Henry VIII – The Lover

As we all know, Henry VIII had many wives, six to be precise. He desperately wanted a son to take over the throne.

His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was the widow of his later brother, Arthur and Henry was married to her for twenty-four years ~ a long time for him! By Catherine, he had a daughter, Mary.

He fell for Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s Ladies in Waiting, and, it is thought, that this golden charm was one of his first love gifts to her.

This charm served many purposes. There is a whistle on it, as well as a salt spoon and an ear pick.

He ended up divorcing Catherine and leaving the Catholic Church which would have “none of it” to marry his Anne Boleyn. Anne gave him a daughter, Elizabeth, who went on to become the famed Elizabeth I. So she did not last long before he had her beheaded for some, perhaps trumped-up, reasons. There is a wonderful movie, “Anne of The Thousand Days” which depicts this rather gone-wrong love story.

We certainly did not mean this to be Henry VIII 101 but saw the photo of this trinket and thought it would be fun to share.