Why Is Henry VIII The One To Blame For The Fate Of His Wives?

Is Henry VIII the One to Blame for the Fate of his Wives? To six wives he was wedded, one died, one survived, two divorced, and two beheaded. This is the timeline of Henry VIII’s six wives. Henry VIII was a king who was known for marrying six different times. Each time he got married, something bad would happen to his wife. Therefore, when his name is mentioned, a negative connotation is felt, but this should not be the case. Henry was very religious, and “In 1521 he wrote a pamphlet attacking Martin Luther and his teachings...” (Beck, 431). At the time Martin Luther was against the pope and his teachings, so Henry was rewarded by the Pope for writing against Martin Luther. This shows Henry’s commitment and well-being. Henry should not be blamed for
Anne Boleyn was his second wife and the first of the two to get executed. Anne was definitely not Henry’s favorite wife, but he was not the reason for her execution. Henry did not like Anne at first, because she did not produce him the son he needed. This made Henry mad at Anne and at God for not giving him his male heir, however this was also not the reason she was beheaded. Anne actually was accused of committing a crime, infidelity. Infidelity was a serious crime to commit let alone be committed by a queen. Back then queens got more intense punishments for committing crimes, which is actually the reason why Anne got beheaded. Catherine Howard was Henry’s fifth wife, whose fate was also execution. Like Anne Boleyn, Catherine committed crimes to earn her fate. She was caught cheating on Henry and for alleged marital infidelity, two major crimes. On top of that, “...Henry accused his wife of adultery” (primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk). This just added onto the list of crimes Catherine committed. All this crime pointed to the obvious punishment of execution, which was used more often back then rather than in the modern