Replies

"Historians agree his behavior changed after 1536," behavioral neurologist Arash Salardini said...

1536 is when Henry executed Anne Bolyn. My wife has studied this subject extensively and believes he destroyed himself when he did this, because Anne was the love of his life. Whether you agree with his goals or not, Henry believed in what he was doing, and that his war with the Church was divinely guided and commanded for him to do. To succeed, however, he needed an heir and Anne couldn't give him one (she had multiple "miscarriages" that could easily have been from poison in her food). So he felt he had to get rid of her in order to marry someone who would give him his heir. But doing so broke his heart, damaged his mind and he never recovered - he was dead ten years later. There were other strategic issues involved with the Church, too, but that's the gist of it.

1536 is when Henry executed Anne Bolyn. My wife has studied this subject extensively and believes he destroyed himself when he did this, because Anne was the love of his life.

By most accounts, Henry had already begun his pursuit of Jane Seymour while he was married to Anne Boleyn. He became engaged to Jane Seymour one day after he beheaded Anne Boleyn and married her 10 days afterward.

That doesn't sound like a man for whom Anne Boleyn was the love of his life. I tend to agree with the guys in the article, and it's not an original theory - many historians and researchers have traced Henry's violence to his jousting accident. Possible brain damage, or chronic pain from the injuries.

But it should be noted that Henry had already disposed of Catherine, the wife he'd been married to for 20 years by then, and had turned on Thomas Wolsey, his advisor and chancellor since his boyhood - he would likely have killed Wolsey if Wolsey hadn't obliged him by dying first. Even without any jousting accident, Henry was a brutal monarch.

Many believe he loved Jane Seymour above all. She was the only one who gave him a male heir, the only one to receive a queen’s funeral. He chose to be buried alongside her. But he was not married to her long enough to tire of her, as he obviously tired of several others.

It’s indisputable that he had an intense love for Ann Boleyn, at least during their courtship and their early years of marriage. He led the country to turmoil in his quest to marry her.

Hmmm, I have read many bios of he and his wives and I never got that impression. Curious to know how your wife arrived at that theory.

I think Catherine of Aragon had delivered him a son who lived he would have remained married to her and simply had his affairs.

1536 is when Henry executed Anne Boleyn.

I can see how his change of behavior determined Anne's fate.

Although by 1536 Henry's marriage to Anne was already tanking, it was after the jousting accident that he became particularly vindictive. The news of the accident had shocked Anne into miscarrying -- a boy. Starting then, Henry believed their marriage was cursed. Which led to her eventual kangaroo trial and execution.

So I am guessing that the events that unfolded started from the trauma caused by head injury.