The Tower of London was used to imprison and execute some of this wives!

The Six Wives Of Henry VIII

Catherine Of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon was the only child of King Ferdinand of Spain and she was very religious. Catherine married Henry in 1509 and divorced in 1534 because the marriage was illegal.

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn married Henry in 1533 secretly. The marriage was annulled in 1536 because she was condemned for adultery with Henry's brother to die. She had six fingers on one hand and her birthday is unknown.

Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour was born in 1509 and she married Henry in 1536. She was a gentlewoman and she was the Queen but not officially. She died in 1537 for her baby.

Anne Of Cleves

Anne of Cleves was German. Henry married her in 1540 for convenience of political alliance between England and German. After six months there was the divorce because she could not speak English.

Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard was born in 1521. She married Henry on 12 July 1540 and divorced on 6 January (only six months later) because she was high spirited and quite uninhibited. Their marriage has been a bad news for enemies.

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr was born in 1512 and she was the daughter of a minor noble Sir Thomas Parr. She married Henry in 1543 when she was 31 years old. She was twice widowed and well educated. She reconciled Mary and Elisabeth with Henry.

The Tower Of London

Henry wanted his court to be as splendid as any in Europe and the Tower wasn't nearly elegant enough to be used regularly as a residence. Henry VIII extensively renovated the royal apartments of White  

Tower, overhauled the rest of the buildings comprising the Tower. Henry had just married Anne Boleyn and wanted her crowned with all ceremony, which meant residence in the Tower.

Like Elisabeth of York, Anne also returned to the Tower to die. She was found guilty of adultery and treason in a trial held in the Great Hall of the Tower and executed on the Tower Green. The other wife of Henry was Catherine Howard, and like Anne, her cousin, she returned to the Tower to be executed for adultery and treason.

Henry never returned to the Tower again, however the building continued at the Tower.

The Tower had been used as an arsenal since the 14^th century.

After Henry VIII's death all his personal armour has stored in Greenwich Palace.

Hampton Court

The west front of Hampton Court Palace looks like a castle.

Originally it was painted red. Some were covered with gold and the gatehouse was higher than it is now.

Hampton Court was built of brick and stone. When Henry VIII took over Hampton Court Palace he replaced Wolsey's coat of arm above the gateway with his own.

Henry made the palace larger. It had rooms for his family and all his servants.

Thomas Cromwell

Thomas Cromwell was born in 1485 in Putney, suburb of London. He worked for a lot of time in Europe as a soldier, then in 1512 he returned to England and became a lawyer.

In 1520 he became legal secretary for Cardinal Wolsey who was in service to Henry VIII and by 1532 he was the King's chief minister of the Church and in 1534 he made sure of it with the passing of the act of Supremacy. In 1536 from principal secretary and master of the rolls he became lord privy seal.

Cromwell's own religious views may not have been strong, but his belief in the sovereignty of the King led him to enact these acts of suppression.

He arranged the King's marriage to Anne of Cleves in the hopes of securing the north German princes against the holy roman emperor.

Henry wasn't happy with Anne and the German alliance failed. Cromwell was beheaded without trial in 1540.

Cromwell was executed privately on Tower green on 28 July 1540, still protesting his innocence. He died with dignity.

Henry VIII was soon despairing of his loss, just a few months after, he allowed the executed. Henry was a victim as well of a determinate group of nobles and clerics, led by Norfolk, who hated Cromwell  and carried the King a long on their path of destruction. Events were rapid and deliberately confused. By the time Henry realized what happened, it was too late. He could only bemoan his loss, while never understanding exactly why it happened.