Divorced, beheaded, survived
Subtitle: a feminist reinterpretation of the wives of Henry VIII
By: Karen Lindsey.
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub.
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Reading, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
Subjects: Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547 -- Marriage.; Marriages of royalty and nobility -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century.; Women -- England -- History -- Renaissance, 1450-1600.; Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography.; Feminism.; Great Britain -- History -- Henry VIII, 1509-1547 -- Biography.
Description: The women who wed Henry VIII are remembered mainly for the ways their royal marriages ended: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. This book helps to restore full humanity to these six fascinating women by applying the insights of feminist scholarship. Here they appear not as stereotypes, not simply as victims, but as lively, intelligent noblewomen doing their best to survive in a treacherous court.

Divorced, Beheaded, Survived takes a revisionist look at 16th-century English politics (domestic and otherwise), reinterpreting the historical record in perceptive new ways. For example, it shows Ann Boleyn not as a seductress, but as a sophisticate who for years politely suffered what we would now label royal sexual harassment.

It presents evidence that the princess Anne of Cleves, whom Henry declared ugly and banished from his bed, was in fact a pretty woman who agreed to the king's whim as her best hope for happiness.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-221) and index.

CONTENTS:

The kingmaker -- The Daughter of Spain -- Married Life -- The Great Whore -- The Court of Two Queens -- Anna Sans Tete -- The Vessel -- The Flanders Mare -- The Rose With A Thorn -- The Clerk Both King and Queen