The Tudors were an English royal family that ruled from 1485 to 1603. The Tudors are considered the most famous English dynasty. Under them, England changed the Catholic faith to the Anglican one, from an ordinary island country turned into the mistress of the seas. In addition, the economy made a huge leap, the foundations of the future colonial empire were laid. The dynasty ruled for only 118 years, but during their reign, the life of the English improved markedly. The Tudors came to power after several decades of unrest, but by the end of their reign, England was a peaceful and prosperous country. The dynasty carried out a successful religious reform: England found a middle ground between Catholicism and Protestantism and created a national church independent of Rome. The era of the Tudors is an interesting time when pirates plied the seas, who could well count on a knight's belt and success at court. Knights still fought in tournaments and composed poems in honor of their ladies. It was the Renaissance, the time of the folding of the English literary language and the growth of national consciousness.

Henry VII: the first king of the Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty came to the throne in 1485 as a result of a coup d'état. The founder of the dynasty, Henry VII Tudor (1457–1509), could not claim the crown at birth for several reasons. His father was Welsh, and in the Middle Ages, the Welsh were not considered English at all. They were perceived as uneducated cruel savages, people of the second or even third class. Nevertheless, the blood of three royal houses flowed in the veins of this Welshman at once. Henry's father was a descendant of Welsh kings. This meant nothing to the English, but the Welsh ardently supported their candidate for the throne.

In addition, on the side of his father, Henry was related to the French Valois dynasty. In 1420, King Henry V married Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France. The marriage turned out to be short-lived: just two years later, Henry V died, Catherine remained a widow at a flourishing age - she was only 21 years old. Parliament forbade her to leave England and remarry "without the consent of the lords and commons". But just a few years later, she left for the provinces with the young Owen Tudor, an ancestor of Henry Tudor. Some historians believe that Owen and Catherine secretly married, but in the eyes of the law, their union was just an illegal cohabitation, because they did not receive permission to marry. The dowager queen bore Owen Tudor six children. The eldest of them, Edmund, became the father of Henry Tudor.

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In addition, Henry Tudor was a distant relative of the Lancaster dynasty (1399–1461) that ruled England. Henry's great-great-grandmother was the mistress of the founder of the Lancaster family - Catherine de Roet. Catherine's children were later recognized as legitimate, but an Act of Parliament made it impossible for them to claim the crown. So, Henry Tudor was a Welsh and just a distant relative of the Lancasters. If King Henry VI Lancaster had ruled quietly, Henry Tudor would most likely have become an ordinary Welsh aristocrat. But the outbreak of the War of the Scarlet and White Rose, which lasted from 1455 to 1485, mixed all the cards. In 1471 the Lancastrian dynasty came to an end, and the rights of Henry Tudor became more evident.

Henry had to flee to France in order not to become a victim of the political ambitions of the York dynasty. The first chance to return was presented to him in 1483, when another coup d'état took place in England. King Edward IV of York has died, leaving two small children. Edward's sons were dethroned by their uncle, who was crowned as Richard III. The British were outraged by this circumstance, moreover, only part of the nobility supported Richard III. All dissatisfied with the coup of 1483, as well as Lancaster supporters, turned to the only possible heir of the previous dynasty - Henry Tudor. In addition, Tudor solemnly promised to marry Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and thereby put an end to dynastic strife. But the expedition of 1483 was unsuccessful. However, in 1485, Richard III died on the battlefield of Bosworth. Henry Tudor became king of England under the name Henry VII.

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At first, the Tudor throne was not very strong. Henry VII at first was in no hurry to marry Elizabeth of York, and then did not want to crown his wife. The early years of his reign saw a number of revolts by York supporters. At least two of them were a real threat. In 1487, the impostor Lambert Simnel was at the head of the rebellion, and in 1496-1497, Perkin Warbeck. They both declared themselves the children of the last representatives of the York dynasty.

Nearly all of Henry VII's strength went into securing the throne and passing it on to his son, Henry VIII. This required not only to suppress the uprisings, but also to curb the powerful aristocrats. In the 15th century, every magnate had at his disposal an army of armed servants and mercenaries who wore the coat of arms of their master on their livery. Henry VII banned livery squads and began to punish violators. In addition, the king tried to really subjugate the most problematic regions. Henry VII created the Council of Wales and the Council of the North. By the end of the king's reign, the uprisings ceased, and the treasury was filled. But the first Tudor was still not popular: the British scolded the growing taxes, considered the king stingy, petty and not chivalrous enough.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII reigned from 1509 to 1547. He came to the throne at the age of seventeen and at first appeared to be the exact opposite of his father. The new king was handsome and cheerful, he sang, composed poetry and fought in tournaments. But pretty soon it became clear that for the sake of the interests of the dynasty, Henry VIII was ready to commit cruelties. It was during the reign of Henry VIII that everyone who had even an illusory right to the crown was executed, for example, the seventy-year-old Countess of Salisbury.

For the layman, Henry VIII is known not for political repression, but for his unusual matrimonial behavior. Sometimes he was even called Bluebeard. The king was married six times. In order to remember all the wives of the monarch, the British came up with a rhyme: "I fell out of love, executed, died, fell out of love, executed, survived." Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, because she could not bear him a son. Henry VIII married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, for love, but three years later he executed him on trumped-up charges of treason and adultery. The third wife, Jane Seymour, gave Henry VIII the long-awaited heir and died as a result of postpartum complications. In the fourth wife, the German princess Anna of Cleves, Henry VIII fell in love with a portrait painted by the artist Holbein Jr. When Anna arrived in England, it turned out that the image had been heavily embellished. The king had to marry, but there was never a close relationship between the spouses. Anna saved her life by agreeing to a divorce. Fifty-year-old Henry's fifth marriage was to Catherine Howard, cousin of Anne Boleyn. The new queen was barely eighteen. Heinrich's health let him down, he literally went crazy with jealousy and two years later sent his young wife to the chopping block. The last (according to historians, Platonic) wife of the king was Catherine Parr. She reconciled the king with children from all previous marriages, was with him "in sickness and health" until the death of the monarch. At Madame Tussauds, Henry VIII is depicted surrounded by all six wives.

Fell out of love, executed, died, fell out of love, executed, survived

Of course, for historians, Henry VIII is primarily a reformer. In 1534, England changed from Catholicism to Anglicanism. The English Church ceased to be dependent on Rome. Instead of the pope, the church was headed by the king, the monasteries were liquidated, and their property went to the treasury. The Bible and church services have been translated into English. However, the services, rituals and church hierarchy remained the same as they were during the time of Catholicism.

Researchers still argue about the reasons that prompted Henry VIII to carry out church reform. Some believe that Henry wished in this way to strengthen royal power and replenish the treasury. Others think that main reason The break with Rome was the desire of the king to dissolve the marriage with the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. The first wife gave birth to Henry only one child - Princess Mary. When there was no hope for the appearance of an heir, Henry wished to get rid of his aging wife. However, the pope categorically did not want to quarrel with powerful Spain. In the midst of negotiations, the king began a stormy affair with the court lady Anne Boleyn. In 1534, the situation became hopeless: Anna was pregnant with a long-awaited child. In order for the future prince or princess to be born in a legal marriage, the king was ready for anything, and the result of this was a change in religion. It is likely that both factors were at work.

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Henry VIII is also infamous for starting the real conquest of Ireland. By that time, the English kings already owned a small part of the "green island", but it was under Henry VIII that a full-scale conquest began, accompanied by large human casualties, violent planting of English language and culture.

Historians consider Henry VIII an enlightened tyrant. The king patronized the humanists and even tried to rule on their advice. In particular, Heinrich was friends with Thomas More, visited his house and made the scientist his chancellor. But this story had a sad end: More did not agree with the reform of the church, and Henry VIII, who did not tolerate contradictions, executed the scientist on charges of treason.

Edward VI and Mary the Catholic

Despite all diligence, Henry VIII failed to secure a prosperous future for the dynasty. As a result of the first marriage, Princess Mary was born. Anne Boleyn also gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. The third marriage gave Heinrich the long-awaited son - Edward, but the boy was frail and sickly. Before his death, the king established the following order of succession to the throne: Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. That is how events unfolded.

