Henry VIII’s Wives

In Traveler and Traveler 2, King Henry VIII is married to Katherine Howard, his fifth wife.

Katherine’s actual age when she married the king was unknown, but it’s estimated that she was between 17 and 21 years old, much younger than the king who was almost 50. It might seem strange to us today, but in Tudor times, it wasn’t uncommon to have large age differences between royal couples.

King Henry VIII by Joos van Cleve. Public domain.

Queen Katherine Howard by Hans Holbein the Younger. Public domain.

Henry and Katherine would be married for only a year and a half when he had her beheaded for adultery. She was accused of seeing another man during her marriage and for being engaged to another man and lying about it before she married the king. (It gets a little more complicated, but that’s the general idea.)

Katherine’s ghost is supposed to haunt Hampton Court Palace. According to legend, Katherine broke away from her guards after her arrest and ran screaming down a long hallway, trying to find Henry and explain herself to him in order to save her life. She was caught, however, and sent back to the Tower of London to await her execution. Her ghost is reported to run screaming down the same hallway ever since, now called the Haunted Gallery.

After Katherine was dead, Henry would marry once more to another Katherine: Katherine Parr. He was old and sick by then and she would outlive him after five years of marriage.

Here are the all of the wives of Henry VIII, in order. All of these photos are in the public domain.