Fact and Opinion: Who was the favorite of the 6 wives?

Few kings would wed more than two or three times, and did so only if her precedent had died. But then there were few if any kings like Henry VIII. The question asked again and again, and the question that no one could ever truly know the answer to is, who was his favorite? Who was the wife who he gave his amorous youth to? Catherine of Aragon, wife number 1. Who was the wife he moved the very Earth for, risking his favor and throne to create a new church and religion to wed? Anne Boleyn, wife number 2. Who was the wife who gave him his son, the wife in his Tudor dynasty portrait? Jane Seymour, wife number 3. Who was the wife he kept a friendship with at their marriage's end? Anne of Cleves, wife number 4. Who was the wife that made him feel young again? Katherine Howard, wife number 5. Who was the wife at his side in sickness and in health? Catherine Parr, the last wife.

What many people who staunchly believe that Henry VIII's one true love was Jane Seymour, mother of his only son, fail to see, is that his relationships with all of his wives were never, ever black and white. The above six questions and their answers prove that Henry loved each of his wives (at least at some point in their marriage) for different reasons, for the different things they did, their different traits and qualities.

Catherine was patient, intelligent, sweet, she was more than just a wife to him in the earliest years of their marriage, but in some ways a mother and caring older sister. There is no doubt that there was a time he was in love with her, and she arguably was his favorite wife; their relationship simply soured as she aged quicker than him and bore no sons. However, I simply can't see them as soul-mates, they were too different; they might both have been brilliant music-lovers, but Henry adored courtly love, seduction, poetry and adventurous romance, things pious, vanilla, pure and almost sexually naive Catherine could never deliver to him.

Jane Seymour was Henry's only truly acknowledged wife, and the only one to give him what Henry would kill and had killed for: the coveted son. He was drawn to her at once for how different she was from his own wife; she came with no drama, no quarrels, no rage and difficulties. She was calm, quiet, sweet, and pale, docile and obedient; she was the perfect break from Anne. But she could never be Henry's partner, soul mate; she was less educated than Anne, less bold and with few or no opinions. She didn't write poetry or music, she did embroidery and did as she was bid. But even so Henry was inconsolable for some time after her death, and was said to take up stitching and embroidery, Jane's trademark pastimes. She was the only queen depicted in the Tudor dynasty painting, being the mother of his son; she was one of the only of his wives who left him with good memories and fondness, received a funeral, and was buried at Henry's side.

Anne of Cleves was his wife for the briefest amount of time -- less than a year. Their relationship soured the moment she dented his pride by spurning him, come to visit her in disguise as a peasant. Her English was poor, her wit was far from sharp, she was un-stylish and could not dance, within days of their marriage Henry was seeking a way to escape her. If ever he did develop affections for Anne of Cleves, they were platonic. Favorite wife? No, but not his least favorite.

Katherine Howard is known as the king's most insignificant wife, the young and foolish whore who played games and lost them as well as her head. It is believed that Henry wed Katherine because she was pregnant with his child by the end of his marriage to Anne of Cleves; but there was something about Katherine that made him feel young again. He had aged considerably since his intense courtship of Anne Boleyn, he had gained an incredible amount of weight, the world felt heavier on his shoulders; Katherines energy and youth soothed him, but when she failed to take with child and betrayed him, he dropped her as though a toy.

Catherine Parr was his final wife. By the time they wed Henry was no longer interested in heirs, sex, and amorous play; all he wanted was stability and a kind and gentle nurse. He loved her in an almost sisterly, motherly way, and while his feelings for her were undoubtedly strong, he was at an age where love mattered little, and so nobody could say whether she was romantically his favorite wife, the love of his life.

When people think of Henry VIII's favorite wife, Anne Boleyn is the last who comes to mind; people are under the impression that he hated her, only naturally though, as he did order her execution. But even at their marriage's bitter, violent end, I don't think Henry ever stopped loving her. He might have lied and even convinced himself of the charges against her, but the only emotions I believe he truly experienced were hurt, regret, and frustration. There's a good chance that Anne was his favorite wife, that she was his soul mate, in my opinion. There was nothing more attractive to Henry than her alluring wit, her open-mind to reform and how she worked as his intelligent partner in crime. They could connect on an intellectual level, they could hunt together, explore art, religion, and music together, they could write poetry and compose music together. Anne made for an exciting mistress but she simply did not know how the transition from lover to wife worked, and had she learned and produced a male heir, she might have been his final wife.

Speculation: Was Catherine's marriage to Henry VIII legal?

Background Information: In 1501, sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon sailed to England from Spain to wed Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's older brother. Arthur had always been frail and died within months of their marriage, leaving Catherine as the widow Princess-Dowager of England. When Henry VIII came to power in 1509, he received a dispensation from Pope Julius II to wed Catherine, his brother's widow and in the eyes of some, his sister. She took with child many times but their only child who lived past infancy was a daughter, Mary Tudor. Henry VIII needed an heir to keep alive the Tudor dynasty and maintain unity in his kingdom; but before long Catherine became barren. Henry knew by 1526 that he had to find some way to get a legitimate son.

Casting aside all other factors such as Henry's dire need and belief that England and the Tudor dynasty would survive only under a male heir, his passionate longing for Anne Boleyn, and the fact that without a king to succeed him European powers or England's nobility would swoop in and tear the land apart, should Henry have divorced wife number 1? The question is not so much should as it is could he legally annul his marriage to Catherine?

Henry's statement was that when Catherine wed his brother, Arthur, in 1501, their marriage was consummated and so thus, having had intercourse with her brother, having such with Henry would be incest. He took this quote from Leviticus: "If a brother is to marry the wife of a brother they will remain childless" and cited it as the reason why he and Catherine had no sons. Catherine adamantly claimed that she went to Henry's bed a virgin, never once having sexual intercourse with her brother; even so, the couple had a dispensation from Pope Julius II. Only Pope Julius could look into or recall the dispensation, but he had died and Clement, in a sticky situation with the Empire, could -- but he was in no position to.

Alas, was the marriage truly illegal? Personally, I would say yes, and not simply because I am a die-hard Anne Boleyn lover. In those times, marriage and sex were as one: it was as good as impossible for a couple to wed and never bed. I don't doubt that Catherine and Arthur at some point had intercourse, and whether or not they did, the marriage still had witnesses and was legal. I do believe that in those days, no dispensation should have been able to outweigh the word of God, as Henry stated.

Either way, Rome never came to a conclusion and Henry had to take matters into his own hands, infamously severing all ties to the R.C.C. (Roman Catholic Church) and creating his own, the Anglican Church (which was still Catholic). In the eyes of the Empire and Rome, Henry became free to marry only after the death of Catherine of Aragon, viewed by some as Henry's one and only true wife.

My Opnion: Back in the ways of the sixteenth century, I believe all marriages of Henry VIII were legal save for this, but today I would say that all six marriages happened and can still be counted. Henry annulled all marriages save for those to Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr, using means of pre-contracts and affinity to squeeze out of the other four.