Danielle Crosby
HIS 3600
Professionalizing History Majors
Spring 2025
Essay Critique 2

         While looking for this article, I turned to my English history professor for some recommendations. In his class, we covered the Tudor period extensively; however, staying on the same track as my last critique, I wanted to explore the roles and lives of women during that time. Learning about them has been fun, and I knew I would direct my professor to an article about the Tudor family. After contemplating whether to focus on one person or a group, we decided an interesting topic would surround the ill-fated women, also known as Henry VIII's six wives.

         In her article, "Divorced, Beheaded… Survived: What the Six Wives of Henry VIII Can Tell Us about Ourselves," Grace Beattie examines how the perception of these women reflects different societal norms constructed around their stories. Published in the Women's History Review, the article explores themes of misogyny and feminism.[1] She described how women's history has evolved over the years and how it has provided new opportunities for exploration as modern scholars have approached it during progressive movements.[2] Beattie also takes this article as an opportunity to warn the audience of the dangers of distorting narratives too much, even if they seem to fit today's more "positive" storyline. While studying historical figures heavily relies on interpretation, the real personalities of their wives may have been lost to time, as conflicting opinions about their representation have prevailed over the past 500 years.[3]

         Rather than examining the accounts of the six wives directly and analyzing who they were based on the records left behind, the author noted that there are not many surviving firsthand accounts. Instead, this article does not rely on primary sources from the time of the six wives but instead draws on primary sources from different periods. Specifically, historians of the Victorian Era and the progression of feminist movements since the 1970s provide specific examples of portrayals of each, depending on the generation handling their stories.[4] The historiographical challenge she is attempting to address is historians, since the popularity of the Tudor reign, who have created an opinion about them based on their own identity of the time.[5] New narratives were not an exclusive problem in the past, as they were meant to fit their ideals; however, they were later given overly saturated personalities, particularly with the rise of the feminist movement in the 1970s.[6] Movies and shows often centralize their narratives, but the point the author of this article is trying to make is that we do not, in fact, have many primary sources directly from these women, so most things are the time's interpretations.

         The kind of evidence the author uses to support her arguments revolves around how time has rewritten the history and personalities of the six wives based on the period in which those who created the source lived. Evidence, including the perspectives of past historians or filmmakers, can enhance our understanding of what they may have been like and how the audience is supposed to feel about them. This is evident in adaptations such as 1960’s Anne of a Thousand Days, where the audience gains insight into Anne’s fiery spirit and her “doomed” fate. However, the original work, written in the 1940s, reflects the ideas of its time and is narrated from Henry’s perspective rather than Anne’s.[7] Beattie skillfully uses her evidence to prove her points and advance her paper, covering various perspectives on women in general and relating them to the wives. While she mentions all the wives, there is a greater emphasis on the condescending aspects associated with Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard.[8] The paper could have been even stronger if she had focused on those two alone, as they faced much more scrutiny.

         Beattie uses sufficient examples, such as the Victorian Era and its "Cult of Domesticity," where Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, in particular, are not portrayed as well as Henry's other wives and their conventional roles as wives.[9] She introduces these ideas by including a quote by Historian E.H. Carr that brilliantly ties into her argument. While the analogy refers to fishing, it highlights how certain aspects of history can be overlooked if a researcher only examines a specific area in search of a particular perspective they wish to adopt.[10] With this, her argument centers on choice and how historians can often distort historical figures and their stories to fit.[11] For example, during the early feminist movement, when women needed to feel the most liberated, they could turn the narrative of women like Anne Boleyn into rebellious figures. She would be a figure that modern women should look up to because she was an unconventional influence in whichever light she was portrayed; conversely, during periods closer to Anne's time, people needed to see her as the antithesis of what a woman was expected to be in society.[12]

         Although historians cannot bring back the six wives to truly discover their potential traits or all the details of their time at court, interpreting the few primary sources will be the closest way to them. Even if feminist movements have brought historians closer to understanding women's roles in the past in more detail, modern biases do not automatically equate to less exaggerated ones. Grace Beattie wrote this article as a cautionary reminder to critically analyze the records of historical figures, considering the period in which they were written, and reevaluate any underlying bias.

About the Author

          Grace Beattie is a public historian who hosts the podcast "Wicked Women." She introduces historical women on her podcasts and invites other specialized professional historians to discuss them further.[13] Beattie maintains a neutral tone for most of the paper, except when writing about one wife in particular, where a more modern perspective emerges in defense of the wife. Reminded throughout the paper of unfavorable names given to Katherine Howard; however, in modern generations, has become an icon for the #MeToo movement, and Beattie finds this new narrative of her not as much improved. Much of Katherine fits into one of two categories that both cater to her sexuality, and the details of both narratives are not entirely confirmed.[14] This part of her writing emphasizes that even if it seems modern scholars are pushing her into a better corner, the question is whether it is truthful or simply an interpretation of its time.

         I found the article useful for presenting different perspectives on the wives and how their opinions have varied over the years, influenced by the types of images people have chosen for them based on the social movements and expectations of women at the time. The people who could benefit most from reading this article are those who admire these women in the modern era. They might need to reevaluate the story they are personally creating for them and whether it accurately reflects their personalities or if it is fitting for this generation.

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Bibliography

Beattie, Grace. "Divorced, Beheaded … Survived: What the Six Wives of Henry VIII Can Tell Us about Ourselves." Women's History Review 34, no. 2 (July 19, 2024): 346–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2024.2377831.

 

[1] Grace Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived: What the Six Wives of Henry VIII Can Tell Us about Ourselves,” Women’s History Review 34, no. 2 (July 19, 2024): 346–53, https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2024.2377831.

[2] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 347.

[3] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 351.

[4] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 348-50.

[5] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 347.

[6] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 349-50.

[7] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 349.

[8] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 348-49.

[9] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 348.

[10] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 347.

[11] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 347.

[12] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 349.

[13] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 353.

[14] Beattie, “Divorced, Beheaded … Survived,” 351.