Henry VIII and His Six Wives
Written and researched by: Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.

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I have always been fascinated with Henry VIII. He was one of the most written about monarchs in English history. In his quest for heirs, he divorced Catharine of Aragon (who gave him his first daughter, Mary Tudor, later known as "Bloody Mary"), He beheaded his second wife, Ann Boleyn (who bore him Elizabeth Tudor, Elizabeth I, "the Virgin Queen"). His third wife, Jane Seymour, finally gave him his son, Edward, but Jane died in childbirth and her son had a very short reign as king. Henry saw a portrait of Ann of Cleves, and decided that she might be a good fourth wife, but later discovered that her portrait flattered her, and their marriage was annulled. Henry quickly married and beheaded Catharine Howard, Anne Boleyn's first cousin, and his fifth wife. In his old age, he married Katharine Parr. She who married a series of old men, and outlived Henry VIII, before giving birth or being left or executed like all the rest. She ended up raising his children. Henry Tudor (Henry VIII) certainly didn't get his heir. Not even his illegitimate children lived to carry on his line. Thus, we can pretty much establish that Henry VIII did not leave a single heir (at least not that we know of). There have been numerous stories about the possibility that Mary Boleyn (Anne's sister) might have given him an heir, but even Henry did not claim her children as his own. So we can't attest to any of this except as a new theory. I have included Henry VIII amongst my pages since he loved the Howards and Boleyns, and I have been searching to see if my lines connect to them, since I have multiple Howard lines in my Packard/Howard line. Some older records attested to this as truth, but modern genealogists say those old records were false. To date, I have NOT found a clear path connecting my Howards to the royal Howards.

I have read much about Henry since childhood and find him fascinating.

Henry VIII took the throne of England after the death of his father Henry VII on April 22, 1509. Henry was age eighteen (18). He was proclaimed "King" on April 23, 1509, the Feast Day of St. George, the patron saint of England and the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

HENRY VII's CHILDREN WERE:
1. His older brother, Arthur was born on September 20, 1486. Arthur died April 2, 1502 (at age 16). Arthur was the Prince of Wales. Arthur was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon after negotiations began in 1488, when Arthur was only two years of age. Caterina, of Spain, was two years Arthur's elder. Arthur and Catherine were married on November 14, 1501, in St Paul's Cathedral and they lived at Ludlow. Five (5) months later Arthur died of the sweating sickness. It was thought that they never consumated their marriage.

2. Margaret Tudor (1489-1541) was born November 29, 1489. She married James IV of Scotland, in Edinburgh, on August 8, 1503, and was Queen of Scotland. Margaret was said to play the lute and the clavichord. Margaret died on October 18, 1541 (at age 52).

   Margaret and James had two children:

   James V of Scotland who married Marie de Guise.
   Margaret who married Matthew, the Earl of Lennox.

   Henry Tudor, later Henry VIII, was born June 28, 1491, in the Palace of Greenwich, London, England. Henery was five years younger than his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales. In 1514, Henry had smallpox (at age 23), but had a remarkable recovery. Henry died on Friday, January 28, 1547, at 2 a.m. (at age 56). There was great secrecy about his actual cause of death and the citizens were not told until a few days after his death.

   Mary Tudor (1495-1533) was born in March 1496. Mary married (1) Louis XII who died on January 1515. She then married (2) Charles Brandon (B: 1485), Duke of Suffolk.

Henry was the youngest son, and was therefore was not in the limelight, as long as his brother Arthur was alive. His childhood was a rather isolated existence.

Mistresses of Henry VIII

In 1518, Henry (at age 27) tried Elizabeth "Bessie" Blount, the daughter of Shropshire knight, Sir John Blount of Kinlet Hall in Shropshire, England. Her mother was Katherine Peshall. Katerine's father fought at Bosworth with Henry VII. John and Katherine Blount had a total of eleven children. Bessie was eighteen years old at the time Henry met her, and was said to be a real beauty. In the summer of 1519, Bessie gave birth to Henry's son in Blackmore Manor (alias "Jericho") in Essex, England. Jericho was one of two houses of pleasure where Henry kept for his whores. The child, Henry Fitzroy (1519-1536) was made the Duke of Richmond on June 15, 1524 (at age 6) and one week earlier he was made Knight of the Garter.

