Different kinds of theories are circling around about the reasons why Henry VIII had his second wife beheaded. It is known that the king, who was notorious for his cruelty and heartlessness, had viciousness. He had even his best friends and allies killed if they were thought guilty in defeating his power. However, his main enemies were his wives. He had six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr (www.luminarium.org). Two of them were beheaded: Anne Boleyn and her cousin, Catherine Howard. However, the execution of Anne was the most notorious one during the reign of Henry VIII. His reasons of beheading his wife were: he had difficulties with getting divorced from his previous wife and he did not want a long process, Anne could not give birth to a son who could have been his crown prince, he was not attracted by Anne anymore so that he had already had another mistress called Jane Seymour and finally Anne was accused with adultery and treachery which was an unforgiveable crime at that time.
His previous wife was Catherine of Aragon who had been his brother’s widow. However, her marriage with Henry VIII went wrong when he realized that Catherine was not able to give birth to a healthy son. The only child who survived was Mary, a subsequent queen of England (www.luminarium.org). The monarch had several mistresses in order to have a son. One of them was Anne Boleyn’s sister; Mary Boleyn who later became pregnant and she gave birth to a healthy son (www.angelfire.com). However, the king got acquaintance with Anne and he declared Mary’s son a bastard. Anne meant a real challenge for him: “But Anne Boleyn was not a mistress like others. She kept Henry at arm’s length fo...
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...ecuted. Two days later Anne Boleyn died in the Tower as well. A couple of days after her execution Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. He did not even felt sorry for Anne. He watched her beheading without any emotions as she was a stranger (Morgan 139.) The governor of the Tower said that she did not look like scared of death at all (www.luminarium.org).
Anne Boleyn’s destiny had fulfilled. Maybe if she had given birth to a healthy son of the monarch she would have been survived the cruelty of her husband. Her disability and ambition led her to the grave. If she could preserve her charm maybe the king would have been faithful to her. Finally, if she did not want to be the queen of England and the wife of Henry VIII she would not have had the same destiny as her predecessor. However, Catherine of Aragon died in a natural way and she had her dignitary when she died.
In the beginning of their relationship, it is quite that Henry VIII was deeply infatuated with Anne, as she remained something unattainable in his eyes. The evidence of their love story remains as the letters Henry wrote to Anne prior to their marriage were left undamaged in the attempt to erase Anne from history. In his letter to her in 1528, Henry is not shy about calling Anne his sweetheart and discussing his desire to be with her as he begins to see the flaws in his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (N. Key & R. Bucholz (Eds.), 2009). He was hopeful for a new marriage, and a male heir, that would ensure his family’s claim to the throne. In part, it is this stage of hist...
Richards usurpation of the throne was not the only reason why people did not like or trust him however. Richard, Duke of Gloucester arrested Hastings on a false charge of treason on the 13th June 1483 and had him beheaded without trial (beheading for treason was common for nobility). This alarmed other nobles who were shocked at the speed which Richard was prepared to dispatch people who he though could possible oppose him. Hastings was a well liked noble who had got on incredibly well with Richards brother Edward. This infuriated many nobles as the execution without trial was again unjust.
The word felon comes from the Saxon, or Old-English, language. The word is a compound of the words fell as in wrong-doing and one. So, when the world felon is broken apart, it can be translated to mean the evil or wicked one (Chapter XVII: Of Sundry Kinds of Punishment Appointed For Offenders). Felons are a common problem now and always have been. However, the way said criminals were treated was very different at the time of the Elizabethan Era, from 1558-1603. As Linda Alchin stated, Elizabethan England and Elizabethan Crime and Punishment- not a happy subject. Violent times,” (Alchin). During the Elizabethan Era, criminals were severely and brutally punished for even minor crimes such as theft and even as little as begging. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I rule, crimes and punishments were taken to a whole new level.
On Sept. 7th 1533, Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry was born. The King of England wasn’t as thrilled since she wasn’t a boy, who would mean an heir to the throne, but it was still okay. Due to the fact that after 2 more births that resulted in death, Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1936 when Elizabeth was only 3 years old. As her father continued to remarry, divorce, and execute his wives, one more child would be born, resulting to Elizabeth having one sister, Mary, and a new born brother named Edward. After Edward was born, his mother Jane died. She was known for being the one wife that Henry actually loved. Elizabeth grew into a very smart girl. She was known as Bess as times spoke Latin, French, German, and Henry gave her a tutor to study with. Along with everything else, she developed a temper that would help her later on as being a Queen.
In 1536, Henry began to believe that his wife was being unfaithful. She was charged with treason and adultery, and soon beheaded. He then married Jane Seymour. She gave him a male heir, Edward, and then died a few days after childbirth [1].
She witnessed her first hardship when she had been only three years old. Her father, King Henry VIII, had ongoing suspicions about her mother’s strange behaviors, for he had suspected his second wife, Anne, to be performing the dishonorable act of adultery with more than five men of the palace’s chambers, one of the suspects being her own brother, stirring out a crime of incest and linking it to Anne. He then ordered the execution of Anne on the false charges of adultery which then stripped Princess Elizabeth of her title and left her going by Lady Elizabeth instead. Since Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, many believed that she would never obtain the title queen. Fortunately for her, fate had it differently planned it out, and she grew to be the famous Virgin Queen of England.
