Henry VIII's Children

Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. Her mother was Anne Boleyn. Queen Anne was very beautiful. Remember, she was the second wife of Henry VIII. He divorced his first wife Catherine, because she did not give him a son.

Anne promised that their child would be a son, so when Elizabeth was born, it was a huge disappointment. Queen Anne had three miscarriages after Elizabeth's birth and the king was not happy. Henry was convinced Anne would never bare a son, so he had her arrested for treason for some flimsy reason. She was locked in the Tower of London and four days later, she was executed. They chopped off her head!

Only two weeks later, King Henry VIII remarried. Her name was Jane Seymour and she quickly got pregnant and luckily enough had a son. Unfortunately, Jane got really sick and died a few days later.

Things did not look good for Elizabeth. She was the second daughter from a denounced marriage, where her own mother was killed by her father. In her father's eyes, she was no longer a princess. She was sent to live far away from her father. She hardly ever saw him.

But Elizabeth grew up well. She was incredibly smart and was surrounded by people who loved her. Elizabeth studied math, history, literature, astronomy and geography. She especially loved reading books in Latin and Greek. She knew five languages besides English: Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin.

When Elizabeth I turned thirteen, her father died. Her brother Edward became king, but he was a sick thing and did not last long. So he died when he was fifteen and the crown went to Elizabeth's older sister Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII first wife Catherine.

Now this is really important. Catherine and Mary were extremely devoted Catholics. But Elizabeth and Edward had been raised Protestant. Their father had accidentally become an important leader of the Reformation, because he wanted to divorce Catherine (Mary's mother) to marry Anne (Elizabeth's mother). The Catholic Church absolutely forbid it, so Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church and told everyone in England that he was now the leader of the church in England. But Henry VIII still was a Catholic, even though he disagreed with the Church not letting him get a divorce.

Confused yet?

Henry wanted to be in charge! He was the King! No Pope was going to tell him what to do.

Remember...Mary was now the queen, but a lot of people in England did not like the Catholic Church and the last monarch, her brother Edward didn't like the Catholic Church either. It was a very dangerous time in England because things were changing and most of the time, people in power do not like change.

So what was Mary supposed to do? She was now the queen. She decided that she was going to make everyone be Catholic again. But what if you didn't want to be a Catholic? Simple enough, Mary had those people burned at the stake! More than 250 people were killed like this and it didn't make people like Mary very much. They gave her a wretched nickname, Bloody Mary.

Not only did Mary not like people who weren't Catholic, she also did not like her half-sister Elizabeth. After all, Mary's poor mother Catherine was discarded and thrown away by Henry to marry Elizabeth's mother Anne Boleyn. This was a humiliating thing. Mary was also suspicious that Elizabeth was a Protestant and not a devoted Catholic.

So what did Mary do to Elizabeth? Simple enough. She had her thrown into jail! Elizabeth now found herself in the Tower of London like her mother before her. Things did not end well for Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth was very afraid that the same thing was going to happen to her. She had to be really careful what she said and did. The littlest thing could be the excuse Mary was looking for to be able to chop off her head.

The Tower of London

Elizabeth was kept in the Tower of London for two long months, never knowing if she would live or die. Finally, Queen Mary released her sister, but put her under house arrest for a year in a nearby palace. She was watched closely so she had to be really careful what she said and did.

Meanwhile, Mary was desperately trying to have a child. She was married to Phillip of Spain. Phillip was the son of Ferdinand and Isabella. Do you know who they were? They were the ones that gave Christopher Columbus the money to sail west, where he accidentally discovered America! Anyways, Mary wanted to have a child, but it didn't work out so well for her. Instead of getting pregnant, she got really sick with cancer and died.

On her deathbed, Mary declared that Elizabeth should be the next queen. Elizabeth was sitting under a tree reading a book when two officers came racing towards her. Can you imagine how scared she might have been? What if they were coming to arrest her again, and this time kill her? But no, the men presented Elizabeth with the royal ring. It was the one Mary had worn. Elizabeth said a prayer of gratitude, in Latin. She must have been very glad that she survived Mary's rule. Now she was queen. Elizabeth was only 25 years-old.

On January 15, 1559, Elizabeth was crowned queen of England at the famous Westminster Abbey in London.

