Who were the ‘Six’ wives of Henry VIII?
Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.
The six wives of King Henry XIII of England are widely known for being beheaded by their aforementioned husband, but only two of the former queens lost their heads.
Misconceptions like this leave the queens to be “fixed as one of six.”
Without the king who caused their deaths, banishments or general misery, the women often disappear into the cracks of history.
“Six: The Musical” tells herstory instead.
Here are the real lives of the “Six” queens, and how the musical tells their stories.
I: Divorced
Catherine of Aragon: “The paragon of royalty.”
Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon was Henry’s first wife.
The youngest daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, Catherine grew up well-educated and politically adept.
At age 16, Catherine was sent to marry Prince Arthur of England, Henry VIII’s older brother and eldest son of the king.
Shortly after their marriage, Prince Arthur fell ill and died.
Then Catherine and Henry married. It was said to initially be a marriage of love grown over mutual interests in intellectual conversation, riding and hunting.
Over the years, the couple was unable to produce a male heir.
Catherine suffered at least five miscarriages, with only one child surviving. Her daughter would later go on to reign as Queen Mary I, also called Bloody Mary.
Henry saw the lack of a male heir as Catherine’s fault and grounds for a divorce.
Catherine was described as determined, stubborn and, above all else, devoted to her Catholic faith.
“My loyalty is to the Vatican, so if you try to dump me, you won’t try that again,” Catherine of Aragon’s character sings in “Six: The Musical.”
Henry viewed Catherine’s previous marriage to his late brother as an issue worthy of divorce, taking offense with a quote in Leviticus that stated it was sinful for a man to marry his brother’s wife and anyone who did so would be childless. He believed God was denying him the male heir he sought due to Catherine’s previous marriage.
The Pope refused to grant their divorce, so a furious Henry created the Church of England, with himself at the head.
After 24 years of marriage, Henry divorced Catherine and sent her to Kimbolton Castle, where she died at age 50. Until the end, she proclaimed herself as Henry’s true wife.
Alongside Catherine’s lack of a male heir and her previous marriage to Prince Arthur, Catherine’s divorce from Henry was caused in part by her own lady-in-waiting: Anne Boleyn.
II: Beheaded
Anne Boleyn: “I broke England from the church – I’m that sexy.”
Anne Boleyn was born into a noble English family who sent her to be educated under Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Her best subject was French, which she perfected like a native speaker when she joined the French Court under Louis XII and Francis I.
Boleyn was described as beautiful, particularly because of her striking eyes, which later caused King Henry VIII to take notice of her after she returned to England and became one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies-in-waiting.
Henry became infatuated with Boleyn, sending her numerous love letters, though Boleyn resisted his proposals of becoming his mistress. She would settle for nothing less than the title of queen in order to elevate her family’s status.
Soon, however, Boleyn would fall pregnant from Henry, and the two quickly wed under the king’s new protestant Church of England.
Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth I, who would later reign as Queen for 45 years. This was her only child, as she later miscarried what would have been a son.
Henry became uninterested with Boleyn after she had not given birth to a male heir, and his eye wandered to his wife’s mild-mannered lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour.
“Henry’s out every night on the town, just sleeping around,” Boleyn’s character sings in “Six.” “If that’s how it’s gonna be, maybe I’ll flirt with a guy, or three, just to make him jell.”
Enraged that a male heir had not been born, tired of heated arguments with the strong-willed Boleyn and seeking to marry Seymour, Henry accused Boleyn of crimes that are widely believed to be fabricated, including adultery, incest with her brother and plotting against the king’s life. Henry put her on trial for treason to be judged by a jury under his control.
While Henry continued his relationship with Seymour, Boleyn was found guilty and sentenced to death for her unproven crimes.
She was imprisoned in the Tower of London, the same room she slept the night before her coronation, before being beheaded by a skilled French swordsman.
Eleven days after her death, the king married Jane Seymour.
III: Died
Jane Seymour: “The only one he truly loved.”
Jane Seymour was the eldest child of Sir John Seymour, a knight in service of King Henry VIII.
Her family was wealthy, but not of high noble standing. Jane Seymour sought to achieve higher status through marriage.
Though, it is safe to assume she did not expect to become Queen of England when she worked as a lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon and later Anne Boleyn.
Seven months after Seymour and Henry wed, she announced her pregnancy. Despite the king’s history as hot-tempered and volatile, he seemed gentle with Seymour throughout her pregnancy and instructed churches throughout the country to pray for the birth of a son.
After a difficult labor, Seymour gave birth to Edward VI, a male heir so desperately wanted by Henry, who would later go on to reign as king before his early death at age 15, leaving his sisters Mary and Elizabeth to vie for the throne.
Seymour became Henry’s favorite wife after giving him a male heir.
