Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

New Talk Available on Henry VIII

The hard working people who are charged with finding speakers for group meetings will be interested to know that I have a new talk available, this time on Henry VIII.

Henry became King of England five hundred years ago in 1509, and of course there has been great interest in him during this year.

The name of the talk is "Henry VIII and His Six Wives", and shows him progressing from handsome, cultured young prince to tyrannical despot.

The general impression is that he had all his wives executed, but of course this is not true. Most of us would feel that to have two wives beheaded is a couple too many, but it`s a lot less than six!

Henry`s first wife was Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his elder brother Arthur, who had been expected to succeed as King. Henry divorced her, and she was the mother of Mary I.

Anne Boleyn, whom he wooed at Rochford Hall, was the mother of Elizabeth I. She was executed on what were fairly obviously trumped up charges.

Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry`s longed for son, who succeeded as Edward VI. She died soon after.

Anne of Cleves turned out to be less beautiful than Henry had been told. She was divorced fairly quickly.

Catherine Howard was executed, having not understood that she should not continue to have handsome young lovers after marrying the King.

Catherine Parr outlived him.

If you would like me to give this talk to your group, feel free to get in touch.

Posted by colin on Sunday 3rd May, 2009 at 9:52am