‘Disgusting’ sex sessions, rotting limbs & plots for a SEVENTH wife… Henry VIII’s sordid last days revealed in Firebrand
KING Henry VIII was once the “superstar prince of Europe”, but his final wife had to put up with a repulsive maniac who could be smelt from three rooms away.
A new film titled Firebrand about the life of the Tudor tyrant’s sixth spouse Katherine Parr depicts Britain’s 16th century ruler as a unhinged and paranoid rapist.
Jude Law plays the portly Henry, while Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander is the queen who “survived” his bloody reign.
The film, out now, reveals how close Katherine came to being the third wife to be executed at the king’s behest.
There have been numerous movies and TV shows about his second wife Anne Boleyn, who was beheaded after failing to give her husband an heir.
But despite ruling the country while the king was off waging war in France, Katherine has rarely received any more than a passing mention.
This is surprising considering the amount of turmoil and alleged treachery the four-times married queen managed to pack into her 36 years of life.
In the film, Katherine is seen supporting a “treasonous” preacher who questions whether the king was truly chosen by God.
The queen is arrested, her rooms searched and ladies-in-waiting interrogated as the king turns against his once favoured bride.
Henry is quickly on the look-out for a seventh woman to walk down the aisle, with one of Katherine’s best friends catching his lecherous eye.
But Henry is not the only man who proves to be a terrible husband – her fourth one, Thomas Seymour, was rumoured to have sexually abused the future monarch Queen Elizabeth I when she was aged 14.
Firebrand is based on a fictionalised account of Katherine’s life by author Elizabeth Fremantle.
The writer of the seven books tells The Sun: “Katherine Parr’s story is very, very dark.
“What is in the movie is not the only very, very difficult period of her life, but this is probably the most kind of high-octane thriller type passage of her story.”
As every British school pupil is taught, Henry VIII had six wives.
Their fate is remembered through the rhyme, “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.”
That record made Henry a poisoned chalice for his brides.
But Elizabeth says it had not always been that way for Henry, who as Henry VII’s “spare” was not expected to take his place on the throne.
She comments: “Henry had been that beautiful prince as a young man, the kind of superstar prince of Europe.”
A constant pursuit of a male heir saw him divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, a decision which forced him to break away from the Pope’s Catholic church.
It wasn’t until his fourth wife Jane Seymour gave birth to Edward in 1537 that one of his sons lived beyond a couple of months.
Jane, though, died as a result of childbirth and her successor Catherine Howard was beheaded on the grounds of adultery.
Katherine, whose first two husbands had died of natural causes, was wooed by Jane’s dashing brother Sir Thomas Seymour.
Elizabeth explains: “He was the admiral of the fleet and he’d escaped from pirates in a rowing boat, he’d done all this kind of daring-do and he was meant to be the most handsome man at court.”
Instead, Katherine caught the king’s attention and even though she had little desire to marry the ageing Henry she couldn’t say no.
The union had advantages for her family.
Elizabeth continues: “You’d be given lands, riches, titles, it happened to the Parrs who were really a kind of middle level gentry family of courtiers before the marriage.”
He was the admiral of the fleet and he’d escaped from pirates in a rowing boat, he’d done all this kind of daring-do and he was meant to be the most handsome man at court.
Elizabeth Fremantle
Katherine proved to be a popular queen at first, translating prayers from Latin to English and putting them into best selling books.
Elizabeth says: “She was the first woman to publish an original text in the English language under her own name.”
It was, though, essentially a “forced marriage” with Katherine expected to give into Henry’s sexual demands.
Elizabeth says: “There was no such thing as rape within marriage. In those days, a husband had the right to do pretty much whatever he wanted with his wife.
“It was written into law that a man could beat his wife with a stick, no broader than his thumb, as long as he didn’t kill her.”
Horrific decline
Sleeping with Henry must have been a deeply unpleasant experience.
A jousting injury sustained in 1536 left him with a leg full of putrid pus that eventually turned gangrenous.
While researching the role, Law said: “I read several interesting accounts that you could smell Henry three rooms away.”
In order to imitate the horrific odour this generated, Law had a scent concocted made up of a “variety of blood, faecal matter, and sweat”.
The actor sprayed it on himself more and more as filming went on.
Elizabeth says: “I smelt it. So I can vouch for it. It was really, really disgusting.”
By the end, Henry was so unwell that he had to be pushed around in a contraption resembling a wheelchair.
Enemies pounce
For three months in 1544 Katherine ruled the country in the king’s absence.
But as Firebrand shows Henry swiftly reasserted his authority on his return after leading a brutal siege of Boulogne in France, a victory which nearly bankrupted his nation.
