The Tudor Dynasty (and how it relates to

America)

King Henry VIII

Henry VII (8th) was King of England from 1509-1547.

He had six wives:

1) Katherine of Aragon: one daughter: Mary, born in 15162) Anne Boleyn: one daughter: Elizabeth, born in 15333) Jane Seymour: one son: Edward, born in 15374) Anne of Cleves: no children5) Katherine Howard: no children6) Catherine Parr: no children

Why so many wives?!

- Kings needed to produce sons as heirs for when they died.

- If a king had no sons, then someone else in his family (like his brother, uncle, etc.) could take power. It could even lead to civil war if other families thought they could take the throne.

- Henry's first wife had many stillborn children, but only one girl, Mary, survived.

Wife #1: Katherine of

AragonHenry’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, was too old to have any more children.

Henry fell in love with one of Katherine’s ladies, Anne Boleyn. He pursued her, sending her gifts and love letters, trying to get her to be his mistress. Anne told Henry she loved him too, but she refused to be physically intimate with him unless he married her.

-So: in order to be able to do the horizontal mambo with Anne, he had to marry her. Plus, Anne was young, and could produce sons. Naturally, Henry asked the Pope to grant him a divorce from Katherine.

-The Pope said no.

A New Church-Henry decided the only right thing to do was to break up with the Catholic church and create a new Church of England, where he could make his own rules about marriage and divorce.

The Church of England became known as the Anglican religion, or Protestantism (meaning in protest of the Catholic Church).

As soon as Henry sent a break-up message to the Pope, he told Katherine she was no longer his wife. He told her to pack her stuff, take her daughter and get out (to one of his palaces in the south of England).

Wife #2: Anne BoleynOnce Katherine and Mary had left, and Henry had the old lady smell cleaned out of her rooms, Henry married Anne Boleyn.

Nine months after their marriage, Anne gave birth to a girl: Elizabeth.

Anne became pregnant at least 3 more times, but all were stillborn.

The last stillborn baby was deformed, and in this time period, babies born with deformities were considered to be the result of a great sin committed by one or both parents. To make matters worse: it was a boy.

Breaking up is hard...Henry became convinced that Anne was never going to give him a son that would survive birth.

He also needed a way to get Anne to stop meddling in political affairs, which she liked to do.

Henry had also taken a mistress, Jane Seymour.

Henry and his advisors decided to frame Anne for infidelity and treason so that she would be found guilty.

After the fake ‘evidence’ was planted, Anne was arrested and put on trial by the King’s Justices. The verdict? Guilty on all charges.

Anne’s Execution

Anne was executed by French-style beheading on May 17, 1536. Just to be a huge jerk, Henry gave the order for her favourite dog to also beheaded.

Wife #3: Jane Seymour

Henry announced his engagement to Jane Seymour the day after Anne’s execution. They were married 10 days later.

Jane gave birth to a son, Edward, a year later.

She died due to an infection contracted while giving birth about 2 weeks after Edward was born.

Wife # 4: Anne of ClevesThree years after Jane’s death, Henry’s advisors arranged for him to be married to a German noblewoman, Anne of Cleves.

Henry sent his official court painter to paint her portrait before he decided to marry her.

The court painter had been threatened by Henry’s advisors to make her look pretty even if she wasn’t, because they wanted an alliance with Germany.

Sooooooo-weeeee!Once Henry saw her portrait, he decided she was pretty enough to marry, so he sent notice of his intent to marry her.

When Anne arrived, Henry realized he’d been fooled, as she wasn’t pretty at all compared to her portrait. According to Henry, she was also “terribly boring”, and “smelled bad”.

The marriage was never consummated, and he divorced her within a few months.

Wife #5: Catherine Howard

While Henry was briefly married to Anne of Cleves, he had

taken Catherine Howard, one of Anne’s ladies, as a

mistress.

Katherine was young and all the right kinds of crazy.

Henry was enthralled by her beauty and her…um… love

of… exercise.

The problem was that Henry was 50 years old, and he

was over 300 pounds. To make matters worse, he had a

huge ulcer on his thigh that had to be drained of pus

every day. All these factors made it difficult for him to…

exercise.

Wife #5: Catherine Howard

Catherine chose to find other ‘exercise partners’ to…um…

stay busy.

She thought she was being discreet, but eventually Henry

found out and had her arrested on the charge of treason

(betraying the King).

Catherine was executed on February 13, 1542. That way,

Henry could return the Valentine’s Day gift he bought her

and buy

himself something nice instead.

Wife #6: Catherine Parr

Henry’s last wife was much different than all the others.

Catherine Parr was 31 years old when they married, and

she had already been married twice before (both

husbands had died).

This meant Catherine was much more mature and

composed than Henry’s other wives.

Catherine never had any children with Henry, and

remained married to him right up until he died on January

28, 1547.

The King is dead; long live

the King!- After Henry’s death, his son Edward became king at age 10 in 1547.

- Edward had always been a sickly boy, and he died at age 15 of pneumonia on July 6, 1553.

- Edward's death left the monarchy to his sister Mary- the daughter of Katherine of Aragon (his 1st wife) and Henry.

Queen Mary-Queen Mary forced England to return to Catholicism, the religion she was raised in.

-She married Prince Phillip of Spain, who was also Catholic.

-At 38 years old at the time of her marriage, it was hopeful that she would still be able to have children.-Mary had two phantom pregnancies, but never a real one.

Mary ordered the “Protestant Persecution”: anyone who refused to convert to Catholicism, or who were caught practicing the Protestant faith, were executed. As such, she was nicknamed “Bloody Mary”.

Mary died at age 42 in 1558.

Queen Mary's Legacy- Mary left England in a state of fear and near bankruptcy, since most of the royal treasury was spent on persecuting Protestants.

Queen Elizabeth I- Elizabeth, raised in the Protestant religion, converted England back to Protestantism, but not by using the harsh methods of her half-sister.

- Elizabeth used her charm to win the people over into doing as she wished in a peaceful manner.

Queen Elizabeth I

- Elizabeth's goal was to rebuild England and make her prosperous once more.

- The best way to go about becoming a wealthy country again was to seek out foreign property, and take what you could from the new land.

- Elizabeth granted many charters (royal permission) to several explorers. Two of those charters would lead to colonization in America...

Picture Gallery

King Henry VIII

Katherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

Jane Seymour

Anne of Cleves

Catherine Howard

Catherine Parr

King Edward VI

Queen Mary

Queen Elizabeth