HistoryExtrahttps://www.historyextra.comHome of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast2026-10-08T12:35:32.000Zhourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00Think you know everything about the Tudors? Here are 15 facts that will prove you wronghttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/think-you-know-everything-about-the-tudors-here-are-15-facts-that-will-prove-you-wrong/2026-04-12T15:00:00.000Z1. The Tudors weren’t known as the Tudors

Although we use ‘Tudor’ as a nifty shorthand for both the era and the dynasty, it wasn’t used at the time either by the monarchs or their people. Neither did they see it as a distinct period: in fact, Henry VII went to great lengths to emphasise the continuity with his royal predecessors, even down to using the same tailor whom Edward IV had employed.

He also emphasised his Lancastrian roots and tried to downplay his Welsh origins, aware that his grandfather Owen Tudor had married well above him when he bagged Henry V’s widow Catherine of Valois as a bride. Throughout the period 1485–1603, the people identified as subjects of each successive king or queen, as well as taking pride in their local affiliations, rather than seeing themselves as ‘Tudor people’.

2. They had a pretty dodgy claim to the throne

When Henry Tudor won the crown from Richard III at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, he was quick to stress his legitimacy. But there was more than a hint of protesting too much. In fact, the Tudors were descended from Edward III’s fourth son, John of Gaunt, and his long-standing mistress, Katherine Swynford.

Moreover, Henry VII’s father Edmund was the child of Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois, by her Welsh attendant. With such a dubious bloodline, it’s little wonder that England’s first Tudor king wasted no time in marrying Elizabeth of York, the eldest child of Edward IV. Their marriage united the warring houses of York and Lancaster and, crucially, gave the Tudors some much-needed legitimacy.

3. Henry VII was no miser

The first Tudor king has a reputation for penny-pinching. But while he kept a close eye on his expenditure, he knew how to splash the cash when it was to his advantage.

In the early years of his reign, when he was under constant threat from rivals and pretenders and many of his subjects questioned his right to be king, he spent lavish sums on dressing the part. Just over a week after defeating Richard III at Bosworth, he ordered a set of new gowns fashioned from cloth of gold, satin and royal purple velvet at a cost of £336, which roughly equates to £225,000 in today’s money.

During the two years that followed, he spent an eye-watering £5,386 (£3.6 million) on his wardrobe. But his generosity had its limits. His wife, Elizabeth of York, struggled to make ends meet throughout their marriage.

A painted portrait of Henry VII wearing a red fur‑trimmed robe and cap, holding a gold sceptre against a plain background

4. You would smell Henry VIII before you saw him

For the last 20 years of his life, Henry was tormented by pain from a chronic leg ulcer, which was aggravated by a serious fall from his horse while jousting in 1536. The ulcer often became inflamed and – unsurprisingly – Henry was a difficult patient, refusing to rest for long enough for it to heal. At its worst, the suppurating wound could be smelt from three rooms away.

5. Henry VIII’s love of hawking was almost the death of him

Henry’s love of sport was well known throughout the court. As a young king, he would spend hours hunting, jousting, shooting arrows and playing tennis. Hawking was another of his favourite sports and his private apartments contained an impressive array of falconry equipment.

But in 1525, Henry was almost killed while pursuing his hawk. Attempting to pole vault over a ditch, instead he fell headfirst into it and almost drowned. Thankfully, his quick-thinking footman, Edmund Moody, managed to pull him out in the nick of time.

6. Henry VIII was a bit of a prude

Contrary to popular belief, Tudor England’s most-married monarch wasn’t much of a lothario. In fact, he had twice as many wives as mistresses. There is only evidence of three extramarital affairs.

The women involved were Bessie Blount (the mother of Henry’s not-so-subtly-named illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy), Mary Boleyn (sister of his second wife Anne) and ‘Mistress Shelton’, who was either Margaret or Mary Shelton, both cousins of Anne Boleyn.

Although there was a rumour that he once had an affair with Anne’s mother Elizabeth, he stoutly denied it: “Never with the mother!”

A painted portrait of a teenage boy in a light garment and patterned head covering, shown against a deep blue background with gold lettering identifying him as Henry, Duke of Richmond, aged fifteen.

7. Anne Boleyn did not have a sixth finger on one hand

This oft-repeated tale is based on scurrilous gossip written almost 50 years after Anne’s death. A host of hostile Catholic tracts about Anne appeared in the 1580s as part of a smear campaign against her ‘heretic’ daughter, Elizabeth I.

Nicholas Sander was one of the most influential and claimed that Anne had been Henry VIII’s daughter as well as his wife, the result of his clandestine affair with her mother. Feeding on the rumours of witchcraft that had circulated at the time of Anne’s demise, he asserted that she had a sixth finger on her right hand and a large ‘wen’ (a boil or mole) under her chin.

Such blemishes were commonly thought to be the ‘Devil’s Mark’ – a symbol of having made a pact with Satan. In fact, Anne was proud of her long, slender fingers and always took care to show them off to best effect… all 10 of them.

8. Anne of Cleves was not ugly

You may have heard the story: Henry VIII fell in love with Anne of Cleves’ portrait and immediately signed on the dotted line of the marriage contract. But when he met his bride in person, he was appalled that she was nothing like her profile picture. So, he had the marriage annulled before you could say ‘off with her head’.

In fact, Holbein’s portrait was faithful to Anne, and many contemporary accounts praise her beauty. If anyone had cause for complaint about their betrothed’s physical assets, it was Anne. Henry was no oil painting by the time she married him in January 1540. Pushing 50, he was bloated, ulcer-ridden and almost certainly impotent. It was with understandable haste that Anne agreed to an annulment just six months later.

A Renaissance portrait of a richly dressed figure in a red‑and‑gold embroidered gown with ornate jewellery and a jeweled headpiece, standing against a blue background with hands clasped to show rings and lace cuffs.

9. Edward VI kept a diary

The boy king was the only Tudor monarch to leave behind a private journal. But if you’re expecting a tell-all exposé full of secretly expressed desires, grudges and hopes, you might be disappointed. In fact, it’s a rather dry summary of the events of his reign.

Even the execution of his once-cherished uncle is afforded only the following curt line: “The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off today.” Overall, the diary reveals a boy who was precociously intelligent, as might be expected for Henry VIII’s “precious jewel”, who had the best of everything growing up.

But he also appears cold, unfeeling and uncompromising – a dangerous blend of traits that might have made him an even greater tyrant than his father if he lived to maturity.

10. Lady Jane Grey was queen for 14 days, not nine

Jane has gone down in history as the ‘Nine Days’ Queen’. But while it’s true that she was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553 and deposed by Mary Tudor on 19 July, her reign technically began as soon as Edward VI had breathed his last on 6 July.

On his deathbed, Edward changed the succession in favour of his Protestant cousin Jane to prevent his Catholic half-sister Mary claiming her right. He was heavily influenced by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who had married his son Guildford to Jane.

Even so, Edward’s ‘Device’ for the succession was legally-binding, so Jane was the rightful queen as soon as the young king died. Yet she is always referred to as ‘Lady’ rather than ‘Queen’ and is often omitted from the roll call of English monarchs altogether. That owes much to Mary Tudor’s propaganda: to seize the throne, she had to present Jane as a usurper.

A woman in Tudor dress stands against a plain backdrop, wearing a velvet gown with puffed sleeves, gold embroidery, and multiple strands of pearls. She has a pearl‑lined headdress framing her centre‑parted hair and holds a small ornament or flower in one hand.

11. ‘Bloody Mary’ wasn’t all that bloody

Mary I’s obsession with returning England to the Roman Catholic faith spurred her to have around 300 Protestant heretics burned at the stake. But while there is no doubting the horrific nature of their deaths, Mary acted out of conscience rather than brutality.

