Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived. To which people does this refer?

This memorable rhyme is a mnemonic device used to recall the fates of the six women married to King Henry VIII of England during his reign from 1509 to 1547. The sequence of "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived" directly corresponds to the outcome of each of his marriages in chronological order. This simple phrase has become a popular tool for remembering a key aspect of Tudor history.

Henry's desperate quest for a male heir drove much of this marital turmoil. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was divorced (or more accurately, the marriage was annulled) when she could not produce a son. This desire led him to Anne Boleyn, who was ultimately beheaded on charges of treason after she also gave birth to a daughter. His third wife, Jane Seymour, provided the long-awaited male heir, Edward, but she died from complications following childbirth.

The latter half of the rhyme follows the same pattern. Henry's fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves was swiftly annulled. His fifth wife, the young Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery. Finally, his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, outlived the king, who died in 1547. While the rhyme is a simplification—for instance, the "divorces" were technically annulments—it has remained a powerful and enduring summary of the lives of these six famous queens.