What Are King Henry Viii's Wives

Throughout his thirty-eight year reign of England, King Henry VIII had six wives. They ranged from Catholics to Protestants, eighteen-year-olds to women five years his senior, and French women to those from Henry’s home country of England.
Catherine of Aragon was the first of Henry’s wives. The daughter of joint Catholic rulers Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, she was initially betrothed to Prince Arthur of Wales, but the marriage lasted only six months. In the wake of Arthur’s death, a widowed Catherine’s betrothal was renewed, this time to Arthur’s younger brother and the next in line for the English throne: Henry VIII. Shortly before Henry’s coronation in 1509, the couple was married. In the early months of the following year, Catherine

Henry, who was known to have hated writing letters, was found to have penned at least seventeen love letters to Anne when she was away from the court. However, even despite the king’s obvious attraction to his new wife, she was remarkably unpopular with the rest of England. Henry prioritized her over his sisters at public celebrations and spent increasing amounts of money on her for clothes and other follies. In 1532, Anne honored Henry’s generosity with a gift of her own: a child. The pair was thrilled, and often took to referring to Anne’s unborn child as the “prince”, even choosing names for it: Henry IX or Edward. It was a disappointment to everyone when the Princess Elizabeth was born. Anne was pregnant again by the beginning of 1534, but she miscarried — and her subsequent pregnancy, a suspected son, also ended pre-term. The failure to produce a viable heir was seen as betrayal, both by Henry and Anne herself. Considering Henry’s growing affections for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, Anne knew her life was at stake. In May of 1536, she was beheaded for the fabricated accusation of adultery. Ten days later, obviously glad to be rid of Anne, Henry was wed to Jane