Blinded by her own faith, she genuinely believed that she was saving her subjects from eternal damnation by bringing them into the Roman Catholic fold. Furthermore, the number of people who died on Mary’s orders was just a fraction of those who suffered at the hands of her far bloodier father, Henry VIII.

He sent more men and women to their deaths than any other Tudor monarch. Anyone who refused to fall in with his will was sent to the block – commoners, statesmen and wives alike. It even became a crime to think differently from the king. Contemporary records are patchy and inconsistent, so it’s impossible to quantify exactly how many deaths Henry was responsible for. Estimates vary from a few thousand to as many as 72,000.

12. Mary Tudor was a bit of a party girl

Despite her reputation for sober-mindedness and piety, Mary loved to have fun. One of her favourite companions was Jane Fool, a female jester. The queen was also an avid gambler and loved to play cards and board games. She also entertained lavishly and spent huge sums on feasting and drinking.

A scandalised Spanish ambassador reported: “There is plenty of beer here, and they drink more than would fill the Valladolid river [known as the Pisuerga river today]… The ladies and gentlemen put sugar in their wine, with the result that there are great goings on in the palace.”

Seven people in Renaissance dress gather around a table playing cards. Gold coins lie across the dark tablecloth, and one player holds up the seven of hearts while another displays several cards. Shelves with bottles and a small vase of flowers sit in the background.

13. Elizabeth I employed the original James Bond

The queen’s personal astrologer Dr John Dee was one of her closest advisers. She would regularly consult him about the most apposite moment to undertake key events, such as her coronation.

An astrologer, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher, Dee was one of the most learned men of the age. But he also carried out more covert assignments for his royal mistress. She employed Dee as a spy, and he would report on intrigues abroad using complex codes. He signed his letters with the numerals ‘007’.

14. Elizabeth I was (apparently) a man

The ‘Bisley Boy’ legend states that in 1542, the future Elizabeth I (then aged around nine) was sent to Overcourt House in the Cotswold village of Bisley to escape the plague in London. Whilst there, she sickened with a fever and died. Knowing that Henry VIII was on his way to visit his daughter, her panic-stricken governess searched the village in vain for a girl who resembled Elizabeth closely enough to fool the king.

The only child of the right age and colouring was a boy, so in desperation she dressed him in the princess’s clothes and the deception was complete. This unlikely tale dates from the 1800s and was made popular by Dracula author Bram Stoker in his book Famous Impostors.

There is no contemporary evidence to support it and more than a whiff of misogyny about the whole thing. How else could Elizabeth have ruled so successfully for so many years? She must have been a man.

An open book rests on a wooden surface. The left page shows a black‑and‑white illustration captioned “Elizabeth as a Young Woman.” The right page is the title page of Bram Stoker’s Famous Impostors, published in 1910 by Sturgis & Walton.

15. Elizabeth I didn’t leave her throne to James VI

But as she lay dying at Richmond Palace in March 1603, she finally settled the matter, gasping that she would have none but “my nearest kinsman the King of Scots”.

This deathbed scene was recorded by the contemporary historian William Camden, who had been commissioned to write a biography of the celebrated queen during her lifetime. But dramatic new research by the British Library has proved that Camden was forced to rewrite it on the orders of the new king to make his accession look more predetermined than it had been.

Using transmitted light, the researchers found that in his original manuscript, written at the time of Elizabeth’s death, Camden had recorded that she died without naming a successor. But a few years later, his words were covered over with the lie that ushered the Stuarts to the Tudor throne.

]]>Queens of bling: the importance of jewellery to Henry VIII's six wiveshttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/queens-of-bling/2023-05-22T07:07:56.000ZListen to a version of this article:

 

Catherine of Aragon: symbols of salvation as a public display of piety

The jewels worn by the first wife of Henry VIII not only say a great deal about her status but, more significantly, her character and values. In keeping with the fashion for low-cut gowns, Catherine’s is lined with pearls and diamonds set in goldsmith’s work. But it was her necklace and brooch set that drew the most interest. Attached to the necklace of gold beads and clusters of pearls is an ornate tau cross – a T-shaped cross symbolic of salvation. Interestingly, Catherine’s daughter, Mary, was later painted wearing a similar cross, as were Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr, reflecting each queen’s piety.

Queens were expected to be pious, but Catherine of Aragon’s faith was personal too. Her jewels reflect a genuine and heartfelt devotion to God, and the tau cross was also associated with her favourite religious order, the Observant Franciscans. Her commitment to the Franciscans was reinforced by her choice of the IHS brooch pinned to her chest (IHS is an abbreviation of the Greek word for Jesus). IHS had been employed as a peace symbol since the 15th century, and by Catherine’s time, it had become an integral marker of Catholic identity.

Catherine is well known for being a principled woman with a strong religious faith. Her choices of jewellery reinforced this image by providing a platform from which she could make her piety public – and enduring.

Anne Boleyn, by an unknown artist, late-16th century (Photo by: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

 

Anne Boleyn: an independent woman at the cutting edge of fashion

This image of Anne Boleyn has etched its way into popular memory. Five centuries after it was painted, it remains a source of fascination – and that fascination is largely the product of her jewels, most specifically the gold “B” pendant hanging from her neck. Anne acquired a reputation for great style and sophistication among her contemporaries, so it’s tempting to imagine that the trend for wearing jewels bearing initials originated with her.

The fashion, however, had begun long before, spreading through Europe during the late 14th century. Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, was extremely fond of initial jewels. Given that Anne had spent a small amount of time at Margaret’s cosmopolitan court in Mechelen in her youth, it is feasible that she was influenced by the trend there. Anne was fascinated by fashion, so it is unsurprising that she set and expressed the latest trends through her choice of jewellery.

She was certainly enthusiastic about initial pieces, for in addition to her “B” pendant she owned an “AB” and an “A”, which her daughter, Elizabeth, can be seen wearing in a portrait. Anne also had a ring which displayed her motto: “The most happy.” Such jewels provided a neat way of showcasing Anne’s pride in her Boleyn roots and her individuality, and at least two of her successors, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr, owned similar items.

Initial jewellery is a style that has retained its popularity, and Anne’s image is immediately conjured when considering its history. The trend may not have begun or ended with her, but she has doubtless contributed to the fascination and is certainly worthy of the title of fashionista.

Jane Seymour, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Photo by Volgi archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

 

Jane Seymour: projecting power, glory and her magnificence

The imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys described her as “no great beauty”, but what Jane Seymour may have lacked in looks she certainly made up for in jewels. In her portrait by the great master Hans Holbein, Jane is adorned in some of the most splendid pieces from the queen’s jewel collection. It is possible that some were inherited from her predecessors, and certainly, many of Jane’s items later came into the possession of Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr.

Painted in exquisite detail, the rich pearls and diamonds studded in gold that adorn Jane’s headdress – known as a habillement – form a matching set with those around her neck, waist and the border of her dress, known as a square. Jane’s inventory lists numerous jewelled buttons, so it is unsurprising that the sleeves of her gown show some of the practical jewels that pinned them together. She also owned more than 50 pairs of beads, and several descriptions match those that hang from her waist that were elaborately decorated, probably with enamel.

Jane’s most impressive jewel, however, is the spectacular ouche – a pendant set with jewels – that is suspended from her necklace. Catherine Howard also wore this while sitting for her portrait, revealing not just a link between the two queens but also that this was a high value piece that made a statement of splendour. Jane’s portrait reveals a queen consort who clearly wanted to impress with her magnificence.

