Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Lazy Historian's Guide to the Wives of Henry VIII > Status Update

‘Henry gave her gifts and granted titles to her brother in hopes of impressing Katherine. She must have been crushed at this new development in her situation - her hottie boyfriend was sent away, and now another much older man was proposing marriage. She reluctantly agreed, believing this was the path God had placed before her. Maybe He had a divine reason for doing so.’

‘asking if she [Elizabeth] could come and meet her... Anne was touched by the letter and showed it to Henry. He, in turn, gave it to Cromwell because, as we’ve seen, Henry was terrible at fighting his own battles face-to-face with his wives. Henry told Cromwell to deny Elizabeth’s request, adding, “Tell her that she had a mother so different from this woman that she ought not to wish to see her.”’

‘Some sources say Henry VIII waited years between Wife #3 and Wife #4 because he was too heartbroken to replace his beloved Jane Seymour soon after her death. He was distraught over her death, but the search for Henry’s next wife started the month after Jane died. It wasn’t considered insensitive; it was more about practicality.’

‘Jane, likely born in 1508 or 1509, was less educated than Catherine and Anne because she was raised in a slightly less progressive household. She was taught to dance, do needlework, run a household, and to be obedient to her father and brothers. There are conflicting sources about Jane’s literacy level, but she could at least read and write her own name.’

‘When Cardinal Compeggio left England for Italy, he took with him love letters written by Henry and sent to Anne Boleyn during their courtship. These letters remain in the Vatican Library to this day.’

I know they were stolen, but I’ve never read that Campeggio was the one who stole them.

‘Catherine became pregnant very easily, especially in the earlier years of her marriage to Henry VIII. Within months of their wedding day, Catherine was with child. Catherine and Arthur were married for four and a half months, and he visited her chamber several times. If they’d had sex during that time, there’s a good chance Catherine would have become pregnant, unless something was medically wrong with Arthur’

‘So the English monarch looked around for a potential bride. It would have to be a woman young enough to have children. He didn’t have to look far, since there was a Spanish princess waiting in the wings already... When the idea was floated by Catherine’s parents, they immediately went “Noooooooope.” They wanted more for their youngest daughter than to be the wife of an old king likely to die soon.’

‘Isabel and Fernando were in the thick of their campaign against the Moors of Granada when their youngest child was conceived. The queen was thirty-four, beyond childbearing years by the standards of the day, and determined to continue with her cause. During a cold and rainy December 1485, in Alcalá de Henares in central Spain, Princess Catalina was born. She was the last of the Catholic monarch brood.’