1.

Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII of England (reigned

1509–1533). The refusal of Pope Clement VII to annul Henry’s marriage to
Catherine triggered the break between Henry and Rome and led to the
English Reformation. Catherine was the youngest daughter of the Spanish
rulers Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. In 1501 she married
Prince Arthur, eldest son of King Henry VII of England. Arthur died the
following year, and shortly afterward she was promised to Prince Henry. For
some years the couple lived happily. Catherine matched her husband’s
intellectual interests, and she was a competent regent while he was
campaigning against the French. Between 1510 and 1518 Catherine gave
birth to six children, including two sons, but all except Mary (later queen of
England, 1553–1558) either were stillborn or died in early infancy. Henry’s
desire for a male heir prompted him in 1527 to appeal to Rome for an
annulment. Henry separated from Catherine in July 1531. On May 23,
1533—five months after he married Anne Boleyn—he became head of the
English church. Although Catherine had always been loved by the English
people, Henry forced her to spend her last years isolated from all public life.

2. Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as, of course, the
second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and her
execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure
in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English
Reformation. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, and his wife,
Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely
as a maid of honor. In early 1522 she secured a post at court as maid of
honor to Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon. In February or March 1526,
Henry began his pursuit of Anne, this was all happening of course as he and
Catherine were still together. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing
to become his mistress. Henry soon focused his desires on divorcing
Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne. After failing to obtain an
annulment of his marriage from Pope Clement VII, it became clear that the
Catholic Church would not annul the marriage. As a result, Henry and his
advisers, such as Thomas Cromwell, began breaking the Church's power in
England and closing the monasteries and nunneries. Henry and Anne formally
married on 25 January 1533, after a secret wedding on 14 November 1532.
On 28 May 1533, it was declared that Henry and Anne's marriage was valid.
Shortly afterward, the king took control of the Church of England. Anne was
crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533. On 7 September, she gave birth
to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter
rather than a son, but hoped a son would follow and professed to love
Elizabeth. Anne supposedly had three miscarriages and by March 1536,
Henry was courting Jane Seymour. Henry VIII had Anne investigated for high
 treason in April 1536. On 19 May she was beheaded. Modern historians view
the charges against her as unconvincing. It was likely due to the fact she
couldn't produce a son and Henry was getting impatient.

3. Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII
from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She
became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.
She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her
only child, the future King Edward VI. She was the only wife of Henry to
receive a queen's funeral; and he was later buried alongside her remains in St
George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Not much is known about her but what is
known is that she truly loved Henry and he truly loved her, mostly because
she gave him a son.

4. Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Henry married
Anne because he believed that he needed to form a political alliance with her
brother, William, Duke of Cleves, who was a leader of the Protestants of
western Germany. That threat prompted Henry’s chief minister, Thomas
Cromwell, to arrange the marriage to establish ties between England and the
Germans. On January 1, 1540, Anne arrived in England to meet her fiancé for
the first time. She was surprised by a group of masked men, led by a tall burly
middle-aged man who tried to kiss her. Anne, unused to such behavior -
pushed him away, puzzled. In her embarrassment, she had rejected Henry
himself, who was not impressed by her lack of sophistication. The English
tradition of meeting your fiance in disguise was meant to demonstrate true
love, as the bride-to-be would see through the disguise and recognize her
beloved. It was not a good start.
Five days later the wedding took place. Henry was keenly disappointed, Anne
being less attractive than he had been led to expect, and he soon came to resent her
lack of sophistication and her limited command of the English language. After her
divorce, Anne was rewarded with a large income, on the condition that she remain in
England. She lived in Richmond, with occasional visits to court, until her death. She
and Henry kept a close connection, Anne being recognized as the kings' sister.

5. Catherine Howard was Queen of England from 1540 until her death two
years later, as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord
Edmund Howard and a cousin to Anne Boleyn which makes their faiths ironic.
Unfortunately for Catherine, she did not begin with a good start in life as both
Catherine and her brother Henry were sent to be wards of Agnes Howard, her
step-grandmother. The duchess managed large households. When Catherine
was around 14 years old, she became sexually involved with Francis
Dereham, who had recently been appointed secretary to the Dowager
 Duchess. There was no doubt that it was a real sexual relationship: they even
addressed each other as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’. While she was a
lady-in-waiting, Henry's interest in Catherine was known throughout the court.
For the aging Henry, his new love interest held out the prospect of recapturing
his lost youth. Henry married Catherine on 28 July 1540. On 8 August,
Catherine was formally acknowledged as Queen. Catherine began to receive
requests for favors from Thomas Culpepper, a Gentleman of the King's
Chamber. He was a sexual predator and given his character, Catherine may
have had as little agency in her relationship with Culpeper as with the other
men in her life. Confronted with the truth about Catherine's past, Henry was
plunged into a deep depression from which he never fully recovered. He had
adored his young wife and had had no notion of her infidelity. At 9 am on 13
February 1542, Catherine Howard faced her execution at the Tower. So weak
that she had to be supported onto the scaffold, she gathered enough strength
to confess that her sentence was justified. Moments later, the axe fell.
Catherine may have been as young as 18 at the time of her death.

6. Catherine Parr was the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII of England
(ruled 1543–1547). Catherine was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of
Kendall, an official of the royal household. She had been widowed twice by
the time she married Henry on July 12, 1543. Her tactfulness enabled her to
exert a beneficial influence on the king during the last years of his reign. She
developed close friendships with the three children Henry had from previous
marriages and devoted herself to their education. A humanist, she was
friendly with Protestant reformers. Katherine remained loyal and devoted to
Henry throughout their five years of marriage until his death.
She was then free to marry her sweetheart Thomas Seymour a few months
later. Soon she was delighted to be pregnant.
Tragically she contracted a fever soon after being delivered a healthy
daughter and died on 5 September. She was the first english woman to write
and publish books under her own name.