Anne of Cleves, by Hans Holbein (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

 

Anne of Cleves: a determination to carve out her own identity in a new home

Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves may only have lasted for six months in 1540, but she was determined to make the most of queenship – and the material trappings that came with it. This contemporary portrait shows her dressed in the style popular in the Duchy of Cleves: pearls adorning both her costume and her jewelled coif (a close-fitting cap). Yet the jewels that she bought on becoming Henry’s fourth wife paint a more impressive picture.

As a foreign queen (born in Dusseldorf) yet to make friends and allies in her new country, jewels were glamorous tools that allowed Anne to carve out her own identity. By spending more than £400 in a matter of months – an exorbitant sum – Anne recognised the value of splendour when it came to fashioning a role for herself at court. Her jewels came from several goldsmiths employed by the other wives as well as the king, and her purchases included diamonds, a gold chain and rings that were perhaps similar to those worn in her portrait.

There was also a brooch “garnished with diamonds”, which told the story of Samson (and, as such, could be viewed as a sign of strength, or even romantic betrayal). A similar piece later appeared in Henry’s inventory: could it have been the same? Perhaps most importantly, money was outlaid for “the engraving and making of the queen’s grace’s great seal”, a sign that Anne took her duties seriously. Her jewels served to boost not only her confidence but also her status.

Catherine Howard, a 1540 miniature by Hans Holbein (Photo by CBW / Alamy Stock Photo)

 

Catherine Howard: luxurious objects of desire for Henry’s young bride

When Henry married Catherine Howard in the summer of 1540 at Oatlands Palace, he was infatuated with his new, young bride. So enamoured was he that he showered Catherine with gifts of jewels in tangible signs of his love and affection. A number of these were given “at the time of the solemnisation of their marriage”, but there were many more to follow. At new year 1541, Henry gave his wife eight pieces of jewellery. In a gesture of kindness, Catherine then presented a ring (which Henry had given her) to her predecessor, Anne of Cleves.

Catherine’s opulent jewels are reflected in Hans Holbein’s miniature, which is widely thought to depict Henry’s fifth wife. One of the strongest clues of the sitter’s identity comes from her jewels; an inventory compiled at the time of Catherine’s fall and execution (1541–42) lists 175 items, many of which had probably been owned by Henry’s previous queens. It includes the same diamond and ruby ouche that was worn by Jane Seymour.

Similar rings to those worn in the miniature also appear in the inventory, and the same is true of the jewels attached to Catherine’s rich hood. These pieces were so valuable that it is easy to understand why a contemporary chronicler believed that “the king had no wife who made him spend so much money in dresses and jewels as she did”.

Katherine Parr, attributed to Master John (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

 

Katherine Parr: a sumptuous costume to secure the royal seal of approval

Almost certainly painted to mark Katherine Parr’s regency in the summer of 1544, Master John’s likeness of Henry VIII’s fashion-conscious sixth queen displays some of Katherine’s costliest jewels. The beads suspended from her waist are decorated with antique faces in keeping with the latest trends, while a dazzling ouche is attached to her beautiful necklace.

This was perhaps a favourite, given that Katherine wore it while sitting for another portrait. One of Katherine’s jewels is particularly striking, for it exemplifies the common theme in her collection: grandeur. Pinned to her dress is an opulent crown brooch, which may have been commissioned on the queen’s orders. Hailing as she did from a non-royal background, throughout her reign Katherine did her utmost to project an image of majesty, and her jewels provided her with rich tools that enabled her to do so.

Several pieces in her collection reflected her interest in royalty, including a brooch featuring her image and that of her royal husband. This symbolised loyalty to Henry VIII. Katherine’s iconic crown brooch passed into the hands of Henry’s daughter Mary I, and it was later owned by both Queen Elizabeth I – who learned much about fashioning a royal image from Katherine – and Anne of Denmark (wife of James VI and I), on whose orders it was broken down.

Dripping in jewels, Katherine’s portrait is undoubtedly one of the most powerful images of a queen consort, and one in which, as intended, she exudes majesty.

This article was first published in the December 2022 issue of BBC History Magazine

]]>Deal Castle: Anne of Cleves’ first taste of Englandhttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/six-wives-explorer-anne-cleves/2023-04-25T12:45:01.000ZThe association of this heritage space with Anne of Cleves might at first glance seem a slightly strange one, because she only spent about five hours there in her entire lifetime. But for me, for Anne of Cleves, you must visit Deal Castle in Kent. This was the very first place that Anne visited when she came to England.

She was a German princess, and she had travelled across Europe to come to England. She landed at Deal in Kent on 27 December 1539, and she was immediately taken to Deal Castle, where she was given refreshments and changed her clothes, and where she met her English escorts, the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk and also the Bishop of Chichester.

Deal is such a fascinating place for her to have been taken. It was brand new. In fact, it cannot have been quite finished. It is one of Henry VIII’s Device Forts, which were a series of castles he built along the south coast and the east coast to defend England against the French threat. And he built them really, really quickly. He'd only begun Deal Castle at the start of 1539. And yet by the time Anne arrived, right at the end of the year, it was practically finished.

Deal Castle is a fascinating place in itself, because it's a flower-shaped fortress. It’s often said to be circular, but if you look from the top, it looks like a flower. This was Anne's first sight of an English castle, something that her future husband has created. And we can imagine Anne, stepping off her ship after a difficult crossing and being taken to Deal.

I think there is nowhere else that really is so evocative of her journey and the arrival of this woman who had not been to England before. She hadn’t met her future husband. She didn’t speak the language. And so it gives you a sense of Anne's future, and the future that she was going to have in England, and her hopes for the journey. So, Deal Castle is an absolute must.

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In our six-part series Henry VIII’s six wives: Secrets of the Tudor queens, leading Tudor historians explore each queen's heady rise to power, peeling back the myths surrounding these six women to reveal their true natures. Watch all episodes now.

Dr Elizabeth Norton is a historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. Her books include Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride (Amberley, 2009)

]]>Six wives: Anne of Cleveshttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/six-wives-podcast-series-anne-of-cleves/2023-03-25T08:06:37.000ZAnne of Cleves is remembered as a comedy anecdote, a figure of mockery who repulsed King Henry VIII on first sight. But her reputation deserves to be rescued from this myth. In episode four of our new series on the dramatic marital history of England’s most notorious monarch, Dr Elizabeth Norton and Dr Tracy Borman join Ellie Cawthorne to reveal how the so-called “Flanders mare” was in fact a much-admired woman with a full, fascinating and independent life.

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On the podcast | Explore the full Six Wives series

The story of King Henry VIII’s six wives is a tale of political crisis and personal tragedy, sacrifice and survival, sex and death, scandal, love and betrayal. But, after centuries of myth have built up around this story, has it clouded our view of the real women involved? We’ll be peeling back the layers of mythmaking to take another look at these fascinating women, who shaped the course of Henry’s reign – and the history of England.

In video | Discover the secrets of the Tudor queens

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In our accompanying six-part video series, leading Tudor historians delve into the fascinating lives of each of Henry VIII’s iconic queens. Could Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard have avoided the executioner’s block? Why can Anne of Cleves be seen as the true survivor? And who was the queen whom Henry loved most?

Find out in this video series exclusively available to HistoryExtra subscribers. All episodes are available to watch now:

Want to learn more about the queens?