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Edward VI reigned from 1547 to 1553. He died at the age of sixteen and did not have time to prove himself as a politician. Then, until 1558, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII, Mary, occupied the throne. She tried to revive Catholicism and began repressions against Protestants. Some called her Catholic Mary, while others called her Bloody Mary. Maria married King Philip II of Spain, but this marriage was fruitless. In 1558, the throne passed to Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth ruled for 45 years from 1558 to 1603. She went down in history as Elizabeth the Great, and her reign became known as the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I became the first queen to pursue a truly independent policy. She did not have to govern the state at all, because in the 16th century only one function was unconditionally recognized for a woman - childbearing. As soon as Elizabeth Tudor was on the throne at the age of 25, parliament set the task for the queen: to marry and give birth to an heir. Throughout her life, Elizabeth I masterfully avoided this topic and at the end began to say that she was married to England. This was true, because only by remaining unmarried could Elizabeth retain power. Meanwhile, there were many profitable proposals: the queen was offered a hand and heart by all the princes of Europe, without exception, even Ivan the Terrible wooed her. But Elizabeth constantly insisted that she remained blameless, but, most likely, this was not so. The most famous (but not the only) favorite of Elizabeth I was Robert Dudley. They had known each other since childhood. Some historians believe that they were even secretly married.

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Elizabeth I Tudor ruled the kingdom with a firm hand, spoke with ambassadors in five languages, and at her leisure read treatises of the ancient sages in the original. Her main merit was the preservation of the religious world. It was under her that the Anglican faith was finally established in England, which became something between Catholicism and radical Protestantism. In 1559, the statutes of royal supremacy and uniformity of worship were adopted. The church turned into a part of the state apparatus, and the rejection of Anglicanism was equated with high treason. The queen managed not only to continue her father's policy, but she managed to save England from the extreme manifestations of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and thereby avoid participation in the religious wars that tormented Europe.

Elizabeth's foreign policy was also successful. Spain was the main enemy of England: the countries were divided not only by faith (Spain was considered a stronghold of Catholicism), but also by rivalry for trade routes. To fight the Spaniards, Elizabeth I resorted to a very unusual means: the queen began to patronize the English pirates, who already willingly robbed the Spanish galleons loaded with gold. Elizabeth widely distributed letters of marque (that is, official licenses for robbery in relation to England's opponents) and even sponsored raids on Spanish colonies in the New World. Things got to the point that when the Spaniards demanded that their worst enemy, the pirate Francis Drake, be hanged, Elizabeth knighted him.

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In 1585, the confrontation with Spain turned into a war. In 1588, England achieved a decisive advantage at sea: the country managed to defeat the Invincible Armada (the pompous name was invented by the Spaniards, confident in victory). There were more than 130 ships in the flotilla, on which, in addition to warriors, 300 priests and inquisitors sailed, intending to plant Catholicism in England with fire and sword. The English ships battered the Spaniards in a whole series of battles; the rout was completed by the eternal ally of the British - the weather. As a result, no more than 40 ships returned to Spain.

By the end of Elizabeth's reign, England had become a real mistress of the seas. By order of the queen Francis Drake took a swim around South America, and Walter Reilly founded the first English settlement on the North American continent. Trade flourished. Many trading associations were founded, such as the Guinea Company, which specialized in the slave trade. Pirate John Hawkins, who laid the foundation for the slave trade, received from the hands of Elizabeth I a knightly belt and a coat of arms, which depicted a Negro in chains. Undoubtedly, the most successful trading association was the East India Company, which appeared in 1600, which monopolized all trade relations with India.

The reign of Elizabeth coincided with the rise of culture. The queen patronized the fine arts: poetry, music and theatre. Elizabeth's contemporaries were William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Currently, Elizabeth I is considered one of the favorite queens of the British and remains an iconic figure in British history.

Tudor sunset

The Tudors left the historical scene peacefully and even casually. This fact in itself was no small achievement, because the reign of the three previous dynasties - Plantagenets, Lancasters and Yorks - ended in coups and the murder of monarchs. Childless Elizabeth I bequeathed the English throne to her cousin, King James IV of Scotland, who ascended the English throne under the name James I. This decision was the last success of the Tudor dynasty: England and Scotland, who had been at war for centuries, peacefully united on the basis of a personal union.

Oh, the beneficent power of evil!

All the best from grief becomes prettier,

And the love that is burned to the ground

Even more magnificent blooms and greens,

(W. Shakespeare "Sonnets and Poems", translated by S.Ya. Marshak)

Real name - Henry VIII Tudor

Personality - fierce, determined

Temperament - closer to sanguine

Religion - Started life as a Catholic, ended up as a Protestant belonging to the Anglican Church he created

Attitude to power - passionate

Attitude towards subjects - dismissive

Attitude towards love - both sensual and romantic, depending on the circumstances

Attitude towards flattery - reverent

Attitude towards material wealth - greedy

Attitude to own reputation - indifferent

Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547)

Henry VIII's father, King Henry VII Tudor, founder of the Tudor dynasty that ruled England and Wales for one hundred and seventeen years, was from Lancaster, and his mother, Queen Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward IV, belonged to York. With the accession of Henry VIII to the throne, the feud between the Houses of Lancaster and York was brought to an end, a feud that had led in the last century to the War of the Scarlet and White Roses. But Henry VIII did not justify the hopes of his subjects, who longed for peace and tranquility. A bloodthirsty tyrant, not used to curbing his passions, he plunged the country into the worst of turmoil - turmoil church schism, becoming the founder of the Anglican Church ...

The king father, Henry VII, became famous for his monstrous stinginess, reaching unimaginable limits. Greed killed all other feelings and emotions in him. The king had two hands, two faithful ministers - Empson and Dudley, who helped him rip off his own people like sticky, inventing new requisitions, taxes and taxes.

The people lived from hand to mouth, and the court lived almost the same way with the royal family, languishing from the exorbitant stinginess of the king, who enthusiastically watched the increase in his treasury.

The treasury was enriched, the country became impoverished and fell into decay, the king was happy and proud of himself.

Henry VII took advantage of everything. At one time, he married his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, the former heir to the English throne, to Catherine of Aragon, a seventeen-year-old Spanish princess, daughter of the notorious Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella. Arthur, who had serious health problems, lived in marriage for only a year, after which he died quietly, leaving his younger brother Henry the title of Prince of Wales, and with it the right of succession to the throne.

In addition, the twelve-year-old Prince Henry also inherited his brother's widow. The fact was that under an agreement between Ferdinand the Catholic and Henry VII, the latter, if Catherine remained a widow in a foreign land, was obliged to return her to her father, along with a huge dowry for those times, amounting to neither more nor less than one hundred thousand pounds. Of course, the miserly king could not part with such a huge amount. With the blessing of Pope Julius II, Henry VII betrothed his youngest son to the widow of his elder son, not only keeping his dowry, but also strengthening England's friendship with Spain.

But King Henry VII would have been bad if he had stopped there and did not try to shake off a fraction of the money from his brother-in-law. As soon as the son reached the age of majority, the crowned father demanded an increase in the dowry from the Spanish king and generally expressed a desire to revise the terms of the outdated, in his opinion, marriage contract. Ferdinand responded to the blackmail with a decisive refusal. Then Henry VII forced his son to protest the marriage. The Pope had to intervene for the second time, who came out in support of the Spanish king, but Henry VII remained true to his tactics. He pulled and pulled with the wedding, intending not to wash, but to insist on his own, and in this way reached the very death that everyone was waiting for - the heir, the court, and the people.

On April 22, 1509, on the day of the death of King Henry VII, eighteen-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales, became King of England and Wales, Henry VIII, having received from his father a crown, a bride and a treasury in which there was one million eight hundred thousand pounds.

The money came in handy - like most sons of misers, Henry VIII gravitated towards luxury and wastefulness. Having got out of the abyss of hoarding, the royal court plunged into an endless series of holidays, knightly tournaments, balls and festivities. Of course, the most brilliant celebrations were the wedding of the young king with Catherine of Aragon, which took place two months after the death of Henry VII, and the coronation that followed the wedding.

