The Six Wives & Many Mistresses of Henry VIII

by Amy Licence

  In this new tomb, the royal Kath’rine lies

  Flower of her sex, renowned, great and wise.

  A wife by every nuptial virtue known

  A faithful partner once of Henry’s throne.

  To Seymour next her plighted hand she yields

  (Seymour who Neptune’s trident justly wields.)

  From him a beauteous daughter blessed her arms

  An infant copy of her parents’ charms

  When now seven days this tender flower had bloom’d

  Heaven in its wrath the mother’s soul resumed.

  Great Kath’rine’s merit in our grief appears

  While fair Britannia dews her cheek with tears,

  Our loyal breast with rising sighs are torn

  With saints she triumphs, we with mortals mourn.

  That only left Anne of Cleves. After the death of Henry, Anne had moved from Richmond to Bletchley and then on to Penshurst Place in Kent, close to her other property, the former Boleyn home Hever Castle. She was an occasional presence at the court and, after the death of Prince Edward in 1553, attended the coronation of his sister, Princess Mary. For some reason, Anne was implicated in a rebellion of 1554 against Mary’s Spanish marriage and Catholic leanings, which was organised by the son of Thomas Wyatt. Princess Elizabeth was also implicated in this, although it is most likely that the rebels simply rose in her name, but according to the Imperial ambassador her closeness to Anne was enough to turn Queen Mary against her former stepmother. She never remarried, although she could have, even being suggested by King Edward as a potential bride for Thomas Seymour in 1547. Anne lived out the remainder of her life quietly and died in Catherine Parr’s old home at Chelsea, on 16 July 1557, at the age of forty-one.

  In her will, Anne left bequeaths to the gentlewomen of her privy chamber ‘for their great pains taken with us’, around £40 each, to enable them to marry. She left 40s to Mother Lovell ‘for her attendance upon us in this time of this our sickness’ and 20s to every child in her household. To her brother, she sent a gold ring set with a diamond in the shape of a heart and to his wife, a black enamelled ring bearing a great ruby. She left a gold ring with a table diamond to Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk, and another engraved with the letters H and J, for Henry and Jane Seymour, to Mary, Countess of Arundel. She remembered her physician, surgeon, servants, courtiers, chaplains, her old laundress and friends, as well as the alms-children and poor of her parishes.3 Anne was the only one of Henry’s wives to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

  Only a handful of the women associated with Henry would outlive him. Mary Shelton lived long enough to see the succession of Queen Elizabeth in November 1558, who welcomed Mary’s daughter Abigail into her household. Having been widowed the previous year, she remarried to a Philip Appleyard and died in 1571. Her sister Margaret, with whom she had sometimes been confused, and who captivated Sir Henry Norris, may well also have been the mistress of the king. She married Sir Thomas Wodehouse and had a large family, but lost her husband and one of her sons at the Battle of Musselborough, in September 1547. Evidence suggests she survived into the reign of Elizabeth, but the exact date of her death is unknown.

  Anne Bassett, whose name had been coupled with Henry’s several times during the late 1530s and early 1540s, attended his funeral in 1547. Along with her sister Catherine, she received an allowance of cloth for mourning clothes, suggesting they were among the many mourners who took part in the procession to St George’s Chapel, Windsor three weeks after his death. Anne went on to become a maid of honour to Queen Mary in 1553. The following year, she married Sir Walter Hungerford of Farley, a man renowned for his athletic ability but tainted by scandal, following the execution of his father for offenses committed under the first sodomy law of 1533. Anne bore her husband two children but may have died in childbirth or a complication arising afterwards, as Walter remarried less than four years later, in May 1558. Catherine Bassett married Sir Henry Ashley on 8 December 1547, who was knighted at the coronation of Mary I. She bore a son, Henry, who served Queen Elizabeth but died at some unknown point before her husband’s death in 1588.

