Henry VIII in his prime
Henry VIII (1491–1547) was the second Tudor king of England (reigned 1509–1547), and by 1540 Henry VIII had abandoned his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and beheaded his second wife, Anne Pauline, for adultery. He also married his third wife, Jane Seymour, who died after giving henry the son he had always wanted. By this time the king had become deformed and obese, and he would marry 3 wives.
Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon
Henry VIII was huge and a giant who dominated his time. By middle age, his weight was increasing. In 1544, the chubby king decided to put on his plus-sized armor, put on his saddle, and lead his fellow Englishmen in battle against France, and the biographer Antonia Fraser wrote: "To lead his fellow Englishmen to Boulogne was no longer a glorious young prince, but a hulking patient, who had to be hanged from his horse because his legs and feet were swollen and had to cut open the armor of his legs." "
The fat monarch bounced on horseback, which must have been miserable for horses. And for Queen Catherine Howard, who was in adolescence of Henry VIII, the situation was much worse when she found herself in the same situation. Catherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII, who was nearly fifty when he was married for the fifth time, and was a bloated tyrant with severely festered legs that made the once-energetic king unable to move, while his savage temper grew.
Catherine Howard, the fifth queen of Henry VIII
Edward Hall, a chronicler of the time, reported: "The king is now fat and covered with extra flesh. As a result, he became more and more bulky. He could not go up and down the stairs unless he was lifted up or lowered by a mechanical device. The Duke of Norfolk at the time also pointed out that Henry was assisted by a device to help him go up and down, but there is no record of how the "device" worked. At this point, it seemed, only his diminutive young queen could please Henry. He called Catherine Howard his "pink rose without thorns." Ralph Morris, Thomas Clumer's secretary, wrote: "The king's feelings were so wonderfully fixed on the lady that no one ever knew he would have such feelings for a woman. "
Young Catherine had vowed at the wedding to "show submission in bed," but this was undoubtedly difficult. Henry VIII was already so large by this time that Spanish chroniclers reported that "the three largest men who could be found could burrow into his double-layered clothes." So it's no wonder That Catherine risked everything to find a more flattering lover; a man who could make her happy. Unfortunately, this caused the young queen to lose her head.
Henry's fourth wife, Catherine Howard's predecessor, Anne of Crevis, spared the fifth queen from bed because the king never wanted to sleep with her. "I don't like her." Henry complained after seeing the German bride chosen for him by his minister, Thomas Cromwell. It was the only politically arranged marriage in the King's long marriage career, and after meeting Anne, he reluctantly consummated her. "My lord," said the king to Cromwell on the morning of the wedding, "I would not have married her had it not been for my kingdom. On the night of the wedding, Henry VIII did not have a round house with Anne, and the next morning, Henry VIII said to the people around him: "I didn't like her much before, and now I don't like her even more." What causes this? Henry said it was because Anne's breasts were sagging.
Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves
After the marriage, Anne described her conjugal life to her maids: "When he went to bed, he kissed me, held my hand, said to me 'good night, dear', and the next morning, kissed me and said 'goodbye, dear'. When Anne of Clevis grew up, she stayed in the convent for a long time, so much so that she thought it was the behavior of a married couple in bed. If she had known better, she might have been more grateful to her former maid, Catherine Howard, for taking her huge fat husband from her. Henry soon divorced Anne. Luckily, it was a friendly breakup for Anne, who spent the rest of her life comfortably as the King's "good sister" .
Three years after marrying Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard (both in 1540), Henry married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, whose job was to care for and comfort the sick king. She just barely survived. Catherine dared to argue with the king on religious matters—it was never a good idea—but she wisely bowed her head before the king afterwards and confessed her mistake.
Henry's sixth wife, Catherine Parr
Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547 at the age of fifty-five, and his waist was almost 55 inches in size. After his death, sixteen particularly strong guards were needed to place his huge coffin in the catacombs beneath St. George's Church at Windsor Castle.