The title of Duke of Richmond was the title Henry VIII's father had before becoming King of England. Henry Fitzroy was raised as the son of Bessie's husband, Gilbert Tailboys at Rokeby Manor in Warwickshire. Gilbert Tailboys married Elizabeth Blount on June 1519. He was knighted in 1525. Bessie and Gilbert had three children before he died. Bessie's second husband was Edward Fiennes, 9th Lord Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. Edward was fourteen years older than Elizabeth Blount. She bore him three daughters and she died in 1540. Bessie's son, Henry FitzRoy, was given a dowry. Henry, Jr. died of tuberculosis, in his teens (age 17), on July 22, 1536, in St. James Palace, and was buried in St. Michael's Church in Framlingham. In 1533, Henry Fitzroy married Mary Howard, the daughter of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk and Anne, daughter of Edward IV. Mary's grandfather was Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and Second Duke of Norfolk (victor at Flodden). Mary's great-grandfather was John Howard, Duke of Norfolk and a knight at Bosworth in 1485.

It is thought that Henry and Mary never consummated their marriage before his early death.

Another mistress was Lady Elizabeth Fitzwalter (Henry's second cousin) who married Robert Fitzwalter.

Mary Boleyn, who Francois I, of France, dubbed "whore" was Henry's next love interest. He married her to: William Carey and she became Lady in Waiting to Catherine of Aragon. Their affair lasted two years.

Some think that Henry might have fathered one of her children. However, Henry never acknowledged her children as his. Mary Boleyn married (1) William Cary, the son of Thomas Cary of Chilton and Margaret Spencer (a descendant of Edward III). William was born c. 1495 and died on June 22, 1528. (2) Sir William Stafford was born c. 1512 and died June 22, 1528.

Children of William Carey were:

.....(A). Catherine Mary Carey who was born c. 1524 and died on January 15, 1569 in Hampton Court Palace. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on April 1569. Catherine Mary Carey married (1) Sir Frances Knolly, the son of Robert Knolly and Lettice Pennystone (1514-July 19, 1596).

.....(B). Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, was born March 4, 1526, and was said to have a remarkable resemblance to Henry VIII. Henry Carey died July 23, 1596 at Somerset House. Henry's marriage contract on May 21, 1545 was to Ann Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan and Anne Whitney.

A child of Sir William Stafford was born about 1534 and died before they could be named.

The March 1999 issue of Genealogist Magazine explores the possibilty that Mary Boleyn's children were fathered by Henry VIII. The Society of Genealogists, in England, publishes this magazine.

Facts about Henry VIII

• When Henry VIII died, he had seventy residences for which he paid around 170,000 English pounds, which is the equivalent of 51 million in today's economy.

• Henry's mother died in childbirth, in the Tower of London.

• Henry's mother's brothers were murdered in the Tower of London by Richard III.

• Henry VIII was 52 years and 14 days old when he married Katherine Parr in 1543. She was 31 years old. By this time he was riddled with gout and huge in size. Everyone thought his last wife was a patient soul, who had many responsibilities.

• Henry and Catherine Howard were 30 years apart in age. She was a teenager with a taste for young men, she was executed for adultery.

• Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves lasted only 6 months, 4 days. Upon their first meeting both wanted a divorce. Their marriage was anulled since it was never consummated. These two were friends, rather than lovers, and the court had rumours that they might remarry.

• Henry VIII loved music and was said to have composed songs and hymms. Many think Greensleeves was written by him. He also wrote: O Lord, the Maker of All Things and the songs Green Groweth the Holly (written for Catherine of Aragon) and Adieu Madame et ma Maistreusse written for Anne Boleyn.

• Henry VIII was said to be an expert in heraldry and put his crests and coat of arms on all his palaces.

• Henry owned over two thousand tapestries - 400 were inherited from his father, Henry VII. twenty-eight of these tapestries still can be seen at Hampton Court.

• There was relatively little furniture in palaces. They needed big open halls for the courtiers and other visitors. Only their private chambers had furniture.

• Henry VIII was coronated October 30, 1485 in Westminster Abbey. His father instituted the Yeoman of the Guard because of his fear for his life.

• Henry VIII popularized tennis, which was then a royal sport. Tennis originated in France. The oldest ball game court (tennis court) in the world is the tennis court that Henry VIII built at Windsor Castle in 1529.

• Henry fancied himself an athlete, in his youth, and he participated in wrestling, horse racing, casting the barre (throwing the hammer), and stag hunting.

• Gambling was a big part of court life during Henry's time. They bet upon bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and cock-fighting, while mob-football irritated and sometimes frightened the middle class and the middle-aged.