We see him angrily dismiss Katherine’s protest about her preacher friend Anne Askew being burned at the stake for heresy.
Even though Henry set himself against the Vatican, he returned to those more traditional Christian teachings in later life and didn’t approve of the “reformist” Protestant ones espoused by Askew.
There were suspicions that the Catholic raised Katherine was secretly spreading the word of the newer faith.
So when Henry flirts with a younger woman, admiring her “fine teeth,” her enemies pounce.
Elizabeth explains: “The minute, any of the courtiers noticed a chink in Katherine Parr’s armour they don’t stop pushing their daughters at him, because that was a way to achieve an incredible ascendancy.”
Hopes of seventh wife
There were rumours that he was lining up Katherine Brandon, a pal of sixth wife, to be his seventh bride.
As soon as Henry lost interest in his wife, her life was at risk.
Elizabeth continues: “People were talking about it ‘is he going to get rid of Katherine Parr, is he going to marry a seventh?’”
Firebrand plays out like a psychological thriller at times, with Katherine on the end of her husband’s increasingly maniacal rages.
Elizabeth says: “It’s terrifying, you don’t know which version of Henry you’re going to get when you walk into a room.
“He could be charismatic, but you just never quite know if he’s going to lash out.
“And of course when Henry lashed out, the consequences were really grave.”
Countless trusted aides ended up executed for getting on the wrong side of him.
In the end it seems the Queen was saved by Henry’s gluttonous appetite, with obesity the most likely reason for his death at the age of 55 in 1547.
Although, the film does offer a different version of his demise which is sure to upset historians.
It’s terrifying, you don’t know which version of Henry you’re going to get when you walk into a room
Elizabeth Fremantle
Firebrand does not tell Katherine’s story beyond the king’s death.
Her final husband, Sir Thomas Seymour, is almost worth a movie on his own.
Katherine was very close to Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth and had persuaded Henry to restore the future queen to the line of succession.
After the king died, the young Elizabeth went to live with Katherine.
But Thomas paid far too much attention to the 14-year-old royal, with him often slapping her backside.
While pregnant with her only child, Katherine found the pair in an “embrace” and sent Elizabeth away.
Tragically, the former queen died as a result of a fever resulting from giving birth to Mary.
That allowed Thomas to pursue the young Elizabeth again, with him plotting to marry her and become king.
Those lofty ambitions led to him being beheaded for treason in 1549.
It was the same fate that befell his brother Edward, who had risen to Lord Protector of England when King Edward VI was too young to rule.
Elizabeth says: “These men pushing women into certain marriages to climb that greasy pole almost always end up executed.”
Katherine Parr, though, was astute enough to keep her head.
Who were Henry VIII's wives?
- Catherine of Aragon – Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon was the first of Henry’s wives, and had previously been married to Henry’s older brother Arthur, who died aged 15. Catherine wed Henry in 1509, shortly after he became king, and their marriage lasted almost 24 years – the other five spanned less than 10 years put together. While she was pregnant six times, only one of Catherine’s children with Henry survived: a girl who later became Queen Mary I.
- Anne Boleyn – Henry married Anne Boleyn after finally securing his annulment – her sister, Mary, had already been a mistress to the king, and the couple may have had a child together. Although, like Catherine, she had a healthy daughter (Elizabeth I), Anne’s failure to produce a future king meant Henry quickly tired of her. He annulled their marriage and, with the assistance of his influential, ambitious right-hand man Thomas Cromwell, had her executed on (somewhat flimsy) charges of adultery, incest and high treason in 1536.
- Jane Seymour – One of Anne’s ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour married Henry just 13 days after the former queen’s beheading in 1536. She was of relatively low birth compared to Henry’s other wives but, crucially for the king, gave birth to a healthy male heir, Edward, in 1537. It would be their only child together – Jane died, presumably from post-natal complications, just 12 days after Edward was born.
- Anne of Cleves – Wife number four, Anne of Cleves, lasted just six unhappy months in 1540. Having fallen for the German noblewoman from a portrait by celebrated artist Hans Holbein, he is rumoured to have referred to her as “A Flanders Mare” when he met her in the flesh.
- Catherine Howard – Henry, who by this point was almost 50, had pursued teenager Catherine during his short-lived marriage to Anne, and married her within a month of their union being dissolved. Before long, though, rumours of Catherine’s past and present love affairs reached the king. Henry, consumed by one of the rages that characterised his erratic final years, had her executed.
- Katherine Parr – She was Henry’s sixth and final wife, from July 1543 until his demise three and a half years later. After Henry died she was freed to marry Thomas Seymour, to whom she had been betrothed before becoming queen. She had one child with Thomas – her fourth husband – but died shortly after giving birth in 1548.