Q&A for How to Remember Henry VIII's Wives

Henry VIII falsely accused her of adultery, witchcraft, incest and conspiracy against the king. In reality, he was done with her because she failed to produce a desperately wanted male heir.

A king is always looking to give the throne to another king. Kings do business marriages to acquire land and wealth, while kings of other nations practically sell their daughters into these marriages for peaceful diplomatic affairs. If he had a daughter, she would have become someone else's queen, and their nation could acquire wealth (or nothing, depending on what he thought his daughter or her mother were worth). The last name is passed through the male, for the bloodline to continue. So for preservation of the royal family, a king must produce another king.

Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife, survived because Henry was old and in bad physical health at the time, while she was young. When he died, she continued to be alive.

The children were often sent off to big houses in the country, where other nobles took care of them. They had tutors and lots of people looking after them.

Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. By doing so he started the Tudor dynasty and effectively ended the Wars of the Roses.

He broke with the Roman Catholic Church and had Parliament declare him supreme head of the Church of England, starting the English Reformation, because the pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

He needed a wife to be the stepmother of Edward VI. Her death was the reason Edward was on the throne at a very young age. He died at a very young age, too!