It’s one of the books I’m rereading right now.  It’s written by Alison Weir.  I’m still on Anne Boleyn, so there’s 4 more wives to read about.  It’s been a slow reread, mostly because I’ve been baking a lot for Christmas, but I’m hoping to pick it back up once Christmas is over.

I really liked the book, and found that it gave a lot of insight into his wives.  Most of the book is devoted to Katherine of Aragon, which makes sense considering he was married to her the longest.  A good portion of it is also devoted to Anne Boleyn, which also wasn’t a surprise given the lengths he went to marry her. 

Jane Semour, Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard were the most interesting to read about. 

Jane Seymour, because Henry had convinved himself that he loved her the best out of all his wives, and apparently liked to say that she was his 1st lawful wife.

Anne of Cleves was really interesting as well, mostly because the portrait of her that was painted by Hans Holbein made her appear more beautiful than she was, and because Thomas Cromwell exaggerated what he had been told about Anne of Cleves.  The fact that Henry had felt he had been mislead would lead to their anullment.  She went on to live a happy, and private, life.

Katherine Howard is another I found really interesting because of her upbringing- she had spent part of her childhood in poverty, and then went on to live her step-grandmother, who didn’t pay much attention to her upbringing.  She really was ill-prepared to be queen, but nonetheless Henry obviously found her to be the perfect wife.  Her downfall was also fairly interesting as well- committing adultery.  Being married to Henry the 8th couldn’t have been easy, but that she would die the same way as her cousin Anne. 

I’m definitely leaning towards doing something set in Tudor England for my historical fiction novel, and writing about one of the women mentioned above would be interesting, as most of the (very few) historical fiction I’ve read focuses on Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth the 1st.