Henry’s marriages set the backdrop for his descent from a charming prince to a ruthless tyrant
ILLUSTRATION: JEAN-MICHEL GIRARD/WWW.THE-ART-AGENCY.CO.UK
Today, we associate royal weddings with great public celebrations, a grand procession, a magnificent ceremony in Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral or St George’s Chapel at Windsor, and a public appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. But this is not a tradition leading back down the centuries to England’s most married monarch, Henry VIII, and beyond. The modern royal wedding, as we know it, dates only from 1840, when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. Prior to that, royal weddings were usually private a airs, solemnised in the royal chapels with little public fanfare.
Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, painted c1520. She was the widow of the King’s late elder brother, Arthur
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