Elizabeth had learned a lot over the past ten years. She knew how people close to her could turn against her. She would have to be careful and smart if she was going to remain queen.

William Tyndale, A Man To Be Admired

William Tyndale was a native of Gloucester and began his studies at Oxford in 1510, later moving onto Cambridge. By 1523 his passion had been ignited; in that year he sought permission and funds from the bishop of London to translate the New Testament. The bishop denied his request, and further investigations convinced Tyndale that the project would not be welcomed anywhere in England.

To find a friendly environment, he traveled to the free cities of Europe – Hamburg, Wittenberg, Cologne, and finally to the Lutheran city of Worms. There, in 1525, his New Testament emerged: the first translation from Greek into the English language. It was quickly smuggled into England, where it received a less-than-enthusiastic response from the authorities. King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Sir Thomas More, among others, were furious. It was, said More, “not worthy to be called Christ's testament, but either Tyndale's own testament of the testament of his master Antichrist.”

Thomas More did everything he could to stop Tyndale and the translation of the Bible into English. He was a ruthless man when it came to disagreement in the Catholic Church.  But he was consistent.  This poor guy ended up getting beheaded by order of King Henry VIII because he would not support Henry's break with the Pope and the Church.

Authorities bought up copies of the translation (which, ironically, only financed Tyndale's further work) and hatched plans to silence Tyndale.

Meanwhile Tyndale had moved to Antwerp, a city which he was relatively free from English agents and those of the Holy Roman (and Catholic) Empire. For nine years he managed, with the help of friends, to hide from authorities, review his New Testament, and begin translating the Old.

His translations, it would turn out, became decisive in the history of the English Bible , and of the English language. Nearly a century later, when translators of the Authorized, or King James Version, debated how to translate the original languages, eight of ten times, they agreed that Tyndale had it best to begin with.

During these years, Tyndale also gave himself over to good works because as he said, “My part be not in Christ if mine heart be not to follow and live according as I teach.” On Mondays he visited other religious refugees from England. On Saturdays he walked Antwerp's streets, seeking to help the poor. On Sundays he dined in merchants homes, reading Scripture before and after dinner. The rest of the week he devoted to writing tracts and books and translating the Bible.

Conspiracy to Capture!

We do not know who planned and financed the plot that ended his life (whether England or continental authorities), but we do know it was carried out by Henry Phillips, a man who had been accused of robbing his father and of gambling himself into poverty. Phillips became Tyndale's guest at meals and soon was one of the few privileged to look at Tyndale's books and papers.

In May 1535, Phillips lured Tyndale away from the safety of his quarters and into the arms of soldiers. Tyndale was immediately taken to the Castle of Vilvorde, the great state prison of the Low Countries, and accused of heresy.

Trials for heresy in the Netherlands were in the hands of special commissions of the Holy Roman Empire. It took months for the law to take its course. During this time, Tyndale had many hours to reflect on his own teachings, such as this passage from one of his tracts:

“Let it not make thee despair, neither yet discourage thee, O reader, that it is forbidden thee in pain of life and goods, or that it is made breaking of the king's peace, or treason unto his highness, to read the Word of thy soul's health-for if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes.”

Finally, in early August 1536, Tyndale was condemned as a heretic, degraded from the priesthood, and delivered to the secular authorities for punishment.

On Friday, October 6, after local officials took their seats, Tyndale was brought to the cross in the middle of the town square and given a chance to recant. That refused, he was given a moment to pray. English historian John Foxe said he cried out, “Lord, open the King of England's eyes!”

Then he was bound to the beam, and both an iron chain and a rope were put around his neck. Gunpowder was added to the brush and logs. At the signal of a local official, the executioner, standing behind Tyndale, quickly tightened the noose, strangling him. Then an official took up a lighted torch and handed it to the executioner, who set the wood ablaze.

One brief report of that distant scene has come down to us. It is found in a letter from an English agent to Lord Cromwell two months later.

“They speak much,” he wrote, “of the patient sufferance of Master Tyndale at the time of his execution.”

