The Musical Education and Involvement of the Six Wives of Henry VIII
type: CreativeWork
description: The first half of sixteenth-century England was a land permeated by religious upheaval and political instability. Despite being a land fraught with discord, it was a time of great advances in education, theology, and the musical arts. Henry VIII, king of England during this time, married six different women during his reign, which lasted from 1509 to 1547. Each queen experienced a different musical education, which resulted in musical involvement that reflected that queen’s own background and preferences. By and large, each of the reasons discussed in this thesis; religious, financial, social, sexual and even at times political, circle back to the idea of the manifestation and acquisition of power. Inadvertently, the more power the queen or queen in training gained as she climbed the social ladder, the better her chances of her survival were compared to her lower- class counterparts. Spanish born, Katherine of Aragon was raised at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, where she was educated in both singing and instrumental performance, as well as dance. Katherine’s music education was meant to prepare Katherine to showcase her fertility, which inevitably in her marriage, she failed to provide the kingdom with a male heir. Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second queen, was raised in the English countryside in Kent, and then travelled to the posh courts of Northern Europe, where she too learned singing, dancing, and instrumental performance. Anne’s musical involvement had a seductive quality which lead to a rapid ascension through the ranks of Tudor court society but adversely lead to her ruination. Jane Seymour, raised on the country estate of Wulfhall, in Wiltshire, had a simple music education through her Catholic upbringing. Jane’s musical involvement, or lack thereof, was a direct reaction to Anne Boleyn’s detrimental musical involvement and her minimal involvement was meant to showcase her chastity rather than her charisma. German-born Anne of Cleves was raised in the Protes…
abstract: The first half of sixteenth-century England was a land permeated by religious upheaval and political instability. Despite being a land fraught with discord, it was a time of great advances in education, theology, and the musical arts. Henry VIII, king of England during this time, married six different women during his reign, which lasted from 1509 to 1547. Each queen experienced a different musical education, which resulted in musical involvement that reflected that queen’s own background and preferences. By and large, each of the reasons discussed in this thesis; religious, financial, social, sexual and even at times political, circle back to the idea of the manifestation and acquisition of power. Inadvertently, the more power the queen or queen in training gained as she climbed the social ladder, the better her chances of her survival were compared to her lower- class counterparts. Spanish born, Katherine of Aragon was raised at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, where she was educated in both singing and instrumental performance, as well as dance. Katherine’s music education was meant to prepare Katherine to showcase her fertility, which inevitably in her marriage, she failed to provide the kingdom with a male heir. Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second queen, was raised in the English countryside in Kent, and then travelled to the posh courts of Northern Europe, where she too learned singing, dancing, and instrumental performance. Anne’s musical involvement had a seductive quality which lead to a rapid ascension through the ranks of Tudor court society but adversely lead to her ruination. Jane Seymour, raised on the country estate of Wulfhall, in Wiltshire, had a simple music education through her Catholic upbringing. Jane’s musical involvement, or lack thereof, was a direct reaction to Anne Boleyn’s detrimental musical involvement and her minimal involvement was meant to showcase her chastity rather than her charisma. German-born Anne of Cleves was raised in the Protes…
author: Little, Brooke Catherine
language: en_US
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:16:32Z
provider: University of Missouri - Kansas City
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Missouri--Kansas City

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/62439