  Catherine, the widowed Duchess of Suffolk, whom Henry may have considered marrying in 1546, suffered a terrible tragedy in 1551, when both her young sons died of the sweating sickness within hours of each other. Two years later, she remarried to Richard Bertie, her usher and master of the horse, in what appears to have been a love match. Continuing to advocate the reformed faith, the Berties fled into exile during the reign of the Catholic Mary, living at Wesel, in Germany, then in Polish Lithuania. During their absence, Catherine bore a son, Peregrine Bertie, in October 1555, but the family only felt safe to return to England in 1558, after Mary’s death. Catherine died in 1580.

  Henry VIII’s body, so intimately known to these women, was laid to rest beside that of Jane Seymour, under the choir in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. In transit, his coffin had rested at Syon Abbey, the last home of Catherine Howard, where fluids from his corpse leaked and were reputed to have been licked away by stray dogs. When the vault was opened in 1813, his coffin was considerably damaged, perhaps as a result of the introduction of later inmates or, as Victorian historian A. Y. Nutt suggested, due to the ‘action of internal forces outward’. The magnificent tomb the king had planned was described by John Speed in the seventeenth century as featuring life-sized statues of Henry and Queen Jane, along with statue of Henry on horseback, amid an assembly of 130 biblical figures in brass gilt, set among marble pillars and gilded bronze angels. The tomb was never built and today Henry lies under a simple floor slab, far less ceremonious than the modest tomb he had allowed Catherine of Aragon.

  1. The Archbishop’s Palace, Alcala de Henares. Catherine of Aragon was born here on 16 December 1485, the youngest child of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon.

  2. Statue of Catherine of Aragon, before the Archbishop’s Palace, Alcala de Henares. Catherine received a solid education in the classics, Latin, literature, religion and law, as well as the traditional female accomplishments, designed to equip her for her future role as Queen of England, which was proposed as early as 1488.

  3. Ludlow Castle. Late in December 1501, Catherine and Prince Arthur arrived at their marital home in the Welsh Marches. Here, they lived for three months before both falling ill at the end of March. Arthur died here on 2 April, probably of tuberculosis or another ‘wasting condition’, exacerbated by the sweating sickness.

  4. Eltham Palace. Rebuilt by Henry’s grandfather, Edward IV, Eltham was the location of the royal nursery, where Prince Henry had been raised with his sisters. Catherine wrote to her sister from here that her health was improving in 1502; she also spent the summer of 1510 here, while pregnant with her second child.

  5. Lady Chapel, Westminster. Catherine’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth of York, died shortly after giving birth in February 1503, meaning that the young Spanish princess lost an important ally. She was buried in the chapel built for her by her husband, Henry VII, who now lies entombed beside her.

  6. Greenwich Palace. Catherine and Henry were married in the queen’s closet at Greenwich, on 11 June 1509 and spent two honeymoon weeks there until their joint coronation. As Henry’s favourite palace, it was a location he returned to frequently and was home to all his wives. Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were both born there, in 1516 and 1533.

  7. Map of Westminster. Westminster Palace was the seat of the court and of government, situated to the west of the City of London. Catherine would have known it well, visiting many times until a great fire destroyed much of the complex in 1513. The present buildings date from the nineteenth century.

  8. Letter from Catherine of Aragon to the king’s almoner (Thomas Wolsey), 2 September 1513. Dated at Richmond and signed ‘Katherine the Qwene’ the letter recommends that Louis d’Orleans, Duke of Longueville, who had been taken prisoner at the Battle of the Spurs fought on the 17 August, be conveyed to the Tower ‘as sone as he commethe’ for ‘it shuld be a grete
combraunce to me to have this prisoner here.’ At this time Henry VIII was in France and Catherine of Aragon was ruling England as regent in his absence. The Battle of Flodden was not fought until a week later.

  9. Catherine of Aragon. In her youth, Catherine was considered a great beauty, with her curvaceous figure, fair skin, pretty features and long, red-gold hair. The early years of her marriage appear to have been happy.

  10. The famous Hans Holbein cartoon of Henry VIII as he has been remembered ever since. Drawn in black ink on paper as a preliminary study for the mural painting in Whitehall Palace that was destroyed by fire at the end of the seventeenth century.

  11. Catherine watching Henry joust. Henry was a keen jouster and, as Sir Loyal Heart, regularly competed wearing Catherine’s favours, while she and her ladies sat in an adorned pavilion.

