Explanations

Henry the VIII was famous for being the most outrageous and cruel king in England’s history. Basically what he did was rejecting his first wife and asking for divorce. But there was a little problem, divorce was impossible so he decided to break up with the Catholic Church and start his own church, the Church of England.

Well, the new church needed a new pope so... who better than himself! And he became the new pope of his new church (only that he called himself “Supreme Head of the Church of England”, not pope). Killing Catherine was out of the question since she was the daughter of the Catholic Kings (Isabela of Castille and Ferdinad of Aragon), and so, she was aunt to the current Spanish Emperor Charles V, the most powerful man on earth at the time.

So now, being the head of the Church, the first thing he did was legalizing divorce, and he was the first one to put it in practice divorcing his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marrying a much more pretty wife: Anne Boleyn (whom he already knew very well). This poor girl couldn’t give him a male successor, so he decided to execute her (much faster than managing another divorce).

He married again and this time, he really fell in love with Jane Seymour, so in love that they engaged the same day of Anne’s execution. They were so in love that... oops! Well, she died. That’s really bad luck.

Poor Henry was alone again... but not for long. He married Anne of Cleves, but he didn’t like her much after all, so he divorced.

Back on the market he found another lady, Catherine Howard. Oh yea, so young and pretty. Well, a little bit annoying maybe. Yea, quite so. Off with her head!

And now, old and gaga, he wanted to marry again: Catherine Parr. Oh yes, another catherine for his collection. Will this be finally the woman of his heart? Well, luckily for her he couldn’t kill her. He died first.

To remember this complicated story about wives, British children learn this little poem:

Divorced, beheaded and died
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

DIVORCE= To legally end a marriage.
BEHEAD= To kill someone by cutting their head.
CHURCH= The community of Christians. This community (the Catholic Church) was later divided in different Churches so now, apart from the Catholics, there are other churches (orthodox, protestant, evangelist, anglicans, etc.). They’re all Christians but they belong to different churches.