by Fatal Throne- The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All (retail) (epub)
1540 Henry is married to Anna of Cleves on January 6. The marriage is annulled by a clerical convocation on July 9 and the annulment is confirmed by Parliament on July 12.
On July 28, the king’s advisor Thomas Cromwell is beheaded, and the king marries Catherine Howard.
1542 Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is beheaded on February 13.
1543 On July 12, Kateryn Parr marries Henry, becoming his sixth wife. The wedding is performed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner.
1544 In February, the king passes a new Act of Succession, ruling that Prince Edward is first in line for the throne, followed by any of Edward’s children, then by Kateryn’s children, then by the children of any other (potential) queens, then by Mary and Elizabeth.
1545 Kateryn Parr publishes Prayers or Meditations. This is the first work by a woman published in England in English.
1546 Kateryn Parr is nearly arrested for her outspoken Lutheran reformist ideas, as part of a plot to oust her led by the conservative Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, among others.
1547 Henry VIII dies on January 28, and Edward becomes king at age nine.
1548 Kateryn dies of puerperal fever on September 5.
1549 Thomas Seymour is beheaded for high treason for plots against his brother, Edward Seymour, who served as young King Edward’s Protector.
1553 Edward VI dies on July 6. Mary becomes queen.
1557 Anna of Cleves dies on July 16.
1558 Mary I dies; Elizabeth ascends the throne on November 17; she rules until her death in 1603.
Anna of Cleves, Queen of England (1515–1557)—Henry VIII’s fourth wife, she was married just seven months before the English Parliament, at the king’s request, passed an act declaring the union null and void.
Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502)—Henry VIII’s older brother and heir apparent to the Tudor throne. Six months after his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, he died of what many historians believe was tuberculosis.
Bessie (Elizabeth) Blount (1498–1540)—Henry’s mistress from 1514 to 1522. She bore him an illegitimate son in June 1520.
Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (ca. 1501–1536)—The second wife of Henry VIII. Anne’s refusal to be his mistress, along with his desperation for a male heir, led to Henry’s abandonment of his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, and led as well to the English Reformation. The only living child from their three-year marriage, Princess Elizabeth, later became Elizabeth I. Anne was executed on false charges of incest and adultery in May 1536.
Elizabeth Boleyn (ca. 1480–ca. 1561)—Anne Boleyn’s aunt through marriage, she was chosen to attend Anne in the Tower of London, largely because of her dislike for her niece.
George Boleyn, Lord Rochford (1503–1536)—In 1525, George Boleyn married Jane Parker, later known primarily as Lady Rochford. Close to his sister, Anne Boleyn, he became a member of Henry’s privy chamber during her reign. George acquired a reputation for womanizing and was falsely convicted of committing adultery with his sister, along with courtiers William Brereton, Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, and Francis Weston. On May 17, 1536, he was the first of the five men beheaded.
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, Earl of Ormond, Viscount Rochford (1477–1539)—The ambitious father of Mary, George, and Anne Boleyn, he rose to great heights when his daughters caught the king’s eye. Besides being showered with titles, he was also one of Henry’s leading diplomats, and was Lord Privy Seal from 1530 until Anne and George were executed for treason six years later.
Catherine (Cat) Willoughby Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (1519–1580)—Lady-in-waiting to Catherine Howard and close friend of Kateryn Parr, she was a proponent of the English Reformation and the wife of Charles Brandon.
Charles Brandon, First Duke of Suffolk (ca. 1484–1545)—Henry VIII’s brother-in-law, he was also the king’s longtime confidant and advisor, serving in several governmental positions.
William Brereton (1487–1536)—A groom of the privy chamber, Brereton was one of the servants who cared for Henry’s person. He was the oldest of the five men wrongly convicted of having “illicit intercourse” with Anne Boleyn, and was the fourth man executed on May 17, 1536.
Francis Bryan (ca. 1490–1550)—An English courtier and a close friend of Henry’s, as well as half cousin to Anne Boleyn and a second half cousin to Jane Seymour. Bryan worked behind the scenes to help bring about Anne’s downfall and hasten Henry’s marriage to Jane.