]]>Anne of Cleves: The ultimate survivorhttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/anne-cleves-six-wives-video-series/2023-03-25T08:05:56.000ZAlthough Henry’s fourth wife is typically remembered as a dowdy ‘Flander’s Mare’, historian Elizabeth Norton argues that this image of her couldn’t be further from the truth. Speaking to Rhiannon Davies, she paints a picture of Anne as a beleaguered German princess who managed to come out of her disastrous marriage on top, amassing riches, a string of palaces – and even intimate invitations from the king himself…

View Green Video on the source website

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Dr Elizabeth Norton is a historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. Her books include Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride (Amberley, 2009)

Explore the full video series

Six Wives banners WL

In our accompanying six-part video series, leading Tudor historians delve into the fascinating lives of each of Henry VIII’s iconic queens. Could Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard have avoided the executioner’s block? Why can Anne of Cleves be seen as the true survivor? And who was the queen whom Henry loved most?

Find out in this video series exclusively available to HistoryExtra subscribers. All episodes are available to watch now:

On the podcast | Explore the full Six Wives audio series

The story of King Henry VIII’s six wives is a tale of political crisis and personal tragedy, sacrifice and survival, sex and death, scandal, love and betrayal. But, after centuries of myth have built up around this story, has it clouded our view of the real women involved? In our accompanying six-part podcast series, we’ll be peeling back the layers of mythmaking to take another look at these fascinating women, who shaped the course of Henry’s reign – and the history of England.

Want to learn more about the queens?

]]>Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's most successful queen?https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/anne-of-cleves-henry-viii-successful-queen-fourth-wife-tracy-borman/2021-01-06T09:00:00.000ZAnne of Cleves has gone down in history as the ugly wife. Henry VIII was so revolted when he first clapped eyes on her that he immediately instructed his lawyers to get him out of the marriage. Thereafter, his poor, spurned fourth queen retreated quietly into obscurity to hide her face from the world, while Henry joyfully married the infinitely more desirable Catherine Howard.

Anne, who was born 500 years ago, was Henry’s wife for just six months, making her the shortest reigning of all his queens. And so she has been dismissed as little more than a blip in the history of England’s most-married monarch.

The true story of Henry VIII’s fourth wife is entirely different to this humiliating fiction. Anne may not have been to the king’s liking, but how she responded proves that she was far from being the hapless victim of legend. In fact, she can justifiably claim to have been the most successful of all Henry’s wives.

How did Henry and Anne meet?

Anne, daughter of the late Duke of Juliers-Cleves, Johann III, and sister of his successor, Wilhelm, had first been mooted as a potential wife for the English king in the closing weeks of 1537, soon after the death of his beloved third wife, Jane Seymour. Anne was then 22 years of age, and had already been used as a pawn in the international marriage market when she had been betrothed to François, heir to the duchy of Lorraine, in 1527. This had come to nothing, leaving her free to marry elsewhere.

John Hutton, ambassador to Mary of Hungary, who had originally made the suggestion, admitted he had heard no great praise of her beauty. Such a recommendation hardly motivated Henry to pursue the scheme any further, and it was not until early 1539 that the idea was resurrected. This time Henry gave it more credence because he desperately needed new allies.

His two great rivals, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and French king Francis I, had forged a treaty, and to make matters worse, a short while later Pope Paul III had reissued the bull of excommunication against the English king. Although the then Duke of Juliers-Cleves, Johann (Anne’s father) was no Protestant, he – like Henry – had expelled papal authority from his domain. An alliance with Cleves would therefore provide a major boost to the Reformation in England, and it was for this reason that Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, championed it so enthusiastically.

The Hans Holbein portrait

In March 1539, Henry finally agreed that negotiations could begin. Cromwell was quick to relay reports of Anne’s beauty, assuring his sovereign: “Every man praiseth the beauty of the same lady as well for the face as for the whole body… she excelleth as far the duchess [of Milan] as the golden sun excelleth the silver moon.” But Henry was taking no chances. He dispatched the renowned portrait painter Hans Holbein to Cleves so that he could see what he was letting himself in for.

The king was delighted with the result. Holbein’s portrait showed a pretty young woman with fair hair, a doll-like face, delicate eyes, mouth and chin, and a demure, maidenly expression. The match was confirmed and a treaty was signed on 4 October 1539. A few weeks later, Anne embarked upon her journey to England.

The family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession', 1572. Artist: King Henry Viii, Lucas De Heere. (Photo by National Museum & Galleries of Wales Enterprises Limited/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

“I like her not!”

On New Year’s Eve, Anne arrived at a stormy, windswept Rochester Castle in Kent. The next day, in true chivalric tradition, Henry hastened to greet her in disguise. He was horrified with what he saw. “I like her not! I like her not!” he shouted at Cromwell when the meeting was over. It seemed that Anne had been rather flattered by her portrait. In contrast to the petite stature of Henry’s first three wives, she was tall, big-boned and strong-featured. Her face was dominated by a large nose that had been cleverly disguised by the angle of Holbein’s portrait, and her skin was pitted with the marks of smallpox.

To be fair to Anne, however, until Henry expressed such a strong aversion towards her, there had been no other disparaging accounts of her appearance. The famous nickname of ‘Flanders Mare’ was only coined by Bishop Gilbert Burnet in the late 17th century. Most of the contemporary accounts before her marriage had been complimentary. Even Henry was forced to admit that she was “well and semelye [seemly]”. But the fact that she nevertheless repelled him ensured that Anne would henceforth be known as the ‘ugly wife’.

History has thus served a great injustice on Anne, particularly as her betrothed could hardly have been described as an attractive prospect himself by the time of their marriage. Incapacitated by an ulcerated jousting wound in his leg, Henry’s girth had increased at an alarming rate. When he became king he had been a trim 32 inches around the waist; by the time he met Anne of Cleves it was closer to 52 inches.

A contemporary depiction reveals the king as a grotesque figure. His beady eyes and tiny, pursed mouth are almost lost in the layers of flesh which surround them. He appears to have no neck, and his enormous frame extends beyond the reaches of the canvas. “The king was so stout that such a man has never been seen,” reported a visitor to court. “Three of the biggest men that could be found could get inside his doublet.” On balance, Anne had far more reason for complaint than her prospective husband.

However abhorrent his new bride might be to Henry, there was no going back. It would have caused a major diplomatic incident if he had reneged on the treaty, and England could ill-afford to lose allies. The wedding duly took place on 6 January 1540, and the king now had to do his duty by consummating it.

Thanks to the events that happened afterwards, a detailed account of the wedding night exists among the records of Henry’s reign. The king had run his hands all over his new wife’s body, which had so repelled him that he had found himself incapable of doing any more.

The following morning, he told Cromwell that he found Anne even more abhorrent than when he had first beheld her, bemoaning: “She is nothing fair, and have very evil smells about her.” He went on to claim that there had been certain “tokens” to suggest that she was no maid, not least “the looseness of her breasts”, which he had apparently examined closely. As a result, he confided to a manservant, his bride was “indisposed to excite and provoke any lust” in him and he “could never be stirred to know her carnally”. He had therefore “left her as good a maid as I found her”.

The friends and rivals of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves won over three fellow Tudor queens, yet the failure of her marriage proved lethal for a king’s chief minister   Mary Tudor Anne of Cleves was about the same age as her eldest stepdaughter, Mary, and the two struck up an apparently warm friendship. It is an indication of how likeable Anne was that Mary overcame her natural aversion to reformers and refused to listen to the rumours that Anne was conspiring against her when she became queen.   Catherine Howard The skittish young Catherine was among the ladies appointed to serve Anne when she arrived in England in December 1539. Anne was fully aware that Catherine had caught her husband’s eye and although she complained to the Duke of Juliers-Cleves’s ambassador, she soon became reconciled to the situation, gracefully ceding victory to her rival. To show that there were no hard feelings, she even danced with Catherine after the latter had become queen.   Thomas Cromwell Arranging the king’s disastrous fourth marriage was the beginning of the end for his chief minister. Cromwell had championed Anne enthusiastically, aware that the marriage would cement his religious reforms. After her first disastrous meeting with Henry, Cromwell urged Anne to “behave in a way which might please the king” – in short, she should ‘excite lust’ in her new husband. But it was all in vain and Henry had Cromwell executed a few days after the marriage was annulled.   Elizabeth I Anne cherished an abiding affection for Henry’s youngest daughter, Elizabeth. She once claimed that “to have had [Elizabeth] for her daughter would have been [a] greater happiness to her than being queen”. Perhaps the two women were initially united by a shared sense of rejection at the hands of the king, but theirs was also a meeting of minds because both were of the reformist faith. The princess undoubtedly learned a great deal from her stepmother, particularly the art of pragmatism, which would become the keynote of her own queenship.

