Review: The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Warning: Spoilers.

Alison Weir is my favorite British historian, bar none.  I have many of her biographies (most of them) and I have read two of her three historical fictions.  But of all her books, this one, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, is by far my favorite.

Due in part to writers like Philippa Gregory and the Showtime series The Tudors, there has been a definite resurgence of interest in Renaissance England andTudor dynasty.  But especially in King Henry VIII, the man who virtually created the English Reformation and who was notorious in his married life, the only King to have six wives.  But Weir does not merely focus on the life of Henry VIII -- something colorful and occupying in its own right -- but chooses to tell the story of the six women who were bound to him in holy matrimony throughout his turbulent reign.  Because of a dearth of knowledge about the latter four queens (and also their shortened reigns and little influence on English history), Weir chooses to write the first two thirds of her book about Henry's first two queens, leaving one chapter for the third lady, and cramming the last three into the third part.  

Part One, entitled "The Princess from Spain", is all about Katherine of Aragon, the first queen, a princess from Spain who came to England to marry Henry's elder brother Arthur, who died just weeks after their wedding.  After swearing that the marriage was never consummated, Katharine was then betrothed to Henry, who took her as his wife for fourteen years before annulling the marriage on the grounds that she could not provide him with a son.  This part of the book is probably the happiest, and where we see Henry at his best, before age and intransigence made him a vicious tyrant.  Weir dissects English history up to this point, describing the English court and political stage, as well as the marriage between Henry and Katherine, why it began so successfully, and what lead to its ultimate failure.

Part Two is titled "The King's Great Matter" and is all about Anne Boleyn, the lady-in-waiting who aspired to the throne of England and who promised Henry a son if he married her.  Weir explains the religious schisms happening in Europe at the time and why it was ultimately so easy for Henry to break with the Roman Catholic Church when they did not give him his annulment, and how Anne's constant assurances that Henry had absolute power lead them all to disaster.  By the end of Part Two, Henry is no longer an affable and friendly monarch, he is a tyrant who stops at nothing to have his will and destroy those who oppose him.  And of course, by its end, Anne is dead, as is Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, whose short but memorable career as queen of England ended in death after the birth of Henry's son, the future Edward VI.

Part Three, "How Many Wives Will He Have?" focuses on Henry's last three marriages and the motivations behind each, as well as his attempts to fulfill his two very important needs: more sons for the assurance of the succession after his death, and his attempts to reclaim the youth he lost.  His marriage to his fourth wife, the German Anne of Cleves, was a dismal failure from the start (Henry is reported to have been displeased with her appearance) and was annulled after six months.  Henry's fifth marriage was to a mere English teenager, the 15-year-old Katherine Howard, whom he was reported to be deeply and passionately in love with (rather like Anne).  After Katherine's death, Henry married the widow Katherine Parr, who is his queen during his short but successful invasion of France and up until his last days.

Weir's biography explains Tudor England and Renaissance Europe during a time of incredible turmoil and change, through the lives of these six women who had the fortune (good or bad) to marry England's most notorious and irascible King.  Yet by the end, Weir almost has me feeling a modicum of sympathy even for King Henry, for surely the life she unfolded in her novel was not what he had anticipated.  The sequel, The Children of Henry VIII, is nearly as well-written and colorful, and picks up where Wives left off.  This book and others of Weir's are, IMO, a must for any Tudor fanatics, and much better than most historical fiction about the period.

Rating: *****