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For him, and countless other kings, having a son to carry on the line was the key requirement of a marriage. married four of his six wives for love and even managed to fall in love with Anna of Cleve's picture" was also trapped by the reality of his role as king. While Henry himself, in the words of Fraser,"a romantic man. Thus the manoeuvres by families to position their daughters to catch the King's gaze were the cynical manipulation of a concrete situation. Henry was the centre of court life, and through him extended wealth, privilege and the future of families. Fraser brilliantly describes the way that the court revolved around Henry VIII, like planets orbiting the sun. Here is of course the problem for these women. She championed her own religious beliefs, until they clashed with the king's when she was forced to make an abrupt turn. Catherine Parr for instance, who survived Henry, was first the resourceful wife of Lord Latimer who managed their estates at the time of the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Instead, she argues, that "on thew contrary, a remarkably high level of strength, and also of intelligence, was displayed by them at a time when their sex traditionally possessed little of either."įraser takes us through the lives of these women, of whom we often know a surprising amount of detail from their letters and other documents. Thus Catherine of Aragon becomes The Betrayed Wife, Anne Boleyn is the The Temptress, Jane Seymour The Good Woman Anna of Cleves is The Ugly Sister, Katherine Howard The Bad Girl finally Catherine Parr is the Mother Figure." "as a series of feminine stereotypes, women as tarot cards. Antonia Fraser however challenges the cardboard caricatures of these women, suggesting that it is false to see them Traditionally we see these women as the passive victims of the increasingly irrational and tyrannical behaviour of Henry VIII, victims of his lust and violence.

This meticulous study of Henry VIII's six wives is a fascinating examination of the position and role of ruling class women in Tudor society.