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King Henry VIII was the youngest son of two who succeeded his brother, Prince Arthur, the Prince of Wales, who died at a premature age at fifteen, shortly after his marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, the Princess of Spain. Henry VIII had a great fear of leaving England without an heir so his desperate hunt for a wife who could give him a wife resulted in him having six wives.

His six wives (in order) as are follows:

Catherine of Aragon. Princess Catherine of Aragon was the youngest child of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. She had powerful connections to power in Spain, seeing as her nephew was Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. After twenty-four years of marriage, Henry VIII had their marriage annulled set off a chain of events that led to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church. When Henry was the head of the Church of England, he made his first marriage invalid on the legal ground that a man could not sleep with his brother's widow.

Anne Boleyn. Anne Boleyn was part of one of the most powerful and most influential families at the time - the Boleyns and Howards. Anne was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and Lady Elizabeth Howard. As a child, Anne was sent to the Netherlands and then to France for her education. She returned to England in late 1521. Upon her appearance in court, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began to pursue her - Anned parried his advances and told him that she would not become his mistress, but his wife. And it was because of this that Henry VIII annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne. When Pope Clement VII did not approve of this annulment, the rift between King Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church began. It was along and hard struggle to make Anne queen, but on the first of June in 1533, Anne was crowned the Queen of England. Later that year, she gave birth to a girl that would later become Queen Elizabeth I of England. And like Catherine of Aragon, she failed to produce a living male heir, which proved her downfall - she was beheaded in 1536 on the unconvincing charges of adultery (with the other gentlemen that visited her rooms), incest (with her brother, George Boleyn), and high treason. The men also accused of having sex with the queen, among them her own brother, were also beheaded.

Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour was the third queen and wife of King Henry VIII. He married her shortly after the death of Anne Boleyn. There were no conflicts between the king and his new queen, and Jane Seymour managed to produce a male heir, who would later become King Edward VI, who later died prematurely from tuberculosis, but there were some complications in the birth and she died on childbed due to postnatal complications.

Anne of Cleves. Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of Henry VIII. She was the second daughter of John III, ruler of the Duchy of Cleves, and his wife, Maria, the Duchess of Julich-Berg. Her father died in 1538 and her brother William became the Duke of Julich-Cleve-Berg. It was an alliance with the King of England, King Henry VIII, and Germany that caused their marriage - it was also urged onto him by King Henry's chancelor, Thomas Cromwell. Anne also had a younger sister, Amelia, whom the king was also considering to be his fourth wife. He hired and sent a painter to the girls' home and instructed the painter to paint the girls as accurate as possible and not to flatter them, becase he wanted to see what they looked like. Anne had almost no education in her childhood, though she was able to write and read, but only in German. This caused some problems because Henry valued educated and sophistication in women. Henry was anxious to meet his wife on the day she arrived and met her on the water's edge when she arrived by boat. But the wedding night was not as planned - Henry came out announcing, "I like her not" because Anne was larger-boned than any of the queens before her that were the wives of Henry VIII. He tried to get Thomas Cromwell to annul the marriage using a legal way, but Cromwell explained that there was no way to do so without offending the Germans. Their marriage ended on the ninth of July, 1540. Henry was nicer to Anne than he had been to any of his other wives - he gave her a small settlement of her own, including many properties that included Hever Castle, the estate that belonged to his former in-laws. Henry and Anne later became great friends and he made her a "Princess of England" and called her "the King's beloved sister". Anne was there when the two daughters of Henry rode side-by-side into London with Mary as Queen and was even at Mary's coronation. She outlived Henry VIII's last wife, Catherine Parr, by nine years. Anne never returned to Germany - instead, she spent the rest of her life in England.

Catherine Howard. She was also called Katherine Howard or Katheryn Howard. She was the fifth wife of Henry VIII, and he often referred to her as "the rose without a thorn". She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, a younger son of the second Duke of Norfolk. Catherine married Henry VIII on the twenty-eight of July, 1540, almost immediately after the annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves. The way she lived her life and the knowledge about her past were known to be unchaste and shortly afterwards, she was beheaded about two years after her marriage on grounds of treason, meaning adultery committed while married to the king.

Catherine Parr. Catherine Parr, or Katherine or Katharine Parre, was the last of the six wives of Henry VIII. She was the Queen of England in the years 1543-1547, and then was known as the Dowager Queen of England. She was the most married English queen, with four previous husbands. Katherine Parr was the eldest child of Sir Thomas Parr, a descendant of King Edward III, and Maud Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green of Green's Norton, Northamptonshire. She was in the household of Henry VIII and also of Princess Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, when she caught the eye of the king. She had a relationship with Thomas Seymour, the brother of the late Queen Jane Seymour, but then the king offered marriage to her and she accepted. She was one of the queens that were said to have "lived" King Henry VIII, the other being Anne of Cleves, who lived nine years after the death of Catherin Parr.

Surprisingly, Henry VIII did not have six wives. He only had two.

Henry's fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled. The marriage never took place.

Why? There were two reasons; Anne and Henry never consummated the marriage which means to have intercourse. Anne was also already betrothed to Francis, Duke of Lorraine when she married Henry. The formal act of betrothal was illegal at the time.

The Pope declared Henry's second marriage to Anne Boleyn illegal, because the King was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

When Henry was the head of the Church of England, he made his first marriage invalid on the legal ground that a man could not sleep with his brother's widow.

Henry annulled his marriage to Anne Boleyn just before he had her executed for adultery. Crazy when you think about it.

He did the same to Catherine Howard, his fifth wife. According to evidence, Catherine was unfaithful to him before and during their marriage. Henry passed an act making it treasonable for a queen to commit adultery. So, the marriage was annulled.

Annulments: Four.

Legal marriages: Two.

Total: Six.

Sources:

The Book of General Ignorance - Book - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson - Faber and Faber - 2006.

Henry VIII had 6 wives in his lifetime. It is said one can use a rhyming verse to best remember he had 6 wives. The verse is "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded." His wives names were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Technically he was only married to two of the 6 because 4 of his marriages were annulled. He was also distantly related to each one of his wives through a common ancestor whom was King Edward I of England.

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Anonymous

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WOW dude hardly any information for my EXAM 
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Wow that was intence
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Haylie8565

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he had 6 wives

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Anonymous

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He had 4 wife one call amandi and suzy and lilby and didi

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he was a player... he had six wives and they had a play about them and their marriages with him

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Q: How many wives did King Henry the 8th have?
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