Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. Nearly 500 years after the death of Henry VIII, can there be anything new to say about his queens: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr? Does the world need another book about this sextet?
The answer to both questions, as this elegantly written and sumptuously illustrated volume makes clear, is a resounding yes. Published to coincide with the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of the same name (20 June-8 September), Six Lives is a collection of concise, accessible essays written by experts with specialist knowledge of Tudor painting, music, jewellery, manuscript illumination and book binding, among other topics. What makes the book so engaging and rewarding is that one comes away from it with a palpable sense of Henry’s queens as individuals, each possessed of a distinct life and afterlife.
Some of the nearly 200 illustrations are well-known images – none more so, perhaps, than Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1539 painting of a richly attired Anne of Cleves in three-quarter length, hands clasped demurely in front of her at waist level. This is the portrait which persuaded Henry to take the sitter as his fifth wife, only for him to exclaim with dismay, upon seeing her in the flesh, that she was not so fair as he had been led to believe. It was a turn of events which contributed to the fall of Thomas Cromwell – though Holbein, unlike Cromwell, kept his head.
One of the volume’s many pleasures is the way in which familiar images sit cheek by jowl with lesser-known ones.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in