Something I'm asked quite a bit when I'm out and about is which of Henry VIII's six wives was his favourite. You might say Jane Seymour, because she was the queen who provided him with a son and who he's buried with in Windsor Castle. But the real answer is a bit more complicated, I think. 

I suppose at some time, each of Henry's wives (with the exception most likely of Anne of Cleves) was his favourite. Anne of Cleves was a purely diplomatic match, and the marriage was ended weeks after it was performed, happily to both partners' satisfaction. But there's something to be said for each of his other wives being his favourites, at some time.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Rijksmuseum, public domain

Henry was certainly happy in 1509, when he married his brother's widow Katherine of Aragon, and although their union was forged in diplomacy and military strength tying England with Spain, the couple had a fondness for one another which developed into a long-lasting, strong marriage. Katherine birthed a number of heirs, some male, although they sadly did not survive. A princess, Mary, was born in February 1516, who would later become England's first Queen Regnant, Mary I. Henry and Katherine presided over jousts (often lavishly held in her honour), played the game of courtly love effortlessly and settled into a personal and political partnership which lasted almost twenty years. The realm was also safe in her hands, having defeated James IV of Scotland at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 while Henry was in France carrying out military action of his own. However Henry had mistresses during his marriage to Katherine including Elizabeth Blount and Mary Boleyn, and their relationship soured after the king began to worry about the succession after his death, and of course, after having begun a romance with one of Katherine's ladies, Anne Boleyn, who refused to be his mistress. There's no denying that before the mid-1520s Henry and Katherine had what the evidence suggests to have been a happy, loving and reciprocally powerful marriage. He even stated in the argument for his divorce that she had been a good partner through the years and that he would marry her again if time were to repeat itself, if only she had provided him with heirs.

By 1533 though, Henry's adoration was all on Anne. She was pregnant with an heir, they were united in their wish for religious reform and she was crowned in that year at Westminster Abbey. The love letters that survive show Henry was infatuated with her, and the couple exchanged loving and expensive gifts. She was known for her charismatic energy and settled into her role as queen, keeping a sharp eye on her household and fulfilling her duties. Henry and Anne also stood together against their enemies, who supported Katherine and resisted religious change, particularly England's break with Rome. If you'd asked him in 1533 he would probably have told you that Anne was his favourite wife, although by now, Henry's fuse was shorter. It's thought that the couple had been in a relationship since around 1526-7, but married in 1533. At the most, this places their partnership at around nine to ten years, before his admiration passed, once again, to one of the queen's ladies, Jane Seymour. There is also compelling evidence that Anne and the Boleyns were ruined in a political conspiracy unravelled at court by the family's enemies. Anne, as we all know, was beheaded by sword at the Tower of London on 19 May 1536, after a sham trial which accused her of wishing the king's death and committing adultery. 

Enter Jane Seymour. She doesn't appear to have had the same feistiness that can be seen with Anne (or indeed Katherine, at times) but I'm not convinced either that she was the purely innocent, doting woman of historical legend. However, they made a good match, and Jane provided Henry with a prince, Edward VI, in 1537. Sadly though, she died at Hampton Court, where the prince had been born, soon afterwards. Jane is the queen who Henry later wanted to be buried alongside at Windsor, is commemorated in family portraits of Henry and his parents and they don't appear to have had any severe problems in their marriage. However this is probably due to Jane's short time as queen - her early death preserved her in Henry's mind as she was, forever in the honeymoon period of their partnership. This also explains how Jane's family - the Seymour brothers Edward and Thomas - were raised to even higher responsibility and status after her death, a destiny that the Boleyns or Howards were not to experience. 

I can't see that, at any point, Henry would have considered Anne of Cleves his favourite wife, even during their brief marriage together. It was a purely diplomatic match, and although Henry approved of her portrait, he later stated that he could not bring himself to consummate the marriage, through not being attracted to her. It is unlikely that this was any fault of Anne's, as some sources have suggested. On learning that the king wanted a divorce, Anne willingly agreed and became a rich woman through her generous divorce settlement, outliving Henry and all his other wives. 

In 1540, Henry was once again struck by the dart of love (as he would have called it) to Katherine Howard, a young lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves, and in her mid to late teens at the time of their marriage. Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, Katherine launched dutifully into her role as queen, and there was talk at one point that she might even be pregnant. However lack of experience and cunning in the world of Tudor politics led to her downfall, after allegations were made of her sexual activities before queen and a romantic relationship she was said to have carried out with one of Henry's servants, Thomas Culpepper. Katherine was helpless at the evidence mounted against her, charged with treason and beheaded at the Tower of London. Henry was said to have cried bitterly after finding out about her actions.

Which leaves Katherine Parr. Henry's sixth wife was a widow who saw her marriage to the king as a duty given to her by God. She was a great queen, carrying out public duties, providing companionship to the king and attending public events. She also wrote a book, was highly intelligent and was said to have had a mischievous sense of humour. She sidestepped one attack by courtiers over religion, but calmed Henry who publicly supported her and stood by her side. Their marriage lasted until Henry's death in 1547, when she quickly, and secretly, married Jane Seymour's brother Thomas. 

So who was his favourite wife? I suppose it depends on when you asked him. In 1533, he'd have said Anne, in 1540 Katherine Howard, and so on. Henry was a romantic and was always out to achieve the same relationship dynamic of his grandfather and grandmother Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV, who, scandalously, had married for love, in 1464. His mother and father, Elizabeth of York and Henry VII, enjoyed a long, happy and scandal-free marriage of almost twenty years. Sadly, Henry was unable to follow in their footsteps. At his death, it was Jane who he wanted to be buried alongside, suggesting that he did think of her in his later years. Alternatively, it might have been a last act of public solidarity for the new king, Edward, their son. Being buried with any other wife (or alone) would have cast a shadow over the bond between the new king's parents, and we know that Henry was obsessed with leaving the realm contented and drama-free. I have read that Henry was supposed to have remembered Anne Boleyn on his deathbed, but I can find no evidence of this.

I suppose, if you asked Henry's almost-500-year-old ghost now, he'd probably look back and say that Jane was his favourite. But I do think he would still have a fondness for Katherine of Aragon for the many years they spent together strengthening and supporting the political, military and cultural nature of the realm. The only other wife I think he'd remember fondly would be Katherine Parr, who lived out his last months and years with him, but would he long for her over Katherine of Aragon and Jane? I don't think so.

Like this? You might also like Mary I and Philip of Spain Visit Reading, Philip of Spain Arrives at Southampton in 1554 and Tudor Wedding Dresses. 

Interested in Tudor history? You might also like my second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, which explores the contributions couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII as well as Mary I and Philip of Spain are explored in their own dedicated chapters. There are also lesser-known couples included and explored. Order your copy here. 

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Sources and Further Reading: 

Alison Weir, The Lady in the Tower
Gareth Russell, Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII
Jo Romero, Power Couples of the Tudor Era

Looking at the life of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, I discovered some details about his first wife, Elizabeth Berkeley. She was an interesting figure - fully aware of her power, tenacious in outlook and partner of the earl for around twenty-five years.

Richard Beauchamp was a nobleman during the reign of Henry V, accompanying the king to France on his campaigns and, later, overseeing the imprisonment and death of Joan of Arc. Joan was a teenager - aged around nineteen - who said that she heard messages from God and the angels, wore mens' clothing and appeared in battle. She was soon seen as a popular mascot of the French army, which threatened the authority and power the English were trying to enforce there. Beauchamp, acting for Henry VI, the son of Henry V, had her executed while trying to enforce France's agreement with Henry V that the English king would rule over France too. The Beauchamps had risen in early medieval England through service to the crown and a series of lucrative marriage contracts, to become senior advisors and commanders. 

Elizabeth Berkeley (Beauchamp), from the Beauchamp Pageant (c1483-1494) Wikimedia Commons

But before Joan of Arc resisted the English forces in France, Richard settled in England with his wife, Elizabeth Berkeley. Elizabeth is depicted in the fifteenth-century manuscript The Pageants of Richard Beauchamp wearing a coronet, gown and mantle, standing behind a shield with her family's arms on it. Her long hair falls behind her shoulders. The facial features of all the figures in the work are very similar and so it was likely not drawn to represent an accurate likeness. The daughter of Thomas Lord Berkeley and his wife Margaret de Lisle, Elizabeth was born in around 1386. At the age of around seven, she was contracted to marry Richard in a dynastically-motivated match, the ceremony having taken place by 1397 when Richard was twelve and Elizabeth fifteen.

Together the young couple were present at the close of the reign of Richard II, with Richard Beauchamp's father a key figure in the removal of the king from power and placing the Lancastrian Henry IV on the throne in his place. They lived through the early years of Henry IV's reign, his conflicts with Wales and the rise of Prince Henry who would become Henry V in 1413. They already had children born to the marriage, and were busy raising their young family. Margaret, the eldest, was born in 1404, when Elizabeth was around twenty-two years of age. Other daughters followed - Eleanor in 1408 and their youngest, Elizabeth, in 1417. The couple became earl and countess of Warwick in 1403, probably while Elizabeth was pregnant with Margaret.

The year their youngest daughter was born was also a sad one for the Beauchamps. Elizabeth's father Thomas Berkeley died in 1417, and a cousin of hers contested her share of the Berkeley inheritance. Elizabeth then embarked on a long and stressful property dispute. Richard not only supported his wife in the matter from an emotional basis but would also have been motivated to secure the considerable Berkeley estates under the Beauchamp name. The case was to outlive both partners. David Brindley, in the book Richard Beauchamp, Medieval England's Greatest Knight, states that it was the longest running legal case in English history, not reaching a conclusion until 1609.

Brindley also discusses aspects of the couple's personal lives during their marriage, preserved in household accounts of 1420-1422. They held dinners with important figures of the era, at times feeding as many as 94. Eating oysters, herrings, haddock, breads, wine and ale, they feasted their guests lavishly, adding mutton and beef to the menu on meat days. Being wined and dined by the famous Warwicks in their large and beautiful homes would have increased trust and encouraged beneficial relationships, and may be evidence of deliberate networking by the couple. Richard Neville, Richard's son in law, would later be praised for his generosity at dinners, where, after the meal, he allowed those present to take away as much meat as would fit onto the blade of a dagger.

Richard Beauchamp's effigy at Warwick

When they weren't wrestling for the Berkeley estates, Elizabeth and Richard fulfilled the roles expected of them as royal servants in Henry V's England. Elizabeth would have managed their estates and made household decisions while Richard served in the army and as a senior government aide in France. All three of their daughters would play crucial roles in the Wars of the Roses, as Henry VI and his queen Margaret of Anjou fought to retain control of the throne from a threat from the Yorkists. Margaret Beauchamp, the couple's eldest daughter, was especially formidable in nature and embarked on a physical and legal war with the Berkeleys after her mother's death. She was known to have imprisoned members of the family, holding them against their will and attempting to coerce them into signing contracts in her favour, under duress. There was even talk that she and her husband John Talbot had one of the Berkeley women murdered while holding her captive. While Margaret's actions, if the court papers of the time are to be believed, were extreme, Elizabeth seems to have shown a similar kind of tenacity. She travelled throughout the country with her daughters, staked her claim to her inheritance and did not give up on her legal fight, even though it must have caused her much worry and lasted her lifetime. Margaret would have been around eighteen years old on her mother's death, and seeing her resistance in this matter may have inspired her to react similarly with regard to the Berkeley estates later on. Similarly, Eleanor, the couple's second daughter, successfully sued the Duke of York, also involving the king in the dispute, following the death of her husband, Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset, in the Battle of St Albans in 1455. It is certainly possible then that the young women learned from their unyielding and litigious mother, which shaped their own personalities as adults.

Richard and Elizabeth's marriage seems to have been a generally happy one, and there is no evidence of public or personal differences between them. They spent time together with their family when schedules allowed, hosted dinners together and navigated a difficult married life when Richard was away on business or overseas fighting. They also show evidence of supporting one another's actions and rights. Fiona Swabey, in Medieval Gentlewomen: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, also points out evidence that Elizabeth embarked on a sudden journey in 1420-1421, probably to intercede personally in an attack on her lands involved in the legal dispute. This, along with what else we know about the countess, shows bravery and a proactive approach to resolving problems, much like her husband demonstrated on royal service.

Elizabeth died in December 1422, in the same month as her husband was busy with Council affairs concerning the rule of the new infant king, Henry VI. Her three daughters survived her, and Richard instructed a tomb to be built for her. However in pursuit of a male heir, Richard shortly afterwards contracted another lucrative match after her death, to Isabel Despencer, the widow of his cousin Richard Beauchamp of Worcester. It was through this marriage that two further children were born, Henry (who inherited his father's earldom but died at the age of twenty-one in 1425) and Anne, who would marry Richard Neville, 'The Kingmaker' who wielded considerable power during the Wars of the Roses. Anne inherited the Warwick title on her brother's death. As she was not allowed to attend Parliament, her husband held the title of Earl of Warwick in her right. Richard Beauchamp died in 1439 while on service to Henry VI in Rouen, France and was buried at St Mary's Church, Warwick, in a chapel that he caused to be built in his will. His effigy, hands in prayer and gazing up at the ceiling, survives today.

Liked this? You might also like: Katherine Mortimer and Thomas Beauchamp, Medieval Power Couple, The Women of Warwick Castle and Warwick Castle During the Wars of the Roses.

Enjoyed this? You can find out more about the Beauchamps and other women of the period in my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, published by Pen and Sword Books. Order your copy here.

Sources and Further Reading: 

David Brindley, Richard Beauchamp: Medieval England's Greatest Knight, Tempus Publishing, 2001.

Jo Romero, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, Pen and Sword Books, 2024

Fiona Swabey, Medieval Gentlewomen: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, Routledge, New York, 1999.

Wikipedia, Elizabeth Berkeley 

In 1598, a German tutor stepped off a ship at Rye in East Sussex, to begin a tour of some of the sights of late Elizabethan England. He travelled around the south east on horseback, noting objects and structures he saw that were of interest. He counted thirty heads, for example, impaled on Tower Bridge. 

Elizabeth I, Public Domain, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Luckily for us, Hentzner left notes from his travels, which reveal a little about how Elizabeth I lived and some of her personal possessions. As he was waved into the palace of Whitehall, Paul Hentzner noted the vast...

What would it have been like to walk through the town of Reading in the medieval period, while Henry V ruled? Or the period of the Wars of the Roses? What did it look like, and who lived there? Luckily, there’s a lot of local evidence for this period in surviving ancient deeds, parish records and other sources. 

Many of the same historic landmarks we see today would have been known to Reading’s medieval residents. The Sun Inn on Castle Street was standing, but it's not clear if it was a public house or inn at this time. It was next to the town's gaol, the place offenders were imprisoned long before Reading Gaol first opened in 1785. There were many others. The George was open, and is mentioned in records from 1423. Unlike the crumbling ruins of today, Reading Abbey was a sprawling collection of neatly-arranged, well-maintained buildings with a mill, gardens and an impressive Norman abbey church.

By 1420 the abbey church's sister church, St Laurence’s, had been standing for three hundred years, a centre of worship, burials and marriages. At the start of the century, it would have been smaller than today, and without the impressive stone tower it is known for now. In around 1458 the church underwent substantial building works, which included the erection of the tower. Residents would therefore have been used to seeing wooden scaffolding on the church, with stonemasons and carpenters hammering away with their tools. The era saw St Laurence grow, with a new roof, internal extensions and the addition of new windows.

The market place alongside the church was owned by Reading Abbey, and traders from all around the country – and even further afield – would have come here to buy and sell produce. The medieval graveyard of St Laurence’s would have been smaller than it is today, extended with the permission of Mary I in the mid-sixteenth century. Immediately to the right of the main doors of the church was a gateway leading to Reading Abbey and today’s Forbury Gardens. Locals would have watched as kings, queens and nobles made their way through this entrance into the abbey’s interior with their large retinue of advisors, nobility and servants. The extravagant wedding of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in 1359 at the abbey church would have been within living memory with tournaments and celebrations held in the Forbury. Throughout the 1400s, many English kings held parliament here, escaping into Reading Abbey whenever travelling this way, or in the event plague threatened London. The Calendars of Patent Rolls record appearances in Reading by kings such as Henry IV, Henry VI, Edward IV, and Henry VII throughout the century. The 1400s marked their own royal wedding in 1464, that of Elizabeth Woodville's sister Margaret Woodville, who married the heir to the earl of Arundel. 

The era was marked by one of the most turbulent periods of English history: The Wars of the Roses. Reading’s role in the medieval civil war has been overlooked, but decisions on military affairs and political business were carried out in the centre of the town. Most notably, Edward IV presented his wife Elizabeth Woodville to the nobility as his wife for the first time in September 1464 within the walls of the abbey. From here too, Henry VI knighted his half-brothers from whom Henry Tudor would one day descend. Across the bridge in Caversham, curious visitors would be shown a dagger that was believed to have killed King Henry VI in the Tower of London, regarded for many years as an important spiritual and historical relic. The town also has a scandalous link to the very beginning of the unrest that triggered the Wars of the Roses. In 1444, a servant at the abbey criticised King Henry VI, accusing him of ruling weakly and like a child. He was hauled up for an investigation, condemned to die and at the last minute, pardoned by the king.

Some names of the town’s residents during this period survive, giving us an intimate glimpse into medieval Reading. Deeds record characters such as John Caylok of Herteley, who owned a tenement called Fougheresplace (Fowler’s Place) in Reading in 1404. A 1429 document describes this building later owned by John Say, John Whyte and John Veyre who granted it to William Stappere. It is described as being in the ‘street called Wodestret’ (Wood Street) in Reading, ‘extending to the lane called Bataylelane’ (Battle Lane). In 1456 a groom of Henry VI's household occupied a tenement in Wood Street - his name was John Barnet. We have to wonder if he knew William More, another member of Henry's household whose life is commemorated in a brass in St Michael's church in Tilehurst nearby. John Barnet married Agnes, and in her will, she left goods to Salisbury Cathedral and bequeathed a 'silver ring worth 6d' to 'the table of the high altar of St Mary's, Reading'. She wrote her will on 2 January 1456 and died on around 13 March in the same year. It is therefore possible that Agnes was ill and had a feeling that death would approach. Later, another servant lived here in Wood Street, a servant of Edward IV's household, William Barnett, in 1464. It's possible that William was a relative of John and Agnes.

New Street, today’s Friar Street, was a popular residential area, packed with homes of people from all backgrounds. Residents usually lived in tenements - buildings that contained individual rooms or quarters for living in - a bit like our modern-day flats. Richard Suward lived in a tenement on New Street in 1411, ‘in the angle between the lane called ‘Goturlane’ (Gutter Lane) on the west, and the tenement of Richard Welham formerly John le Brewer’s on the east’. In 1414 his home was transferred to William Huntyngdon, a glover living in the town. Stephen Bekke with his wife Agnes, and John Lewynden were neighbours, recorded two years later at New Street in 1416. 

John Clerk, John Whyte, Robert Godewyne and Robert Bodewyn are some of the mayors listed for the period. In 1414 the constables of the town included Robert Keynes and Alexander Colleshulle, while Nicholas Barbur and Walter Baron were bailiffs. You would have met these men if you were summoned to answer at the the town council, engaged in legalities or were sent to be imprisoned. 