**This was originally printed as an article for Christianity Today, with slight revisions to simplify for kids.

 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/scholarsandscientists/tyndale.html

Henry VIII and Six Wives

Catherine of Aragon (divorced)

 

Catherine of Aragon was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand and Isabella, the joint rulers of Spain, and as was common for princesses of the day, her parents almost immediately began looking for a political match for her. When she was three year old, she was betrothed to Arthur, the son of Henry VII of England. Arthur was not even quite two at the time.

When she was almost 16, in 1501, Catherine made the journey to England. It took her three months, and her ships weathered several storms, but she safely made landfall at Plymouth on October 2, 1501. Catherine and Arthur were married on 14 November 1501 in Old St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Catherine was escorted by the groom's younger brother, Henry.

Henry Tudor, named after his father, Henry VII, was born by Elizabeth of York June 28, 1491 in Greenwich Palace. Since he was the second son, and not expected to become king, we know little of his childhood. We know that Henry attended the wedding celebrations of Arthur and his bride, Catherine of Aragon, in November 1501 when he was 10 years old.

After the wedding and celebrations, the young couple moved to Ludlow Castle on the Welsh border. Less than six months later, Arthur was dead, possibly of the 'sweating sickness'. Although this marriage was short, it was very important in the history of England, as will be apparent.

 

Ludlow Castle

 

Catherine was now a widow, and still young enough to be married again. Henry VII still had a son, this one much more robust and healthy than his dead older brother. The English king was interested in keeping Catherine's dowry, so 14 months after her husband's death she was betrothed to the future Henry VIII, who was too young to marry at the time.

By 1505, when Henry was old enough to wed, Henry VII wasn't as keen on a Spanish alliance, and young Henry was forced to repudiate (give up, go against) the betrothal. Catherine's future was uncertain for the next four years. When Henry VII died in 1509 one of the new young king's first actions was to marry Catherine. She was finally crowned Queen of England in a joint coronation ceremony with her husband Henry VIII on June 24, 1509.

 

The coronation of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

Shortly after their marriage, Catherine found herself pregnant. This first child was a stillborn daughter born prematurely in January 1510, but this disappointment was soon followed by another pregnancy. Prince Henry was born on January 1, 1511 and the was christened on the 5th. There were great celebrations for the birth of the young prince, but they were halted by the baby's death after 52 days of life. Catherine then had a miscarriage, followed by a another short-lived son. On February 1516, she gave birth a daughter named Mary, and this child lived. There were probably two more pregnancies, the last recorded in 1518.

 

Henry VIII oldest surviving child, and unfortunately, a girl, Mary.

Henry was growing frustrated because he had no son and heir, but he remained a devoted husband. By 1526 though, he had begun to separate from Catherine because he had fallen in love with one of her ladies: Anne Boleyn.

It is here that the lives of Henry's first and second wives begin to interweave. By the time his interest in Anne became common knowledge, Catherine was 42 years old and was no longer able to have more children. Henry's main goal now was to get a male heir, which his wife was not able to provide. Somewhere along the way Henry began to look at the texts of Leviticus which say that if a man takes his brother's wife, they shall be childless. As evidenced above, Catherine and Henry were far from childless, and still had one living child. But that child was a girl, and didn't count in Henry's mind. The King began to petition (ask)the Pope for an annulment (a divorce).

At first, Catherine was kept in the dark about Henry's plans for their annulment and when the news got to Catherine she was very upset. She was also at a great disadvantage since the court that would decide the case was far from impartial. Catherine then appealed directly to the Pope, which she felt would listen to her case since her nephew was Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

The political and legal debate continued for six years. Catherine was adamant in that she and Arthur, her first husband and Henry's brother, did not consummate their marriage and therefore were not truly husband and wife. Catherine sought not only to retain her position, but also that of her daughter Mary.

Things came to a head in 1533 when Anne Boleyn became pregnant. Henry had to act, and his solution was to reject the power of the Pope in England and to have Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury grant the annulment. Catherine was to renounce the title of Queen and would be known as the Princess Dowager of Wales, something she refused to acknowledge through to the end of her life.

Catherine and her daughter were separated and she was forced to leave court. She lived for the next three years in several dank and unhealthy castles and manors with just a few servants. However, she seldom complained of her treatment and spent a great deal of time at prayer.