The young king was smart, rich, full of strength and ambitious aspirations. He was in a hurry to reward himself for all the hardships experienced during the life of his father, and to prove to the world that he, King Henry VIII, could rule the country no worse than his predecessor, or even better.

True, at first he had more fun than rules, giving the reins of government into the hands of his court confessor Thomas Wolsey, an ambitious and greedy minister of the church, who passionately dreamed of the papal tiara and did not disdain anything on the way to his cherished goal.

Like all temporary workers, Wolsey indulged the passions of the king, suggesting to him that the lot of monarchs is not the boring affairs of the state, but cheerful revels. He slipped loving Heinrich more and more favorites, suggested reasons for the festivities, advised, intrigued, ruled ...

The power of the butcher's son (Thomas Wolsey's father was a wealthy Suffolk meat merchant) was truly enormous. The first of the nobles of the English court, a personal friend of the king, Thomas Wolsey became a member of the State Council, and soon the chancellor. The young king spoke with his mouth and thought with his head. In any case, it seemed so to many of his contemporaries. Indeed, many of Henry VIII's actions were at the instigation and benefit of his chancellor. Up to the most significant.

Who knows what kind of king Henry V / III would have become if he had met another mentor at the very beginning of his reign? It is quite possible that he would go down in the history of England as a kind and just king, because he had everything for that: mind, education, courage, breadth of views, money and, in addition, excellent health, giving its owner the opportunity to work day and night for the good of the state.

But history does not know the subjunctive mood, and for the British, King Henry VIII is just as odious a person as his contemporary Ivan the Terrible is for the Russians.

Relations between Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon were at first cloudless. The queen condescendingly looked at the fleeting hobbies of her young husband, believing that these intrigues did not threaten her (so it was for the time being), and he paid her gratitude and trust. So, for example, going to war with France, Henry left his wife as the ruler of the kingdom, and took the “faithful glorious Wolsey” with him into the army. Either he could not live a day without a friend and adviser, or he simply did not want to risk leaving the active chancellor near the empty throne.

By the way, be it said, in the war, Henry VIII took a personal part in the battles and even performed several valiant deeds, which the court hastened to call "feats of arms."

The foreign policy of the king served to the greater glory of his favorite. Peace with the French king Louis XII, sealed by his marriage to Henry's sister, Princess Mary, brought Wolsey the rank of Bishop of Tournai, a French city that had passed to the British. Louis XII's successor, Francis I, asked the Pope for a cardinal's hat for Wolsey. Everything would have been fine, but along with the gift, the French king offended Wolsey by depriving him of the rank of Bishop of Tournais. Revenge was not long in coming - the newly minted cardinal immediately restored Henry VIII against Francis I. Charles V, the German emperor, who, by the way, was the nephew of Catherine of Aragon, took up arms against France and promised Cardinal Wolsey the coveted papal tiara. King Henry soon assured Charles V of his cooperation against a recent ally, the King of France.

Another war against France demanded money, but ... they were not. The treasury, so earnestly filled by the father, was devastated by the endless festivities, to which the son was so generous. King Henry took the first step in his transformation from a good king to a tyrant. His Majesty ordered a census of the fortunes of his subjects, after which he imposed a tax on them - he ordered the laity to contribute a tenth of the total value of all property, both movable and immovable, to the royal treasury, and “warmed up” the clergy by a whole quarter.

Collected (one wants to write - stolen) was not enough, and all the same Cardinal Wolsey, hiding behind the name of the king, demanded from the English Parliament a loan for military needs of eight hundred thousand pounds. Members of Parliament knew perfectly well how kings repay their debts to their subjects, and they refused the king, voting by a majority against the issuance of a loan. King Henry showed character by promising the stubborn people a speedy parting with the most valuable thing they had - their own heads, and literally the next day the royal treasury was replenished with eight hundred thousand pounds.

Cardinal Wolsey himself at that time ruled almost all the dioceses of the kingdom, receiving in addition pensions from the Pope and the German Emperor. In addition, he had the right to annually raise fifty people to knighthood without papal permission, as many could assign the title of count, and in addition, he had the right to arbitrarily dissolve marriages, legitimize illegitimate children, distribute indulgences, change monastic charters and even open and close monasteries. In addition, thanks to his friendship with the king, his influence extended to all branches of secular power without exception. Of course, in this state of affairs, Cardinal Wolsey's income was equal to the royal (if not exceeded them!). He had not only his own bodyguards, but also his own court, to which representatives of the most noble aristocratic families were considered an honor. Needless to say, for the sake of the state, Cardinal Wolsey did not even think of giving up even the smallest part of his wealth.

Heinrich got a taste - he felt that there were truly no barriers to his will, the will of the monarch, appointed by God himself to rule his subjects. In the same way, Cardinal Wolsey saw no obstacles on the way to the staff of the Roman high priest ...

Twice, with an interval of a little over a year, the papal throne was vacated, and both times the ambitious cardinal remained, as they say, with his own interest. After the death of Pope Leo X, the throne was briefly occupied by Adrian VI, who was succeeded by Clement VII of the House of the Medici. Thus, the promises of Charles V turned out to be worthless.

Cardinal Wolsey was tired of waiting, he became indignant and began to take revenge on the treacherous German emperor, and hit him from two sides - again he persuaded his king to ally with France and, in addition, inspired him with the idea of ​​a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine of Aragon, brought up in strictness and obedience, was, no doubt, good, fairest rules wife and excellent mother. However, she was five years older than her husband, and besides, like most Spaniards, she not only bloomed early, but withered just as early. The day came - and Heinrich completely lost interest in her.

Chilled and chilled. This circumstance could not entail any consequences, especially since, as already mentioned, the queen was tolerant of her husband's infidelity. Eighteen years of marriage flew by in good agreement, the once ardent passion was replaced by respect and friendship.

Until a certain moment, Henry curbed his passions and did not transgress a certain decency line. This state of affairs lasted until Cardinal Wolsey set out to separate the king from his wife in order to permanently sever the connection between Henry VIII and Charles W.

The seed of discord fell on fertile soil. Henry was often sad that his marriage, for all its merits, was far from ideal, which made it possible for the cardinal to gradually bring to the consciousness of his king the idea of ​​the illegality of marrying the widow of a brother and cohabiting with her. The words from the Holy Scriptures that “do not open the nakedness of your brother’s wife, this is the nakedness of your brother” (Leviticus, ch. XVIII, v. 16), which condemned the marriage of the king, also came at the right time. By the way, the king also remembered his own protest against the marriage with Catherine, thoroughly forgotten by that time, written on the orders of his late father, Henry VII, twenty years ago ...

From the point of view of Cardinal Wolsey (which the king fully shared), everything was going well. All that was missing was a push to start the colossus of divorce, and this push was made by the charming seductress Anna Boleyn with her pretty hand.

Anne Boleyn was and remains in history a controversial and ambiguous personality. Some, recalling how Anna ended her life, consider her a martyr, while others, taking as a basis her licentiousness, her promiscuity on the way to the throne and her mockery, if not to say mockery, of the unfortunate Catherine, not without reason consider Anna a prudent bitch, a ruthless intriguer who got what she deserved, nothing more. One thing no one doubts - Heinrich loved Anna, loved passionately, passionately, with all his heart, and for the sake of his beloved he was ready for anything. First of all - to a scandalous divorce, which had monstrous consequences ...

In fact, the Boleyn family, which consisted of Anne's father, Thomas Boleyn, mother, nee Countess of Norfolk, their son and two daughters, had the most unenviable reputation. At one time, both Anna's mother and her older sister managed to take advantage of the short-lived favor of the loving King Henry. All this happened with the assistance of Anna's elder brother, who from a young age labored at the royal court.

Anna herself (who was nine years younger than her beloved king) at the age of fourteen departed from the retinue of Princess Mary, the bride of Louis XII, to France, where she began to live freely and unbridled, now and then changing admirers.

