Henry VIII and His Six Wives

by Janet Hardy-Gould

There were six of them - three Katherines, two Annes, and a Jane. One of them was the King's wife for twenty-four years, another for only a year and a half. One died, two were divorced, and two were beheaded. It was a dangerous, uncertain life.After the King's death in 1547, his sixth wife finds a box of old letters - one from each of the first five wives. They are sad, angry, frightened letters. They tell the story of what it was like to be the wife of Henry VIII of England.

Genres: History, Audiobook, Historical

48 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 15, 1997

About the author

Janet Hardy-Gould is a graded reader author whose books are hugely popular with teachers and students around the world. She has written a wide range of graded readers for Oxford University Press. These include Ellis Island: Rosalia's Story (Oxford Dominoes) which won the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) award in 2020 and Merlin (Oxford Dominoes) which won the ERF award in 2015, plus Amelia Earhart (Oxford Bookworms Library) which was shortlisted for the ERF final in 2015, and Women Who Made A Difference which was shortlisted in 2025. You can follow Janet's Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/JanetHardyGo...
Her best-selling titles include Henry VIII and his Six Wives (Oxford Bookworms Library) and Sherlock Holmes: The Emerald Crown (Oxford Dominoes). Many of her works are cartoons or highly-illustrated books for students starting out in English and they include Sinbad, Mulan, Ali Baba and The Great Fire of London (Oxford Dominoes Starters).
Janet believes that graded readers are one of the fastest and most enjoyable ways for learners to improve their English and a wonderful tool for developing reading skills and vocabulary. It is also highly motivating for students to choose their own book on a subject they are interested in. With this in mind, she has produced books on a variety of popular factual subjects such as Hollywood, San Francisco, Deserts and Chocolate (Oxford Bookworms Library Factfiles).

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook of this and there were different voice actors for each person. I think it would be a good way to introduce this part of Tudor history to children.

[elektrospiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My name is Catherine Parr."

W niewielu słowach możemy się w interesujący sposób czegoś dowiedzieć o słynnym władcy, choć kto się interesuje historią, będzie pewnie wszystko wiedział. Ale tu chodzi głównie o trening językowy, a do tego książeczka nadaje się znakomicie - jest nawet interesująco opowiedziana.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember how my passion for the Tudors started out or what was the spark of it, but what I still recall was that this book was the first Tudor book I read to learn more about King Henry VIII and his six wives and it immediately fueled the fire of my Tudor interest which to this day still keeps burning stronger and stronger.

I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time of reading this and I found that it offered an amazing and terse summary of Henry and his wives. Not too deep yet balanced in information - a perfect introductory Tudor material for children. But this book works for adults too in that it serves as a quick 'who's who' guide of Henry's wives without the lengthy narrations.

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very accessible account of Henry VIII's wives at a very basic level. I'm glad this exists, and even though I've seen the musical, Six and read Fatal Throne and already know the story, it is neat to see it so condensed and knowing that a student with major reading struggles could enjoy this book.

[julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

historia opowiedziana ciekawie i książka spełnia swoją funkcję. z minusów to nie widzę wgl sensu logicznego w tej głównej konwersacji. po co królowa miałaby czytać listy poprzednich żon swojego męża służbie? i biedne żony

[Móňa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rychle přečteno a angličtina nebyla těžká. Bylo to zajímavý a hezky podaný. Doporučuju

[Sarra · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book can be used in a history class, but more than that, it is just not helpful for those who are interested in the Tudor dynasty. For me this book was a complete disappointement. The focus is on King Henry's six wives but the writer failed to mention that the king's great matter stemed in the break with the church of Rome and its reperecussions. Well, yes it mentioned the break with Rome but in like one sentence!How can one talk about Henry VIII without talking about his governement. Besides, I didn't like the fictional story in the book involving Catherine Parr telling the story of the king's wives to her maid, through fictional lettres. The book could have been a lot more interseting if the writer used real letters between the king and his wives. These letters exist by the way, just look them up on internet, really interesting. I don't know maybe this book is meant for high school history classes.

[Arisa Shimokawa · Rating 3 out of 5]

1.Oxford level2

2. 6/23=40minutes, 5/24=40minutes

3. wives, letter, six, king, divorce, maid, queen

4. (a)I like the story of Henry's fifth wife, Anne of Cleves.
(b)It is because the reason of divorce was funny. Anne's face was looks like horse, so Henry who likes beautiful women decided to divorce.

5. There are many stories of his wives in this book. And most of them were terrible and unbelievable. However, I could learn about him and I was interested in history of England Kings.

[Larue (Golnaz) · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Divorced - beheaded - died - divorced - beheaded.
She closed the box and looked at me.'And still alive!'
We both laughed.


Anne Boleyn 🖤👀✨

[Geraldine · Rating 5 out of 5]

La historia de los reyes de Inglaterra es sin duda una de mis favoritas desde que vi The Tudors , The white queen y las secuelas me entro ganas de saber más y más

Este libro es cortito pero me brindo algunos datos interesantes que desconocía. Como fan de la serie The Tudors mi fav siempre será Ana Bolena aunque la tachen de mala mujer porque nos regalo a una gran reina como fue Elizabeth.
Aunque se que es ficción me gusto leer las cartas de cada esposa , cada una refleja la personalidad de las autoras y como lidiaban con el rey y su ego y cual fue su fin.

