The Six Wives & Many Mistresses of Henry VIII: The Women's Stories

For a King renowned for his love life, Henry VIII has traditionally been depicted as something of a prude, but the story may have been different for the women who shared his bed.

How did they take the leap from courtier to lover, to wife? What was Henry really like as a lover? Henry' s women were uniquely placed to experience the tension between his chivalric ideals and the lusts of the handsome, tall, athletic king; his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, was on one level a fairy-tale romance, but his affairs with Anne Stafford, Elizabeth Carew and Jane Popincourt undermined it early on.

Later, his more established mistresses, Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn, risked their good names by bearing him illegitimate children.