She also changed gentlemen. So, after the departure of the widowed Queen Mary to England, Anna Boleyn, who did not want to return to her homeland so soon, entered the maid of honor to the wife of King Francis I, Claudia of France, and after her death she became the maid of honor of the king's sister, the Duchess of Alençon. Anna's behavior constantly gave the French nobility food for gossip. And this despite the fact that the French court of that time was not distinguished by morality. Aristocrats competed with each other in debauchery, but few managed to outdo the beautiful and desperate Mademoiselle de Boleyn in this field.

The English court was different, morality and morality were not empty words here, therefore, upon returning to England, where Anna became the maid of honor of Queen Catherine of Aragon, she miraculously turned from a harlot into an innocent shy woman, which seduced the king, greedy for the charm of innocence, albeit imaginary.

Oh, Anne Boleyn was a skilled schemer. Noticing that she managed to make a strong impression on Henry VIII from the very first meeting, she behaved prudently and intelligently.

The king was sure that Anna, like her mother and older sister, would fall into his arms at the first word, at the first hint. No matter how it was, Anna responded to the royal harassment with a decisive refusal, and at the same time did not fail to cool the ardent Henry with many reproaches and lengthy moralizing. Along the way, it has been said more than once that the bodies of their subjects can belong to kings, but in no way their souls, and that only a husband can be loved and no one else.

Anna knew that the more difficult the prey is given to the hands, the more desirable it seems. Henry VIII, we note, was a passionate hunter.

"Husband so husband!" - decided the king, who, at the suggestion of Cardinal Wolsey, had already thought more than once about the dissolution of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, and proceeded to implement his plan.

The award was priceless and her name was Anne Boleyn. Without it, it is quite possible that there would have been no divorce, and, consequently, the list of atrocities committed by Henry would have been much shorter: and there would have been no schism, with all its indispensable attributes - the ruin of monasteries, exile, persecution, and often and the murder of the zealots of the former, Catholic faith.

Having begun her game, Anne Boleyn led it for two long years, without making any concessions to the king. She announced that the price of her love was the crown, and did not lower it, despite the pleas of the amorous king.

All or nothing! It was this principle that guided Anna in her matrimonial intrigue. Fate cruelly laughed at her - Anna Boleyn received the crown from the hands of Henry and was executed at his command, so that the resulting crown would pass to another chosen one of the king. Become Anna just the mistress of Henry VIII, one of many, like a mother and sister, she could die a natural death, and not lay down her head on the scaffold.

But the scaffold is still far away, while Heinrich is trying to divorce Catherine.

At first, the king, as usual, went ahead - instructed the cardinals Wolsey and Compeggio to offer the queen to voluntarily retire to the monastery, since her marriage to her late husband's younger brother was illegal. Catherine of Aragon refused. Henry began to seek support from the pope, but Rome was slow to respond to his request. Then the king allowed anger and lust to triumph over reason and conscience, arranging a trial for a woman who had been his patient and all-forgiving wife for almost two decades.

On June 21, 1529, the first trial of Queen Catherine took place in London. The meeting was well prepared - the same Cardinal Wolsey did his best. Firstly, bogus witnesses (nothing less than thirty-seven people!), Many of whom were relatives of Anne Boleyn, accused the queen of adultery. Secondly, the Church Fathers, led by Cardinal Wolsey, spoke of the sin of incest with which the queen had stained herself by marrying one brother while being the widow of another. Thirdly, the king himself, and after him his civil judges, referred to Henry's long-standing protest of 1505.

Everyone took up arms against the unfortunate queen and everyone demanded one thing from her - to lay down her royal dignity and retire to a monastery. In her defense, Catherine of Aragon said that she had never cheated on her husband and sovereign, that her marriage was allowed by the Pope, since she had never shared a bed with the king’s older brother (the seriously ill Arthur had no time for love pleasures), and that she cannot agree to the proposal to enter a monastery until she receives an answer from her Spanish relatives and from the Pope.

The trial failed - the meeting had to be interrupted. It is highly probable that at heart most of the judges sympathized with the unfortunate outraged queen. But Henry could no longer be stopped - he soon informed Cardinal Wolsey of his intention to marry Anne Boleyn at all costs.

Wolsey's plans did not go so far - it would be enough for him to divorce King Henry from Catherine of Aragon. Believing in the strength of his power over the monarch and fearing undesirable consequences for himself, Wolsey fell on his knees before Henry and began to beg him to abandon the idea of ​​​​marrying Anna, who greatly humiliated royal dignity. Wolsey invited Henry to marry someone of royal blood, such as the sister of the French King Francis I, or at least Princess Renata, daughter of the late Louis XII.

Of course, Wolsey was more afraid not for the prestige of the king, but for his own well-being, closely related to this very prestige. But he did not take into account one thing - the former Henry VIII was no more. His place was taken by another, who could not get in the way with impunity.

Angered by the meddling in his affairs, Henry spoke of Cardinal Wolsey's impertinent behavior to his beloved. The sweet creature furiously took up arms against Wolsey, demanding that the king deprive the insolent of all his high positions. Along the way, prudent Anna offered Heinrich a replacement - a certain Cranmer, her father's chaplain.

Promising Anna to get rid of Wolsey, Henry decided not to take any action until he received an answer from Rome, which was not long in coming. As expected, the pope, expressing solidarity with his predecessor, recognized Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon as legal and indissoluble.

The first thing Henry VIII did was to take out his anger on Cardinal Wolsey, not only by dismissing him from his service, but also by putting him on trial for many crimes, both true and fictitious, chief among which were abuse of power and embezzlement. In total, the indictment contained forty-five counts. To ensure that the "investigation" in the Wolsey case and the confiscation of his property took place properly, vigilantly supervised the two sworn enemies of the disgraced cardinal - the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk.

Wolsey was lucky enough to fall into disfavor at a time when the king had not yet been seized by the demon of bloodthirstiness. Henry severely punished his recent favorite, but left him alive, exiling him to one of the poorest dioceses.

Alas, the exile was short-lived. Devastated and humiliated, Wolsey was in no hurry to give up. He, albeit recklessly, believed in his lucky star. Through loyal people who remained in the capital, he tried to intrigue against Anne Boleyn, seeing in her the culprit of all his misfortunes.

Wolsey was wrong, he did not understand that the lion sitting on the throne had matured and no longer needed the advice of a jackal.

Heinrich no longer needed advisers, from now on he needed only obedient executors of the royal will. In addition, the property confiscated from the cardinal turned out to be a significant replenishment for the emaciated royal treasury, and there was no question of returning it to its former owner.

On charges of conspiracy, Wolsey was arrested and sent to London to be imprisoned in the Tower. No one doubted that the royal court would sentence the guilty to death. Wolsey did not make it to London. On November 29, 1530, he died in a monastery near the city of Leicester, either from a sudden illness, or after being poisoned, or being poisoned.

Henry VIII and the Archbishop of Canterbury became Thomas Cranmer, who advised the king to postpone the consideration of the divorce case from Catherine of Aragon to a civil court. The king agreed, and Cranmer raised the question of the legality of his king's marriage before all European universities, turning the problem from a religious almost into a scientific one.

At the same time, Henry took the first step towards a "divorce" from Rome. While still recognizing the Catholic faith, he began to refer to himself in the documents as "the patron and supreme head of the Anglican Church."

On November 14, 1532, Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn, who carried them under her heart. common child. The Rubicon has been crossed, bridges have been burned, the die has been cast. The English king no longer needed the blessing of the Pope. Soon, namely on May 23, 1533, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon invalid. Five days later, Anne Boleyn, as befits the legitimate wife of the king, was crowned.

Former Queen the title of Duchess of Wales was left, for the twenty-two-year-old daughter Mary, Henry retained the right to inherit the throne in the absence of male children from his second marriage. Of course, there was no need for Catherine and Mary to stay in London - the king intended to exile them to the secluded Emftill monastery in Dunstablenir.

Catherine of Aragon did not accept the divorce imposed on her and refused to leave her royal apartments. Pope Clement VII threatened to excommunicate Henry from the church. Henry ignored the threat, and on March 22, 1534, Clement VII issued a bull excommunicating Henry from the church. Along the way, the bull declared the cohabitation of the king with Anne Boleyn illegal, and their newborn daughter Elizabeth was recognized as illegitimate and not entitled to the throne.

