Fatal Throne_The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

by M. T. Anderson

  Once, Henry had a fever, and as I bent over him with a cool cloth, he whispered, “Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you, Jane.”

  I did not correct him.

  Then, in early December, Henry announced, “I am going to the Palace of Whitehall tomorrow, Kate.”

  “I shall have my things packed, husband, and accompany you.”

  Henry held up a swollen hand and shook his massive head. His eyes were bloodshot and clouded with pain. “No, dear Kate. I have the work of my kingdom to do, to assure Edward’s ascension as my heir.”

  Suddenly, I understood. I would not see him again.

  I knelt before my husband and felt his hand on my head as a blessing. We were silent. Four years before, this man had given me black taffeta. Within weeks, I would be a widow again, with the head of death staring up at me from a gold ring on my finger.

  For me, it would be the end of a chapter. But, of course, it was much more: Henry’s death would mark the end of an era. He had been king for thirty-eight years.

  Henry did not plan to die as a normal man, surrounded by a sorrowing wife and children. He would die as he had lived, as a king.

  * * *

  —

  Henry could no longer walk, but I stood in the doorway as a servant pushed his chair down the hallway.

  I remembered what Nan had said, that Henry didn’t like good-byes. “It’s as if he’s out riding. When he rounds a bend in the road, he never turns in the saddle to look behind him.” I knew he would not look back.

  But then suddenly, to my astonishment, I saw Henry hold up his hand and order the servant to stop and turn him. I rushed forwards to close the distance between us.

  “I just thought you’d like to know, Kate, that although I won’t name you regent after I am gone, I am not letting Bishop Gardiner anywhere near Edward once he ascends the throne,” Henry said quietly. “Neither he nor any of the conservatives will be allowed to advise him.”

  I nodded. I could have sworn I saw a twinkle in his eye.

  “And so, sweetheart, don’t despair. My people will still be able to read the Word of God in their own language,” he went on. The King raised his shoulders, as if to acknowledge that reform and change—progress—were inevitable.

  “Prince Edward has been taught well, Henry,” I offered, hoping to reassure him. “He’ll be a worthy successor to Your Majesty.”

  I stopped there, not daring to say my true thoughts aloud: If anything should happen to Edward, his sisters are prepared to reign. Mary is dedicated. And Elizabeth—Elizabeth is much like her father.

  Henry reached out his hand. I knelt and kissed his ring one last time.

  Then I watched until King Henry VIII was out of sight.

  * * *

  —

  Back in my bedchamber, Nan and Cat were sorting through a pile of my garments. Just as she had when my John had been near death, Nan was choosing kirtles suitable for the mourning period we knew would soon come. Women help one another survive much in this world, I thought.

  I sighed and straightened my shoulders, ready to meet the time of sorrow ahead. But I also couldn’t help wondering if, as it had before, my path might take an unexpected turn. I might, I thought, renew an old acquaintance; I might make a new life for myself with a man I loved. I was even still young enough to bear a child.

  There was something else, too. I noticed Cat’s spaniel sleeping in a basket in the corner. “Gardiner, come!”

  He padded over. I scratched his ears and smiled. “Cat, while Gardiner is up, I wonder if you could fetch my parchments and writing supplies from their hiding place under his cushions.

  “I have a book to write.”

  Alone. Alone.

  My throne is empty, but the courtiers who pass by it still must bow and bob before the seat. I am the King of England still.

  Kateryn, I can trust, though some whisper, even now, that she betrays me and my God. We read together in the long afternoons. She is a good friend to my children: Mary, daughter of my pious and leaden Spanish wife; Elizabeth, the daughter of the first of the two whores; and blessed Edward, son of my beloved Jane.

  Now this new Kateryn plays chess with them in the garden in the afternoons, and all the story is ended.

  I know I cannot stay here long. “Bury me next to my beloved,” I have said to Kateryn. When she did not understand, I said, “Jane. My sweet Jane.” She frowned, but did not dare argue.