On January 7, 1536, Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle and was buried at Peterborough Abbey (later Peterborough Cathedral, after the dissolution of the monasteries) with the ceremony due for her position as Princess Dowager, not as a Queen of England.

 

Anne Boleyn (beheaded)

 

Exactly when and where Henry VIII first noticed Anne is not known. It is likely that Henry sought to make Anne his mistress, as he had her sister Mary years before. Maybe drawing on the example of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV (and maternal grandmother to Henry VIII) who was said to have told King Edward that she would only be his wife, not his mistress, Anne denied Henry VIII sexual favors. We don't know who first had the idea of marriage, but eventually it evolved into "Queen or nothing" for Anne. No sex unless they were married first!

At first, the court probably thought that Anne would just end up as another one of Henry's mistresses. But, in 1527 we see that Henry began to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine, making him free to marry again.

King Henry's passion for Anne can be attested to in the love letters he wrote to her when she was away from court. Henry hated writing letters, and very few documents in his own hand survive. However, 17 love letters to Anne remain and are preserved in the Vatican library.

In 1528, Anne's emergence at Court began. Anne also showed real interest in religious reform and may have introduced some of the 'new ideas' to Henry, and gaining the hatred of some members of the Court. When the court spent Christmas at Greenwich that year, Anne was lodged in nice apartments near those of the King.

The legal debates on the marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon continued on. Anne was no doubt frustrated by the lack of progress. Her famous temper and tongue showed themselves at times in famous arguments between her and Henry for all the court to see. Anne feared that Henry might go back to Catherine if the marriage could not be annulled and Anne would have wasted time that she could have used to make an advantageous marriage.

Anne was not popular with the people of England.

In this period, records show that Henry began to spend more and more on Anne, buying her clothes, jewelry, and things for her amusement such as playing cards and bows and arrows.

The waiting continued and Anne's position continued to rise. On the first day of September 1532, she was created Marquess of Pembroke, a title she held in her own right. In October, she held a position of honor at meetings between Henry and the French King in Calais.

Sometime near the end of 1532, Anne finally gave way and by December she was pregnant. To avoid any questions of the legitimacy of the child, Henry was forced into action. Sometime near St. Paul's Day (January 25) 1533, Anne and Henry were secretly married. Although the King's marriage to Catherine was not dissolved, in the King's mind it had never existed in the first place, so he was free to marry whomever he wanted. On May 23, the Archbishop of Canterbury officially proclaimed that the marriage of Henry and Catherine was invalid.

Plans for Anne's coronation began. In preparation, she had been brought by water from Greenwich to the Tower of London dressed in cloth of gold. The barges following her were said to stretch for four miles down the Thames. On the 1st of June, she left the Tower in procession to Westminster Abbey, where she became a crowned and anointed Queen in a ceremony led by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

By August, preparations were being made for the birth of Anne's child, which was sure to be a boy. Names were being chosen, with Edward and Henry the top choices. The proclamation of the child's birth had already been written with 'prince' used to refer to the child.

Anne took to her chamber, according to custom, on August 26, 1533 and on September 7, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, the Princess Elizabeth was born. Her christening service was scaled down, but still a pleasant affair. The princess' white christening robes can currently be seen on display at Sudeley Castle in England.

 

Anne now knew that it was imperative that she produce a son. By January of 1534, she was pregnant again, but the child was either miscarried or stillborn. In 1535, she became pregnant again but miscarried by the end of January. The child was reported to have been a boy. The Queen was quite upset, and blamed the miscarriage on her state of mind after hearing that Henry had taken a fall in jousting. She had to have known at this point that her failure to produce a living male heir was a threat to her own life, especially since the King's fancy for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, began to grow.

Anne's enemies at court began to plot against her using the King's attentions to Jane Seymour as the catalyst for action. Cromwell began to move in action to bring down the Queen. He persuaded the King to sign a document calling for an investigation that would possibly result in charges of treason.

On April 30, 1536, Anne's musician and friend for several years, Mark Smeaton, was arrested and probably tortured into making 'revelations' about the Queen. Next, Sir Henry Norris was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. Then the Queen's own brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford was arrested.

