Six wives: Catherine of Aragon | HistoryExtra
"‘For a Spanish Infanta to live in what is essentially penury is extraordinary. And this is because the English king says, well, your father didn't finish paying your dowry. Why should I pay for your upkeep in England? Why? What's in it for me? Her father says, but you're in England. You are the English King's daughter-in-law. Of course he should pay for your upkeep. And because they are fighting over this nobody actually is giving her quite enough money to cover her expenses. Henry VII is paying her an allowance. It becomes a hundred pounds per month as of July 1503. And that's a sizable amount for most people. But not if you are a Spanish Infanta and a Dowager Queen of England. She cannot cover her expenses. Her servants aren't being paid and she's really really worried about this’...
'At one point rumors swirled that the English King Henry VII had it in mind to marry his daughter-in-law himself. But this plan turned out to be a non-starter when it was met with horror by the young Catherine's parents'...
'It does seem weird but it actually starts out as a very romantic story at least in the young Henry's eyes. Catherine gets Henry at his best. He's a very Dashing Young Man. Tall, athletic, kind of a true Renaissance Prince. He's good at everything, very clever, very sporty. And he fances himself as a bit of a chivalrous Knight. He likes to rescue this Damsel in Distress who is the widowed Catherine, his widowed sister-in-law. And so I think he quite likes the idea of the marriage. It's not just that he's kind of getting his his brother's cast offs'...
‘After seven years of marriage including at least one stillbirth, one miscarriage, and the infant death of Prince Henry, Catherine still hadn't given her husband a surviving heir. But that all changed in 1516, when Catherine gave birth to a healthy daughter, Mary. it wasn't quite the son that Henry had dreamed of, but it wasn't a bad start’
‘Very easy with hindsight to look back and think, gosh yes, Mary's birth. Huge disappointment to Henry, it all starts to go horribly wrong. It wasn't like that. Even though Henry needed a male Heir, a healthy daughter was still very much of use, particularly when it came to the international marriage market and the forging of alliances. And Henry doted on his daughter. He was very proud of Mary. Showed her off to visiting ambassadors. And Mary was also very very close to her mother. So I think this strengthened Henry's relationship with Catherine. Catherine had proved she could have a healthy child and as I say Mary was really the apple of Henry's eye for most of her childhood until things started to go horribly wrong’...
‘While Henry probably never saw Mary as a serious Contender for the throne, understandably, because in England women didn't rule as regnant Queens at this time, Catherine may have had a different view. Because in Spain they did rule as regnant Queens. So I think it's fair that she thought it was worth educating Mary and bringing her up so that she could fulfill that role should it become part of her future’...
'I think it's easy to um to fall for the line that it was love at first sight for Henry. And Boleyn first appears at court in 1522, but really his first recorded interest in her isn't until four years after that'...
'Catherine did absolutely refuse to let go of Henry. She was implacable it was not going to happen. And that was given material expression by things like, she continued to sew his shirts for him. Even quite late on in their marriage, and this is something Anne Boleyn found out was absolutely infuriated by. I think Henry probably couldn't quite understand what the problem was. But between women, this was a big deal'...
‘Henry, really. I think I've come across one instance, in his entire life and reign when he expressed regret about getting rid of someone. and that was not a wife. That was Thomas Cromwell. For Catherine, no, she was just disobeying her king. That's how he saw it. She was going against the laws of God which he himself was responsible for. And um he felt in public at least nothing but frustration and anger towards Catherine at the end’...
‘We tend to see her as some kind of girlboss. We now struggle to admire women in history if they're not warriors or inspiring in some sense. And Catherine is inspiring in a lot of ways. She did a lot of quite extraordinary things. But she's also human. There's more to her than just being an amazing queen or just refusing to bow down to Henry's will. I mean those things were true but she's also incredibly stubborn. Sometimes she's misguided, she's also loyal, she inspires loyalty in others. So I think we need to see her as a rounded human and a woman in an extraordinary situation who therefore had to do some extraordinary things’
‘I'm often asked which of the Six Wives was Henry's favorite. I would say it was actually Catherine. Um because they did have a happy marriage for you know the best part of 20 years. You know it it went well for them and she was an ideal wife in Henry's eyes. In fact he harked back to her in later marriages. He held her up as this Beacon of Womanhood and being this ideal Queen Consort. But of course we now remember their marriage for what happened next... I think Henry and Catherine were actually ideally suited. They were a Dream Team. Um had that young boy lived early in their marriage, everything would have been different’"
Six wives: Anne Boleyn | HistoryExtra
"‘There is a rumor, it may be nothing more than that, that when Anne is pregnant, getting very large now, that Henry's eyes starts to wander. But Anne is not a woman who is prepared to accept that. So I think probably behind the scenes there are fireworks. And what attracted Henry in a mistress, that sort of feistiness that Anne had, it doesn't attract him when she is his wife. He expects something different. He expects a Catherine who knows how to deport herself you know in a very queenly way. Anne is very outspoken and she's not prepared to give up her opinions just because she's now Henry's wife’...
