How Many Queens of King Henry VIII Were Beheaded?

King Henry VIII was one the most controversial Kings for me. By just looking into his background as a great leader of England before, was a very notable achievement already for him. On the other hand, when it comes to women into his life, I can’t help but stop for a while thinking about the “feeling” of those women of his. It’s funny but sometimes I’m thinking like: what if it happened that I was one of them…:) Especially if I was Anne Boleyn… yeah her story was so dramatic, full of love and passion, yet it ended in a tragic way. Wow…I couldn’t imagine myself losing my head all because of love. (What kind of love is that? Oh my…)

Anyway, so, how many queens of Henry VIII were being beheaded? 

First and foremost, there were six queens being married to King Henry VIII. 

           Catherine of Aragon

           Anne Boleyn 

                      Jane Seymour

           Anne of Cleves

           Catherine Howard

          Catherine Parr

Wow…so many Catherine…J  Now, actually only two were being beheaded or executed. They were Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. And surprisingly, these two women were cousins. And the other wives were being annulled, two of them, Anne of Cleves and Catherine of Aragon. And the other wives like Jane Seymour died because of childbirth. And the last one survived because King Henry VIII died.

And to evaluate why these two queens died, most of the reasons were adultery. But accordingly, the case about Anne Boleyn’s adultery was suspicious in the sense that there was no concrete or clear evidence. So, it was assumed that probably King Henry was already tired of her or lost his interest in her especially that she wasn’t able to give her a male heir (really a big deal?)

And the other queens especially Anne of Cleves who just became a queen for six months because she was being annulled. Accordingly it was adultery again made by the woman. And when an annulment was filed, she did not refuse it, thus there the annulment became smooth sailing.(Maybe it may ended to execution again if she was hard…)

So, after all these things, my questions is- why was it that King Henry VIII wanted to marry more women? 

In my own point of view, I can see these reasons:

He wanted to have a male child to be an heir to his throne since most of his queens found it hard to have a male child.
He could lose his love easily and could easily find another woman for a replacement.
He just wanted to have more women as a sign of his power as a “great king”
[think about it] …

Yes, I’m still confused until now. Yeah, King Henry knew more about it. But what is important to me is that I pity those women because I am a woman too. But on the other side of the coin is that I   also admire their strength and courage to play their hard roles in History.  How about you? Let me know your stand…

And below, I found an interesting video featuring King Henry VIII and his wives especially Anne Boleyn. The Tudors...:)