Umeugo 1

Ifeanyi Umeugo Ms. Caruso ENGL 1102 29TH February 2012

King Henry the Eight and the beheadings of his two wives

King Henry VIII the son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York was born on June 28th 1491 at the Palace of Placentia at Greenwich. Henrys older brother Prince Arthur was in line to succeed to the throne. Henry VII an Elizabeth both decided that Prince Henry, Like most second sons, was destined for the church1, and his early schooling was planned accordingly(englishhistory.net par 11). Although Henry was being taught in a range of different subjects like philosophy, logic, literature and the learning of different languages, theology was the main focus of his overall education. When Henry was 10 his older brother Arthur married Katharine of Aragon the Spanish princess on November 14th 1501. On April 2nd 1502 Arthur died of what was called at the time the sweating sickness. Not wanting to dissolve his new Spanish alliance with King Ferdinand of Aragon King of Spain, Henry VII decided that Prince Henry should take Catherine as his wife.2 Before Arthurs death, Henry had lived a sheltered life, Prince Henrys survival was now the sole guarantee of the future of the Tudor dynasty(Wooding 31). Finally on April 21st 1509 Henry VII died and Prince Henry was now King Henry VIII, he

Umeugo 2 succeeded the throne and was hailed with universal acclamation (Luminarium.org par 1). Henry VIII then decided to marry Catherine of Aragon; their coronation took place on the 24th of June 1509. Before there marriage the Catholic Church deemed that if it were to happen there marriage would be considered incestuous (englishhistory.net par 16). Katharine then swore and vowed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated thus the Catholic Church allowed for her marriage to Henry to take place.3 Henry rushed into this marriage not understanding that his first wife Catherine being originally married to his older brother would cause unforeseen problems for him. Who knows why Henry was initially set on marrying Catherine when he could have easily had any woman of his choice. Henry and Catherines first child was a girl, born premature she died and had a miscarriage during her second pregnancy. Later she gave birth to a son and two months later he died as well. 4So far, Catherine had failed at making love or, rather, at making babies(Starkey 123). Catherine was six years older than Henry and her youthfulness and beauty faded quicker than that of King Henry. Henry began to spend less and less time with Catherine and instead took mistresses. While the King continued to lie with here, according to custom(Fraser 92) Catherine never gave up hope in producing an heir. On February 1516 Catherine was finally successful in providing Henry with a living heir. She gave birth to a daughter, which they named Mary after Henrys second sister. Catherine never being able to produce a male heir to succeed Henry, he began to convince himself God never meant for him to marry Catherine. He believed in the sight of God she had never really been his wife; because of this he is free to marry and have a son by another woman (Starkey 203).

Umeugo 3 Henry had already decided on whom he wanted to choose as his next wife, it was Anne Boleyn. Henry set forth to convince the Pope to dissolve his marriage to Catherine. His argument was that he had married his brother wife which was incest and God was punishing him by not allowing Henry the right of having a son(Theodore 193). The Pope did not agree with him so with the help of his lawyers Henry created and enacted laws that allowed him to divorce Catherine even though his divorce was not recognized by the Catholic Church or the Pope. Problem would arise from this marriage, if Henry had just listened to the Pope and done as the Church asked he could have easily avoided the embarrassment that was to follow with his marriage to Anne. Henry took Anne as his wife and declared her Queen of England. Not everyone agreed with Henry on this matter but even less were willing to oppose him. On the 7th of September 1533 Anne gave birth to their first child and she was named Elizabeth. This was now Henrys second daughter and he was greatly disappointed, he believed that he had been married to the wrong person and that was the reason God did not allow him a son. Taking a new wife he was firm in his belief that it was finally his appointed time to have the son he had always longed for. Elizabeths birth was a massive set back to Henrys plans of producing a successor5. This was to be the first rift between him and Anne. The English people had always loved Henrys first wife Catherine and felt that Anne was undeserving to be called their Queen. The vast majority of the people were devout Catholics and without the Catholic Churchs approval of Henrys new marriage to Anne the people developed a hatred towards Anne. Anne became pregnant and once again Henry was hopeful for her to birth a male heir. She ended up having a miscarriage of a baby boy and this came as another massive blow to the king. Henry started believing all