The wrath of the pope was no longer terrible for Henry. In response to the bull, by royal decree, the marriage with Catherine was declared invalid, and the daughter Maria was declared illegitimate and, accordingly, deprived of all rights to the throne.

The moment of Anne Boleyn's supreme triumph has come. In her mind, the love of the king was so strong that for her sake he decided to challenge the whole world.

It is unlikely that Anna was aware that Henry VIII fought not for his love, but for the right to always, in any situation, act according to his own will, not obeying any laws other than those that he established for himself.

Every day the idea of ​​autocracy - spiritual and secular - fascinated Henry more and more. He initiated a great religious reform. Monasteries were abolished, while their property went to the royal treasury, the Pope of Rome was henceforth referred to only as a "bishop", his supporters, regardless of their position in society, were ruthlessly persecuted. The country was swept by a wave of bloody terror, which lasted seventeen years, until the death of Henry VIII in 1547. Seventeen long years during which tens of thousands of people were executed, tortured or simply died in captivity. Cardinals and bishops, dukes and counts, nobles and commoners - all classes had a chance to experience the wrath of the "good King Henry" ... Historians measure the number of victims of the tyrant in tens of thousands - from seventy-odd, according to some sources, to a hundred thousand - according to others .

No external enemy in the history of England has done her such damage as Henry VTII! The people remained silent and dutifully endured everything, knowing that the king was not to be trifled with. Only once, in 1536, did a major uprising break out in the north of the country, which Henry brutally suppressed.

On January 6, 1535, Catherine of Aragon died in Kimbelton Castle, shortly before her death, as befits a good Christian woman, who forgave the king for all insults. The whole country regretted the good queen. All except Anne Boleyn, who gladly received the news of the death of her rival and even dared to dress in a colored dress during the mourning declared by order of the king.

Becoming a queen, although not recognized by all, Anne Boleyn, as they say, broke. Firstly, she imagined that she could impose her will on the king, and secondly, she decided that she no longer needed the mask of a prude. Confident in her own power over Henry, Anna tried to revive in London that freedom dear to her heart, which was accepted at the court of King Francis I when she was a lady-in-waiting. She surrounded herself with a whole swarm of well-born handsome men (it was rumored that even her brother Lord Rochester enjoyed the favor of Anna) and serenely indulged in pleasures, not even trying to hide her fun.

For a while, Henry pretended to be a gullible blind man: Anna was pregnant and the king was expecting a son, an heir, little Henry IX. Heinrich passionately dreamed of a son all his life, but so far only daughters were born to him.

The hopes of the king were in vain - the queen was relieved of the burden of a dead freak. Disappointed, Heinrich turned his attention to the court beauty Jane Seymour and began to openly bestow her with his disposition.

Anne Boleyn turned out to be so stupid and self-confident that she risked showing jealousy, showering Henry with reproaches that had no effect. Then Anna decided to arouse reciprocal jealousy in Heinrich. In May 1535, during one of the tournaments so beloved at court, the queen, sitting in her box, threw her handkerchief to Henry Norris, who was passing by her, with whom, according to court rumors, she was in a secret relationship. Norris turned out to be even more imprudent than Anna, and instead of picking up the handkerchief and returning it with a bow to the queen, he smiled and wiped his face with the handkerchief. At the same moment, Henry VIII got to his feet and, without saying a word, departed for the palace.

The next day, at the command of the king, Anne Boleyn was arrested, her brother Lord Rochester and all the nobles, whom rumor ranked among the queen's favorites. Under torture, only one of them, a certain Smitton, confessed to adultery with the queen, but that was enough - a year later, on May 17, 1536, a special commission of inquiry, consisting of twenty peers of the kingdom, found Anne Boleyn guilty of adultery and sentenced to death together with other accused: Anna, at the choice of the king - by burning at the stake or quartering, to Smithton - by hanging, and to Lord Rochester with other accused - from the executioner's ax. Archbishop Cranmer habitually declared the king's marriage null and void.

Whether moved by reason, or wanting to drag out the case and gain time in the hope that the king will change his anger to mercy and forgive her, Anna, after hearing the verdict, announced that the commission was not competent to judge her, since Lord Percy was among its members. , Duke of Northumberland, with whom Anna allegedly secretly married even before marrying Henry. The accusation had no effect - Lord Percy solemnly swore that he never went beyond the limits of social decency in relation to Anna, and even more so he never became engaged to her. May 20, 1536 Anna was executed. She was beheaded with an ax, not with a sword, for the sword was only reserved for persons of royal blood.

The very next day after the execution, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. By that time, from a stately handsome man full of strength, the king had turned into a flabby, short of breath fat man and could hardly kindle a reciprocal passion in the heart of a young beautiful girl, but the brilliance of the crown overshadowed all the shortcomings of its owner.

Jane Seymour was lucky - she did not have time to annoy her husband and happily escaped death on the scaffold, dying in the second year of marriage from premature birth, which occurred, as claimed, as a result of an unsuccessful fall. Some historians tend to believe that what actually took place was not a fall, but a beating. Allegedly, Heinrich was angry with Jane for some minor offense and beat her with his own hand.

Jane has gone into oblivion, giving Henry the long-awaited heir - Prince Edward. Healthy premature Edward went to his uncle Arthur - he was frail, constantly ill and died before he was fifteen years old.

For two years the king lived as a widower, indulging in fleeting carnal pleasures. Then he decided to marry again. This time he desired to marry with a special royal blood and began to consider candidates for free princesses from the sovereign houses of Europe. Apparently, Henry managed to get tired of his subjects. Gossips, of whom there are a myriad of people at any court, claimed that almost all the ladies of the court had been in the bed of the king.

If the previous marriages of King Henry VIII were tragedies, then his fourth marriage became a comedy, a farce. There were no photographs at that time, and Heinrich chose a bride based on portraits, guided primarily not by political considerations, but by beauty.

Alas, painters often flatter their customers (especially if the customer is a woman), because they give them a livelihood, a piece of daily bread. There was no exception to this rule and a certain obscure artist who captured on canvas the supposedly lovely features of the German princess Anna of Cleves. Instead of a plump fat woman, he portrayed a languid beauty, with a look full of bliss.

The king of England, captivated by the imaginary beauty of Anna, sent matchmakers to her. Anna accepted the offer and arrived in London in January 1540. Seeing the original, Heinrich was shocked, but he nevertheless concluded a marriage with the “Flemish mare” (there was nowhere to go!) And even lived with her for about six months.

He then decided to get a divorce, first by suggesting that Anna dissolve the marriage and change the title of queen to the title of the king's adoptive sister with a good pension to boot. Must have been well aware that in case of refusal, the scaffold awaited her, Anna hastened to accept the offer, and on July 12, 1540, her marriage to Henry was annulled. Anna of Kyiv survived Heinrich by ten years. She died in England last days of their own using the life pension appointed by Heinrich.

After a bland, boring, albeit short-lived marriage, the king was drawn to spicy and sweet. His next chosen one was the young niece of the Duke of Norfolk, Catherine Howard, literally planted in the royal bed by her noble uncle. A piquant detail - Catherine was a distant relative of Anne Boleyn.

The Duke of Norfolk had his own goal - with the help of his niece, he hoped to get rid of his influential enemy, Secretary of State Thomas Cromwell.

It was easy for Catherine to denigrate Cromwell, because the king had a grudge against a faithful servant, because it was Cromwell who convinced the king to marry Anna of Cleves, hoping thereby to improve relations with German Protestants. Cromwell was executed on charges of treason and heresy. His death was painful - an inexperienced executioner cut off the head of the convict only from the third blow.

For some time, Henry was pleased with his new, fifth wife. Reveling in her beauty and youth, he seemed to draw the missing vitality from this lovely source, indulging Catherine's whims in gratitude and satisfying her rapidly growing needs. He even allowed his wife to give him advice on running the state and pretended to listen to them with attention. The king was so happy in marriage that he ordered special prayers to be read in churches for the blessing of marital happiness.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury received a denunciation of Catherine Howard, in which she was accused of debauchery both before and after marriage to the king, Henry did not rush to conclusions.

