CHAPTER 10
The Tudors
Henry VIII
For more than a hundred years, starting in 1485, the rulers of England came from a family called the Tudors. It is because of the Tudors that most people today think of the Tower of London as a place of murder, torture, and execution. The Tudors didn’t live in the Tower. It was no longer in good enough shape to serve as the main royal palace. But they sent many prisoners there. Henry VIII, in particular, had more people killed there than any other king. He ruled from 1509 to 1547.
Of all Henry’s victims, the most famous are two of his wives. He had six wives altogether. English schoolchildren used to learn this little rhyme: “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived,” to remember what happened to the various wives of Henry VIII.
His first wife was Catherine of Aragon. He was unhappy because she had only one child who lived through infancy, and it was a girl. He wanted a son to be king after him. Then he fell in love with a lady-in-waiting named Anne Boleyn. He wanted to divorce Catherine and marry Anne. But the Catholic church did not allow divorce. The pope would not let him end his marriage.
So Henry said that the pope was no longer the head of the church in England. Henry was. From then on, the church in England has been Anglican, not Catholic. And all because Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn.
As he prepared for his wedding, Henry had the Tower fixed up in Anne’s honor. He added the four onion-shaped domes of the White Tower that are still there today.
Jane Seymour
Unfortunately, Anne didn’t have a son, either, only a daughter. And Henry found that Anne was hot-tempered and independent. So he fell in love with another lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Now Henry wanted to get rid of Anne so he could marry Jane. He accused Anne of being a witch. He also said she had been unfaithful to him. He had one of the men he suspected thrown into the Tower and tortured. The prisoner was forced to say that he and Anne had a romantic relationship. He was also forced to accuse several other men. Anne and the men were all locked up in the Tower and sentenced to death.
Anne of Cleves
Usually executions took place on Tower Hill. Crowds of people would gather to watch. But as a special favor to his wife, Henry decided that her execution would be private, inside the Tower walls. Before the execution, Anne was told that she would feel little pain. She answered, “I have heard that the executioner is very good. And I have a little neck.”
Anne was praying as her head was struck off. When the executioner held the head up to show it to the people watching, it was said that her lips could still be seen moving in prayer.
Ten days after Anne died, Henry married Jane. Jane gave him the son and heir he wanted, but she died soon after giving birth. Henry’s next wife was a foreign princess, Anne of Cleves. He had only seen a painting of her before their marriage. When he met her in person, he thought she was so ugly that he ended the marriage as soon as he could.
Catherine Howard
Next, he fell in love with Catherine Howard. She was only sixteen. (Henry was already forty-nine.) After they were married for a little while, Henry began to think that Catherine was unfaithful to him. She, too, was sent to the Tower and beheaded.
Catherine Parr
The night before Catherine Howard died, she asked for the block she would be executed on to be brought to her room in the Tower. She wanted to practice putting her neck on it.
Only Henry’s last wife, Catherine Parr, managed to survive him.
Ghosts