Henry VIII did not set a good example in Elizabeth’s early years. Elizabeth was born to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on September 7, 1533. Henry had wanted a son so severely that he had had his previous wives beheaded since they gave him no sons (Eakins). Anne thought that she was expecting a boy, but sure enough, Elizabeth came out. This was somewhat of a disappointment to the King. In May of 1536 (Sparknotes), before Elizabeth was even three years old, Henry had Anne’s head cut off after he – possibly falsely – charged her with incest and adultery. Henry then remarried Jane Seymour who would soon expect a son. Jane died shortly after the birth of Edward VI. Katherine Parr was Elizabeth’s last stepmother as well as Henry’s sixth and final wife. Katherine had an older daughter than Elizabeth – Mary (Eakins). Henry VIII’s health was declining, however.
King Charles I left us with some of the most intriguing questions of his period. In January 1649 Charles I was put on trial and found guilty of being a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer and a public enemy of England. He was sentenced to death and was executed on the 9th of February 1649. It has subsequently been debated whether or not this harsh sentence was justifiable. This sentence was most likely an unfair decision as there was no rule that could be found in all of English history that dealt with the trial of a monarch. Only those loyal to Olivier Cromwell (The leader opposing Charles I) were allowed to participate in the trial of the king, and even then only 26 of the 46 men voted in favour of the execution. Charles was schooled from birth, in divine right of kings, believing he was chosen by God to be king, and handing power to the parliament would be betraying God. Debatably the most unjust part of his trial was the fact that he was never found guilty of any particular crimes, instead he was found guilty of the damage cause by the two civil wars.
...he gave birth to her only son James VI. After Henry died, she married the Earl of Bothwell, even after he was accused for the death of Henry (“Mary, Queen of Scots” par 6-12). They ran away together and formed an army to protect them and fight with them (“Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots” par 7-8). Mary had confusing and specified accomplishments in her life, many of which were marriage and her being a queen of many countries.
Queen Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, had a pretty rough time. After “marrying” Queen Elizabeth’s father, Henry VII, she became the queen. Soon after she became pregnant, everyone was preparing for the little prince, Prince Edward, but whenever Anne Boleyn’s due date came she had a little girl, Princess Elizabeth. After many failed attempts at conceiving, the king became angry and started to think of a way to end their marriage. With the help of a few of Anne’s enemies at court, King Henry started an investigation. Anne was eventually arrested on the charges of adultery, incest, and plotting to murder the king. With limited evidence, she was found guilty and sentenced to death by beheading. On May 19th, Anne was privately executed.
He was a human that had emotions, he experienced grief with the multiple miscarriages and deaths of his sons and the betrayals of his wife’s, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Also the death of Jane Seymour, the only wife to give him a male heir, brought him into a depression. These events changed Henry’s perspective of his own self, that he was without a legal heir, his health was horrendous and he was being betrayed by those closest to him. Lipscomb describes the transformation of Henry from the popular prince to the tyrant king know today. As shown, “the last decade of his reign, Henry VIII had begun to act as a tyrant. The glittering, brilliant monarch of the accession, toppled into old age by betrayal, aggravated into irascibility and suspicion as a result of ill health and corrupted by absolute power, had become a despot”. Henry is not thought of as the good Christian, but Lipscomb writes throughout this book that Henry was very serious about his religious affiliations. Lipscomb portrays Henry VIII as, “a man of strong feeling but little emotional intelligence, willful and obstinate but also fiery and charismatic, intelligent but blinkered, attempting to rule and preserve his honor against his profound sense of duty and heavy responsibility to fulfil his divinely ordained role”. In other words he was an emotional mess that did not know what to do with his feelings, so he bottled them up and south to seek
kinsmen of Edward, Queen Elizabeth, the two young princes and Queen. Anne. These people were killed because he needed to get the throne for his greed. Only a villain would commit these crimes for his greed.
Her key role as Queen was to bare a son to be the heir. She constantly becomes pregnant but ends up having a miscarriage or giving birth to a still-born child. She eventually gives birth to a son who stirs up great celebrations but unfortunately falls ill and die...
In today's world, historians believe that she did not deserve to be executed. She was simply trying to perform her job as Queen of France and she was treated with such disrespect. The reason why the people of France did not like was because she was a foreigner and they wanted to blame someone for their financial troubles so they chose Marie Antoinette.
She captivated the heart of King Henry the VIII with her exquisite sexuality, intelligence, and witty appeal. King Henry quickly became so charmed and infatuated with Anne that he demanded a dissolution of his previous marriage to Queen Catherine from the pope in light of the fact that she was not untouched by man when she had relations with King Henry, and in addition that God was punishing him for marrying his brother's wife. An investigation took place and the Pope declared the marriage to be invalid. This left King Henry the VIII with no other alternative than to separate from the influences of the Pope and the Catholic Church and to make his own particular church, the Church of England, so he could marry Anna Boleyn.