He ordered Cranmer to conduct a secret investigation in order to confirm or refute the information received.

The information was fully confirmed - Catherine Howard really cuckolded her husband and master, and Anna Boleyn's daughter-in-law, her brother's wife, Lady Rochefort, a lady of far from the most honest rules, helped her in this. After a short investigation, an equally short trial followed, which sentenced both women - both the harlot and the procuress - to death. They were executed in the Tower on February 12, 1542.

The king is tired of being a cuckold. Without thinking twice, he wished to protect himself from annoying mistakes in choosing a wife and issued a special decree according to which any of the subjects who knew any premarital sins of the royal wife was obliged to immediately report this to the king. In addition, the decree obliged the royal chosen one to confess to her king in advance all her past sins.

Henry VIII was not very interested in what others thought of him. By his behavior, by his actions, he continually challenged European monarchs, and the Pope, and his own people. But a reputation as a cuckold is another matter entirely. The cuckold is ridiculous, and no ruler can afford to be a laughing stock in the eyes of the people.

For another year, Henry VIII lived as a widower. Caught up in diplomatic feuds with France and Scotland

(these feuds eventually led the overconfident Henry to wars that completely destroyed the country's economy), continued the church reform. By the will of the king, a translation of the Bible was published for use in the liturgy and for reading by nobles and clergy (common people were forbidden to read the Bible under threat of death).

It must be said that Henry persecuted both Catholics and Protestants. At his command, the English Parliament promulgated a six-point decree defining the religious duties of subjects. According to this decree, nicknamed "bloody", supporters of the pope were to be hanged, and Lutherans or Anabaptists were to be burned alive at the stake. The correct faith was recognized as the Anglican one, invented by the king himself, who claimed that he acts under inspiration from above ...

In February 1543, just before leaving for the army, Henry married for the sixth and last time. The new queen was Lady Catherine Parr, widow of Lord Letimer, a lady of impeccable, crystal clear reputation. Kind, calm and not devoid of mind, Catherine Parr, who secretly favored the Lutherans, tried to convert Henry to Lutheranism in order to put an end to the bloody bacchanalia called "cleansing the church." The church reform of King Henry VIII was expensive for the country - on central squares bonfires burned daily in cities, prisons were overflowing with innocents, a rare day passed without executions.

After one of the family theological disputes, Henry became so angry with his wife that on the same day, together with the chancellor, he concocted an indictment against her, in which the queen was convicted of heresy and had to be arrested and tried. From well-wishers, of whom she had enough, Catherine learned about mortal danger and the next day again arranged a dispute, during which she recognized the superiority of Henry, calling him "the first of the theologians of our time", thanks to which she regained the favor of the king.

It is unlikely that Henry forgave his wife, most likely, he only postponed the reprisal and sooner or later Catherine Parr would have ended her life in the same place as her namesake and predecessor - on the scaffold, but fate was pleased to have mercy on her, and at the same time on all subjects English crown. On January 28, 1547, Henry VIII died in the arms of his faithful Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, bequeathed to be buried in Westminster Abbey next to Jane Seymour. He probably loved her more and more than his other wives. Maybe because she gave him an only son, or maybe based on some other considerations.

The tyrant's thirty-eight-year reign came to an end. It is noteworthy that the courtiers did not immediately believe in the death of their king. It seemed to them that Heinrich only pretended to be dead in order to listen to what they would say about him. It took some time for everyone to be convinced that the bloodthirsty despot would no longer get up from his bed.

Henry VIII received from his father almost two million pounds and a country impoverished by endless royal exactions, but full of hope for a better future. After himself, he left an empty treasury and a devastated, tormented country. A country whose inhabitants seemed to believe in nothing - neither in God, nor in the devil, nor in royal wisdom, nor in a bright tomorrow.

It is unbelievable that in May 1509 Lord William Mountjoy wrote about Henry VIII to the great humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam: “I say without hesitation, my Erasmus: when you hear that he whom we might call our Octavian has taken his father’s throne, your melancholy will leave you in a moment ... Our king does not want gold, pearls, jewelry, but virtue, glory, immortality!

Henry VIII himself, who did not shy away from writing in his younger years, in one of his own songs he imagined his life like this:

And until my last days
I will love cheerful friends.
Envy, but don't interfere
I please God with my game.
Shoot, sing, dance -
Here is the life of my delight...
(author's translation)

Catherine Parr, thirty-four days after the death of Henry VIII, hurried to marry Sir Thomas Seymour, Admiral of the Royal Navy, but lived in marriage for only about six months, dying suddenly in early September 1547. It was suspected that she was poisoned by her husband, who suddenly desired to marry Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England and Wales.

Henry VIII was a despot, a tyrant, a monster, but he was not alien to love - the strongest, brightest of human feelings. It is a pity that love did not manage to stop the transformation of the good King Henry VIII into a bloodthirsty despot. On the contrary, he stained love with blood, forcing many of his subjects to doubt that love even exists.

Or was there no love in the life of Henry VIII, but were there only instincts that he himself took for love?

Hello dear.
In the history of any country there is a ruler whom literally everyone has heard of. At the same time, the vast majority of people, accustomed to thinking in blocks, know just a little about such a historical figure, and God forbid that the truthful information, and not an element like "Marie Antoinette's brioches."
Now, if you ask people what they heard about the English King Henry 8, then many will remember that he was a polygamist, and someone will add that it was because of his wives that he took Foggy Albion from the hands of the Roman Curia to Protestantism. This is partly true (although not because of the numerous marriages, of course. Everything is deeper and more serious). It’s hard to deny the truth and female influence here :-)

But Henry VIII is a much more interesting figure (like all Tudors in general). And we can say that this bright and strong sovereign was until the end of his life "the cuckoo did not move out completely." There will be time and desire - read about his life. Well, today we will focus on more prosaic things - remember these same wives, and what they were like :-)

One of the many films about him...

Henry went down in history as the husband of 6 different wives. And they were really very, very different. They say that English schoolchildren are still learning not to confuse these queens with the help of the mnemonic phrase "divorced - executed - died, divorced - executed - survived." Comfortable:-)))
So, for the first time he married, having just taken the throne in 1509. Henry at that time was a noble and kind young man, and therefore he committed an act that he could well not commit - he married the widow of his older brother Catherine of Aragon.

"Catholic Kings"

It was like this ... In general, Henry should not have taken the throne, because he had an older brother, whose name was Arthur. Their father, the reigning King Henry VII, picked up for Arthur, as it seemed to him - a brilliant party - youngest daughter unifiers of Spain, often also called "Catholic kings" Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, Catherine. The marriage was generally strategic and beneficial to England. The girl was 16, the groom was 15. They managed to play the wedding, but they didn’t spend the wedding night. Arthur suddenly died of some infectious disease. Catherine remained at the British court as an innocent widow.
Despite the fact that she was 5 years older than him, Heinrich decided to marry. Either because of a sense of duty, or out of pity, or maybe love was involved there too.

Arthur Tudor

However, it should be noted that the life of the spouses did not immediately work out. They were too different. Cheerful and not shunning wine and women's society Heinrich and a devout Catholic Catherine. She seemed to have taken the worst traits from her parents - the religious fanaticism of her mother and the stinginess of her father. Especially there were problems with the earnestness of faith. In fasting and prayers, the young woman brought herself to fainting from hunger, which had a very bad effect on her health. She gave birth to 8 children, and only 1 boy, but of all of them only one child survived - Maria (the future Queen Mary the Bloody). Having suffered without an heir and having finally cooled down to his wife, Henry tried to get rid of her - but it was not there. Neither persuasion, nor attempts at bribery, nor threats worked. Then the king approached the matter legally. His jurists explained that marrying the widow of marriage is incest, which means that the marriage is void. It happened in 1529, after 20 years of marriage.

Catherine of Aragon

This interpretation was not liked by Pope Clement VII, who did not give permission for a divorce, and in the end it became the starting point for the final ousting of Catholicism from England.

