History Documentary hosted by David Starkey, published by Channel 4 in 2001 - English narration
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"Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived". Six lives summed up in a school rhyme. The women who married Henry VIII have become defined not the way they lived but the way their lives ended. They are seen as victims of a bloated tyrant, deserving pity, but not respect. However, have we under-estimated them and are historians right to have merely portrayed them as bit-part players in Henry's story?
In this series Dr DAVID STARKEY, the eminent historian and presenter, reveals them to be vibrant, powerful individuals who showed great dignity, when faced with exile from the King's favour, or even the executioner's axe in the Tower of London.
Queen, lover, mother, outcast, victim and survivor -- this is how historian and series narrator David Starkey assigns the roles of the six wives of Britain's most famous monarch Henry VIII in the sexual intrigue and cut-throat power politics of his long reign from 1509 to 1547. The series THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII takes a fresh approach and presents each wife's story from her perspective.
Perhaps no one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were tumultuous and complicated, and made instant legends of six very different women. Henry took his first bride, Catherine of Aragon, when he was 17. Their 24-year marriage was a relatively stable prelude to what followed. Anne Boleyn, a pretty, French-educated Protestant who was the mother of Elizabeth I, was eventually beheaded. Jane Seymour served as a demure contrast to the vampish Boleyn, and gave birth to Henry's longed-for son (Edward VI). After a brief marriage to the plain Anne of Cleves, Henry married a flirtatious teenager, Catherine Howard, who would be the second of his brides to lose her head along with the king's favor. Finally, there was Catherine Parr, a shrewd Protestant bluestocking.
Through the women's own words and powerful dramatizations, we learn that the wives were not pitiful victims or pawns but rather knowing players in a high-stakes game and remarkable individuals who managed to show great dignity even when facing exile and death.
Using dramatic reconstruction and passionate narration, eminent historian and presenter Dr David Starkey focuses on the stories of the women themselves, revealing in intimate detail their experiences of sex, childbirth and the glamorous, dangerous life at court, including the deadly intrigues that dethroned them.
Series Producer: Mark Fielder ; United Productions for Channel Four Television
2) Anne Boleyn
The temptress Anne Boleyn, who charmed the King with her seductive French ways gave him his second daughter, Elizabeth. Henry soon tired of her though and had her beheaded.
Having spent time in the Netherlands in Archduchess Margaret's court, Anne Boleyn is knowledgeable of courtly ways. Her flirtatious nature and quick wit attract Henry, who initially seeks to make her his mistress. However, Anne refuses the role after seeing the outcome of what happened to her sister, Mary Boleyn, and makes it clear that she will not sleep with him until they are married and she is queen. During Henry's struggle with the Vatican to end his marriage to Catherine, the English people come to dislike Anne, as they love Catherine and believe Anne is heretical in her religious beliefs of reform. After Henry starts the Church of England and divorces Catherine, he is free to marry Anne. Shortly after their marriage, a coronation is held for Anne, at which she is made Henry's queen consort. A few months later, she gives birth to their daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Anne's fiery temper and her inability to produce a male heir to the throne cause Henry to grow tired of her. In order to pursue a new wife, Henry believes rumors and accusations of Anne's adultery, incest, and witchcraft. After her trial, she is judged by a jury of her peers, including her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and is found guilty. After a few days imprisonment in the Tower of London, she is beheaded.
