The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts
They Played in History, by Martin Hume

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Title: The Wives of Henry the Eighth and the Parts They Played in History

Author: Martin Hume

Release Date: June 14, 2010 [EBook #32813]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE WIVES OF HENRY THE EIGHTH

[Illustration: _HENRY VIII._

_From a portrait by_ JOST VAN CLEEF _in the Royal Collection at Hampton
Court Palace_]

The Wives
of
Henry the Eighth

AND THE PARTS THEY PLAYED
IN HISTORY

BY
MARTIN HUME

AUTHOR OF "THE COURTSHIPS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH"
"THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS"
ETC. ETC. ETC.

"_These are stars indeed,
And sometimes falling ones._"

--SHAKESPEARE

LONDON
EVELEIGH NASH
1905

PREFACE

Either by chance or by the peculiar working of our constitution, the Queen
Consorts of England have as a rule been nationally important only in
proportion to the influence exerted by the political tendencies which
prompted their respective marriages. England has had no Catharine or Marie
de Medici, no Elizabeth Farnese, no Catharine of Russia, no Caroline of
Naples, no Maria Luisa of Spain, who, either through the minority of their
sons or the weakness of their husbands, dominated the countries of their
adoption; the Consorts of English Kings having been, in the great majority
of cases, simply domestic helpmates of their husbands and children, with
comparatively small political power or ambition for themselves. Only those
whose elevation responded to tendencies of a nationally enduring
character, or who represented temporarily the active forces in a great
national struggle, can claim to be powerful political factors in the
history of our country. The six Consorts of Henry VIII., whose successive
rise and fall synchronised with the beginning and prog