Umeugo 4 over again that this marriage was cursed as well. On January 7th 1536 Catherine died from her years of weakened health. As Henrys love for Anne diminished he began to fall in love with another woman Jane Seymour. Henry needed a way to dissolve his marriage to Anne and charged his secretary Cromwell to find him a valid reason. Cromwell found out that Anne had committed adultery; in fact she had 4 separate lovers in all. The trial of Queen Anne Boleyn was a cynical operation, intended to have only one result: her death (Fraser 245). On May 19th 1536 she was sentenced and beheaded on charges of adultery and treason. 6 With the death of Henrys first wife Catherine and now Anne Boleyn, he was free to take his what he believed to be his true love and destined Queen Jane Seymour as his wife. They were quickly married on the 30th of May, Jane was everything that Anne was nt. She was calm, quite, soft-spoken, Jane was the sixteenth-centurys ideal woman(Starkey 585). This would have been necessary for the people to love her as they did. She was a devout Catholic like Catherine and unlike Anne. On October 12th 1537 King Henry VIII finally received a male heir, Jane gave birth to a healthy son named Edward. The king rejoiced but not for long, Janes pregnancy was not easy, it was rather difficult. She was in labor for almost 3 days. She died 12 days later never regaining her strength from the birth. Although Henry lost his wife he finally gained a son to succeed him.7 Three years had passed and England still had no official Queen since Catherine. Jane was never officially coroneted queen because there was a plague in London where the coronation was to take place. There was also the fact that Anne was never officially recognized by the people as their queen. Henrys council and court felt like Henry needed to remarry and a marriage to Anne of Cleves was proposed. Never actually meeting Anne

Umeugo 5 he relied on paintings and portraits of her to judge her beauty on. Nonetheless he agreed to marry her not realizing that she was no where as appealing to the eye as all his other wives or mistresses were. When he finally met her he was disappointed but already agreeing to marry her, he did so. Henry could never bring himself to Consummate the marriage. During his short lived marriage with Anne he found himself in love yet again. This time to a young woman named Kathryn Howard. She was only nineteen years old, thirty years younger than Henry. Henry was able to get his marriage to Anne annulled on grounds that they never lay with one another. Henry then married Kathryn on the 9th of July 1540; this was only three weeks after the annulment. In only a short year Henry found out that Kathryn had committed adultery with one of his courtiers Thomas Culpeper. Kathryn was charged with treason and adultery and was beheaded on the 13th of February 1542. Kathryn was the second and last of Henrys wives to be executed.8

Umeugo 6

King Henry VII and Elizabeth of Yorks decision to essentially bring him up in the

works of the church might prove to be the reason he constantly felt that God was telling him to do one thing or the other. His education centered on theology so he used his vast knowledge of the subject to justify why he was destined to be head of the Church of England.

Henrys father wished for Catherine to become his wife for mainly political reasons.

After his father died he was not obligated to do so anymore, why then did he still choose to marry her? Was it love or was it to fulfill his fathers wishes? Nonetheless Catherine was the center or cause as he was to believe of his many problems. If he had never married her he would not have gone through all the disappointments of her not being able to provide him with a male heir.

Only ones that truly know if Catherine and Arthur had consummated their marriage

would have been them and God. My concept will revolve around the decisions Henry VIII makes following his ascension to the throne. In my version of the story Arthur and Catherine really did consummate their marriage and God was then angry at Henry for taking his brothers wife as his own. The rest of his life from there would revolve around him being punished for this sin until he himself were to figure out a way to rectify it before God.
4

The deaths and miscarriages of his children by Catherine will be the first round of

punishments from God towards Henry. Little by little he will start realizing that all these miscarriages could not be coincidental.

Umeugo 7

Henry having Elizabeth as a daughter will be Gods attempt to tell him that Anne was

not the right wife for him. That she would not produce a male heir no matter how hard they tried or wanted to.

Annes beheading will serve as a checkpoint in my story. This will be one of Henrys

all time lows in his life, which will occur again with his marriage to Kathryn Howard. If Henry had listened to the Church / God in the subject of divorcing Catherine for Anne, he would never have found himself in the current situation he was now facing with Anne Boleyn.

God will finally reward Henry with a son by Jane Seymour. But because of Henrys

constant sinful ways he will take Janes life as the price for a male heir. Henry will forever be deprived of a loving wife.

It seems that Henry is not willing to submit to God. He takes another wife this time 30

years younger than him. God will later reveal her to be adulterous forcing Henrys hand yet again in executing another one of his wives. After this Henry is Finally alone and realizes all he has done to deserve the faith he was dealt.

Umeugo 8

Works Cited

Starkey David, Six wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2003, 10 East 53 rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

Fraser Antonia, The wives of Henry VIII, Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1992, New York 1994.

Wooding Lucy, Henry VIII, by Routledge 2009, 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016.

Maynard Theodore, Henry the Eighth, The Bruce publishing company 1949, Milwaukee Bruce pub. Co.

The Life of King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Biography of Henry Tudor King of England. Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Web.29.feb.2012. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbio.htm

King Henry VIII: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources. Englishhistory.net. Web.29.feb.2012. http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/henry8.html