• The concept of kindness to animals is rather new. In England only a few hundred years ago, cats were burnt in baskets as part of Guy Fawkes' Day. Bears and bulls were tethered and worried by dogs in special rings with spectators around the outside. Dogs suffered and were killed in these displays, and the bears and bulls were wounded, then patched up for the next event. Cock-fighting was involved with heavy gambling on which rooster would live.

• Henry VIII had a stable of two hundred horses. His favorite breeds were the Barbarys (from Spain and Italy) and Neopolitan Coursers, which cost about 12,000 English pounds in today's money.

• Henry Tudor encouraged the breedng of the Irish hobby, an ancestor of the Connemara.

• Henry was the first patron of horse racing in England, despite the pope's deemands for cessation of all racing in England.

• He foundef the Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court.

• Many said that Henry was a grand horseman in his youth. He had stud farms at Hampton Court and in Nottinghamshire.

• Thomas Kryvet was Henry's first Master of the Horse.

• All of Henry's wives were descendants of Edward I.

• Common people were hanged for crimes against the king, while noblemen were beheaded.

• Most men were clean shaven before King Henry VIII set the style for beards and moustaches in the 1520's.

• Hair was washed just three to four times a year with water and wood ash.

• The favorite perfume of Henry VIII was a mixture of musk, ambergis, and civit.

• He spent the equivalent of 2,400,000 English pounds, each year, for clothing.

• In 1523, Henry owned a ship named Mary Boleyn and another named Anne Boleyn. Both ships were bought from their father.

• Henry VIII and the 800 people of his court consumed 8,200 sheep. 2,330 deer, 2,870 pigs, 1,240 oxen, 24,000 larks, and 33,000 chickens in one year.

• Strawberries and cream were popularized at Henry VIII's court.

• In three years, Henry spent 165,000 English pounds on gifts for Anne Boleyn.

• Henry had orchards or pears, apples, plums, damsons, cherries and strawberries. Cherries and strawberries were his favorite fruits.

• Honey was used as a sweetener.

• Soap was made of wood-ash, tallow, and olive oil.

• At Hampton Court, Henry built a two-storey communal public lavatory with fourteen seats.

• Henry VIII's royal residences (great houses) included Westminster Palace, Greenwich, Eltham, Richmond, New Hall in Essex, and Woodstock in Oxfordshire. These homes were the winter quarters that housed some 800 courtiers.

• Hans Holbien was court painter to Henry VII.

• Henry VIII outlived Hans Holbien by four years, when he died on January 12, 1547.

• Goose feathers were used as writing plumes.

• Henry VIII was the only British king to have more wives than mistresses.

• In Tudor Times "Your Majesty" came into fashion. Courtiers addressed a queen as "ma'am" and the king as "Sir."

• Henry VIII patronized the Italian school of fighting with the rapier and dagger. Rocco Bonetti was London's most popular instructor in 1599.

• Henry VIII constructed the first regular cockpit for cock fighting.

• Henry VIII is buried in St. George's Chapel (Windsor Castle), Windsor, England with his third wife, Jane Seymour (1515-1557).

• Henry was so fat in his later years that his bed was 4 meters wide and he needed ropes and pullies to help him get in and out of it.

• Henry inherited one large bed from his father Henry VII. This bed was kept in Windsor Castle and was eleven foot square.

• Henry's bed at Hampton Court was eight feet long.

• Henry suffered from bleeding gums, leg ulcers, and was bad tempered and depressed, in his dotage.

• Henry VIII was fastidious and obsessed with cleaning, as he was afraid to get germs and die.

• Soon after the corpse of King Henry VIII was placed in the chapel at Windsor Castle (two weeks after his death), his lead coffin burst open and "all the pavement of the church was with the fat and the corrupt and putrefied blood foully imbued" ( A witness, as reported in The Book of Royal Lists by Craig Brown and Leslie Cunliffe. New York: Summit Books, 1982).

  For more information about where famous people are buried, visit: Find a Grave

• Anne Boleyn, Catharine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey were all buried in the Chapel of Saint Peter-ad-Vincula, Tower of London, London, England with special interment in the Chapel Royal.

• On July 19, 1545, Henry VIII's favorite ship, the warship Mary Rose, was accidentally sunk during an engagement of the French fleet in Portsmouth Harbour. The Mary Rose was named after his youngest sister, Mary, and the Tudor symbol (shown above).