“But I know without my son, your love could disappear,” Seymour’s “Six” character sings in her solo ballad. “I know it isn’t fair, but I don’t care, ‘cause my love will still be here.”
Only weeks after Edward’s birth, Seymour died of a uterine infection.
“Soon I’ll have to go,” her character sings. “I’ll never see him grow. But I hope my son will know he’ll never be alone.”
Henry mourned Seymour deeply, requesting to be buried with her when he died years later.
IV: Divorced
Anna of Cleves: “When he saw my portrait, he was like ‘ja.’ ”
“Welcome to the Haus of Holbein!”
German Lady Anna was a noble daughter of the Duke of Cleves, making an alliance with England attractive to both parties as European Catholics and Protestants sought power against one another.
The marriage would ally Henry with the German Protestant nobility, securing his control on the European continent.
Attracted to Anna’s portrait, painted by Hans Holbein, Henry selected Anna to be his next wife and they were betrothed. The German Lady moved to England, where the two first met. Anna did not recognize Henry as her betrothed king, and pushed him away when he tried to kiss her.
Meanwhile, Henry was not attracted to her, claiming she looked different from her lovely portrait.
“You said that I tricked ya ‘cause I didn’t look like my profile picture. Too bad I don’t agree,” Anna’s character sings in “Six.”
On the night of their wedding, Henry was unable to consummate the marriage due to his impotence. Enraged, he blamed his inadequacy on Anna’s appearance and sought to annul the marriage.
His efforts were successful, and the annulment was granted just months after their wedding.
Anna agreed to the decision and was sent to live in a Kent estate with a generous yearly allowance from the king. She never remarried and often visited Henry’s children and even the king himself.
It is said the ex-spouses grew to be friends, as they referred to each other as “brother” and “sister” in letters.
With Henry successfully voiding his marriage to Anna, he had his sights set on finding a new wife.
V: Beheaded
Katherine Howard: “K. Howard is here and the fun’s begun.”
As daughter of a noble family, Katherine Howard had many connections to European royalty. She was even the first cousin of Anne Boleyn – and they would share the same fate.
Howard’s mother died when she was 9, and her father sent her to live with her step-grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Norfolk.
When Howard was 12, she took music lessons from teacher Henry Manox, whose exact age is unknown to historians, but was in his late 20s or 30s. Manox took advantage of his position of power over Howard and repeatedly sexually abused her.
“Being but a young girl, I suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret parts of my body, which neither became me with honesty to permit nor him to require,” Howard would later say under oath about Manox.
At around 14, Howard caught the eye of her step-grandmother’s secretary, Thomas Dereham, who was a decade older than her. He also sexually assaulted her before getting caught by the Dowager Countess, who sent Dereham away.
The Duke of Norfolk, Howard’s uncle, then sent Howard to be a lady-in-waiting for Anna of Cleves.
As the Duke may have predicted when he sent his niece to court, Howard caught the interest of the king.
At age 17, Howard married the 49-year-old King Henry.
“With Henry, it isn’t easy. His temper’s short, and his mates are sleazy,” Howard’s “Six” character sings.
Seeking comfort, Howard struck up a close friendship with a courtier, Thomas Culpeper. Historians debate whether they had a friendship or a romantic relationship, which they were accused of.
In the musical, however, Howard makes it clear. “This guy finally is what I want, the friend I need. Just mates, no chemistry.”
However, Culpeper does not feel the same as Howard and expresses romantic interest in her.
“All you wanna do, baby, is touch me,” Howard’s character sings in the musical. “When will enough be enough?”
Then, in both history and the musical, Howard was accused of adultery and beheaded at age 18.
VI: Survived
Catherine Parr: “I saw him till the end of his life.”
Catherine Parr, the third Catherine to marry Henry, was actually named after the king’s first wife.
Parr’s mother, Maud Green, was lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon, who was Parr’s namesake and godmother.
By age 21, Parr was married and widowed twice.
Having been unlucky in love, she finally found her match in Thomas Seymour – brother of Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife.
Then the king took interest in Parr.
“I’ve got no choice,” Parr’s “Six” character sings. “With the king I stay alive. Never had a choice – been a wife twice before just to survive.”
So they married. Parr became queen, and acted as a nurse to the ulcer-ridden Henry.
Parr was the first English Queen to write and publish her own books about Christianity, as she was a strong supporter of the English Reformation.
After Henry’s death five years into their marriage, Parr was free to marry her lover, Thomas Seymour.
‘Six’
In the final number of the musical, the six queens reflect on what could have been had they not caught Henry’s eye.
They reflect on their love for music, writing and having fun as they choose to lift each other up rather than compete with one another.
“We’re one of a kind, no category. Too many years lost in his story. We’re free to take our crowning glory,” the queens sing, “… we’re six.”