  Everything I have done, I did for England. I never worried about the cost to me, though God knows I suffered for my country like none other.

  This is what the doubters and intriguers don’t understand: The wives—all of them—they were necessary. I needed them for heirs. Edward still is the only son, and if—God forbid it—a woman gains the throne: then, chaos. The great Anarchy. I have spent my life fighting for a clear succession.

  But I gave the kingdom Edward. I have not failed. Never say that I failed. I cannot abide failure. I triumphed. My body might fail me now, but my loins never did.

  Edward, you shall live long and rule wisely, with great age and might and manhood, and you shall be known as the greatest monarch England ever had. I see it in a vision.

  God chose me as his instrument on Earth. He now smiles upon you, Edward, my hope, my heir, my boy, my darling son. Grasp the world with both hands, as your father did.

  The pain is too great for me to move, and so I lie on my bed.

  Kate, come suckle me. Render your teat. You alone are kind.

  The minister who stands beside the bed in robes of black, I do not recognize.

  I am the King. You must answer to me.

  Will I be admired in the court of Heaven?

  A short sleep. Wake me when the trumpets sound my fanfare.

  TILBURY, 1588

  She rides out towards the troops. There is news that her navy has clashed with the Spanish Armada off the coast. Tens of thousands of Spanish soldiers wait on the other side of the English Channel to cross over and invade. Watch fires burn up and down the beaches of Britain.

  Elizabeth comes dressed not as a queen in silks, but as an armed hero, an Amazon, a warrior. Her silver breastplate shines beneath the sun; her arms flash with chased metal and gauntlets; and her hair, too, is red as metal and burns bright, just as her royal father’s did, as her half sister’s did and her half brother’s.

  All of them are gone now, dead. Edward died when merely a boy, his chest too weak for the world’s thick air. Mary died a few years later, pregnant with ulcers and fantasies. Now it is Elizabeth, the Tudor Queen, who stands upon the field.

  To the army assembled around her, she lifts her voice. It rings out over the ranks of the infantry in the chill morning air. To them all, she declares: “Let tyrants fear! I know I have the body of a woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a King of England, too. I myself will be your general and judge. I have been your prince in peace; so will I be in war. The enemy perhaps may challenge my sex for that I am a woman—so may I likewise challenge them, for they are but men.”

  The Sword of State is carried unsheathed before her.

  She raises her arm, and thousands of voices clamour together. Her subjects shout in triumph, and the bellows of defiance echo outwards from a tiny island across a startled globe.

  1485 Katharine of Aragon is born.

  1491 Prince Henry, second son of Henry VII, is born on June 28.

  1501 Katharine of Aragon arrives in England and marries Prince Arthur, older brother of Henry, on November 14.

  ca. 1501 Anne Boleyn is born.

  1502 Prince Arthur dies on April 2.

  ca. 1507 Jane Seymour is born.

  1509 Henry VIII assumes the throne in April. In June he marries Katharine of Aragon.

  1512 Kateryn Parr is born (probably in August), the eldest of three surviving children.

  1513 Henry goes to war in France in June. He appoints Katharine of Aragon regent.

  In August the Scots invade England. Two weeks later, Kath
arine and her troops defeat them, killing their king, James IV, and claiming a great victory.

  1515 Anna of Cleves is born.

  1516 Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, is born.

  1517 Kateryn Parr’s father dies. Her mother, Lady Maud Parr, remains single and devotes herself to her children, hiring a tutor to teach them Latin, French, Italian, and arithmetic. She continues to serve as a lady-in-waiting at court.

  1520 Henry meets with King Francis I of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

  ca. 1521 Catherine Howard is born.

  1526 In February, Henry begins to court Anne Boleyn.

  1529 Jane Seymour becomes maid of honor to Katharine of Aragon.

  1530 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dies.

  1531 Henry separates from Katharine of Aragon and she is banished from court.

  1533 Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn around January 25.

  In May, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of Henry and Katharine of Aragon invalid. Five days later, he validates the king’s marriage to Anne.