Henry VIII and the Reformation:

During the Reformation, Henry VIII was responsible for the destruction of many Catholic Church relics, and saint's remains. For example:

• 1. Saint Etheldreda (630-679) was the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles and Queen Hereswide of England. Saint Etheldreda founded the Ely monastery, in 672, where she served as an abbess for seven years. As was the tradition this was a double monastery for nuns and monks.

All of her four sisters were saints:
St. Sexburga, entered Ely monastery after the death of her husband, King Erconbert. She was abbess after her sister Etheldreda.
St. Withburga was a recluse at Dereham in Norfolk, where she founded a religious house.
St Ethelburga was an abbess at the Monastery at Brie.
St. Sethrid was also an abbess at Brie.

These saints also had two brothers named, Adlwulf and Adulphus. Their aunt was St. Hilda, the foundress and abbess of Whitby monastery. Queen Hereswide also entered a religious life after the death of King Anna and died a holy death in the abbey of St. Clotilde, near Paris.

St Etheldreda was contracted to marry Prince Tonbercht, who ruled a territory next to that of her father's. Her husband respected her vow of virginity. He died three years after their marriage and she was then a widow. She retired to the Isle of Ely, her settlement in her husband's will. She remained, in prayer, for the next five years. Later on, Etheldreda was made to marry King Egfrid, when he was only sixteen (16) years old. This was a political marriage and she remained chaste. They were married for twelve years and eventually King Egfrid allowed her to go into a monastery ruled by his aunt, Abbess Ebba, at Coldingham. She was given the veil by St. Wilfred in 671.

St. Etheldreda was an incorruptible. Her relics were scattered and the shrine was completely destroyed to the point that only the base remained. She was said to have prophesied her own death from the plague. She was buried in a wooden coffin, but sixteen years later her sister, Sexburga, removed her bones to the church. At this time her body was noted as free from corruption. The church was destroyed by the Danes, but her body was untouched. This was to continue for 800 years. When Henry VIII ordered the destruction of her body, only her left hand was said to have remained.

• 2. Saint Cuthbert (?-687) held many administrative positions in the monasteries of Ripon, Melrose, and Lindisfarne. In 676 he vowed to become a hermit, and he lived in a small dwelling about nine miles from Lindisfarne. He later was Bishop of Lindisfarne after the urguing of King Egfrid. His body was laid to rest in Lindisfarne, after his death in 687. It remained here for eleven (11) years. The saints casket was removed on September 4, 999, and taken to Durham Cathedral. The casket was not opened at this time even though William the Conqueror asked to see his remains. It was not until 1104, four hundred and eighteen years after his death, that his coffin was opened. At this time it was said to be perfectly preserved.

  St. Cuthbert was an incorruptible. The King's commisioners, Dr. Lee, Dr. Henley, and Mr. Blythman, were sent in the year 1537 to Durham to destroy the shrine and relics of this saint. It this time there were jewels and gold chalices that were taken as well. Henry's men were surprised to see that the body was incorrupt as were his vestments. They carried the body to the vestry, where it lay until the king could make a decision about the body's fate. Apparently, they feared that if they destroyed the body, there might be some sort of retributions to pay. Superstition saved St. Cuthbert. The priors and monks then buried him in the ground under the place where his shrine was exalted. A new grave was constructed in 1542. On May 17, 1827, the tomb was opened again and only the skelton remained. but his robes were intact. Many believe that this was not the real body of St. Cuthbert. The Benedictines were thought to have hidden the real body in case Henry VIII, or someone like him, would try to destroy the body again. In 1537, the body had been incorrupt for eight hundred and fifty years.

• 3. Saint Werburgh (?-699)
  
  Werburgh was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia and St. Erminilda, and St. Ethedreda, the Abbess of Ely, was her grandmother. Her grandfather was King Ethelred. During the reign of Henry VIII the tomb was completely destroyed, and it is not known if the body was again removed to safety or was destroyed, as so many others were.

• 4. Saint Withburga (?-743)was the youngest of five saintly daughters of King Ann of East Angles. The relics of Withburga, along with those of her sisters, were all destroyed during the reformation, on the orders of Henry VIII, and no traces of her exists. St. Withburga was also a incorruptible before this.

MORE TUDOR LINKS:

Tudor History ... The Mary Rose ... Tudor Web

Holbein, Hans the Younger ... Artcult-Hans Holbien ... See MY BIBLIOGRAPHY under Royalty for my sources.

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