Who married Hendrik VIII van Engeland?

Hendrik VIII (Engels: Henry VIII) (Greenwich, 28 juni 1491 – Westminster bij Londen, 28 januari 1547) was van 1509 tot 1547 koning van Engeland, heer van Ierland en later ook koning van Ierland. Hij stamde uit het Huis Tudor en was een zoon van Hendrik VII en Elizabeth van York.

Hendrik VIII staat bekend als het stereotype van de zelfbewuste renaissance-vorst. Hij was intelligent en geïnteresseerd in kunst en wetenschap. Hij werd echter ook beschouwd als liefdeloos, egoïstisch en wreed. Tegenstrevers, echtgenotes of dienaren die hem niet aanstonden, ruimde hij meedogenloos uit de weg. Hendrik was berucht vanwege zijn huwelijksperikelen; hij heeft zes echtgenotes gehad, van wie hij er twee liet onthoofden.

Tijdens zijn bewind werden Engeland en Wales wettelijk verenigd in één koninkrijk, meer dan twee eeuwen na de verovering van Wales door Engeland. Een nog belangrijker ontwikkeling was de afscheiding van de Anglicaanse Kerk van de Kerk van Rome, vanwege een conflict met de paus over de ontbinding van zijn eerste huwelijk. Hiermee werkte hij onbedoeld de protestantse Reformatie in de hand. Hij liet zich in 1511 door paus Julius II betrekken in de Oorlog van de Liga van Kamerijk tegen Frankrijk, waarbij hij in de rug werd aangevallen door Frankrijks bondgenoot Schotland. Hij en vooral zijn echtgenote Catharina van Aragon - die de in Frankrijk vechtende Hendrik "waarnam" - wisten Schotland in 1513 echter een zware nederlaag toe te brengen in de Slag bij Flodden Field. In Frankrijk boekte hij enkele militaire successen, zoals in de Slag bij Guinegate. In 1516 stichtte Hendrik VIII de Britse postdienst Royal Mail en benoemde hij Brian Tuke als Master of the Posts (postmeester).

Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, historical Spanish: Catharina, now: Catalina; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until its annulment on 23 May 1533. She had previously been Princess of Wales while married to Henry's elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, for a short period before his death.

Catherine was born at the Archbishop's Palace of Alcalá de Henares, and was the youngest child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. She was three years old when she was betrothed to Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII of England. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history. She married Henry VIII shortly after his accession in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry was in France. During that time the English defeated a Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about courage and patriotism.

By 1526, Henry was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter Mary as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England's schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters in England. In 1533, their marriage was consequently declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as supreme head of the Church in England and considered herself the King's rightful wife and queen, attracting much popular sympathy. Despite this, Henry acknowledged her only as dowager princess of Wales. After being banished from court by Henry, Catherine lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, dying there in January 1536 of cancer. The English people held Catherine in high esteem, and her death set off tremendous mourning. Her daughter Mary became the first undisputed English queen regnant in 1553.

Catherine commissioned The Education of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated the book, controversial at the time, to the Queen in 1523. Such was Catherine's impression on people that even her adversary Thomas Cromwell said of her, "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History." She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day, for the sake of their families, and also won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor. Catherine was a patron of Renaissance humanism and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More.

Anne Boleyn (; c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn (later Earl of Wiltshire), and his wife, Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead, she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon. Early in 1523, Anne was secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, but the betrothal was broken off when the Earl refused to support it. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey refused the match in January 1524.

In February or March 1526, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, as her sister Mary had previously been. Henry focused on annulling his marriage to Catherine, so he would be free to marry Anne. After Wolsey failed to obtain an annulment from Pope Clement VII, it became clear the marriage would not be annulled by the Catholic Church. As a result, Henry and his advisers, such as Thomas Cromwell, began breaking the Church's power in England and closing the monasteries. Henry and Anne formally married on 25 January 1533, after a secret wedding on 14 November 1532. On 23 May 1533, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void. Five days later, he declared Henry and Anne's marriage valid. Clement excommunicated Henry and Cranmer. As a result of the marriage and excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and the Catholic Church took place, and the King took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned queen on 1 June 1533. On 7 September, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter, but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour.

Henry had Anne investigated for high treason in April 1536. On 2 May, she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury, including Henry Percy, her former betrothed, and her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She was convicted on 15 May and beheaded four days later. Historians view the charges, which included adultery, incest with her brother George, and plotting to kill the King, as unconvincing.

After her daughter, Elizabeth, became queen in 1558, Anne became venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of George Wyatt. She has inspired, or been mentioned in, many cultural works and retained her hold on the popular imagination. She has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had", as she provided the occasion for Henry to declare the English Church's independence from the Vatican.

