Description
In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Henry VIII was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses.