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Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

Review

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

Almost everyone knows the story of King Henry VIII, the King of England who created his own church and married six times. FATAL THRONE captures a look at each of Henry’s six wives from their marriages to their deaths or divorces. Told in first person accounts, FATAL THRONE allows readers to learn a lot about who these young women were and what they did to incur King Henry’s wrath in the end.

As a person obsessed with European monarchy, especially England, I was so excited to read this book as I only knew King Henry’s first three wives. I knew who the later three wives were, but not specifics. I was delighted to be able to read about Anne of Cleves, as well as Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. The names of the three “Catherines” were all changed in the book to distinguish them as individuals --- a verl welcomed tweak.

"All of the authors that contributed to this book clearly knew each of the women very well and I felt very connected to each of the women...."

It was also interesting to read from the perspective of King Henry VIII and see his justification for his actions. The first wife of King Henry is Katharine of Aragon, the second is Anne Boleyn, the third is Jane Seymour, then Anna of Cleves, then Catherine Howard and lastly is Kateryn Parr. The majority of these marriages were forged by men in these women’s lives. Obviously there is a clear pattern here that if you marry King Henry VIII the probability of your death is significantly higher than with marrying someone else. You would think that the brothers and uncles of these girls would care, but no, instead they encourage the women to marry the King and then act surprised when they are beheaded --- as long as it helps them further their own positions in society.

All of the authors that contributed to this book clearly knew each of the women very well and I felt very connected to each of the women even though I knew how each of their lives ended. It was clear that the authors had done extensive research on this time period and King Henry’s wives. Readers can really feel the emotion from each woman as they accept their deaths as just pages before they were smiling happily with their King. It was also surprising to me to learn how young the later wives were as the timeline in the back of the book shows Catharine Howard just being born as King Henry starts to court Anne Boleyn.

While FATAL THRONE was certainly interesting and I enjoyed reading the first person perspectives, I felt that I did not learn anything new. I have read a lot of historical fiction on King Henry’s wives and I felt that I was reading the same information presented in a different writing style. However, it has been a while since I read anything about his wives so it was a great memory refresher. I would recommend this book more to those who do not know that much about King Henry VIII and his six wives, but want to learn more. If you already knew about King Henry VIII I would still recommend reading this book as readers can still learn something new about the six wives. I would also recommend this book to those who enjoy history or historical fiction.

Reviewed by Ilona K., Teen Board Member on May 10, 2018

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All
by M. T. Anderson, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Lisa Ann Sandell, Jennifer Donnelly, Linda Sue Park, and Deborah Hopkinson