Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon.

Henry the VIII is a very well known man, well known for being King, of course, but also, for having had six wives, only one of which outlived survived. Henry was known to be a picky man, his woman had to be beautiful, she had to be nice, but most of all, his wife, the Queen of England, had to be able to provide him with a son; a male heir to the throne.

In 1509, Henry married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon; she was quite young at the time. Catherine was the youngest (surviving) child of Ferdinand and Isabella. Catherine’s parents had arranged for her to be married to Arthur, Henry VIII younger brother, Catherine and Arthur got married in 1501, but Arthur soon died of ‘sweating sickness’ seeing as their marriage wasn’t consummated, Henry soon took the place of his younger brother, and married Catherine himself. Catherine struggled to provide Henry with a male heir to the throne, she had miscarriages, still born children, and children that lived only for a couple of days; that was until she gave birth to their daughter, Mary, who survived. Soon enough Henry got frustrated by the lack of a male heir, and took this out as if it were Catherine’s fault. Catherine grew too old to provide him with any more children, and by this time, Henry had already fallen for Anne Boleyn, Catherine used her daughter as a sort of plea to stay with Henry, but it was no use, he divorced her, when it was discovered that Anne Boleyn, was pregnant.

Anne Boleyn married Henry in 1533, at the age of 24. Anne grew up partially in France, where she learnt how to speak French fluently, and learned to appreciate French fashion, poetry, and music. It was rumored that Anne had six fingers. Henrys marriage to Anne was done secretly as it was before he had finalized his divorce with Catherine. Henry saw this as being okay though, as he didn’t consider his marriage with Catherine as valid. When Anne’s child was finally born, it was a girl, Elizabeth. She tried again a few times, but she miscarried, she blamed this on stress. It soon became obvious that the king had taken interest to Jane Seymour, and the court used this to start taking Anne down, even King Henry’s ‘right hand man’ Cromwell was in on it, and he convinced Henry to sign off an investigation on Anne, one that would take her down. The queen was soon arrested with charges of treason, adultery, and incest; Anne Boleyn was executed on Tower hill.

Both Anne and Catherine were two different women, with very similar outcomes both women were eager to please, and tried their best, but neither one was good enough. Catherine and Anne both struggled to provide Henry with a son, but provided him with a daughter instead, and both had many miscarriages. I think another big similarity between both of the women is the depression they must have gone through, Henry moved on very quickly, and they were aware of the ‘other woman’ that was going to replace them.