 

On May 2, the Queen herself was arrested at Greenwich and was informed of the charges against her: adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King. She was then taken to the Tower by barge along the same path she had traveled to prepare for her coronation just three years earlier. In fact, she was lodged in the same rooms she had held on that occasion.

There were several more arrests. Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were charged with adultery with the Queen. Sir Thomas Wyatt was also arrested, but later released. They were put on trial with Smeaton and Norris at Westminster Hall on May 12, 1536. The men were not allowed to defend themselves, as was the case in charges of treason. They were found guilty and received the required punishment: they were to be hanged at Tyburn, cut down while still living and then disemboweled and quartered. Ew!

On Monday the 15th, the Queen and her brother were put on trial at the Great Hall of the Tower of London. It is estimated that some 2000 people attended. Anne conducted herself in a calm and dignified manner, denying all the charges against her. Her brother was tried next, with his own wife testifying against him (she got her due later in the scandal of Kathryn Howard). Even though the evidence against them was scant, they were both found guilty, with the sentence being read by their uncle, Thomas Howard , the Duke of Norfolk. They were to be either burnt at the stake (which was the punishment for incest) or beheaded, at the discretion of the King.

On May 17, George Boleyn was executed on Tower Hill. The other four men condemned with the Queen had their sentences commuted from the grisly fate at Tyburn to a simple beheading at the Tower with Lord Rochford. A beheading is much better than being disemboweled.

Anne knew that her time would soon come and started to become hysterical, her behavior swinging from great levity to body- wracking sobs. She received news that an expert swordsman from Calais had been summoned, who would no doubt deliver a cleaner blow with a sharp sword than the traditional axe. It was then that she made the famous comment about her 'little neck'.

 

Interestingly, shortly before her execution on charges of adultery, the Queen's marriage to the King was dissolved and declared invalid. One would wonder then how she could have committed adultery if she had in fact never been married to the King, but this was overlooked, as were so many other lapses of logic in the charges against Anne.

They came for Anne on the morning of May 19 to take her to the Tower Green, where she was to be afforded the dignity of a private execution. She made a short speech [read the text of Anne's speech] before kneeling on the scaffold. She removed her headdress (which was an English gable hood and not her usual French hood, according to contemporary reports) and her ladies tied a blindfold over her eyes. The sword itself had been hidden under the straw. The swordsman cut off her head with one swift stroke.

 

Anne's body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula which adjoined the Tower Green. Her body was one that was identified in renovations of the chapel under the reign of Queen Victoria, so Anne's final resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

Jane Seymour (died)

 

Jane Seymour may have first come to court in the service of Queen Catherine, but then was moved to wait on Anne Boleyn as she rose in the King's favor and eventually became his second wife.

In September 1535, the King stayed at the Seymour family home in Wiltshire, England. It may have been there that the king "noticed" Jane. But, it isn't until February of 1536 that there is evidence of Henry's new love for Jane.

By that point, Henry's disinterest in Anne was obvious and Jane was likely pegged to be her replacement as Queen.

Opinion is divided as to how Jane felt about being the new object of Henry's affections. Some see Jane's calm and gentle demeanor as evidence that she didn't really understand the position as political pawn she was playing for her family. Others see it as a mask for her fear. Seeing how Henry's two previous Queens had been treated once they fell from favor, Jane probably had some trepidation, although Anne Boleyn's final fate had not been sealed at that time.

One other view was that Jane fell into her role quite willingly and actively sought to entice the King and flaunt her favor even in front of the current Queen.

However Jane actually felt, we will never know. Henry's feelings were pretty clear though. Within 24 hours of Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour and Henry VIII were formally betrothed. On the 30th of May, they were married. Unlike Henry's previous two Queens, Jane never had a coronation. Perhaps the King was waiting forJane to 'prove' herself by giving him a son.

It wasn't until early 1537 that Jane became pregnant. During her pregnancy, Jane's every whim was indulged by the King, convinced that Jane, whom he felt to be his first 'true wife', carried his long hoped for son. In October, a prince was born at Hampton Court Palace and was christened on 15th of October. The baby was named Edward. Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was godmother and Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, also played a role in the ceremony.

 

Finally!  A son.