Joan Bulmer (1519–1590)—A Tudor noblewoman who lived in the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk’s household with Catherine Howard. She later served in Catherine’s court and testified against her.
Nicholas Carew (ca. 1496–1539)—Henry’s courtier, he was entrusted with conveying the king’s private messages to Jane Seymour before Anne Boleyn’s death. In 1539, after falling out of Henry’s favor, Carew was found guilty of high treason, and he was executed in March 1539.
Mary Boleyn Carey (ca. 1498–1543)—The sister of Anne Boleyn, Mary was Henry VIII’s mistress from about 1521 to 1526, while she was married to William Carey, an influential courtier. Henry’s passion for Mary quickly waned when he met her younger sister.
Nan Cobham (?)—History remains unclear about the specific details of her life, although it is known that she attended three of Henry VIII’s wives: Katharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Kateryn Parr. Nan seemingly despised Anne Boleyn and gave testimony to Lord Cromwell that served to seal the fate of Henry’s second wife.
Margaret Dymoke Coffin (1490–1545)—While attending Anne Boleyn during her time in the Tower, Margaret spied for the king’s men. She went on to serve in Jane Seymour’s household as a lady of the bedchamber.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1489–1556)—It was Cranmer, a reformist, who first suggested that the validity of Henry’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon be decided in English courts rather than by the Pope. Cranmer remained in his position after Henry’s death.
Thomas Cromwell, First Earl of Essex (ca. 1485–1540)—A lawyer and statesman who first served under Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell eventually became Henry’s chief minister. He helped further the English Reformation and worked toward the dissolution of Henry’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon. Cromwell also brought about Anne Boleyn’s downfall and execution, and engineered Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour. After Jane’s death, Cromwell disastrously suggested that Henry marry Anna of Cleves, which led, in part, to his falling out of favor. Condemned to execution without trial, he was beheaded in July 1540.
Thomas Culpeper (ca. 1514–1541)—Courtier and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber under Henry VIII, he was the alleged lover of Catherine Howard and was executed for treason.
Francis Dereham (1513–1541)—A courtier in service to the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he was Catherine Howard’s lover before her marriage to the king. He was later executed for treason.
Edward VI, King of England (1537–1553)—The son of Henry and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the king’s only legitimate male heir to survive infancy. Crowned King of England and Ireland on February 20, 1547, he assumed the throne after his father’s death in January. Just seven years later, he died at the age of fifteen, of what many historians believe was tuberculosis.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1533–1603)—The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 upon the death of her half sister, Mary, and ruled for almost forty-five years. Her reign is known as the Golden Age, an era that saw the birth of Shakespeare, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the emergence of England as a world power. Choosing to remain unwed and childless, Elizabeth was the last Tudor to sit on the throne.
Henry FitzRoy, First Duke of Richmond and Somerset (1519–1536)—The illegitimate son of Henry and Bessie Blount, he was publicly acknowledged as the king’s child. Showered with honors and titles, he was treated
as a prince until his death at age seventeen.
Margaret Foliot, Mrs. Stonor (died 1546)—Although much speculation surrounds her identification, most historians believe Margaret Foliot was the woman courtiers called Mrs. Stonor. She attended Anne Boleyn in the Tower and later became mistress, or “mother,” of the maids of honors to Henry’s next four queens.
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester (ca. 1482–1555)—Although a conservative Roman Catholic, he went along with the increasing influence of Protestantism in the court. In 1533, he assisted Archbishop Cranmer in declaring the king’s marriage to Katharine of Aragon null and void. Two years later, Gardiner wrote an influential treatise justifying the king’s new title, Supreme Head of the Church of England. In 1555 he attempted to turn the king against his sixth wife, Kateryn Parr, but was unsuccessful.
Karl Harst (fl. 1540)—A German diplomat and one of the Duke of Cleves’s ambassadors to England, he was advisor to Anna of Cleves during the dissolution of her marriage to Henry VIII.
Henry VII, King of England (1457–1509)—The first Tudor monarch and father of Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Henry VIII, he forged the alliance that brought Katharine of Aragon to England and eventually to the throne.