  12. Henry VIII. A nineteenth-century statue of Henry in his prime, on the outer wall of Canterbury Cathedral.

  13. Carew Manor. Now a school, Carew Manor was the ancestral home of Sir Nicholas Carew, one of Henry’s close companions in his youth, who married Elizabeth Bryan in December 1514. Soon afterwards, Elizabeth was mentioned in a flirtatious letter from Charles Brandon to Henry.

  14. The present-day site of the Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520. Catherine accompanied Henry to the two and a half weeks of festivities near Guisnes, in northern France and helped entertain the French king and his court. The event was coordinated by Wolsey and Sir Thomas Boleyn, whose daughters Mary and Anne would both have been present, making use of their French as translators.

  15. Modern reconstruction at Hampton Court of a fountain built at the Field of Cloth of Gold. Outside the temporary palace at Guisnes in 1520 stood a fountain of gilt and gold, decorated with antique wood, running with red and white wine, bearing the motto ‘let he who wishes make good cheer’. This modern version was unveiled in 2010 in Hampton Court’s Base Court.

  16. Francis I. Henry’s turbulent relationship with his French counterpart lasted until both their deaths in 1547. Francis welcomed him in 1520, and again when he returned with Anne Boleyn in 1532. He may also have been interested in marrying Henry’s sister Mary Tudor in 1515 and was considered as a bridegroom for Henry’s daughter, Princess Mary, after the death of his first wife, Queen Claude.

  17. Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey proved to be a capable and ruthless servant to Henry, and the king trusted him with details of his private life in 1519. He arranged the lying-in of Bessie Blount and stood as godfather to Henry Fitzroy but by the late 1520s, he had lost Henry’s trust and his humble origins and extravagant lifestyle aroused hostility.

  18. King’s head carved on the porch of St Laurence’s church.

  19. St Laurence’s church, Blackmore, Essex. In the summer of 1519, when Bessie Blount was pregnant, Henry sent her to stay in the priory in the village of Blackmore in Essex. Situated beside the priory, St Laurence’s church would have been the location of her son Henry’s christening and her churching, along with Bessie’s prayers.

  20. Funeral effigy of Bessie Blount.

  21. House built on the site of Jericho Priory, Blackmore. Pevsner suggests that the present building, Jericho House, stands on top of the foundations of the old house, as the layout appears to date from the sixteenth century. Henry Fitzroy may have been born on this site.

  22. New Hall, Essex. Situated twelve miles from Blackmore, the palace of Beaulieu, now forming part of New Hall School, may well have provided Henry with a convenient location to stay in 1519, in order to visit his newborn son.

  23. Mary Howard, wife of Henry Fitzroy and royal courtier. Mary was the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, and served as a maid-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, before her marriage to Henry Fitzroy in November 1533. The match was unconsummated at Henry’s request, as he feared the effects of the couple sleeping together too soon. Mary was still a virgin when Fitzroy died in 1536 and served Henry’s remaining queens. She reputedly resisted Howard encouragement to seduce Henry, stating she would rather cut her own throat.

  24 & 25. Henry Fitzroy. Later dating evidence suggests that Bessie Blount’s son was born in June 1519. He lived a quiet childhood until the age of six, when he was invested as Duke of Somerset and Richmond, after which he played an increasingly prominent role at court, with Henry considering making him his heir. His tomb is at St Michael’s church, Framlingham, Suffolk.

  26. Blickling Hall, Norfolk. The birthplace of the Boleyn siblings, Mary, Anne and George, Blickling Hall was in a state of ruin by the end of the Tudor era. The present-day house was built on its foundations during the reign of James I but a surviving redbrick range with a gable end may date from the time of the Boleyns’ occupation.

  27. Hever Castle. Sir Thomas Boleyn inherited Hever Castle in 1505, after the death of his father, Sir William, Lord Mayor of London. Anne spent much of her childhood there until 1513, when she was sent abroad. It was at Hever, set amid the Kentish countryside, that Anne retreated during Henry’s courtship of her, and where he is reputed to have wooed her. The property was later granted to Anne of Cleves.