For her part, Anne gave every appearance of joy in her new husband. But despite Henry’s claims, she was clearly a virgin and had no idea what was involved in consummation. When the marriage was but a few days old, she confided to her attendants that she believed she might be pregnant, telling them: “When he [Henry] comes to bed he kisses me, and taketh me by the hand, and biddeth me, Goodnight, sweetheart: and in the morning kisses me, and biddeth me, Farewell, darling. Is this not enough?” The Countess of Rutland retorted: “Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a Duke of York.”

Henry’s inability to consummate the marriage has been traditionally assigned to his revulsion at his new bride. But it is at least equally possible that he was impotent. He was nearly twice his young bride’s age and had become increasingly immobile in recent years. There had been no talk of a mistress for some time. This was not the sort of thing that he would have wished to be publicly known. Kings, even more than ordinary men, prided themselves on their sexual potency: it was, after all, vital for the continuation of their dynasty. Henry was a little too eager to boast to his physician, Dr Butts, that although he could not bring himself to have sex with Anne, he had had “two wet dreams”.

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The happy couple?

To the outside world, everything was as it should be. Anne wrote to her family, assuring them that she was very happy with her husband. Meanwhile, Henry made sure that he appeared in public with his new queen as often as could be expected. A few days after the wedding, a celebratory tournament was held in Greenwich. The contemporary chronicler Edward Hall recorded the event and praised the new queen so effusively that nobody would guess there was anything amiss. “She was appareiled after the English fashion, with a French hood, which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her.”

But Anne lacked the courtly refinements that her new husband was used to. The education of noble ladies in Cleves was very different to England. Being accomplished at music, dancing and languages was seen as trivial – “an occasion of lightness” – and ladies were instead taught the more useful skills of needlework and household management. The English ambassador to Cleves described Anne as being of “lowly and gentle conditions”, and noted that “she occupieth her time most with the needle”. No matter how affable and eager to please the new queen was, her awkwardness rendered her an embarrassment in the sophisticated world of the Tudor court.

There was another reason why Henry was desperate to be rid of his fourth wife. By the spring of 1540, he had fallen madly in love with Catherine Howard, a pretty young lady-in-waiting in his wife’s household.

This spurred him into action. Pressure was brought to bear on Thomas Cromwell, who had been arrested for treason and was now obliged to give evidence from the Tower in support of the annulment.

On 24 June Anne was ordered by the council to remove herself from court and go to Richmond Palace. A short while later, Anne learned that her marriage to the English king had been called into question because Henry was concerned about her prior betrothal to the Duke of Lorraine, and had therefore refrained from consummating the union.

An ecclesiastical inquiry was duly commissioned, and a delegation of councillors arrived at Richmond in early July to seek Anne’s co-operation. Shocked by this sudden turn of events, Anne fainted. When she had sufficiently recovered herself, she steadfastly refused to give her consent to the inquiry.

Before long, though, perhaps fearing a similar fate to Catherine of Aragon or, worse still, Anne Boleyn, Anne resolved to take a pragmatic approach. The marriage was duly declared illegal on 9 July, and the annulment was confirmed by parliament three days later. Anne wrote a letter of submission to the king, referring to “your majesty’s clean and pure living with me”, and offering herself up as his “most humble servant”.

Anne was to be richly rewarded for her compliance. She was given possession of Richmond Palace and Bletchingly Manor for life, together with a considerable annual income. This was further boosted by her right to keep all of her royal jewels, plate and goods in order to furnish her new properties. Moreover, she was to be accorded an exalted status as the king’s ‘sister’, taking precedence over all of his subjects, with the exception of his children and any future wife that he might take.

Henry later granted her some additional manors, including Hever Castle, the former home of Anne Boleyn. This was to become her principal residence, and she lived very comfortably there on the fringes of public life. It says much for Anne’s strength of character that she managed to accept and adapt to her new life with dignity.

Henry and Catherine Howard were married at Oatlands Palace in Surrey on 28 July 1540. But the king’s joy was short-lived. Catherine was a flighty and flirtatious girl, some 32 years younger than her husband, and she soon began an illicit affair with Thomas Culpepper, a gentleman of the privy chamber. When her adultery was discovered, she went to the block in February 1542.

Just good friends

Speculation began at once about who would be the king’s next wife. Among the potential candidates was Anne of Cleves. She had been careful to remain on good terms with Henry after their annulment, and had shown no signs of resentment at being so humiliatingly rejected. She had been a regular visitor to court and had also received several visits from her former husband, which by all accounts had been very convivial. The pair had exchanged New Year’s gifts in 1542. But the king made no indication of wishing to revive their union, and although Anne was rumoured to be bitterly disappointed when he married his sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr, this may have been just for show.

By that time, Anne was comfortably ensconced at Hever with all the riches and honours of being a queen, but none of the disadvantages of being married to the ageing, bloated and increasingly tyrannical king. She remained there for the rest of her days, outliving her estranged husband, who died in 1547 and was succeeded by Edward, his nine-year-old son.

Edward’s accession prompted a decline in Anne’s status. The new king’s council viewed her as an irrelevance, not to mention a drain on their resources, and confiscated two of the manors that Henry had given her. Forever the pragmatist, Anne resolved to make the most of the life that she had left. She established her house at Hever as a lively social centre – a kind of miniature court, where she could receive esteemed guests from across the kingdom, notably Princess Elizabeth, who doted upon her. Through these guests, she kept abreast of events at court, and solicited invitations to visit it herself.

The archetypal ‘merry widow’ (or divorcee), Anne also outlived Henry’s son, Edward, who died after just six years on the throne. He was succeeded by his elder half-sister Mary, with whom Anne was still on good terms. She and Elizabeth were accorded the place of honour at Mary’s lavish coronation. The two women shared an open chariot which was richly arrayed with crimson velvet and “cloth of silver”. Anne and her younger stepdaughter were also given new dresses made from a similarly rich silver material, and in the procession to Westminster Abbey they walked together directly behind the new queen.

But neither Anne nor Elizabeth would long enjoy Mary’s favour. Their reformist religious views set them at odds with the new conservative Catholic regime, and there were soon rumours that the two women were conspiring against the queen. These were almost certainly untrue: Anne was far too sensible to take such a risk and had no grudge against Mary. Fortunately, Mary retained enough of her former affection for Anne not to act against her.

With characteristic discretion, Anne left court soon after Mary’s accession, resolved to live out her days quietly at Hever and Chelsea – another manor left to her by Henry. It was while staying at the latter that Anne died on 16 July 1557, after a short illness. Although she was only 41 years of age, she had outlived each of Henry VIII’s five other wives – and had had a happier ending than any of them.

It is a testament to her sensible and cheerful nature that she had managed to stay in everybody’s good graces throughout those turbulent times. Even her dogmatic stepdaughter Mary, who sent hundreds of reformists to the flames, held Anne in such esteem that she ordered the full pomp and ceremony of a royal funeral at Westminster Abbey.

