An interesting
mnemonic device for remembering the ultimate demise of the six wives of King
Henry VIII.
- Catherine of Aragon- (incidently, this was his brother Arthur's widow) Married, 1509. Divorced, 1533. Children: one daughter, Mary.
- Anne Boleyn- She was pregnant at the time of marriage in 1533. In May of 1536 he had her beheaded for infidelity. She had one daughter, Elizabeth.
- Jane Seymour (TV's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) married him the same month. She died of natural causes while giving birth to Henry's only son, Edward, in October 1536.
- Anne of Cleves, whom he arranged a marriage to in 1540 after seeing a portrait of her by Hans Holbein. When he met her he decided that he didn't like her, and promptly divorced her.
- Catherine Howard was next, later in the year 1540. He accused her of infidelity and had her beheaded in 1542.
- Catherine Parr, his final (and luckiest) wife. She married him in 1543, and survived his death in 1547.