entering dangerous territory.
One of them, Francis Goldsmith, compared her to Esther, the Old Testament Jewish heroine who became queen to the Persian King Ahasuerus and used her position to alleviate the sufferings of her people. And Thomas Seymour? The new queen certainly turned out to be a veritable Esther. During the crucial three-and-a-half years the pair were married the balance swung in favour of the reformers. This was not entirely due to Katherine — for example, the plot against Cranmer collapsed largely because the plotters led by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester overplayed their hand.
In her relations with the king Katherine was young enough to interest him sexually and mature enough to perceive and cater to his other needs.
But the queen went further — notably in reconnecting Henry with his children, whom he rarely saw. Mary who was 28 in , Elizabeth 11 and Edward 7 lived in various royal manors in the home counties.
The girls had both been bastardised and were excluded from the court, while Edward, as the sole heir, was kept far away from the plague-ridden capital. Extant letters, written between and , bear witness to a very warm relationship between the royal children and their stepmother. Anne of Cleves. Catherine Howard.
Katherine Parr. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from the author Mandy Barrow. WW ll. AD Homework Help. Henry had six wives because He had the first wife because he was betrothed to her by his father. He had the third wife because he still needed a male heir. He had the fourth wife because of diplomatic reasons. He had the fifth wife because he fell in love again. They were in order Catherine of Aragon.
Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London Catherine was born between and On May 19, , Anne was beheaded for her alleged crimes. She is by far the most studied of Henry VIII's wives, but much of her life remains a mystery, including the terms of her execution.
Jane had served as a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. On October 12, , Jane gave birth to Edward VI and died from complications of the birth several weeks later. At the wishes of the king, Jane is buried at St.
George's Chapel alongside him. When Anne arrived in England on January 1, , Henry was shocked that she looked nothing like the painting. He tried to halt the wedding, but because the arrangement had progressed so far, they married on January 6, After developing post-natal complications, she died less than two weeks after his birth, aged Jane is attributed with reconciling her husband to his first daughter, Mary, during their short marriage.
Her connection to her step daughter was such that Mary acted as chief mourner at her funeral. None of these final three marriages resulted in any children. In the case of Anne of Cleves this last point is hardly surprising given that her marriage with Henry went unconsummated. The King proved far less enamoured with his fourth wife than he had with her predecessors.
Anne also reverted back to her former religion, Roman Catholicism, in line with the new Queen. Anne died in , outliving all of the other five wives and Henry himself. The political adviser who arranged the marriage did not fare so well, however; Thomas Cromwell was executed on 28 July , the same day that Henry married his next wife.
After the Dowager Duchess found out, Catherine was sent to court to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves. The pair were married in Cranmer saw this as his chance to reduce the influence of his political rival, the Roman Catholic house of Norfolk. Rather than admitting to the earlier affair and possible precontract with Dereham, which would have allowed for her annulment and banishment, Catherine maintained that the relationship was not consensual.
It became treasonous to fail to disclose premarital sexual relations to the monarch within twenty days of marriage, or to incite a person to engage in adultery as the Queen consort. Within months, Catherine had gone the same way as her cousin Anne, executed for high treason. On her route by barge to the Tower of London she likely have passed under the impaled heads of her reported lovers, Culpeper and Dereham, on London Bridge.
She married Henry in July , just four months after Catherine Howard was beheaded, and went on to outlive him — though only by a year.
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