19 Facts About Henry VIII, the Tudor King With Six Wives

Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 to 1547 and is the most famous of the Tudor kings. He is remembered for his six wives and for breaking with the Pope, but he was also a sportsman, a musician and the king who built up England’s navy. Here are 19 facts about Henry VIII.

1Henry was never meant to be king.

Henry was born at Greenwich Palace on 28 June 1491 as the second son of Henry VII. His older brother Arthur was the heir, but Arthur died in 1502 aged 15, and Henry became king in 1509 at the age of 17.

2His first wife was his brother’s widow.

Catherine of Aragon, a daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, had married Arthur shortly before he died. Henry married her in 1509, soon after he became king. Their daughter later ruled as Mary I.

3He married six times.

His wives were Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. No other English monarch has married as many times.

4“Divorced, beheaded, died” is not quite accurate.

The famous rhyme runs “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived”. Henry did not actually divorce anyone in the modern sense. His marriages to Catherine of Aragon (in 1533) and Anne of Cleves (in 1540) were annulled, which meant they were declared never to have been valid.

5Two of his queens were beheaded, and they were cousins.

Anne Boleyn was executed in 1536 and Catherine Howard in 1542. The two women were first cousins. Both were accused of adultery, and both died at the Tower of London.

6Jane Seymour gave him the son he wanted.

Henry’s third wife gave birth to the future Edward VI in October 1537. Jane died less than two weeks later, after complications from the birth.

7His sixth wife outlived him and married again.

Catherine Parr was married to Henry for the last three and a half years of his life and helped to bring his three children together. After his death she married Thomas Seymour, the brother of Jane Seymour, in 1547.

8As a young man he was tall and athletic.

Henry stood over 1.8 metres (6 feet) tall and loved jousting, hunting, archery, wrestling and real tennis. His surviving armour shows how his body changed: a suit from his early twenties has a waist of about 81 cm (32 inches), while armour from his last years measures more than 127 cm (50 inches).

9A riding accident in 1536 changed his health.

In January 1536 Henry was thrown from his horse at Greenwich, and the armoured horse fell on top of him. He suffered from painful, ulcerated leg wounds for the rest of his life and became far less active.

10The Pope gave him the title “Defender of the Faith”.

In 1521 Henry wrote a book defending the Catholic Church against Martin Luther. On 11 October 1521 Pope Leo X rewarded him with the title Defender of the Faith. British monarchs still use it today, and it appears as “F D” on British coins.

11He made himself head of the Church in England.

When the Pope refused to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry broke with Rome. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England.

12He closed about 800 monasteries.

Between 1536 and 1540 Henry’s government shut down the abbeys, priories and convents of England and Wales and took their land and riches. Many of their ruins, such as Fountains Abbey and Tintern Abbey, can still be visited.

13He wrote music, but not “Greensleeves”.

Henry played several instruments and composed songs, the best known being “Pastime with Good Company”. The story that he wrote “Greensleeves” for Anne Boleyn is a myth: the tune is generally dated to the reign of Elizabeth I, after his death.

14He was terrified of the sweating sickness.

The sweating sickness was a mysterious illness that could kill within a day. When it struck London in 1528, Henry fled the city and kept moving from house to house to stay away from it.

15He turned a handful of ships into a real navy.

When his father died there were just five royal warships. By the time Henry died in 1547 there were more than 40. He founded royal dockyards at Woolwich in 1512 and Deptford in 1513 and set up the Navy Board to run the fleet.

16He watched his favourite warship sink.

The Mary Rose sank on 19 July 1545 during the Battle of the Solent, as Henry watched from Southsea. The wreck was raised in 1982 and can now be seen in a museum in Portsmouth.

17He ruled a city in modern Belgium.

In 1513 Henry’s army captured the city of Tournai, which is now in Belgium. England held it for several years before agreeing in 1518 to hand it back to France in return for a large payment.

18He executed some of his closest advisers.

Thomas More, his former Lord Chancellor, was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as head of the Church. Thomas Cromwell, his chief minister, was executed in 1540. A famous claim that 72,000 people were executed during his reign comes from a later Tudor writer and is thought to be a big exaggeration.

19He is buried next to Jane Seymour.

Henry died on 28 January 1547, aged 55. As he had asked, he was buried in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle beside Jane Seymour, the mother of his son.

FAQs about Henry VIII

How many wives did Henry VIII have?

Six: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.

How many children did Henry VIII have?

Three of his legitimate children survived him, and all three became monarchs: Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. He also had a son, Henry FitzRoy, outside marriage, who died in 1536.

When did Henry VIII die?

He died on 28 January 1547, aged 55, after years of poor health. His son became King Edward VI at the age of nine.

Sources and further reading

• Westminster Abbey: Henry VIII
• Royal Museums Greenwich: Henry VIII and his navy
• British Library: Defender of the Faith

Explore more: facts about the Tower of London and facts about the Royal Family.

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