Henry VIII and his Six Wives

      HENRY VIII AND HIS SIX WIVES

      King Henry the Eighth of England was famous for many things, but he was also famous because he had six wives. He was not a kind husband. People say that when he was looking for a new wife, careful fathers took their daughters away from the palace. They did not want the King to choose their daughter to be the next Queen, because some of his Queens had very short and unhappy lives.

      Why did King Henry divorce two wives, and kill two others? What were his queens really like?

      Catherine Parr, the sixth wife, lived on after the King’s death. One day she goes back to the palace of Whitehall and finds a box of old letters written to the King – one from each of the first five wives. She sits down to read them to her young maid, Margaret. The first letter is from the daughter of the King of Spain, Katherine of Aragon, who was Henry’s wife for twenty-four years. She died alone and sad and friendless …