Secrets of the Six Wives - Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr - Divorced, Beheaded, Survived

Good morning, today we are concluding the Secrets of the Six Wives series.  In the previous episode, Henry VIII had executed one wife and buried the third wife.  Today, we are going to finish up the series with the final three wives: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.  Catherine of Aragon failed to give him a son and he deserted her after twenty-four years of marriage to Anne Boleyn.  Anne failed to adjust to life as Henry VIII’s wife and so was dispatched.  Jane Seymour succeeded where Catherine and Anne failed by giving Henry VIII a son but she died twelve days later.  Henry VIII is in mourning after the death of Jane Seymour.  Jane Seymour was the perfect wife because she gave him a son.  The run time for this documentary is 55:29.

This concluding episode starts with Henry VIII playing one of his tricks.  Only this time the king is forty-eight years old and the trick he is playing on is a woman he has never met.  This woman would be destined to be his fourth queen: Anne of Cleves.  What would happen as a result of this trick would force Anne of Cleves to go down in history as Henry VIII’s ugly wife.  So why was Henry pushed into this marriage?

Henry VIII was pushed into marriage this time around.  His advisors wanted to have more allies around England.  So, they went far and wide for a suitable marriage candidate.  However, Henry’s reputation on the continent was not that good and potential brides turned him down.  One candidate said that “if she had two heads, she would be happy to marry Henry.”  It took two years for Henry to find wife number four.  A noblewoman named Anne of Cleves would be settled on and although English history would remember her as Henry’s ugly wife, Anne was a clever woman who survived Henry VIII.

As Anne made her way to England, she took the time to learn about Henry.  She wanted to get up to speed with court etiquette.  However, the courtiers failed to teach her about Henry’s tricks.  So when he burst in on her dressed as a knave, she reacted very badly.  This turned Henry off from marrying her, however as excuses not to marry vanished, he had to surrender to the yoke of marriage.  He would call her ugly, despite what contemporaries had to say of Anne. 

This would be one of the shortest of Henry’s marriages as he turned his wandering eye to a young noblewoman named Catherine Howard.  Catherine was a new arrival at court and the King was smitten with her.  Just six months after she arrived, Anne was sent to live at Richmond Palace.  Anne of Cleves held out for a settlement when the marriage ended: she would be known as the King’s Sister and was given two palaces and an entourage of servants.  Anne would become one of the richest women in England and would outlive Henry VIII and his other wives.  She was a canny woman, who was a survivor.

However, Henry’s fifth queen was not all as she seemed.  She was a young woman with a past.  Henry was unaware of the past and believed her to be the perfect queen.  She had a secret lover while married to the King.  So why did she continue with the affair?  Was she a willing participant or was she a victim?  When she met her lover one week, the court noticed and gossip started swirling.  A letter was left for the King to find in the Royal Chapel.  This letter highlighted some scandalous details about Catherine’s past.  What would Henry do about this letter?  What about Catherine Parr?  How would she survive King Henry VIII?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

After finishing this series would this be a docudrama I would in the classroom?  Yes, it would be something I would show in the classroom.  The reenactments are excellent and Lucy provides excellent narration both in modern and period clothing.  The period clothing is excellently done as well.  If you do not have time to show this in the classroom setting, then you can mine the series, especially the reenactments for clips to show as part of a lecture.

The downside of Lucy’s series is that it does not go to four episodes as David Starkey’s did.  He covered Catherine of Aragon in the first episode, Anne Boleyn in the second episode, Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves in the third episode, and concluded with Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.  It would have been nice to see the last four wives split up in this way.