There has been much written over whether or not Jane gave birth to Edward by cesarean section. It seems unlikely that if she had, she would have lived as long as she did after the birth. Jane attended her son's christening, although she was weak. She died on October 24th, just two weeks after her son was born.

Henry had already been preparing his own tomb at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, which was where Jane was buried. In the end, she would be the only of Henry's six wives to be buried with him.

Anne of Cleves (divorced)

 

Hans Holbein did a great job painting Anne. Because in real life, she was not this pretty. In fact, Henry VIII said she looked like a horse.

Henry VIII remained single for over two years after Jane Seymour's death, possibly giving some credence to the thought that he genuinely mourned for her. However, it does seem that someone, possibly Thomas Cromwell, began making inquiries shortly after Jane's death about a possible foreign bride for Henry.

Henry's first marriage had been a foreign alliance of sorts, although it is almost certain that the two were truly in love for some time. His next two brides were love matches and Henry could have had little or no monetary or political gain from them.

But the events of the split from Rome left England isolated, and probably vulnerable. It was these circumstances that led Henry and his ministers to look at the possibility of a bride to secure an alliance. Henry did also want to be sure he was getting a desirable bride, so he had agents in foreign courts report to him on the appearance and other qualities of various candidates. He also sent painters to bring him images of these women.

Hans Holbein, probably the most famous of the Tudor court painters, was sent to the court of the Duke of Cleves, who had two sisters: Amelia and Anne. When Holbein went in 1539, Cleves was seen as an important potential ally in the event France and the Holy Roman Empire (who had somewhat made a truce in their long history of conflict) decided to move against the countries who had thrown off the Papal authority. England then sought alliances with countries who had been supporting the reformation of the church. Holbein painted the sisters of the Duke of Cleves and Henry decided to have a contract drawn up for his marriage to Anne.

Although the King of France and the Emperor had gone back to their usual state of animosity, Henry proceeded with the match. The marriage took place on January 6, 1540. By then, Henry was already looking for ways to get out of the marriage.

Anne was ill-suited for life at the English court. Her upbringing in Cleves had concentrated on domestic skills and not the music and literature so popular at Henry's court. And, most famously, Henry did not find his new bride the least bit attractive and is said to have called her a 'Flanders Mare'. In addition to his personal feelings for wanting to end the marriage, there were now political ones as well. Tension between the Duke of Cleves and the Empire was increasing towards war and Henry had no desire to become involved. Last but not least, at some point, Henry had become attracted to young Kathryn Howard.

Anne was probably smart enough to know that she would only be making trouble for herself if she raised any obstacles to Henry's attempts to annul the marriage so the marriage was dissolved and Anne accepted the honorary title as the 'King's Sister'. She was given property, including Hever Castle, formerly the home of Anne Boleyn.

Anne lived away from court quietly in the countryside until 1557 and attended the coronation of her former step-daughter, Mary I.

She is buried in a somewhat hard to find tomb in Westminster Abbey.

Kathryn Howard (beheaded)

 

Kathryn Howard was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, a younger brother of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. She was also first cousin to Anne Boleyn, Henry's ill-fated second Queen.

Kathryn came to court at about the age of 19 as a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves and there is no doubt that the spirited young girl caught Henry's attentions. Kathryn's uncle probably encouraged the girl to respond to the King's attentions and saw it as a way to increase his own influence over the monarch. The Duke of Norfolk also took advantage of the debacle of the Anne of Cleves marriage as a chance to discredit his enemy, Thomas Cromwell. In fact, Cromwell was executed shortly after the marriage was nullified.

Sixteen days after he was free of Anne, Henry took his fifth wife, Kathryn Howard, on July 28, 1540. Henry was 49 and his bride was no older than 19.

For all that can be said against this match, Kathryn did manage to lift the King's spirits. Henry had gained a lot of weight and was dealing with the ulcerated leg that was to pain him until his death. The vivacious young girl brought back some of Henry's zest for life. The King lavished gifts on his young wife and called her his 'rose without a thorn' and the 'very jewel of womanhood'.

Less than a year into Kathryn's marriage, the rumors of her infidelity began. In a way, one couldn't blame her for seeking the company of handsome young men closer to her own age. But to do so, even if only in courtly flirtations, was dangerous for a Queen, especially one who came from a powerful family with many enemies. Kathryn didn't help matters much by appointing one of her admirers as her personal secretary.

