Here is of course the problem for these women. She championed her own religious beliefs, until they clashed with the king's when she was forced to make an abrupt turn. Catherine Parr for instance, who survived Henry, was first the resourceful wife of Lord Latimer who managed their estates at the time of the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Instead, she argues, that "on thew contrary, a remarkably high level of strength, and also of intelligence, was displayed by them at a time when their sex traditionally possessed little of either."įraser takes us through the lives of these women, of whom we often know a surprising amount of detail from their letters and other documents. Thus Catherine of Aragon becomes The Betrayed Wife, Anne Boleyn is the The Temptress, Jane Seymour The Good Woman Anna of Cleves is The Ugly Sister, Katherine Howard The Bad Girl finally Catherine Parr is the Mother Figure." "as a series of feminine stereotypes, women as tarot cards.
Antonia Fraser however challenges the cardboard caricatures of these women, suggesting that it is false to see them
Traditionally we see these women as the passive victims of the increasingly irrational and tyrannical behaviour of Henry VIII, victims of his lust and violence. This meticulous study of Henry VIII's six wives is a fascinating examination of the position and role of ruling class women in Tudor society.
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