the wives of henry viii by antonia fraser

Pious, submissive and skilled in the healing arts, Parr was not adverse to ministering to the ailing monarch. Word that Henry might be impotent had spread to all the courts of Europe, and even the most ambitious women shied away from his approaches.īut a king is still a king, and the twice-widowed Catherine Parr was willing to gamble that time might have mellowed her eminent suitor. Since failure to produce a male child was assumed to be the woman’s fault alone, chances of a new queen’s enjoying her eminence for long were discouraging. Marrying Henry had been shown to be hazardous not only to health but to life itself. This time Henry did not bother to import the expert swordsman of Calais who had so neatly dispatched Anne Boleyn.īy now Henry VIII had so deteriorated physically that the field of candidates eager to be his next queen was drastically narrowed. Since deceiving the king was considered treason, not merely adultery, she was summarily sentenced to death by beheading. A confession was extracted from Katherine Howard, and she was indicted for “having led an abominable, base, carnal, voluptuous and vicious life.” When the rumors of her infidelity became impossible to ignore, Henry VIII had but one recourse. Married to a grossly fat man twice her age, she flirted recklessly with a young courtier said to have been a former lover. Despite her promise to be “bonair and buxom in bed,” she didn’t last long enough to meet expectations. Since one frail son, in that precarious era, was not enough to guarantee a Tudor succession, Katherine Howard was expected to fill the royal cradles.

Although less prestigious by far, it was considerably safer than being queen. She would shuttle from one to another of those until her death, all the while maintaining that she was the king’s dear sister, a role she seemed to relish. Anna of Cleves reigned for a mere six months before she was cast aside and sent off to a remote rural castle. There was to be very little more before Henry found a more alluring object for his affections in young Katherine Howard. “Madam, there must be more, or it will be long ere we have a Duke of York which all this realm most desireth.” When Anna’s attendants tactfully inquired about the events following the subdued wedding, the queen reported only a few tepid kisses and good wishes. He had, of course, seen portraits, but courtly portrait artists were apparently as skillful at flattery as Hollywood photographers.

“I like her not,” the king confided to Cromwell after his first glimpse of his new bride.

Unfortunately, Anna of Cleves was so profound a disappointment to the king that he found himself not only unable to consummate the marriage but totally uninterested in doing so. Had she lived, there would have been no need for Anna of Cleves, selected from a catalogue of eligible princesses by the king’s emissaries. 3, died of septicemia only 12 days after presenting the king with his only male child.

The wives of henry viii by antonia fraser