23 thoughts on “Random Thoughts on Lucy Worsley’s Six Wives

  1. In the second picture of Anne Boleyn, the french hood with the veil thingy is a rewear from Wolf Hall.
    I’ve also noticed it in a couple of other documentaries about the Tudors.

  2. I was so thrilled to see a young, happy, auburn-haired, fair-skinned Catherine of Aragon! Someone finally got it right.

  3. I would watch a documentary told entirely from the perspective of Catherine of Aragon, with her marriages being additions to her blazingly interesting story. Her parents! Her first husband! Her retinue of Spanish ladies. The way she dealt with insurrectionist Scots as Queen Regent! … and lastly her abysmal treatment by the Henry.

    (similarly, I think Catherine Parr is the second most interesting the Henrician Queens… I often wonder, as a weird counterfactual, if she ended up married to Henry at an earlier point in their lives, how she would possibly have put a stamp on woman’s intellectualism in England)

    1. It’s available for free on Youtube. That is where I was able to watch them 3 months ago.

  4. honestly, I did love it, especially for the fact that she/the show DID talk about the fact that Catherine and Henry were a love match, and were for many years. and I will totally admit to wanting a servant’s outfit like Lucy’s if I ever am able to get out to faire again.

  5. I really enjoyed the series. And beaucoup props for casting a ginger as Katherine of Aragon.
    And props for cast an actress for Catherine Howard that resembles her cousin, Anne Boleyn.
    Although Catherine Howard is tied with Jame Seymour as my least favourite wife, I felt that her sexual molestation at 13 contributed to her supposed wanton behavior as Queen. Just wished Dr Worsley expanded on that.
    Henry the no. 1 manchild of history was fortunate in having 4 intelligent Queens: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleeves & Katherine Parr Of course, he totally regulated them to failures in boy heir production.

  6. There were lots of re wears from the Wolf Hall Miniseries, that just look odd for documentary perspective but over all I thought it very interesting, and entertaining.

  7. I’m having fun ogling the pearls on those outfits. It might be cool to do a tangential but interesting piece on pearl accessories, as most people don’t know how valuable they were pre-Mikimoto.

  8. even if Worsley mentioned Katherine’s sexual harassment and the mishandling of her betrothal affairs breifly and without much context( like how K was just a kid and not as wordly wise as any of other wives of Henry , being brought up in a remote and provincial education of her guardian and a lousy, bad one at that) it is heartening that she at least mentioned it. Have you seen what they intepreated her in Dan Jones’s docu-drama? a teenage vixen! i do sometimes hate him tbh.
    Another good touch would have been to show how she was the least extravagant of all Henry’s wives( especially compared to Jane Seymour who demanded every lady to wear particular number of pearls to look rich even if they can’t afford it) . The only expensive thing she ever brought was woollen clothes for Margaret Pole who Henry like a rascal sociopath that he is held captive because…?

  9. OH MY GLOB THOSE GABLE HOODS SO FABULOUS

    I gotta watch this! Henry and his wives are one of my especial favourite subjects, and I’m super excited at the prospect of Katherine of Aragon getting proper representation.

  10. I loved it.

    BUT…

    I felt it deserved more episodes.

    The momentum was so marvelous with the KoA (EP1) and Anne Boleyn (EP2) that when it just kind of smashed the rest of the wives together in later episodes, I felt a bit cheated out of Worsley’s terrific commentary on history. I guess I shouldn’t complain, though, because at least KoA got a fair, empathetic, strong-willed presentation, and usually these things gloss over a lot of her story.

    My favorite part? Where KoA sat on that throne, totally stoic, and said, “I asked you for [the Scottish king’s] HEAD, not his coat.” Ha, ha, ha. Love it.

    1. I loved that scene with KoA too! She was so tiny, yet radiated so much power and confidence. I was happy to see they portrayed her with auburn hair, too.

  11. Overall really loved the costumes and the actresses were perfectly cast! They’re actually wearing farthingales! And fabulous gable hoods! Though at one point I saw some extras wearing the early gable hood from the 1500s/1510s in a scene in the 1530s. I don’t love the fit of Kate Howard’s dress. But the sticky-outy part of her hood is accurate for that time period–at that point they even had ties that went under the chin. But some other French hoods esp. on Anne Boleyn look like headbands (mostly the ones reworn from Wolf Hall).

  12. As far as the Jane Seymour portraits go, look a bit closer and you’ll see that they’re two different paintings. They didn’t just photoshop the one on the left. Otherwise, love the post!

  13. Just re-watched this on BBC4, am I wrong – but Anne Boleyn’s pearls. Did she wear them under her armpits??

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