Clement VII in the world of Giulio de' Medici

Henry VIII by that time was enjoying the company of 3 mistresses at once - the Boleyn sisters (Anne and Mary), as well as Elizabeth Blount. The latter even bore him a son in 1525, whom the king subsequently granted the title of Duke of Richmond and Somerset. But he was a bastard, and the king needed a legitimate heir.

Late coat of arms of the Boleyn family

The divorce of the king and the whole situation of this trinity was best used by the youngest of the Boleyn sisters - Anna. At the time of her passion for the king, she was 32 years old. This lady did not have a very beautiful appearance, but she was quite popular. Everyone noted the sophistication of her attire, her pleasant voice, the ease of dancing, fluency in French, good performance on the lute and other musical instruments, energy and cheerfulness. And most importantly, she was quite smart and cunning. Having played hard-to-reach in front of the king and rejecting at first all his courtship, she completely turned his head. She became the wife of Henry in January 1533, was crowned on June 1, 1533, and in September of the same year gave birth to his daughter Elizabeth (the future famous "virgin queen") instead of the son expected by the king. Subsequent pregnancies ended unsuccessfully. And the marriage quickly fell apart. King simply...executed his wife in May 1536, accusing her of 2 treason against the state and marriage at once.To all appearances, this is absolutely unreasonable.But the king was carried away by a new woman, and did not want a new divorce process.

Ann Bolein

A week after the execution of the wife of Henry VIII. whose mental health has already begun to falter marries the object of his passion - the former maid of honor of Anne Boleyn named Jane Seymour. It was Jane, even though she had been queen for a little over a year, who was able to give birth to the king's rightful heir - the son of Edward, who, albeit not for long, but ruled under the name of Edward VI. Jane herself died 2 weeks after the birth of her son - from puerperal fever.

Jane Seymour

It would be necessary for the king to stop - but no, despite his advanced age for those years, he set off in a new search for a wife. And found. He decided to intermarry with the Duke of Cleves (northwestern Germany) Johann III the Peaceful and betrothed him eldest daughter Anna. But it all turned out crooked. He did not see Anna, so he ordered her portrait - they brought him and he fell in love with the portrait. When the girl was brought to London, the king was disappointed and very much. She did not match the portrait. And strongly mismatched. Therefore, after six months of marriage, the king offered her a divorce, paid a generous allowance and the unofficial title of "beloved sister of the king." She continued to live in England.

Anna Klevskaya

I don’t know why Henry wanted to marry again, but he made an extremely strange choice. A certain 20-year-old former maid of honor and cousin of Anne Boleyn named Catherine Howard was a cheerful and peculiar lady. Right and left cuckolding her husband, and having at least 2 official lovers, including cheating on Henry with the king's personal page, she ended her life on the chopping block. For 2 years the king tolerated her, but on February 13, 1542, she ascended the scaffold. Because fire is no joke.

Catherine Howard

We can say that the king was lucky only in his last marriage. Despite the 20-year age difference, his last wife, Catherine Parr, tried to create conditions for a normal family life for him. She loved his children and himself, tried to extinguish his fits of rage and manifest mental illness. This marriage was her 3rd and she was twice a widow. Despite the fact that for 4 years of marriage, she was several times, as they say, on the verge of death, but honestly pulled the marital strap. It was under her, an ardent Protestant, that England lost the chance to return to the Catholic lodge. And it was Catherine Parr who buried the king. Henry VIII. January 28, 1547, at two o'clock in the morning, Henry VIII died at the age of 55 from gluttony.

Catherine Parr

Interestingly, Parr married for the fourth time - to Thomas Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour. thus for those times this woman is unique - after all, 4 marriages.
Here is such a story with the spouses of the loving King Henry VIII. I hope you were interested.
Have a nice time of the day.

🙂 Greetings to new and regular readers of the site! Gentlemen, in the article "Henry VIII Tudor and his wives" - a story about the king of England and his six wives.

When it comes to the marriages of royalty, the song “Kings Can Do Everything” involuntarily comes to mind, where it is jokingly spoken about the impossibility of love either in royal hearts or in royal apartments.

And if you put aside the jokes, it must be said that the church has always been on the side of legal marriages and prevented divorces, without making out whether we are talking about a commoner or a high-ranking person.

True, many monarchs turned a blind eye to God's laws, married and divorced when they wished. At best, sending a bored wife to a monastery. At worst, the unfortunate woman lost her life. There are many such cases in history. There are some real unique ones. For example, Henry VIII Tudor.

Wives of Henry 8

Henry VIII Tudor was born at the end of the 15th century and lived to be 55 years old. This is the most famous king of England, he is remembered by history for having married six times.

Catherine of Aragon

Henry's first marriage took place as soon as he ascended the throne, at the age of 17. His choice was no accident. Catherine, the widow of her late elder brother, actually inherited Henry.

Official portrait of Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England. Unknown artist, ca. 1525

Although the marriage was of convenience, for the allied relationship between England and Spain, he was considered happy for some time. The marriage lasted 24 years. But the wife was tired of the autocrat, especially since the children born to her died in infancy, except for her daughter Mary.

The king wanted to have a male heir, and he asked for a divorce from the clergy, but he was refused. The desire to get a divorce was so great that it led to a break with the church and the Reformation in England. The desired divorce was finally granted in 1533. His wife Catherine was declared the widow of Henry VIII's brother.

Ann Bolein

The second wife, Anne Boleyn, was well known at court. The king sought her favor for many years, but the girl politely refused the monarch. Such chastity did not prevent the king three years later from accusing Anna of treason, and together with her alleged lover, sent to the scaffold.

Ann Bolein. Portrait by an unknown artist, ca. 1533-1536

It is known that four alleged lovers were tortured, so Anna's betrayal raises many questions among historians. And, most likely, this betrayal was not. From this marriage, a daughter, Elizabeth (the future Queen of England -) was born.

Jane Seymour

A week after his execution, the King of England married his murdered wife's young lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour.

Jane Seymour. Portrait by Hans Holbein (the younger), c. 1536-1537

This woman was able to satisfy her husband's greatest desire - she bore him a son, Edward. Childbirth cost the life of a young woman. This time Henry was truly widowed.

Wanting to have another heir, the king attended to the search for a bride, but his proposals were rejected throughout the European continent. His sinister scandalous reputation was already known to everyone.

Anna Klevskaya

Nevertheless, the fourth wife was found - Anna Klevskaya. Her monarch saw only in the picture. He was extremely surprised and disappointed at a personal meeting with the bride. But the engagement took place, and then the wedding. Anna came to court with everyone except the king.

Anna Klevskaya. Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1539

She became a good stepmother to little prince Edward and seven-year-old Elizabeth. Even adult daughter Henry, Maria, who was only a year younger than her stepmother, quickly became friends with her.

The king found a reason to divorce his wife very quickly. Anna did not resist and signed all the papers, for which she received a life sentence, provided she lived in England. After the divorce, the woman managed to build her relationship with her ex-husband so that he gave her all sorts of honors, calling her "beloved sister."

Catherine Howard

For the fifth time, the already middle-aged autocrat married a young beauty for great love, mixed with passion. In addition, the marriage was politically advantageous. His chosen one, Catherine Howard, was an open, good-natured, cheerful girl.

Catherine Howard. Years of life 1520 - 1542

As it turned out later, not only to her husband. The proven fact of treason brought her to the scaffold.

Catherine Parr

For the last five years of his life, Heinrich was married to Catherine Parr. The restless monarch was no longer looking for adventure, and for the last two years he was so ill that he retired from public affairs.

Catherine Parr 1512 - 1548

It must be said that his only son, Edward, whom he so desired, loved and was proud of, died at the age of fifteen. There are two versions of the teenager's death. According to the first, the young man died of consumption or pneumonia, according to the second, he was poisoned, which is not uncommon for the 16th century. But Henry VIII did not know about it. He died on January 15, 1547.

Place of execution in the Tower of London. Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Gray and Thomas More were executed here. On the upper plane are the names of the executed, and on the black one is an epitaph.