It was a lesson that was not lost on her younger stepdaughter, Elizabeth: to succeed in the dangerous and volatile world of the Tudor court, one must be guided by pragmatism, not principle.

Tracy Borman is a historian and bestselling author. To find out more, visit www.tracyborman.co.uk. You can also follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyBorman

This article was first published in the September 2015 issue of BBC History Magazine

]]>8 places associated with Henry VIII’s wiveshttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/places-linked-associated-henry-viii-wives-catherine-aragon-born-anne-boleyn-jane-seymour-cleves-howard/2019-05-08T14:25:15.000ZHere, the co-authors of In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII explore eight places associated with the king's queen consorts...

 

Archbishop's Palace, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid

To truly know Catherine of Aragon, to understand why she fought until her dying day and never once doubted the legitimacy of her marriage to Henry – even when it meant virtual exile and separation from her beloved daughter, Mary – we must follow her into her past and walk by her side from the very beginning. What better place to start than in the palace where this mightiest of queens took her first breath…

Catherine was born in the Archbishop’s Palace of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, on 15 or 16 December 1485, just four months after a Welshman by the name of Henry Tudor seized the English crown. She was the youngest child of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon – ‘the Catholic monarchs’, an appellation formally conferred on them by Pope Alexander VI in 1494 in recognition of their reconquest of Granada from the Moors.

The Infanta, as Spanish princesses are known, was named Catalina (Catherine), possibly after her English great-grandmother, Catherine of Lancaster. The baby was the last of seven children born to Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand, one of which was a miscarriage and one stillborn. Catherine’s seven-year-old brother John, or Juan, was the royal family’s only surviving male heir.

Most of what we know about Catherine’s infancy comes from the meticulous records of Isabella’s treasurer, Gonzalo de Baeza, from whom we learn that Elena de Carmona was one of baby Catherine’s first maids. She watched over the princess as she slept in her crib, on a newly-made mattress stuffed with fresh cotton and fitted with sheets of fine linen from Holland, which was also used to make her nightshirts and bibs. Catherine was bathed in a small brass basin and dressed in beautiful tunics, including ones made of scarlet Florentine cloth. Other expenses recorded by Baeza include Catherine’s exquisite christening gown made of white brocade, lined with green velvet and edged with gold lace.

By the time of Catherine’s birth, the palace, which had begun its life in the 13th century as a fortress built to house temporarily the archbishops of Toledo, was the residence of Cardinal Mendoza. It was a vast complex of buildings, gardens and courtyards, and the crux of political and religious life in the city, where Christians, Moors and Jews lived harmoniously. This was reflected in the palace’s architecture, which combined different styles, from Gothic to Mudéjar (a fusion of Christian and Islamic styles of architecture, decoration, building materials and techniques, prevalent in Spain in the 12th to 15th centuries) and later Renaissance.

Tragically, on the afternoon of 11 August 1939, a fire swept through the palace buildings, destroying virtually the entire complex, with the exception of a small section of the facade, which was later incorporated into a new building, today home to the Bishropric of Alcalá. In a matter of hours, around 800 years of history, including the chamber where Catherine of Aragon’s story began, was lost.

While the home of the Bishopric of Alcalá is not open to the public, it is possible to arrange a guided tour (in Spanish) of two of the medieval towers that formed part of the defensive wall surrounding the palace. As part of this tour, arranged through the Tourism Office in nearby Santos Niños Square, visitors also gain access to an open air exhibition area called ‘Antiquarian’, where archaeological remains of the old palace are on display.

 

The Alhambra, Spain

Perched high above the city of Granada and set against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, the Alhambra is a sprawling and breathtaking palace and fortress complex built by the Nasrid kings (the last Arab Muslim dynasty in Spain ) between 1238 and 1492 and added to in later centuries by subsequent rulers, including Charles V.

With the exception of a couple of sojourns in Seville, the last two years of Catherine of Aragon’s life in Spain were spent within the Alhambra’s rust-coloured walls, from where she penned love letters to her betrothed, Prince Arthur. The detailed travel diaries of Hieronymus Münzer, a Austrian who travelled through Spain and Portugal in 1494–5, tell us that the Alhambra was a walled city of palaces, parks and gardens that covered an approximate area of 104,000 square metres – the equivalent of about 14 football pitches!

After spending the Christmas festivities of 1499 in Seville, Catherine’s family returned to Granada, the city they’d conquered eight years earlier. The formal surrender had taken place on 2 January 1492, in a staged ceremony that saw Boabdil, the last Nasrid ruler of Granada, hand over the keys to the opulent city to the triumphant ‘Catholic monarchs’. With the banners of Castile and Leon flying high above the Tower of Comares, a jubilant Isabella and Ferdinand entered the Alhambra for the first time. They had often gazed at it from afar and marveled at its magnificence, and now it was theirs. After a short stay the court resumed its travels, not returning to Granada until the summer of 1499.

By this time, Catherine’s parents had endured great heartache and suffering. In October 1497 they lost their only son and heir, Prince John, and then in August 1498 their eldest daughter, Isabella, perished within hours of giving birth to her only child, Miguel, on whose tiny shoulders now rested Isabella and Ferdinand’s hopes for a united Iberia.

As heir to the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal, Miguel was raised at the court of his maternal grandparents alongside his teenaged aunts Catherine and Maria. Tragically, on 19 July 1500, Miguel too succumbed to illness, dying in the arms of his grandmother. The chronicler Andrés Bernáldez wrote, “it was the third stab of pain to pierce the queen’s soul”, and it was one that she found difficult to bear. The normally equanimous Queen Isabella fell into a dark abyss. From this moment, as Bernáldez noted, she “lived without joy”.

In October 1500, Catherine’s sister Maria left her family to travel to Portugal to wed little Miguel’s father, Manuel I. Only Catherine now remained with her parents at the Alhambra, and they were in no rush to say goodbye to their youngest daughter. However, in the spring of 1501 they were forced to part with her too. Catherine was leaving Spain to begin her new life in England, as the wife of Prince Arthur Tudor. With her departure, what spark remained in Isabella’s eyes vanished. She would never see her beloved daughter again.

Today, the Alhambra welcomes visitors from all over the world. When planning your visit, be sure to pre-book tickets online well ahead of time, and don’t forget to book a time slot to tour the Nasrid Palaces, as these fill up quickly.

The Alhambra, Spain. (Photo by Paul Almasy/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

 

Hunsdon House, Hertfordshire

In June 1528, a love-struck Henry VIII penned a moving letter to his “entirely beloved” Anne Boleyn, from his chamber at Hunsdon House, where he and his wife of 19 years, Queen Catherine of Aragon, had sought temporary refuge following an outbreak of the ‘sweat’ in London:

"The uneasiness my doubts about your health gave me, disturbed and alarmed me exceedingly, and I should not have had any quiet without hearing certain tidings. But now, since you have as yet felt nothing, I hope, and am assured that it will spare you, as I hope it is doing with us. For when we were at Walton [Waltham Abbey], two ushers, two valets de chambres and your brother, master-treasurer, fell ill, but are now quite well; and since we have returned to our house at Hunsdon, we have been perfectly well, and have not, at present, one sick person, God be praised; and I think, if you would retire from Surrey, as we did, you would escape all danger.

There is another thing that may comfort you, which is, that, in truth in this distemper few or no women have been taken ill, and what is more, no person of our court, and few elsewhere, have died of it. For which reason I beg you, my entirely beloved, not to frighten yourself nor be too uneasy at our absence; for wherever I am, I am yours, and yet we must sometimes submit to our misfortunes, for whoever will struggle against fate is generally but so much the farther from gaining his end: wherefore comfort yourself, and take courage and avoid the pestilence as much as you can, for I hope shortly to make you sing, la renvoyé. No more at present, from lack of time, but that I wish you in my arms, that I might a little dispel your unreasonable thoughts.