  The coronation of Anne Boleyn takes place on June 1.

  Princess Elizabeth is born on September 7.

  1534 Parliament passes the Act of Succession, through which Anne Boleyn’s children will succeed the king.

  1535 Bishop John Fisher is beheaded on June 22 for refusing to accept Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

  Sir Thomas More, who also refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, is beheaded on July 6.

  Henry begins to court Jane Seymour in November.

  1536 Katharine of Aragon dies on January 7.

  On May 2, Anne Boleyn is arrested and taken to the Tower of London. She is beheaded on May 19.

  On May 30, Henry marries Jane Seymour.

  In June, Parliament passes the second Act of Succession, putting Jane Seymour’s children ahead of Anne Boleyn’s in line for the throne.

  The Pilgrimage of Grace, a revolt against Henry’s reign, takes place from September to March 1537.

  1537 Prince Edward is born on October 12.

  Jane Seymour dies on October 24.

  1539 Henry is betrothed to Anna of Cleves on October 4. She arrives in Kent in England on December 27.

  1540 Henry is married to Anna of Cleves on January 6. The marriage is annulled by a clerical convocation on July 9 and the annulment is confirmed by Parliament on July 12.

  On July 28, the king’s advisor Thomas Cromwell is beheaded, and the king marries Catherine Howard.

  1542 Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is beheaded on February 13.

  1543 On July 12, Kateryn Parr marries Henry, becoming his sixth wife. The wedding is performed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner.

  1544 In February, the king passes a new Act of Succession, ruling that Prince Edward is first in line for the throne, followed by any of Edward’s children, then by Kateryn’s children, then by the children of any other (potential) queens, then by Mary and Elizabeth.

  1545 Kateryn Parr publishes Prayers or Meditations. This is the first work by a woman published in England in English.

  1546 Kateryn Parr is nearly arrested for her outspoken Lutheran reformist ideas, as part of a plot to oust her led by the conservative Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, among others.

  1547 Henry VIII dies on January 28, and Edward becomes king at age nine.

  1548 Kateryn dies of puerperal fever on September 5.

  1549 Thomas Seymour is beheaded for high treason for plots against his brother, Edward Seymour, who served as young King Edward’s Protector.

  1553 Edward VI dies on July 6. Mary becomes queen.

  1557 Anna of Cleves dies on July 16.

  1558 Mary I dies; Elizabeth ascends the throne on November 17; she rules until her death in 1603.

  Anna of Cleves, Queen of England (1515–1557)—Henry VIII’s fourth wife, she was married just seven months before the English Parliament, at the king’s request, passed an act declaring the union null and void.

  Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502)—Henry VIII’s older brother and heir apparent to the Tudor throne. Six months after his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, he died of what many historians believe was tuberculosis.

  Bessie (Elizabeth) Blount (1498–1540)—Henry’s mistress from 1514 to 1522. She bore him an illegitimate son in June 1520.

  Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (ca. 1501–1536)—The second wife of Henry VIII. Anne’s refusal to be his mistress, along with his desperation for a male heir, led to Henry’s abandonment of his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, and led as well to the English Reformation. The only living child from their three-year marriage, Princess Elizabeth, later became Elizabeth I. Anne was executed on false charges of incest and adultery in May 1536.

  Elizabeth Boleyn (ca. 1480–ca. 1561)—Anne Boleyn’s aunt through marriage, she was chosen to attend Anne in the Tower of London, largely because of her dislike for her niece.

  George Boleyn, Lord Rochford (1503–1536)—In 1525, George Boleyn married Jane Parker, later known primarily as Lady Rochford. Close to his sister, Anne Boleyn, he became a member of Henry’s privy chamber during her reign. George acquired a reputation for womanizing and was falsely convicted of committing adultery with his sister, along with courtiers William Brereton, Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, and Francis Weston. On May 17, 1536, he was the first of the five men beheaded.

  Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, Earl of Ormond, Viscount Rochford (1477–1539)—The ambitious father of Mary, George, and Anne Boleyn, he rose to great heights when his daughters caught the king’s eye. Besides being showered with titles, he was also one of Henry’s leading diplomats, and was Lord Privy Seal from 1530 until Anne and George were executed for treason six years later.

  Catherine (Cat) Willoughby Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (1519–1580)—Lady-in-waiting to Catherine Howard and close friend of Kateryn Parr, she was a proponent of the English Reformation and the wife of Charles Brandon.

  Charles Brandon, First Duke of Suffolk (ca. 1484–1545)—Henry VIII’s brother-in-law, he was also the king’s longtime confidant and advisor, serving in several governmental positions.

  William Brereton (1487–1536)—A groom of the privy chamber, Brereton was one of the servants who cared for Henry’s person. He was the oldest of the five men wrongly convicted of having “illicit intercourse” with Anne Boleyn, and was the fourth man executed on May 17, 1536.

  Francis Bryan (ca. 1490–1550)—An English courtier and a close friend of Henry’s, as well as half cousin to Anne Boleyn and a second half cousin to Jane Seymour. Bryan worked behind the scenes to help bring about Anne’s downfall and hasten Henry’s marriage to Jane.

  Joan Bulmer (1519–1590)—A Tudor noblewoman who lived in the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk’s household with Catherine Howard. She later served in Catherine’s court and testified against her.

  Nicholas Carew (ca. 1496–1539)—Henry’s courtier, he was entrusted with conveying the king’s private messages to Jane Seymour before Anne Boleyn’s death. In 1539, after falling out of Henry’s favor, Carew was found guilty of high treason, and he was executed in March 1539.

  Mary Boleyn Carey (ca. 1498–1543)—The sister of Anne Boleyn, Mary was Henry VIII’s mistress from about 1521 to 1526, while she was married to William Carey, an influential courtier. Henry’s passion for Mary quickly waned when he met her younger sister.

  Nan Cobham (?)—History remains unclear about the specific details of her life, although it is known that she attended three of Henry VIII’s wives: Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Kateryn Parr. Nan seemingly despised Anne Boleyn and gave testimony to Lord Cromwell that served to seal the fate of Henry’s second wife.

  Margaret Dymoke Coffin (1490–1545)—While attending Anne Boleyn during her time in the Tower, Margaret spied for the king’s men. She went on to serve in Jane Seymour’s household as a lady of the bedchamber.

  Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1489–1556)—It
was Cranmer, a reformist, who first suggested that the validity of Henry’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon be decided in English courts rather than by the Pope. Cranmer remained in his position after Henry’s death.

  Thomas Cromwell, First Earl of Essex (ca. 1485–1540)—A lawyer and statesman who first served under Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell eventually became Henry’s chief minister. He helped further the English Reformation and worked toward the dissolution of Henry’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon. Cromwell also brought about Anne Boleyn’s downfall and execution, and engineered Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour. After Jane’s death, Cromwell disastrously suggested that Henry marry Anna of Cleves, which led, in part, to his falling out of favor. Condemned to execution without trial, he was beheaded in July 1540.

  Thomas Culpeper (ca. 1514–1541)—Courtier and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber under Henry VIII, he was the alleged lover of Catherine Howard and was executed for treason.

  Francis Dereham (1513–1541)—A courtier in service to the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he was Catherine Howard’s lover before her marriage to the king. He was later executed for treason.

  Edward VI, King of England (1537–1553)—The son of Henry and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the king’s only legitimate male heir to survive infancy. Crowned King of England and Ireland on February 20, 1547, he assumed the throne after his father’s death in January. Just seven years later, he died at the age of fifteen, of what many historians believe was tuberculosis.

  Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1533–1603)—The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 upon the death of her half sister, Mary, and ruled for almost forty-five years. Her reign is known as the Golden Age, an era that saw the birth of Shakespeare, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the emergence of England as a world power. Choosing to remain unwed and childless, Elizabeth was the last Tudor to sit on the throne.