[octobersveil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've found this 40-pages-long book on Vinted and decided to buy it, just for the sake of the Tudor obsession I had 3 years ago when I watched The Tudors series for the first time (Henry Cavill was part of the cast, hihi). It's written very easy-like, because the author is a teacher and wanted to teach her students about Henry's VIII life in an easy way. I'm giving it two stars just because it's not meant for me, but I guess for young teens is perfect.The dude was a d*che anyways, we all know it, haha.

[Abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro permite aprender cosas sobre Enrique y como este actup y se desenvolvio con cada una de sus esposas, vemos a un hombre algo cruel y aprendemos a través de los ojos de su última esposa y de las palabras de las otras recogidas en cartas como fue Enrique y que llevo a los tudor a la ruina

[Jacquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting inside look into each of King Henry's wives. Often the only wives we hear about are his first three, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. I enjoyed learning more about each and every one of them.

[Abeer Nwaider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story to improve reading skill for beginners, I loved the king's wives stories, I finished it among hour
It was very interesting and simple

[Annmarie Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read book, story is told through the eyes of Catherine Parr, as she reads the letters of his previous wives.

[blanca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectura obligatoria de inglés. Sin más.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, with fun words to learn in Mandarin

[enfmaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never read about his story but this book was so impressive and couldn’t stop reading .

[Nour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story :)

[Maria Mhemnoch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cumple su cometido para el aprendizaje del idioma y es un muy buen resumen de la historia. Me ha parecido más entretenido que otros graduados de la colección, así que sería un poquito más de las 3 estrellas jajaja.

[Saeid Arghiani · Rating 1 out of 5]

داستان نسبتا ضعیف و بدون کشش روایی

[Phương Anh Khương · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting !!! delightful , attractive

[Mădălina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[zeynus · Rating 4 out of 5]

diger ingilizce hikayeden daha guzeldi vallahi bundan en azimdan zevk aldim
ve sunu da soylemek istiyorum henry the sekiz allah senin bellani versin serefsiz adam

[Masahito Ueto · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Oxford level2
2. 10/10 40min, 10/12 40min
3. King, wives, letter, son, divorce, angry, die, behead
4.a)Please be kind to our daughter.Do not angry with her.
b)This mother is very strong, because she tried to protect her daughter, when she was killed by him just before. I felt the mother's deep love to her daughter.
5) I learned him when I was a high school student. He is one of the men who affect the England. He created the Anglican Church. However, he created it to divorce from his wife. He wanted some sons to let them take over the power to control England! I understand him a little because giving the power to control to other family is dishonor in the period he lived. I respect his wives at the same time, because they reacted to his any selfish.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Que persona más egocéntrica Henry, o sea, solo por que era Rey había que hacerle caso. Aunque es un libro corto, aprendí varias cosas de este rey como también de la sociedad y época en la cual vivían.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I think this book took me about 4 months to read-- -eek! I am very interested in Tudor and English history, so this book title really grabbed me. However, I wasn't expecting a true HISTORY book. This book could be a text for a history class with all of its detail--- and sometime too much detail-- about Henry VIII and his wives (there was information about surviving records that detail the stench of the king's leg wound that ailed him in his later years).
Despite the heavy text and detailed history, the book was surprisingly enjoyable for me to read in smaller chunks. It was extremely interesting and allowed me the opportunity to learn a lot about what strong and historically significant women Henry VIII married. I learned of the strong influence Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr, played in normalizing the education of women. Women weren't typically educated in the 16th century, however Katherine was highly educated and a great promoter of women's education. She was a great influence on the education of Elizabeth I who was her step-daughter.
I really enjoyed this book, however it was certainly not the light summer reading that I was initially prepared for!

[Himawari Ogawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Publisher: Janet Hardy Gould
Company: Oxford
Level:2

2. Time: 6/16 11mins 21mins 9mins

3. wife, die, love, friend, lonely,gold,marry

4. Do you want to find a girlfriend or boyfriend like friend?
→Yes and No.lol I think friendship is of course good between
boyfriend and girlfriend. But in fact they love each other so,
I want to find more good relationship than friendship.

When do you want to marry??
→ If I can decided the time, I want to do when I'm 27 years old.
But I know that it's difficult for me to do that.lol

5. This book is easy for me to understand what this story is.
and the way that how to write this book is very good way for me.
The section is divided each wives. But its story is so so.

[Akihiro Miyanishi · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.Oxford Level 2

2.03/27=70 minutes;04/16=10minutes

3.King,wives,die,divorsce,behead,box,old letters

4.a)The sixth wife, Catherine Parr, introduced King of Henry the Eigth to Margaret. She is new maid in his palace. She was interested in his life, and wanted to listen to it more. So Cathrine showed her the letters of his wives.
b)I like this passage. This is a beggining of this story. I was exited when I read this passage.

5.I was very surprised when I heard this is true story. I can't think the King's life is true. Although I read this book, I don't know his life is good or not. So I would like to know other reviwes.

[Sayaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 oxford level2
2 7/14=70 7/16=10
3 six wives, divorce, behead, die, angry, son, letters
4 a)"Please be kind to our daughter Elizabeth. Do not be angry with her, because of me."
b) This wife tried to protect her daughter just before she was killed. I think mothers are strong and great. I would like to be a kind mother like her.
5 I learned about this king so I could understand this story easily, but I didn't know he had six wives. I was disappointed at him because he was selfish. He divorved her wives because they couldn't make sons. On the other hand, I was impressed by his wives. They tried to protect their sons and daughters just before they were killed.