Why did King Henry XIII have so many wives?

Question

and killed half of them? was he crazy or something ?

Answer 1

Because he could. The power he held gave him the ability to keep marrying women until he produced a male heir. When they did not produce what he wanted, he either divorced them or had them beheaded! The only woman he loved was the one who gave him his male heir and she died after childbirth. He was a stud! hehe

Answer 2

Mostly crazy. But he badly wanted to produce a male heir, and all his kids were girls. So he blamed his wives, and divorced them, and got remarried, and tried again. Little did he know, it was his own fault... ;)

He went through a lot of wives that way, until he eventually had a son... who died, of course, and Elizabeth inherited the throne, I believe. Or another of her sisters did, then died and left it to her...

He started a new fashion in his time, with the distinctively male body part enlarged to ridiculous sizes with padding...

Answer 3

Mary was the next in line to become queen.  She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon.  The next queen was Elizabeth who was the daughter of Anne Boleyn.  Henry fathered many sons but all but two died.  The first was an illegitimate son, Henry,  who was acknowledged by the king and raised in the court.

Answer 4

Amazing

King Henry the VIII had 6 wives, because he needed a son to continue the Monarchy.  I know of several books that you could have learned that BASIC fact from.

He was married to Catherine of Aragon she gave him 1 living daughter and several dead children she miscarried 6 times and had 4 still births.

Ann Boylen came to him and said that she was fertile and if he made her the Queen she would give him a son. She gave birth to his daughter Elizabeth.  But then she gave birth to a still born son, and he had her executed

Jane Seymour, did give King Henry his son Edward, but she died in child bed.  So she was kind of killed by him.

Anne of Cleves was brought in but he never had s*x with her and she was divorced.

Catherine Howard was a very young girl but the King was ill with a festering wound on his leg and could not do much, she was told to have s*x with another to get a child and she was caught so she was beheaded.

Katherine Parr, outlived the King but only because he died before he could kill her off as well.

King Henry was told he was the ultimate power and so he acted as such. He was weak willed but a powerful man, he was a wrestler and had a HUGE ego.  He probably had Syphilis and that is why his mind went as he got older. He also could have had Diabetes and that is why his wound on his leg would never heal.

Answer 5

He wanted to have a son, and none of them provided him with one, even though it is scientifically proven that the male determines that. Some died, and some he had killed. He had a total of 6 wives. He eventually had a son.

You can remember them by this rhyme..

divorced, beheaded, died,

divorced, beheaded, survived.

(learned it in european history)

Answer 6

Henry VIII had six wives, and he beheaded his second and fifth one (Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard).

His first wife was a Spanish Princess named Catherine of Argon. They had a good marriage until a series of miscarriages and the birth of one healthy girl named Mary made Henry question the validity of the marriage, considering that Catherine was once married to his older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, when they were teenagers. At this time, Henry was in love with his soon to be wife, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine was forced out of the court, their marriage was annulled, their daughter declared illegitimate and he married Anne Boleyn. He married Anne in hopes of gaining a male heir off of her. However, after miscarriages and the birth of one healthy girl (Elizabeth the first), he decided to divorce and kill Anne Boleyn and move onto wife number three, Jane Seymour. Henry and Jane were married for a little over a year, and she produced a son named Edward, and died shortly after his birth. After Henry was done mourning the death of Jane, he married Anne of Cleves, whom he shortly divorced simply because he did not like her very much. Anne, however, ended up surviving him. He then married a young Katherine Howard, who proved to be unfaithful to the obese, disgusting, aging king. Katherine was beheaded for treason and he then married Catherine Parr, who survived him.

Henry had all these wives because he probably did have some serious psychological problems. He was the "handsomest prince in Europe" in his youth, and after Jane's death he became old, obese, and quite ugly. He had a large ulcer in his leg which caused him great pain and it constantly oozed pus. He was also very obsessive; he did not want civil war to follow his death, which is why he was so h**l-bent on producing a male heir, even though his daughter ended up becoming a wonderful queen. It is also rumored that he had syphilis, which probably caused all the miscarriages and psychological trauma.

Hope I helped!

Answer 7

I think you mean Henry Vlll - there was no Henry 13th. But the reason he had so many wives is because he wanted to have a son, and he didn't have much luck. Only daughters, until the birth of Edward, who died at an early age. He didn't kill half of them, however. Was he crazy? Maybe. Or maybe he was just driven by religous fervor to find a wife that would be pleasing in the eyes of God (he usually found a religious reason for putting them aside) and once that happened, he would have a healthy heir to follow him on the throne.

Answer 8

Not crazy -- just obsessed.  He was determined to bring forth a male child.  His first wife had too many miscarriages, and only managed one daughter, but he liked her and just divorced her.  The second one also only gave him a daughter, plus a couple of miscarriages -- but he was getting anxious and angry, and beheaded her because he was kinda stuck with her after divorcing his first wife because of her.  Easier to kill her.  The third wife might have been a keeper, but she had to go and die in childbed after she had the much-longed for boy.  

He married the fourth under pressure from his council -- the baby boy was a bit sickly, and they figured he needed insurance -- the ol' "heir and a spare".  Unfortunately, they snookered him by showing him a REALLY flattering picture (i.e., lied to him about her looks), and when he first saw her, he was revolted.  Having seen what he did to wives that pissed him off, she quickly and graciously agreed to to a divorce, and lived in style for the rest of her life. The 5th wife was sort of a s**t, and at this point, she wasn't particularly interested in cavorting with Henry -- he was 50, old, fat and smelly. She found comfort in someone else's arm, which was considered treason and she had HER head chopped off around the age of 20.  Then, his last wife, a demure widow with two previous husbands, managed to stick around until he died four years later, and made friends with Prince Edward and the future Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. She had a fourth marriage soon after Henry's death, but also died in childbed, 18 months after Henry's death.

Answer 9

yup

Answer 10

Because 13 is an unlucky number.