Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens

The women who married Henry VIII have come to be encapsulated in a six-word rhyme: ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died / Divorced, Beheaded, Survived’. What were the real-life stories and legacies of the six women who married Henry VIII? Discover these extraordinary queens through the court culture that recorded and shaped their often tempestuous lives: their letters, heraldic devices, books, love tokens and, of course, their portraits.

This publication reveals the extraordinary lives, and afterlives, of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. The book begins with examining these women as cultural phenomena, looking at how their lives have inspired storytellers, from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII to the musical Six, and the role that portraiture has played in the performance of the queens’ stories.

An overview essay examines the queens’ self-presentation through portraiture before individual chapters consider each of their relationships with the king, their social and familial networks and their patronage. Each chapter is accompanied by a thematic piece written by an expert scholar, taking a closer look at an element of court culture, ranging from music and jewelry to court pageantry and heraldry.