[On the birth of Elizabeth] You might think that that is the beginning of the end for Henry and Anne. I don't think it is. You know he he is known to have said that we can have a living daughter now, you know, thank God we can perhaps have a living son. He does cancel the jousts that are planned for the birth of a son but I don't think this is the beginning of the end uh for Anne Boleyn. Their relationship is sunshine and storms. They argue, they berate each other, and then they make up wonderfully. And I think that characterizes the next couple of years. It's, intense, yes. It's volatile. But there is still hope there'"
Six wives: Anne of Cleves | HistoryExtra
"'Christina of Denmark famously quipped when asked if she would marry Henry VIII. She said if she had two heads she would put one of them at Henry's disposal, ouch. So finding a willing bride narrowed the field I think... Anne is not given any great education. She'll be taught needlework, she's not even taught how to sing or dance actually and that is a major difference to the English Court. Henry VII would have an expectation that a highborn woman would be able to entertain him or to take part in entertainments with him, you know it's a common interest… Anne is recorded by the English ambassadors as being kept at her mother's elbow. She's raised very close to her mother, she's not allowed to mix with men. She's not really able to mix sort of with wider people'...
'Henry fancies himself as this chivalrous knight. And so he has it all planned. Rather than wait for Anne to arrive in London he makes his way down to Rochester to meet her on her way back up. And he rides down there in disguise. Now this is kind of chivalrous code so the idea is, that your true love will recognize you anywhere. So even though he's in disguise, you know Anne will pick him out from a hundred men. And so he and his entourage come, come kind of bursting into to Anne's chamber and he strides up to her and kisses her on the lips and she thinks who the hell is this. And is really affronted. The one account has her slapping him around the face. You know, this, who is this man? And then he takes off his mask and she realizes too late that she has fatally insulted her husband to be, the King of England. Now I think it's this encounter really that is the end of their marriage. I don't think it's as the history books would have us believe, that it's you know Anne and she's the ugly wife, and I'm quoting there. That she repels Henry physically. I think it is just this very first disastrous encounter where Anne just doesn't get it. She doesn't get this kind of courtly etiquette. And that puts Henry off, and it puts him off forever'...
‘Had she been better educated she probably would have been aware that perhaps she should look out for the king in disguise. Certainly it's happened before in English Royal history Henry VI for example dresses as a squire when his fiance Margaret of Anjou arrives and she also doesn't recognize him.'...
'Henry should be quite pleased that his wife, his future wife is unhappy about being embraced by a strange man. But it doesn't it doesn't play out like that. So I agree with Tracy. I think this is the moment when his Illusions are absolutely shattered. He has believed himself to be in love with her and it just goes wrong'...
'Nobody says that Anne is ugly'...
'Her brother has paid for her to have a very fine suite of dresses because of course she's becoming a queen but they're all in the German style so as far as the English are concerned they're a bit frumpy, they're a bit out of date. They're not the stylish French dresses that the English Court would expect so although she appears very richly dressed, as far as the English are concerned she doesn't look very good but there's nothing really that suggests that she was ugly or unattractive and certainly she will later assert that she's more attractive than Catherine Parr Henry's sixth wife and people aren't disagreeing'"
Six wives: Catherine Howard | HistoryExtra
"‘It's interesting looking at Henry's marital history. Each wife tends to be in some respect the opposite of the one before. So Catherine Howard, very attractive. Younger than Anne of Cleeves. In fact probably half Anne of Cleves' age. An English Rose Henry apparently called her. His rose without a thorn. All very very different to Anne of Cleves. And we saw how Anne of Cleves, of course very different to Jane Seymour. And so it goes on. He seems to kind of just switch, go for the complete opposite. He's he's a man forever on the rebound I think...
Catherine was executed alongside Lady Rochford… she had suffered a complete mental breakdown upon imprisonment and Henry had actually ordered that she'd be taken away from the tower to be essentially nursed back to health to then be brought back to be executed. So it's the two friends really who are being executed together... He doesn't want to be seen anymore. He wants to live most of his life in private. He wants to kind of lick his wounds. But I think genuinely for Henry, he's heartbroken. And that sense of betrayal for a king who's already paranoid is more than he can bear. He's increasingly frail and he's often seen to be weeping. He really is suffering I think a complete mental breakdown. This Renaissance Prince has now descended into tyranny, into betrayal, into execution and there's a sense of a gathering storm'"