Henry VIII, King of England (1491–1547)—Ascending the throne on April 21, 1509, after his father, Henry VII, died, Henry VIII went on to rule England for almost thirty-six years. His desperation for a male heir resulted in six marriages, as well as the initiation of the English Reformation. Each of his three legitimate children, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, succeeded him.
Catherine Howard, Queen of England (ca. 1521–1542)—The fifth wife of Henry VIII, she was a teenager when she married the forty-nine-year-old king. Petite and vivacious, she was caught in an affair with one of the king’s men, Thomas Culpeper, and beheaded for adultery just sixteen months later.
Thomas Howard, First Earl of Surrey and Second Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524)—A chief advisor to Henry, he joined with Katharine of Aragon to repel Scotland’s attack on England in 1513.
Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554)—Uncle of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, he was a prominent nobleman who served Henry VIII as a military leader, as a judge, and on the Privy Council. He played a large role in the machinations behind both queens’ marriages to the king.
Katharine of Aragon, Queen of England (1485–1536)—Henry VIII’s first wife, she was married to him for nearly twenty-four years until a special court, convened at the king’s behest, declared their union illegal in 1533. Despite banishment from the court and Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, Katharine refused to accept the court’s verdict. Until her death, she insisted on calling Henry “my husband.” Her only living child from the marriage, Princess Mary, became Queen Mary I of England.
William Kingston (1476–1540)—In charge of the Tower of London during Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment, he passed information to Thomas Cromwell that was used against Anne at her trial.
Mary Lascelles (ca. 1515–?)—A chambermaid in the household of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, she gave evidence against Catherine Howard at the queen’s trial.
Henry Manox (1515–?)—Music teacher in the Norfolk household, he was Catherine Howard’s first paramour.
Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg (1491–1543)—The Catholic mother of Anna of Cleves. Her marriage to John III united the Rhine River territories of Cleves, Jülich, and Berg.
Mary I, Queen of England (1516–1558)—The only living child of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, she ascended the throne in 1553 upon the death of her half brother, Edward VI. Seeking to convert England back to the Catholic Church, she repealed many of her father’s religious laws and punished anyone who spoke out against the Pope. This resulted in the burning of over three hundred Protestants as heretics and earned her the moniker Bloody Mary. In 1554, she married the Catholic King Phillip II of Spain in hopes of producing an heir. Their union, however, remained childless. When Mary died after a five-year reign, her Protestant half sister, Elizabeth, assumed the throne.
John Neville, Lord Latimer (1493–1543)—Kateryn Parr’s second husband, whom she married in 1534. When he was pressed into joining a northern revolt against Henry VIII, called the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, Kateryn was held hostage with her stepchildren at Snape Castle in Yorkshire.
Henry Norris (1482–1536)—A courtier who rose in the ranks to become Henry VIII’s Groom of the Stool, responsible for assisting the king with his bodily functions. Renowned for his honesty and good character, he was a close friend of Henry’s until he was accused of adultery with Anne Boleyn. He was the second of the five men beheaded on May 17, 1536.
Mary Orchard (died 1536)—The name Mary Orchard is used by historians for Anne Boleyn’s childhood nurse, though her name may have been Mary Aucher. At Anne Boleyn’s trial, when the Duke of Norfolk condemned Anne to death, Mary “shrieked out dreadfully” from the gallery. She was chosen as one of the ladies to attend Anne in the Tower.
Jane Parker, Lady Rochford (1505–1542)—Even though she was married to Anne Boleyn’s brother, George, she testified against her sister-in-law, resulting in Anne’s and George’s deaths. She went on to serve in the courts of Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. Her complicity in Catherine’s extramarital affairs resulted in Lady Rochford’s execution in 1542.
Matthew Parker, almoner (1504–1575)—Having begun his church career as an almoner, in charge of doling out alms (food and money) to the poor, Parker—who was a reformist—later helped write the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican Church. In 1537, he was appointed chaplain to Henry VIII, and ultimately served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575.
