Henry VIII and His Six Wives: Greenwich to Syon

Henry VIII's story starts on the bank of the Thames at Greenwich, where he was born in 1491. The palace stayed central to his life: his marriage to Catherine of Aragon took place in the friary church beside it, and the future queens Mary I and Elizabeth I were born here too. On 1 May 1515 the king and Catherine rode out from it to a breakfast in the woods at Shooter's Hill, with the guard dressed as Robin Hood and his men. The palace was pulled down after 1660; the Old Royal Naval College now stands on the site.

場所の精度: The Tudor palace no longer stands; the pin marks the site, now the Old Royal Naval College.

訪問のヒント: The Old Royal Naval College grounds occupy the former palace site.

Anne Boleyn grew up at Hever, the Kent castle her family held from 1462 to 1539. She lived here until 1513, when she was sent to the Netherlands to be educated at the court of the Archduchess Margaret. Years later Henry VIII conducted his courtship of Anne at the nearby Bolebroke Castle. After her father died the castle passed to the king, who gave it in 1540 to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, as part of their annulment settlement. Today Hever is a tourist attraction with gardens.

訪問のヒント: Open as a tourist attraction with gardens.

Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was buried in Peterborough in 1536. On the very day of her burial, Anne Boleyn miscarried a child that the Imperial ambassador said seemed to be a boy; he judged it the beginning of the end of her marriage. The tomb was damaged in 1643 and restored in the 19th century. Gold letters read "Katharine Queen of England", a title she was denied at her death. Visitors still decorate the grave with flowers and pomegranates, her symbol.

訪問のヒント: Catherine's grave is in the cathedral; visitors leave flowers and pomegranates.

Anne Boleyn was arrested on 2 May 1536 and sent to the Tower, convicted on 15 May and beheaded four days later. Henry changed her sentence from burning to beheading, and rather than use the common axe he brought an expert swordsman from Saint-Omer in France. The scaffold stood on the north side of the White Tower. Anne was buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula inside the Tower, where visitors can still see the chapel Henry rebuilt in 1519.

訪問のヒント: The Tower is open to visitors; the chapel is within the castle walls.

Henry was betrothed to Jane Seymour on 20 May 1536, the day after Anne's execution. They married ten days later, on 30 May, in the Queen's closet at the Palace of Whitehall, with Bishop Stephen Gardiner officiating. Henry had taken over the site in 1530 from the fallen Cardinal Wolsey, when it was still called York Place. Fire destroyed the palace in 1698; only Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622 survives.

場所の精度: The palace is gone; the pin marks the surviving Banqueting House, part of the old Whitehall complex.

訪問のヒント: The Banqueting House is the one surviving part of the palace.

Cardinal Wolsey began Hampton Court in 1514, and in 1529, as his enemies closed in, he passed it to the king as a gift. Here, on 12 October 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to the long-awaited heir, the future Edward VI. She died at the palace on 24 October. Hampton Court later saw Henry's marriage to Catherine Howard celebrated with prayers in its Chapel Royal. Today it is open to the public, and its gardens include the famous maze.

訪問のヒント: Run by Historic Royal Palaces and open to the public; the maze is in the gardens.

In November 1541 Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, faced accusations of adultery and treason. She was stripped of her title as queen on 23 November and imprisoned at Syon Abbey, in Middlesex, a former convent. The King would be at Hampton Court, and she would not see him again. She stayed at Syon until February 1542, when she was executed.

場所の精度: Syon Abbey itself was replaced by a later house; the pin marks Syon House.