By November 1541, there was enough evidence against the Queen that Archbishop Cranmer informed the King of Kathryn's misconduct. At first Henry did not believe the accusations, but he agreed to allow further investigations into the matter. Enough evidence was gathered that the Queen had been promiscuous before her marriage and may have had liaisons after becoming Henry's wife. She was executed on the Tower Green on February 13, 1542 and laid to rest near her cousin Anne Boleyn in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London.

Katherine Parr (survived)

 

Katherine Parr was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Parr and his wife Maud Green, both of whom were at the court of Henry VIII in his early reign. Maud was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon and named her daughter, born in 1512, after her. So, Henry VIII’s last wife was named after his first.

Katherine Parr’s first marriage was to Edward Borough, the son of Thomas, third Baron Borough of Gainsborough in 1529 when she was 17 years old. Edward died only a few years later, probably in early 1533. It was during this marriage that Katherine’s mother Maud died, in December 1531. Katherine’s second marriage was to John Neville, third Baron Latimer of Snape Castle in Yorkshire, whom she married in the summer of 1534 when he was 41 and she was 22. But he got sick also and died in March 1543, leaving her a widow for the second time, now at the age of 31. It was around this time that Katherine was noticed by not only the King, but also Thomas Seymour, brother of the late Queen Jane Seymour. Katherine expressed her desire to marry Thomas Seymour after Latimer’s death, but the King’s request for her hand was one that Katherine felt it was her duty to accept. Katherine and Henry VIII were married on July 12th in the Queen’s closet at Hampton Court Palace in a small ceremony attended by about 20 people.

Katherine was interested in the reformed faith, making her enemies with the conservatives of Henry’s court. It was Katherine’s influence with the King and the Henry’s failing health that led to a plot against her in 1546 by the conservative faction. Katherine and her ladies were known to have had banned books which was grounds for arrest and execution on charges of heresy. To gain evidence against the Queen,Anne Askew, a well-known and active Protestant, was questioned and tortured, but refused to recant her faith or give evidence against Katherine and her ladies. However, there was enough other evidence against the Queen to issue a warrant for her arrest. The warrant was accidentally dropped and someone loyal to the Queen saw it and then quickly told her about it. This is a well-documented incident that has made its way into many historical fiction accounts. Sometimes the history itself is the best drama! After learning of the arrest warrant, Katherine was said to be very ill, either as a ruse to stall or from a genuine panic attack. Henry went to see her and chastised her for her outspokenness about the reformed religion and his feeling that she was forgetting her place by instructing him on such matters. Katherine’s response in her defense was that she was only arguing with him on these issues so she could be instructed by him, and to take his mind off other troubles. Playing to Henry’s ego no doubt helped and Katherine was forgiven.

 

Katherine was close with all three of her stepchildren as Henry’s wife and was personally involved in the educational program of the younger two, Elizabeth and Edward. She was also a patron of the arts and music. Katherine’s own learning and academic achievements, as alluded to previously, were impressive, and in 1545, her book “Prayers or Meditations” became the first work published by an English Queen under her own name. Another book, “The Lamentation of a Sinner”, was published after Henry VIII’s death.

Henry VIII died in January 1547 and Katherine had probably expected to play some role in the regency for the new nine-year-old king, Edward VI, but this was not to be. Only a few months after Henry’s death, Katherine secretly married Thomas Seymour, but the quickness and secret nature of the union caused a scandal. Katherine was still able to take guardianship of Princess Elizabeth and Seymour purchased the wardship of the king’s cousin, Lady Jane Grey.

After three previous marriages and at the age of 36, Katherine was pregnant for the first time and in June 1548, she moved to Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire to await the birth of her child. On August 30th she gave birth to a daughter named Mary. Katherine soon fell ill with puerperal fever, which was to claim her life in the morning hours of September 5th. Katherine was buried, with Lady Jane Grey as the chief mourner, in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, where the tomb can still be visited today.