  28. Hever church. St Peter’s church stands just a stone’s throw from the entrance to the castle and, given the castle’s lack of a chapel, the Boleyn family would have attended it regularly.

  29. Tomb of Sir Thomas Boleyn, Hever church. Sir Thomas died at Hever and was buried in the church on 12 March 1539. His tomb was carved from Purbeck marble and he is depicted on a brass plate, dressed in the order of the garter.

  30. Inner court, Hever Castle.

  31. Thomas Wyatt. The poet was born and raised at Allingham Castle, near Hever, and may well have already been known to Anne Boleyn before they met at court in 1522. His poetry leaves little doubt that he was in love with Anne, but that she did not return his affection. He was arrested in 1536 on her fall, and imprisoned in the Tower, although later freed. Catherine Howard would plead for his release after his second arrest in 1541.

  32. Anne Boleyn. This sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger is reputed to be of Anne, although its inscription was added in the seventeenth century. An etching of Anne by Wenceslaus Hollar appears to have been made as a copy of this image.

  33. Mary Boleyn, the woman who supplanted Bessie as the king’s mistress.

  34. Catherine of Aragon being harangued by Cardinal Campeggio and Thomas Wolsey. In 1529, Catherine was summoned to appear at Blackfriars where a legatine court was being conducted to investigate her marriage. This carving from Canterbury Cathedral depicts a miserable-looking queen, caught between England and Rome, her honour and Henry’s desires.

  35. Holbein’s design for a coronation pageant. A large number of allegorical pageants were prepared to celebrate Anne’s coronation day on 31 May 1533. In one, her badge of a falcon received a crown from the hands of an angel.

  36. Anne Boleyn as queen. The only contemporary image thought to represent Anne is on a medal struck to commemorate her coronation in 1533. This portrait, which hangs in Ripon Cathedral, is thought to date from the late Elizabethan period and may be a copy of a lost original. Henry probably ordered the destruction of Anne’s image, as it seems unlikely that she would not have sat for Holbein during the 1530s.

  37. One of a series of friendly letters which Anne Boleyn wrote to Cardinal Wolsey during the summer of 1528, when she was still looking to him as the man most likely to untangle the king’s first marriage. She thanks him for the ‘grete payne and trobell that yr grace doth take’ about the matter (BL Cotton MS Vespasian F.XIII, f. 73.).

  38. Hampton Court, privy garden. This recently reconstructed garden shows some of the features that were present in many royal pleasure gardens: heraldic beasts, railed walkways painted in Tudor white and green, fragrant herbs and mottos painted on the wood. This garden is situated in an inner courtyard but more extensive ones outside the building would include long walkways, alcoves, arbours and mazes.

  39. Hampton Court, great kitchen. To accommodate his court, Henry built these huge kitchens, with their great hearths, which would h
ave been burning from early in the morning to late at night. They could feed a minimum of six hundred people a day.

  40. Hampton Court larder, kitchens. A number of smaller larders in the great kitchens were devoted to the preparation of luxury dishes for the king’s table. In this reconstruction, peacock is ready to serve, having been cooked before being sewn back into its skin.

  41. Great Hall, Hampton Court. An artist’s impression of the Great Hall, the very centre of Hampton Court, during Henry’s lifetime, with hammer-beam ceiling, tapestries and flags.

  42. Hampton Court. The palace’s site was acquired in 1514 by Thomas Wolsey and rebuilt in the renaissance style, to make a residence that rivalled the king’s own. Court poet John Skelton reflected this in his verse ‘why come ye not to court, to the king’s court, or Hampton Court?’ Wolsey handed the property over to Henry in 1528, in an attempt to save his skin.

  43. Anne Boleyn’s gateway, Hampton Court. Henry expanded the palace considerably in the early 1530s, building larger kitchens, great hall and tennis courts, although work on Anne’s lodgings, over this gateway, was still incomplete at the time of her execution.

  44. Thomas More. More was a constant presence early in Henry’s life, recording the arrival of Catherine of Aragon in 1501 and writing poetry to celebrate their wedding in 1509. A devout Catholic, he refused to accept the Act of Supremacy and, as a result, was tried for treason and beheaded.