T HARDY-GOULD
Henry VIII and his Six Wives
HENRY VIII AND HIS SIX WIVES
King Henry the Eighth of England was famous for many things, but he was also famous because he had six wives. He was not a kind husband. People say that when he was looking for a new wife, careful fathers took their daughters away from the palace. They did not want the King to choose their daughter to be the next Queen, because some of his Queens had very short and unhappy lives.
Why did King Henry divorce two wives, and kill two others? What were his queens really like?
Catherine Parr, the sixth wife, lived on after the King’s death. One day she goes back to the palace of Whitehall and finds a box of old letters written to the King – one from each of the first five wives. She sits down to read them to her young maid, Margaret. The first letter is from the daughter of the King of Spain, Katherine of Aragon, who was Henry’s wife for twenty-four years. She died alone and sad and friendless …
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DPOxford University Press is a department of the University of OxfordIt furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide inOxford New YorkAuckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei TorontoWith offices inArgentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamOXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countriesThis edition © Oxford University Press 2008The moral rights of the author have been assertedDatabase right Oxford University Press (maker)First published in Oxford Bookworms 19962 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1No unauthorized photocopyingAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveYou must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirerAny websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the contentISBN 978 0 19 479062 8A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of Henry VIII and his Six Wives is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 478985 1ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Original illustrations by: Richard AllenThe publishers would like to thank the following for their permission to reproduce illustrations:Bridgeman Art Library Ltd pp3 (Henry VIII as a young man, c.1516, Flemish School/ Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, UK / The Fairhaven Collection National Trust Photographic Library/Derrick E. Witty), 7 (Portrait of Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, English School / Private Collection / Photo © Philip Mould Ltd, London), 19 (Jane Seymour, 1536/Holbein the Younger, Hans/Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria), 24 (Portrait of Anne of Cleves 1539, Holbein the Younger, Hans / Louvre, Paris, France / Giraudon), 29 (Portrait of a Lady, c.1540, Holbein the Younger, Hans / The Royal Collection © 2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II), 34 (Portrait of Henry VIII, 1548, Massys, Cornelis / National Portrait Gallery, London, UK), 36 (Portrait of a Lady, said to be Catherine Parr, English School, (16th century) / Lambeth Palace, London, UK); Corbis pp12 (Anne Boleyn/Heritage Images)Word count (main text): 6310 wordsFor more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookwormswww.oup.com/bookworms e-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478690 4e-Book first published 2012