 

 

**This information was found at ... http://tudorhistory.org/wives/

The Renaissance, A Reawakening

During the 1300's, life in Europe had been affected by wars, peasant revolts, and the Black Death. Remember the Black Death? 1 out of every 3 Europeans died from this horrible disease brought to Europe from Asia on flea-ridden rats. Yuck! The old order was dying, and people were seeking something new. In medieval times, the Church had dominated the arts, education, and learning. People had accepted what they were told without asking questions. Then, in the 1300s, Italian scholars began to take an interest in the writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans – ideas that arrived in Europe from Byzantium and the Arab world. This interest grew when, in 1397, Manuel Chrysoloras, a scholar from Constantinople, became the first professor of Greek at the University of Florence in northern Italy. Scholars (people who like to study) became fascinated by the questions that ancient philosophers dealt with. From these studies grew a belief system called humanism. Suddenly people, not God, were considered responsible for choosing the course of their lives. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire and Muslim Spain in the 1400s, many scholars moved to Italy and northwestern Europe, taking many old manuscripts and ideas with them.

The Renaissance affected art and science, architecture and sculpture. Ideas became more realistic, more human, and less dominated by religion. Paintings and statues were more lifelike, music explored new feelings, and books asked real-life questions. Rich families such as the Medicis and the Borgias in Italy and the burghers of Holland became patrons of the arts and sciences. Printed books helped spread new ideas. The Renaissance reached its peak in the 1500s, mainly in cities such as Venice, Florence, Antwerp, and Haarlem. People looked closely at the world, made detailed scientific observations, collected exotic objects, and considered new ideas.

Some people studied plants and animals. Others investigated astronomy and geology. Sometimes their findings brought them into conflict with the Church. When Nicolaus Copernicus realized that the Earth moved around the sun, he dared not publish his views until he was actually on his deathbed. He feared the reaction of the Church, which continued to insist that the Earth stood at the center of the universe.

What?!?!?!  The sun does NOT revolve around the Earth, Nicolaus! Are you kidding me?

This new spirit of inquiry and interest in humanity eventually led some people to question the authority of the Church. Thinkers such as Jan Hus in Bohemia and John Wycliffe in England began to question the Church openly. People's own opinions became more important – rulers and the Church could no longer do just as they pleased.

John Wycliffe, a brazen spokesman for reform of the Catholic church. He was at the forefront of the reawakening of European civilzation, and one of the very early leaders of the Reformation.  Wycliffe wanted the Bible translated into English!

Demand for change led to advances in science and art, and even caused some people to set sail for unexplored lands. New universities encouraged new ideas. Money and trade also became significant. Foods and products such as coffee, sugar, tobacco, potatoes, pineapples, porcelain, and cotton were imported to Europe from Africa, America, India, and China.

No longer bound to the land by feudalism, people began to move around. Many of them went to cities to seek their fortune. Northwestern Europe grew in importance, and power shifted slowly from the nobles and clerics to the bankers and politicians. These changes marked the beginning of a modern world that was to develop rapidly over the next 400 years.

**Excerpt from The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, Houghton Mifflin 2004, p. 202-203

Our studies this semester put us right in the middle of this big change, this great awakening. Europeans had been in a deep, dark sleep for centuries, but now was the time to wake up! Yes, the Black Death was a horrible tragedy and it forever changed the world. You can definitely say it was bad, but then again, it was a good thing as well. Because this is when the rebirth of humanity began. And one thing is for sure, people who have power and are sitting at the top looking down on everyone DO NOT like change. You just wait and see what kind of change was coming.

But change was inevitable, and just like it says in the introduction, one thing that was huge in promoting change started with a man from Mainz, Germany, named Johannes Gutenberg. He invented a way to print books quickly and cheaply. Before Gutenberg, books were written out by hand. It was so expensive, that only the very rich, like kings, could actually afford to own a book. But it all changed by the end of the 1400s. Ideas began to spread quickly around Europe because books became available for common people. Johannes Gutenberg's invention was called moveable type, kind of like Scrabble letters put together, but really small. And if people could spread ideas and communicate with one another, they would start to figure things out and demand change. And they did. They would be able to advance new ideas that would make life better for everyone.

Yes, the medieval times of the past were quickly fading. And one of the reluctant leaders of this change was a bigger-than-life figure in the annals of history. His name was Henry VIII, King of England.