Written by the hand of him who is and always will be yours,

Im-H.R-mutable"

The king signed off his uncharacteristically handwritten letter, penned in a slanting, anxious hand, with his customary decorative monogram. However, on the left of the signature, in tiny writing, are the letters im and on the right of the signature muable, meaning immuable, or unshakeable. Henry was concerned about Anne’s health but comforted by the fact that she’d not yet shown any signs of having contracted the sweating sickness.

Henry’s relief, though, was short-lived: within days a messenger arrived at Hunsdon in the dead of night with the “most afflicting news”; Anne had fallen ill with the sweating sickness.

The devastating news left Henry in shock. He penned a frantic letter of support to Anne, who was presumably now in quarantine at Hever Castle, stating that he “would gladly bear half your illness to make you well”. The king lamented that his best physician, “in whom I have most confidence”, was absent at the time, “when he might do me the greatest pleasure; for I should hope, by him and his means, to obtain one of my chief joys on earth – that is the care of my mistress”. Instead, Henry sent Anne his second-best doctor, William Butts, and implored her to listen to his advice. He closed by saying that he hoped to see her again soon, “which will be to me a greater comfort than all the precious jewels in the world”.

Henry’s prayers were answered. On 23 June, Brian Tuke, the king’s secretary, reported to Cardinal Wolsey that both Anne and her brother George had fallen ill but that thanks to the ministrations of Dr Butts had made a “perfect recovery”.

The king returned to Hunsdon in 1530, 1531 and 1532, but unlike his earlier visit, on these occasions Anne Boleyn was by his side. Like all grand Tudor houses, in addition to well-appointed lodgings Hunsdon also boasted an orchard, fishponds, gardens and a deer park. Henry and Anne made the most of all the diversions on offer, namely hunting, shooting, hawking and fishing. In September 1532 Henry conferred on Anne the title of Marquess of Pembroke and granted her lands worth £1,000 a year, including the Manor of Hunsdon. Over the next few years Henry and Anne made several visits to Hunsdon, the royal couple clearly drawn to the beauty of this airy, rural retreat.

Today, what remains of Hunsdon House is privately owned and not open to the public.

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Wolf Hall, Wiltshire

Standing atop a plateau of land in the heart of rural Wiltshire, surrounded by green fields, cow sheds and a rather run-down looking farmhouse, it should be nigh on impossible to tap into any sense that you are amid the remains of a building that has passed into immortality. Yet strangely, we found quite the opposite was true.

Popularised in recent literature, Wolf Hall was once the provincial country home of the Seymour family. It was most likely here that Jane Seymour, the future third wife of Henry VIII, was born in around 1508/9. At the time, Wolf Hall stood as a double courtyard, part-timber framed manor house on the edge of Savernake Forest, of which Jane’s father was warden. The Seymours’ villa splendid (as it was described by the contemporary 16th-century chronicler John Leland) was set in 2.5 acres of orchards and gardens, surrounded by barns and outbuildings. The house itself is known to have had a hall, kitchen, two galleries, a board chamber, a great chamber, the king’s chamber, a chapel, treasury house and armoury. Delightfully, the names of some of the gardens have also survived; the Primrose Garden, the Box Garden, My Young Lady’s Garden and my old Lady’s Garden being among them.

Jane’s mother, Margery Wentworth, was a mature 30 years old when she gave birth to Jane, her first daughter and fifth child. She herself was described by John Skelton as “benign, courteous and meek” – sentiments that would be applied to Jane by her apologists nearly 30 years later. Understanding Jane’s stable upbringing at Wolf Hall by Catholic parents, far away from the reformist ideas inveigling their way into Henry’s court at the time, helps us understand the mindset of the woman who would so lightly step over the bloodied corpse of “the putain” and former mistress, Anne Boleyn, in 1536.

Indeed, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII stayed as guests of Sir John and Lady Seymour for a week during the summer progress of 1535. Infamously, it is said that it was here that Henry first laid eyes on Jane. We are deeply sceptical of this legend, as Jane had long been in service at court by that time.

There is little left of the original manor with perhaps only some remnants of the Seymours’ lost house incorporated into the modern day farmhouse. Yet, if you visit this haunting place, which refuses to pass into obscurity, it is hard to forget that Anne Boleyn strolled through one of its many, now lost, gardens, while her time as Henry’s “most beloved wife” was fast running out.

In writing In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII we liaised extensively with local historian Graham Bathe, who has devoted much of his life to studying the Seymours and Wolf Hall. We would like to give credit to Graham for all his knowledge and assistance.

 

Schloss Burg an der Wupper (Burg Castle), Solingen, Germany

Burg Castle is one of the key locations associated with Anne of Cleve’s early years, before she travelled to England to become Henry VIII’s fourth wife. It lies 30 miles or so east of Anne’s birthplace of Düsseldorf, then, as now, appearing as a grand medieval hunting lodge, perched upon a rocky plateau and surrounded by the wooded valleys of the Rhine.

Contemporary records tell us that Anne was famously brought up “very straightly” by the Lady Duchess, Anne’s mother, and “never far from her elbow”. Here, Anne and her siblings, Sybille and Amelia, were schooled in the values deemed suitable for an aristocratic lady of the ducal court, with modesty, subtlety, devotion to faith and purity being first among them.

It is easy to visualise the young girl alongside her sisters, practising their needlework in the castle’s Kemenate, the room that acted as the family privy chamber. It was a place where Anne would have spent a good deal of her time during daylight hours. The nearby grand hall, in which great public ceremonies were held, (including the feast to celebrate the imminent nuptials of Anne’s elder sister Sybille in 1526), makes it easy to see through the veil of time and recreate Anne’s aristocratic past.

Although almost in ruins, painstaking reconstruction around the turn of the 20th century recreated the castle to reflect its appearance at the zenith of the renaissance, a time when it served as one of the principal lodgings for the ducal family, alongside Düsseldorf, Kleve and Düren. Murals painted following the rebuilding of the castle tell the story of the Dukes of Cleve and the key events of the castle’s history, including the betrothal of Anne’s parents when they were just young children aged five and six. It seems that their marriage was sustained by love; letters exchanged between the couple bear testament to their mutual devotion. It is interesting to think about how this may have influenced Anne’s ideas on matrimony – and how dreadfully disappointed she must have been by the reality of the husband who awaited her in England.

Today the castle is a popular visitor destination and fully intact, albeit reconstructed.

Burg Castle. (© Premium Stock Photography GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo)

 

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

In April 1541, it was confirmed that the king and his young wife Catherine Howard would make a royal progress to the north of England in the hope of meeting Henry’s nephew, James V of Scotland. The aim was to reassert the king’s authority in the parts of his realm that had recently been torn by rebellion, hence the 1,000-strong armed contingent that accompanied the progress. It was to be one of the longest and most magnificent progresses of Henry VIII’s reign, with the king intent on impressing his subjects who’d never seen him in person.

Around 500 members of Henry and Catherine’s households accompanied the royal couple on their journey north including Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, the queen’s chief lady-in-waiting and Thomas Culpeper, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, whom it appears Catherine had begun seeing privately before the progress commenced.

On Tuesday 9 August 1541, after more than a month of travelling, Henry and Catherine arrived in Lincoln. Church bells pealed and crowds gathered to watch the royal procession make its way through the decorated town. Catherine and Henry alighted at the west end of Lincoln Cathedral, where there was “a carpet and stools and cushions of cloth of gold, with crucifixes laid thereon for the King and Queen”. There, the royal couple dismounted and knelt down.