Anne (Nan) Parr, Countess of Pembroke, Baroness Herbert of Cardiff (1515–1552)—The younger sister of Kateryn Parr, she came to court at age thirteen and served each of Henry’s queens.
Kateryn Parr, Queen of England (1512–1548)—The last of Henry VIII’s six wives, she was a fervent Protestant and a popular author of devotional works. For three and a half years, she was a dutiful wife and a kind stepmother to the royal children, managing to outwit and outlive the king.
Maud Parr (1492–1531)—Longtime lady-in-waiting to Katharine of Aragon, she was also the mother of Kateryn Parr.
William Parr, Lord Horton (1483–1547)—Uncle of Kateryn Parr who served with Henry VIII in France.
Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland (1495–1551)—Lady-in-waiting to four of Henry’s wives: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and Catherine Howard.
María de Salinas, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (1490–1539)—Confidante and lady-in-waiting to Katharine of Aragon, she traveled with the young Katharine from Spain.
Mary Scrope, Lady Kingston (1476–1548)—One of Anne Boleyn’s attending ladies in the Tower and wife of William Kingston, she spied on Anne on behalf of Thomas Cromwell. Later, at the christening of Jane Seymour and Henry’s son, Prince Edward, she carried Princess Mary’s train. Soon after, she was one of the twenty-nine women who walked in Jane Seymour’s funeral procession.
Edward Seymour, First Duke of Somerset (ca. 1500–1552)—The brother of Jane Seymour, he became Viscount Beauchamp, Earl of Hertford, and Warden of the Scottish Marches after Henry’s marriage to Jane. Later, when his young nephew Edward VI was crowned King of England, Seymour was appointed Lord Protector of England, effectively becoming ruler of the land until 1552, when he was beheaded on trumped-up charges of treason.
Elizabeth “Bess” Seymour (ca. 1518–1568)—Younger sister of Jane Seymour.
Jane Seymour, Queen of England (ca. 1507–1537)—The third wife of Henry VIII, she caught the king’s eye while in the service of Queen Anne Boleyn. Henry and Jane wed just eleven days after Anne’s execution. Seventeen months later, Jane died from complications of childbirth after delivering a son, Edward. She was mourned by Henry
, who took to calling her his “true wife.” Jane is the only one of his queens who was buried with him in the chapel at Windsor Castle.
John Seymour (1474–1536)—Father of Jane, Elizabeth (Bess), Edward, and Thomas Seymour, he brought disgrace to the family name after being caught in an affair with his eldest son’s wife.
Margery Wentworth Seymour (ca. 1478–1550)—Mother of Jane Seymour and grandmother of Edward VI.
Thomas Seymour, First Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1508–1549)—The brother of Jane and Edward Seymour, he was an ambitious and dashing military man and courtier, as well as the fourth husband of Kateryn Parr.
Anne (Boleyn) Shelton (ca. 1476–1556)—During Anne Boleyn’s reign, Lady Shelton and her husband, John, managed Princess Elizabeth’s household. Unsympathetic to Anne’s plight, Lady Shelton was chosen to attend her niece during Anne’s imprisonment in the Tower.
John Skip, chaplain (died 1552)—A chaplain and almoner to Anne Boleyn for many years, both before and during her reign, Skip comforted her during her time in the Tower.
Mark Smeaton (1512–1536)—A court musician who got caught up in Anne Boleyn’s adultery trial, he was tortured until he confessed to being her lover. He was the last of the five men executed on May 17, 1536.
Elizabeth Browne Somerset, Countess of Worcester (1502–1565)—Despite being a close friend and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, the countess likely betrayed her, providing Thomas Cromwell with information that was used at Anne’s trial to seal her doom.
Lucy Somerset, Baroness Latimer (ca. 1524–1583)—A maid of honor to Catherine Howard.
Sibylle of Cleves (1512–1554)—Older sister of Anna of Cleves, she was married to Johann Friedrich of Saxony, who was a leader of Germany’s Schmalkaldic League, a confederation of Protestant states.
Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess (1477–1545)—A Tudor noblewoman married to the Second Duke of Norfolk, she was stepgrandmother and guardian of Catherine Howard.