Pictured is the place where Anne Boleyn was executed. Epitaph: "Hold a little, O noble visitor. Where you stand, death has shortened many days of life. Here the fates of the most famous people ended. May they rest in peace as we dance through the generations, fighting and showing courage under this sky."

On the right is St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle (1528). Henry VI, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward IV, Charles I, George V and Queen Mary, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra are buried here.

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Known for his numerous marriages, Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547), was nevertheless a very enlightened ruler for his time, so professional historians tend to view him as a reformer and polygamist.

In the pantheon of British monarchs, Henry (ruled from 1509 to 1547) represents the Tudor royal family. The youngest son of the first of the Tudors, Henry VII, this king in his first marriage was content with his wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had passed to him from his older brother Arthur.

Arthur was unable to conduct the affairs of the state, was bedridden and practically did not touch his wife.

Therefore, when in 1502 he died of a fever, between the courts of England and Spain, with the greatest permission of Pope Julius II, an agreement was concluded on the second marriage of the Spanish princess. Thus began the history of the marriages of Henry 8, in which wives succeeded one another.

Enlightened mind, selfish disposition

Unlike his brother, Heinrich 8 had excellent health and excellent physique., was known in England as a wonderful rider and accurately shot from a bow. Therefore, his coronation aroused joyful hopes in the royal environment.

Heinrich was the exact opposite of his melancholy and sickly father.. And therefore, from the very beginning of his reign, the capital of England became a place where noisy balls, funny masquerades and numerous tournaments replaced each other at court.

Despite exorbitant expenses, Henry 8 was loved by the public. He had a free and enlightened mind, spoke Spanish, Italian, French and in Latin, and from musical instruments loved the lute.

Unfortunately, like any other king, he was vicious and despotic, and his selfishness and selfishness knew no bounds.

However, in the performance of his royal affairs, Henry was lazy, and all the time entrusted their execution to favorites.

The first lessons of political games

The new British king received his first political baptism in 1513, when the German emperor Maximilian and his daughter Margarita involved the troops of England in a conflict with France. Henry 8 invaded the enemy's possessions, followed by the siege of Teruan-ni.

Meanwhile, the German troops, united in one effort with the fighting units of England, won a victory at Gingat, and Henry 8 took possession of Tournai. However, the very next year of hostilities, his German ally, conspiring with Ferdinand of Spain, betrayed the British king and signed peace with Louis XII.

The unbalanced and impulsive king of England fell into anger, but he immediately initiated the Anglo-French negotiations, passing off his sister Mary as the monarch of France.

After such a visual lesson, Henry 8 perfectly mastered the very essence of politics, and since then treachery has become the hallmark of this king.

Contrary to Christian morality. Ann Bolein

Henry used the same methods in theology. In 1522, the pope received a pamphlet he had written in which the reformers were criticized. However, soon the king “changed his shoes”: for 20 years of marriage, Catherine did not give birth to an heir, several illegitimate children of Henry 8 could not claim the throne, and by that time, the maid of honor of Catherine, Anna Boleyn, became the subject of the king’s passion.

Contrary to the norms of Christian morality, without the permission of the pope, Henry divorced, at the same time declaring himself the head of the British Church.

He initiated the adoption by Parliament of a number of resolutions, according to which England severed its connection with the Roman Church.

Having entered the rights of the head of the Church of Britain, Henry 8 appoints Thomas Cranmer to the post of Archbishop of Canterbury (1533). A few months later, grateful for his appointment, Cranmer announces that the king's marriage union is no longer legally valid.

It took just a few days for the loving and full of vitality Henry 8 to crown Anne Boleyn, adding to her list, which from now on will include more and more new wives.

Official Rome tried to object to such blasphemy. However, the treacherous Henry, in spite of such discontent, announced that his first marriage was not legally valid, and not only deprived his legitimate daughter Maria of all rights to the throne, but also imprisoned him in a monastery.

Repression and new political games

Understandably, many in England disapproved of such actions. However, Henry 8 undertook unprecedented repressions against the opposition, which resulted in the subordination of the English clergy to the mores of the king.

One of the results of such "purges" was the actions of Cromwell against the opposition from among the monastic orders. Acting on Henry's behalf, he insisted that English monks took a new oath- recognizing the supremacy of the king as the head of the national church and at the same time refusing to obey Rome.

As expected, the monastic orders began to resist, their leaders were hanged, and as a result, a document appeared on the transfer of their property to the jurisdiction of the state (1536).

Moreover, it was about a fairly solid share of the property that was previously owned by 376 monasteries, and now passed into the possession of Henry 8.

The execution of adulterous Anna. Marry Jane Seymour

However, on the love front, the aging monarch of England has seen significant changes. Anne Boleyn did not manage to stay on the throne for a long time.

Moreover, the reason for this was frivolous behavior, incompatible with the status of the wife of Henry 8. Almost immediately, as soon as the wedding was played, The new queen has attracted young fans. This did not escape the attention of the suspicious Heinrich, who, in turn, remained less and less attached to his half, and then completely carried away by the new woman.

Now all the attention of the first person in England was attracted by the beauty Jane Seymour. And Anna's indiscretion at the tournament in May 1536 was the last straw of Henry 8's patience (or maybe this was the reason he was looking for a final break).

The king's wife, who was sitting in the royal box, dropped her handkerchief, and the handsome courtier Norris, passing by, picked it up from the ground, and did this so imprudently that this act caught the eye of her husband.

Enraged, Henry the very next day authorized the arrests of his wife, her brother Lord Rochester, and several suitors of Anna, who were suspected of committing adultery with her.

All this was presented as a secret plan to overthrow the king, as well as behavior incompatible with the name of the queen.

As a result of torture and interrogation, in particular, the musician Smitton (he amused the queen by playing the lute, Henry's favorite instrument), testimonies compromising Anna were obtained. At the meeting of the commission of inquiry on May 17, twenty peers gathered, who found her guilty and decided to put her to death.

Three days later the sentence was carried out, and the resilient Henry 8 married Jane Seymour the very next day. According to contemporaries, she remained in the memory of a quiet, meek, submissive girl who needed the crown the least of all in her life.

The happiness of the king was short-lived, already 15 months later England said goodbye to Jane, who died, having managed, however, to give birth to Henry's crown son, Edward.

Reformation. Anna Klevskaya

Now the king began to understand that, having declared himself the first ecclesiastic of England, he must reform the church doctrine. 1536 was a fateful year for british system Catholicism.

Two years later, Henry 8 carried out the alienation in favor of the state of property previously owned by large monasteries. Money poured into the treasury in a wide river, and the king at their expense strengthened the fleet and the land army.

In addition, the borders of England and Ireland were fortified with harbors and fortresses.

So, having started the reformation of the church, Henry thereby laid a solid foundation for the future power of England.

The reforms were so severe that within 17 recent years stay of the king on the throne, his courtiers executed, burned or rotted in the prisons of the order 70 thousand recalcitrant church ministers.

At the same time, the despot began to think about a fourth marriage. The list, which included his wives, was replenished with Anna, the daughter of the Duke of Cleves (the signing of the marriage treaty took place in 1539).

However, having previously known her only from a portrait, Henry 8 was disappointed in his choice: the new Anna turned out to be a "Flemish mare". He was married to her on January 6, 1540, and already on July 9 a divorce followed: they say that the bride did not get him a virgin.

Heinrich's next passion was not executed, they were given good maintenance and awarded the estate.

Katherine Gotward and Catherine Parr

And the resilient Henry 8 was already in love again by that time: Catherine Gotward became another candidate for his wife. Despite the 30-year age difference, the king married her as soon as 3 weeks had passed since the divorce from Anna number two.

Alas, this time Henry's wife (fifth in a row) turned out to be very frivolous behavior.

The evidence of betrayal presented to him was so distressing that the monarch sobbed right during the meeting of the council assembled on this occasion.

The traitor was beheaded in February 1542, and a year and a half later ... England learned about the new marriage of her monarch. This time, the object of his interest was the 30-year-old widow Catherine Parr.

It was for Henry a safe haven in which one could safely meet old age. Unfortunately, the new way of life did not work for him, and he died of obesity, unable to walk on his own.