7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7More, refusing to accept the new order, were killed, and
the king’s earlier reputation as a champion of light and
learning was permanently buried under his enduring fame
as a man of blood.
The king now embarked on the series of matrimonial
adventures that made him appear both a monster and a
laughingstock. He soon tired of Anne, who failed to pro-
duce a male heir. In 1536 she was executed, with other
members of the court, for alleged treasonable adultery.
Henry immediately married Jane Seymour, who bore him
his son Edward but died in childbirth (1537). The next three
years were filled with attempts to replace her, and the bride
chosen was Anne, sister of William, the duke of Cleves, a
pawn in Cromwell’s policy for a northern European alli-
ance against dangers from France and the Emperor. But
Henry hated her at first sight and at once demanded his
freedom, an end achieved by a quick divorce.
The Cleves fiasco destroyed Cromwell, enabling his
many enemies to turn the king against him. In July 1540
his head fell on the scaffold. Henry had by now become
truly dangerous; always secretive and suspicious, now he
was beginning to show paranoiac tendencies. Convinced
that he controlled everyone, he was in fact readily manip-
ulated by those who knew how to feed his suspicions and
pander to his self-righteousness. His temperamental defi-
ciencies were aggravated by what he regarded as his
undeserved misfortunes and by ill health. Henry grew
enormously fat. His mind did not weaken, but he grew
restless, peevish, and totally unpredictable. Often melan-
choly and depressed, he was usually out of sorts and always
out of patience. In 1540 he married the 20-year-old
Catherine Howard, whose folly in continuing her promis-
cuity, even as queen, led to her execution in 1542. The next
year, he married once more, to the calm and obedient
Catherine Parr.