In the 1460s and 1470s one couple in particular dominate the town records in New Street. Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk moved into the street in 1458, according to a deed of that year where they were granted a tenement by Robert Farle of Reading. Robert had inherited the home on the death of his father Richard. Thomas Clerk was a draper and later served as mayor of Reading during the reign of Edward IV. One of the couple's neighbours was Henry Justice. Thomas appears again in a letter of attorney in 1465 but by 1476 Elizabeth is described as a widow. On 8 January of that year Elizabeth transferred all her goods to the ironmonger John Langham and his wife Joan, along with the tenement she once shared with her husband. The couple's nephew, Edward Clerk, also lived in the town and inherited some of his uncle's property on his death. The Langhams seem to have lived in the old Clerk home until 1484, when John Langham released his right to the tenement during the brief reign of Richard III.

Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk were wealthy, judging by the expensive gifts they granted to St Laurence’s church, and not only made a career in local government but were an example of the potential of those who took part in Reading's bustling cloth trade. The founding of Reading Abbey in 1121 by Henry I encouraged visitors of all walks of life into the town and increased its attraction as a centre of commerce, politics and religion. The Clerks were drapers, but there were shoemakers, leather-sellers and other cloth workers and merchants living in the town. Later, in the reign of Henry VIII, report was made of John Vyntener living in a corner tenement with his wife Amisia. Theirs was a corner plot with a shop and kitchen on New Street, and they agreed to add a solarium to it within two years. Vyntener was described as a 'barber and painter' in 1512.

Reading’s other medieval churches were active, too. St Giles and St Mary’s both welcomed parishioners for worship. St Giles had work undertaken in 1398. Residents in these areas included John Denys, a cook who lived in London Street in 1498, and John and Helen Carpynter, who lived in Reading's High Street and also had a shop in Butcher Row, roughly where the Minster Street end of the Broad Street is today. In May 1497  Thomas Carpynter is named as living in the High Street near the market place with his wife Margaret, a property with a garden. Thomas and Margaret were later benefactors to St Laurence's Church. In 1544, during the reign of Henry VIII, John' son William made a claim to the family's tenement following his father's death. 

Various records mention a tenement called 'Le Cok' in the High Street. This would have been a pictorial image which hung from the building so that residents who could not read were able to navigate through the town. John Hunte was a butcher in the time of Henry IV, married to his wife Matilda. John had died by 1409, when Matilda is mentioned as a widow in a legal document. A shoemaker, John Mereham, is mentioned in a deed relating to London Street in 1442. There were also masons, hosiers and merchants living in the area. One interesting record of 1466 relates to 'Red Rose Rent', with Gilbert Sawyer granting a tenement in London Street to John Body for life, 'on payment of a red rose yearly', as long as Sawyer agreed to carry out repairs on the tenement, excepting any damages 'that Body or his servants shall cause'. 

While Reading was split into different wards for administration and religious reasons, it was still a small town in the 1400s, and residents from different parishes would have known one another. They would have met at the markets, festivals and performances, like the one held at the Forbury in the abbey grounds on May Day in 1499, where locals were treated to an enactment of Robin Hood. There is also some evidence that a Maypole was erected near here for dancing on special occasions.

Reading might have been much smaller than it is today, but the medieval town was an important centre, not only to its own families, but in national decisions and actions carried out through war, commerce, religion and the administration of the realm. Mayors, bailiffs and constables lived alongside shoemakers, ironmongers and cooks and they all celebrated important events such as Henry V’s victory after Agincourt, to the birth of Henry VI. They would have watched Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville leave, smiling, through the abbey gates and whispered as rumours of the fates of the Princes in the Tower trickled into the town through salesmen and merchants. Later, they lit bonfires and drank wine in the streets to celebrate the coronation of Henry VII and the dawn of the Tudor age. 

Interested in the Wars of the Roses? My first book explores the roles of women from all sectors of fifteenth century society and the impact they had on the Wars of the Roses conflict. Reading is mentioned, as is Elizabeth Clerk. Order your copy here. 

My second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, explores the contributions sixteenth century couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Order your copy here. 

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Source:

A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office. Vols 1-6. Mackie and Co Ltd, London, 1902.