جين سيمور (حوالي 1508 - 24 أكتوبر 1537) كانت ملكة إنجلترا والزوجة الثالثة للملك هنري الثامن منذ زواجهما في 30 مايو 1536 وحتى وفاتها في العام التالي. أصبحت ملكة بعد إعدام زوجة هنري الثانية آن بولين، التي اتهمها الملك هنري الثامن بالزنا بعد فشلها في إنجاب الوريث الذكر الذي كان يرغب فيه بشدة. ومع ذلك، توفيت جين بسبب مضاعفات ما بعد الولادة بعد أقل من أسبوعين من ولادة طفلها الوحيد الملك المستقبلي إدوارد السادس. كانت الزوجة الوحيدة لهنري التي تلقت جنازة ملكية؛ ودُفن لاحقًا إلى جانب رفاتها في كنيسة القديس جورج، قلعة وندسور.

كانت جين سيمور إحدى وصيفات الملكة السابقة آن بولين زوجة الملك هنري الثانية. لم تحظ جين سيمور بقدر عالي من التعليم كزوجتيه الأولى أو الثانية، فلم تكن تعرف القراءة أو الكتابة. كانت سيمور بدينة بعض الشيء، حيث لم تكن تمارس الرياضة، وكانت دائمة الإحساس بالإرهاق. وبعد تسعة أشهر من الزواج، أنجبت للملك وريثًا ذكرًا، والذي قامت الاحتفالات الكبيرة لقدومه، إلا أنها توفيت بعد 12 يومًا من الولادة، وتزوج هنري بعدها من زوجته الرابعة آن كليفز.

على العكس من آن بولين، لم تشارك جين سيمور في شؤون الملك، إلا في عام 1536، عندما طلبت من الملك أن يغفر للمشاركين في تمرد حركة مهاجري الرحمة. رفض هنري طلبها، وذكرها بمصير آن بولين عندما تدخلت في شؤون الملك.

Anne of Cleves (German: Anna von Kleve; 28 June or 22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of Henry VIII. Born in Düsseldorf to the House of La Marck, little is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of Bar, son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, although their marriage did not proceed.

In March 1539, negotiations for Anne's marriage to Henry began. Henry believed he needed to form a political alliance with her brother, William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, a leader of the Protestants of Western Germany, to strengthen his position against potential attacks from Catholic France and the Holy Roman Empire. Anne arrived in England in December 1539 and married Henry a week later, but the marriage was declared unconsummated after six months and Anne was not crowned queen consort.

Following the annulment, Henry gave her a generous settlement and Anne was thereafter known as the King's Beloved Sister. Remaining in England, she lived to see the reigns of Henry's children, Edward VI and Mary I, and attended Mary's coronation in 1553. Anne outlived the rest of Henry's wives. Upon her death she was interred as a queen in Westminster Abbey.

Catherine Howard (c. 1523 – 13 February 1542) was Queen of England from July 1540 until November 1541 as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a first cousin to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII), and the niece of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court. He secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where Howard caught the King's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. Henry was 49, and it is widely accepted that Catherine was about 17 at the time of her marriage to him.

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen in November 1541 and beheaded three months later on the grounds of treason for committing adultery with her distant cousin, Thomas Culpeper.

Catherine Parr (c. July or August 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort of the House of Tudor, and outlived Henry by a year and eight months. With four husbands, she is the most-married English queen consort. She was the first woman in England to publish in print an original work under her own name in the English language.

Catherine enjoyed a close relationship with Henry's three children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. She was personally involved in the education of Elizabeth and Edward. She was influential in Henry's passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 that restored his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession to the throne. Catherine was appointed regent from July to September 1544 while Henry was on a military campaign in France; in the event that he lost his life, she was to rule as regent until Edward came of age. However, he did not give her any function in government in his will.

On account of her Protestant sympathies, she provoked the enmity of anti-Protestant officials, who sought to turn the King against her; a warrant for her arrest was drawn up, probably in the spring of 1546. However, she and the king soon reconciled.

On 25 April 1544, Catherine published her first book, Psalms or Prayers, anonymously. Her book Prayers or Meditations became the first original book published by an English queen under her own name on 2 June 1545. She published a third book, The Lamentation of a Sinner, on 5 November 1547, nine months after the death of King Henry VIII.

After Henry's death on 28 January 1547, Catherine was allowed as queen dowager to keep the queen's jewels and dresses. She assumed the role of guardian to her stepdaughter Elizabeth, and took Henry's great-niece Lady Jane Grey into her household. About six months after Henry's death, she married her fourth and final husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. As brother of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, Seymour was uncle to Henry's son and successor Edward VI, and the younger brother of Lord Protector of England Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Catherine's fourth and final marriage was short-lived, as she died on 5 September 1548 due to complications of childbirth. Her funeral, held on 7 September 1548, was the first Protestant funeral in England, Scotland or Ireland to be held in English.