The Bishop of Lincoln, John Longland, handed them each a crucifix, which they reverently kissed, before proceeding into the church “under the canopy to the Sacrament”, where they prayed while the choir sang “melodiously” Te Deum. The formal proceedings over, “his grace went straight to his lodging, and in like case all the train for that night”.

His Grace’s lodging was almost certainly the grandiose palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, which boasted spectacular views over the city and surrounding countryside from its commanding hillside position, adjacent to the cathedral. It was built in the mid-12th century by Bishop Robert de Chesney, as a residence for himself and his large household of officials and servants, and later enlarged and altered by subsequent bishops.

As the administrative centre for one of the largest diocese in medieval England, the palace was impressive, and reflected the enormous power and wealth of the bishops. It was therefore perfectly suited to host a royal visit.

Henry and Catherine remained for three nights as guests of Bishop Longland, who honoured and entertained his royal visitors by holding great feasts in the west hall, the palace’s public and ceremonial heart.

It’s likely that the king stayed in the bishop’s great chamber. Where the queen and her ladies slept is unknown. However, we can safely assume that she did not share the king’s bedchamber, as one of Catherine’s indiscretions with Thomas Culpeper is said to have taken place at Lincoln.

Under interrogation, Culpeper stated that at Lincoln he and Catherine engaged in nothing more than talk. He claimed to have spent the long nights talking to Catherine, and confessed that he’d professed he loved her “above all creatures”, but – more dangerously – he also admitted that he’d “intended to do ill with her”. Talk and intent were just as damning as action. Under the Treasons Act of 1534, traitors were those who “do maliciously wish, will, or desire by words or writing, or by craft imagine” the king’s death or harm. Catherine and Culpeper had sealed their fates.

 

Rye House, Hertfordshire

Rye House in Hertfordshire became the Parr family home in 1517, when Katherine was around five years old. Within months of the move from London, Katherine’s father was dead, struck down by the dreaded sweating sickness. While Katherine must have barely remembered Lord Parr, her mother Lady Maud was a constant and much-loved presence in her life, particularly during Katherine’s years at Rye.

It was at Rye that Henry VIII’s future, and final, wife received an avant-garde education alongside her siblings, Anne and William, and a number of her Vaux and Parr cousins. Katherine’s schooling was second-to-none for a woman of the age; her sister, Anne, would later recall how the humanist curriculum was based on that prescribed by Sir Thomas More and included languages such as Latin, French and Italian, mathematics and even basic medical lore.

The manor itself was a moated house, noted today as a particularly fine example of early brickwork in England. Only the gatehouse remains. However, thanks to a late 17th-century plot to assassinate the then king Charles II, known as ‘the Rye House plot’, a fulsome description, plan and elevation of the house Katherine would have known survive.

Surrounded by a 20-foot-wide moat, the internal, rectangular enclosure measured some 230 feet by 160 feet. This enclosure was surrounded by a high wall, set back some 16 feet from the moat on three sides. Only the gatehouse range abutted the water’s edge.

Inside the walls, the house itself was modest in size, occupying only the south-east corner, with around four-fifths laid to garden. Today, the imprint of the chambers making up the house are laid out in the grass; a small courtyard measuring 40-feet by 25-feet, surrounded by buildings on three sides comprising a gatehouse, offices, kitchen, great hall, great parlour and little parlour.

This compact and bijoux family home must have indeed provided a tight-knit environment in which a well-balanced, intellectual and enquiring woman of the renaissance would finally emerge. Katherine left Rye in 1529, when she travelled north to marry her first husband, Sir Edward Borough of Gainsborough Hall in Lincolnshire. However, we can reflect on the fact that, small as it may have been, Katherine’s rise to the pinnacle of Tudor society is due in no small part to the accomplishments acquired and the character forged at Rye House.

Today members of the public can visit the remains of Rye House.

 

Charterhouse Square, London

Once lying just outside the ancient city walls of London, Charterhouse Square was a desirable spot for the Tudor elite including, at various times, the French and Spanish ambassadors; William Parr, brother of Katherine; the then-Lady Latimer and the antiquarian and topographer John Leland. In a letter to Thomas Cromwell, Katherine’s second husband, Sir John Latimer, explains why it was so highly treasured by the family: the Yard (as it was then known) stood “in good air, out of press of the city”. Indeed, it was the Latimers’ favoured London residence.

Charterhouse Square, London. (© Simon Montgomery/Alamy Stock Photo)

Here, we can track down Katherine Parr at one of the most interesting junctures of her life. Sir John and Lady Latimer lived in Charterhouse Yard during the fall of Catherine Howard; the scandalous break-up of Katherine’s brother’s marriage to the adulterous Anne Bourchier, and the death of Lord Latimer himself.

At the time, the Latimer’s home occupied the far northeastern corner of the yard. The Agas map of 1560 clearly shows it was the largest residence, adjoining the priory of the Charterhouse to the north and with large gardens backing onto Aldersgate Street to the east. Interestingly, immediately to the north of the house, as part of the priory, was the residence of the Bassano brothers, musicians from Venice who would all ultimately be appointed by Katherine into her royal household.

The house probably remained reasonably intact until the end of the 17th century, when it was acquired by Peter Ward of St Botolph, who demolished a number of houses on the site, erecting six new residences in their place. In the 1930s, a brick-vaulted basement was discovered under No10. A large 18-ft fireplace was also uncovered. It is recorded that this was similar to those in Hampton Court’s kitchens. This fireplace survived the Blitz but was subsequently demolished in 1942.

Today, the imprint of the Square is little changed from its medieval origins; an irregular pentagon with its central green looked onto in the north by the remains of The Charterhouse itself, with imposing buildings lining its remaining edges. Although the medieval/Tudor houses are mostly gone, it retains a sense of being a veritable time capsule, little visited by tourists.

Natalie Grueninger and Sarah Morris are the co-authors of In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII (Amberley Publishing, 2016).

This article was first published by HistoryExtra in June 2016

]]>History quiz: Christmas with Henry VIII and his wiveshttps://www.historyextra.com/membership/history-quiz-christmas-henry-viii-six-wives-alison-weir/2017-12-11T11:11:13.000ZView Riddle on the source website

Read more about Henry VIII's six wives

The second in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series, Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession, is available now in hardback, ebook and paperback.

]]>Dan Jones and Suzannah Lipscomb discuss Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleveshttps://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/dan-jones-and-suzannah-lipscomb-discuss-jane-seymour-and-anne-of-cleves/2016-04-27T23:00:00.000ZIn ‘Henry VIII And His Six Wives’, Dan and Suzannah lead us through the web of intrigue, scandal, romance, lust, betrayal and tragedy that characterised Henry’s six marriages, viewing the dramatic events of each union from the perspectives of both king and queen.

The third episode, which airs on Channel 5 tonight at 8pm, looks at Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, who gave him the heir he so desperately craved...

Tonight's episode also charts Henry's fourth marriage, challenging some popular misconceptions about his foreign bride Anne of Cleves...

To find out more about the series, click here.

]]>Dan Jones and Suzannah Lipscomb on 'Henry VIII And His Six Wives'https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/dan-jones-and-suzannah-lipscomb-on-henry-viii-and-his-six-wives/2016-04-15T14:50:49.000ZIn ‘Henry VIII And His Six Wives’, Dan and Suzannah lead us through the web of intrigue, scandal, romance, lust, betrayal and tragedy that characterised Henry’s six marriages, viewing the dramatic events of each union from the perspectives of both king and queen.

The first episode, which follows Henry's first two marriages – to Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn – airs on Channel 5 at 8pm on Friday 15 April.

To find out more about the series, click here.

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