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Introduction and Prologue

• Henry VIII married six times and had three surviving children, Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward.

• Mary was his daughter with Katherine of Aragon. After divorcing her because she did not bear him a son, Henry married Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother and disowned Mary.

• Anne Boleyn was beheaded for treason and Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, bore him a son Edward.

• Mary and Elizabeth were welcomed back into the court, but Mary had to sign a document declaring her mother's marriage was unlawful and incestuous because she had been Henry's brother's wife.
• Henry married Anne of Cleves after Jane's death.

• His final two wives were Katherine Howard, who was beheaded for infidelity, and Katherine Parr, a humanist and Protestant who encouraged him to reinstate Mary into succession.

• Mary was devoutly Catholic, popular with the subjects for her intelligence and virtue, and chronically ill because of the trauma...

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