Henry had an almost abnormal fixation with virginity.
One of the key issues to do with his divorce from KOA is that he claimed that she wasn’t a virgin when he married her, although at the time it didn’t seem to matter or didn’t appear to matter, being that he was young and wanting to show the people and perhaps Margaret (his grandmother) who acted as regent for a few months that being married etc. was his way of showing her and the people that he was ready and able to take on the duty and burdens of Kingship.

I also feel that being married was also his way of showing off to his sister Margaret, who if anything happened to Henry would inherit the throne, via her husband. I don’t know for sure but I believe that Henry and Margaret didn’t really get on with one another. Margaret perhaps could see Henry for what he was. Shallow and self-centred etc..

Anyway I digress as I said Henry married KOA believing she was a virgin. When Henry decided to divorce KOA, the first thing he said to try and get an annulment of his marriage to her was that she wasn’t a virgin, when he married her.

At the court hearing in Blackfriars he produced evidence which he believed proved this I.e. blood stained sheets, KOA stated that she had pricked her heel and put the blood on the sheets, to spare Arthur’s dignity. But she was still a maid when she married Henry and he knew that. Either way the divorce went through and KOA was shut away and forgotten.

Henry after only 3 years with Anne once again he decided enough was enough and wanted rid of her he accused her of adultery, incest and although he suspected her of witchcraft could find no evidence to support this. Anyway again he used the excuse of Anne not being a Virgin when he married her, well strictly speaking she wasn’t as she was pregnant with Elizabeth when she married Henry.

Putting aside her brother, Norris, Brereton, Weston and Smeaton, who were accused of sexual misconduct with the Queen the one arrest that sticks out in my mind is Wyatt. Yes she was friendly with him when they were at Hever. I believe his parents lived not far from Hever so Wyatt spent time over there, and of course Anne had a great love of poetry and Wyatt was a good poet. In my opinion Henry ordered Wyatt’s arrest to try and prove that Anne wasn’t a virgin when she married Henry, and of course there is also the business of Mary Talbot (Henry Percy’s wife) who made an appeal to the King about wanting to divorce Percy on the grounds that he was pre-contracted to Anne and therefore their marriage wasn’t valid.
It was generally believed that whenever a pre-contract had been agreed sex was permissible between the 2 people as they were for all intense and purposes married but without all the frills and frippery and the I do’s and I declare them bit from the man in a dress waving his hands about.

Wyatt’s arrest I believe was just a general shot in the dark from Henry to try and prove his point of Anne being a wh*re, and to blacken her name, and perhaps to justify to himself that he was right to chop her up.

Jane well I don’t think there was any doubt she was a Virgin.

Anne of Cleves, Henry said that one of the things that made him doubt that Anne was a maid was because of the looseness of her breasts and that other parts of her felt out of sorts. He also used her pre-contract with the Duke of Lorraine as an excuse to dump her. I can only conclude that he felt that Anne had perhaps had sex with the Duke and therefore that’s why she had loose breasts etc.

Katherine Howard, well there is no doubt she wasn’t a virgin when she married Henry. She definitely had sex with Derham. Mannox however is an open question On what evidence we have and what little I’ve read about Jo Bulmer I don’t believe Mannox did have sex in the conventual sense of the word with K.H I believe it was mainly perhaps oral or possibly anal sex. Culpepper always said he intended carnal actions towards her, and I believe she may have felt likewise, but knew that they would both have to wait until Henry was dead, before that could happen.
However Henry truly believed she was a virgin, and knew nothing about sex other than the fact it was a word. Well they do say there is no fool like an old fool and Henry certainly was. Did Norfolk know the truth about K.H and her dissolute living? Or did he hope that he could perhaps keep her secret hidden.

Let’s face it the Duchess was very lax when it came to looking after the household or should I say making sure that the girls were brought up as they should have been. After all the parents of these girls sent their girls to be educated in the courtly graces so that they would be able to find them suitable husbands of higher standing then just a common garden Sir or Knight.

In some ways the Duchess betrayed not just the girls, but the girl’s parents too, as they trusted her to bring up their children as fitting or what would be fitting for court life. I agree the Duchess did provide tutors for the girls but for the most part the girls were left to their own devices and to make amusement where they could. The stealing of the dormitory key should have told the Duchess something was very wrong, and finding K.H and Derham together should have told her to sort the mess out within the household.

The fact that the Duchess gave Derham a letter of recommendation to enter K.H’s court household tells me at least that she knew that K.H wasn’t as lily white as was believed by Henry.

I therefore find myself quite sympathic towards Henry when he found out the truth about Katherine. But there again surely he must have had some sort of idea that K.H wasn’t as pure and innocent as he believed. I believe that K.H was perhaps well versed for want of a better word in sexual matters.
Generally speaking although women were told about the birds and the bees (although it baffles me on how a bird can breed with a bee given the size difference) woman just lay on the bed and let their husbands do what they will with them. So surely during their sexual encounters Henry must have realised she knew more about sex than he believed.

Katherine Parr well he knew the score there, 2 husbands there could be no way she was a virgin, could there?

Why was Henry so obsessed with virgins? Was it an ego thing with him?