Wives 4, 5, and 6

For those of you thinking of the Henry the 8th song and wondering why I won't be talking about wives 7 and 8 that is because they did not exist. It is a common misconception that he had eight wives when in reality he "only" had six. You can best remember what happened to each wive by remembering this saying, 'divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived.' Catchy isn't it? When you go to Hampton Court in England there is a room where this saying is said over and over in a creepy child's voice in the back ground, which frankly I thought was awesome.  With that being said lets delve into the last three wives of Henry and their relationship with our dear Mary.

Anne of Cleves 

Poor Anne of Cleves was chosen to follow Jane Seymour but she would not be around for long. Anne was picked for various reasons but one was because she was raised as a Protestant and many people wanted to ensure that England continued to move towards the beliefs of the protestants rather than revert back into catholicism. It is said that Hans Holbein, a painter in the Tudor days, misrepresented Henry's bride-to-be in the painting he did of Anne of Cleves. Almost as soon as the couple was married in January of 1540 Henry wanted a divorce. He famously called his newest wife a horse, and their marriage would end six months later in July. But even though his fourth marriage was rather short, and Anne was a Lutheran, Mary would become great friends with her fathers disregarded wife. Anne was a source of support to Mary and would be until her death.

Kathryn Howard 

Anne of Cleves didn't get to bad of a settlement in hindsight--at least she was able to keep her head and live comfortably. Henry VIII's next wife would not be so lucky. Enter Kathryn Howard, Henry's "rose without a thorn". At the time of their marriage, which was only sixteen days after Henry's divorce to Anne Kathryn could not have been older than 19. Henry was 49 at the time. Mary wasn't a fan of her father marrying a girl younger then herself and many fights broke out between Kathryn and herself, but Kathryn would not be around for long. Perhaps Henry was looking for his youth when Kathryn started to pull at his heart strings, and an ambitious family members helped to push Kathryn into his arms. Ambition seemed to sun in the family because Kathryn Howard was a first cousin to Anne Boleyn and ironically would share her same fate. Perhaps the poor girl just was to young to understand that you don't 'play' behind a king's back, but enough evidence soon piled up about her promiscuous behavior that she was tried and convicted of adultery. She was beheaded in February of 1542.

Katherine Parr

And with that we drive at the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, Katherine Parr. Katherine was older than Kathryn Howard but she still seemed to attract the attentions of both Henry and Thomas Seymour (brother to Jane Seymour, Henry's Third wife). In reality Katherine wanted to mary Thomas but she wisely did not think that refusing Henry his wishes would be a wise decision. So Katherine married her third husband that she would out live. Mary and Katherine did get along even though she was a supporter of the new church of England. At this time all of Henry's children were invited to court and the wedding, meaning that bonds were being mended. When Henry was dying he produced a will that put the two princesses back into the line of succession stating that Edward would get the crown first, Mary second if Edward produced no heirs, and finally Elizabeth third if Mary too did not produce an heir.

So there we have it! The part of Mary's life when her father was around. Very exhausting and time consuming, but I believe that this information is all relevant to analyze Mary's actions later in life that would give her such a villainous name. Next time we will talk about Edwards reign and one of my personal favorites, Lady Jane Gray the nine day queen.

Happy Journeys,
Lady Thiessen