#FridayFun – Poll: Who was the perfect match for Henry VIII?

I voted for Catherine Parr although Jane Seymour was close behind, because she out of all the wives Henry V111 wed I believe she had the common sense the intelligence and the patience to deal with his difficult temperament, his mood swings and above all, she was educated and Henry V111 as we know loved a debate with an intelligent and cultured woman, that said all the other wives had their own traits which Henry loved, there was very real passion between him and Anne Boleyn and intellectually they were suited, and I saw she topped the poll, but as queen she was totally unsuitable and her very nature was jealous possessive and her temper tantrums bothered him, his love for her soon died, Katherine of Aragon was married to him for twenty years so maybe it’s unfair of her to leave her out, theirs was an arranged marriage but there was genuine love between them, their marriage only failed because she could not give him a prince, and his head was turned by the seductive dusky Anne Boleyn, but she to was cultured a princess in her own right and it was a most successful marriage for many years, Jane Seymour died before she could reveal her real potential as consort to this most contrary of kings, yet she was mild mannered and knew when to keep her mouth shut, Anna from Cleves was rejected by the much married monarch and Catherine Howard because of her very youth was an ill match for the by now elderly and obese king, it was said once it’s a pity Henry never married his sixth wife first, she was fertile and beautiful, she has been described as a sensuous woman so I think had they met when young, she would have been a good match for the young king, physically a couple have to be well matched for a relationship to survive but there are other factors to, companionship a meeting of minds, the ability to make each other laugh, especially for an older couple the closeness one experiences from being in a relationship is more important when the passion has been spent, apart from being well suited sexually we have another important abiding factor to, Henry V111 was a king and apart from being a good match with a spouse she had to give him heirs, male heirs notably, both Jane and Catherine died from childbirth, but Catherine because she was quite old by Tudor standards to have her first child, might not have had she been married when young, we can feel for all of these women who married King Henry V111 for I have no doubt they did their very best to please him, their downfall was they were married to a most unusual monarch.