In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. However, he was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses. Overview The six women who were married to Henry VIII, in chronological order: Henry's first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, lasted nearly 24 years, while the following five lasted less than 10 years combined. English historian and House of Tudor expert David Starkey describes Henry VIII as a husband:What is extraordinary is that in the beginning of Henry's marriages, he was usually a very good husband. He was very tender to them, research shows that he addressed some of his wives as "sweetheart." He was a good lover, he was very generous: the wives were given huge settlements of land and jewels. He was immensely considerate when they were pregnant. However, if his current wife did not please him or did anything to fire his short temper, there would be consequences. Two of Henry's wives were beheaded by his command. Scholastic study techniques A mnemonic device to remember the names of Henry's consorts is "Arrogant Boys Seem Clever, Howard Particularly," indicating their "last names," as known to popular culture: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr. A famous rhyme for their fates: Per The Faber Book of Useful Verse, a variant lyric dated is "Bluff Henry the Eighth to six spouses was wedded, One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded." One historian created a similar device for remembering Henry VIII's six Thomases (Wolsey, More, Cromwell, Howard, Wriothesley, and Cranmer): "Died, beheaded, beheaded, Self-slaughtered, burned, survived." Technicalities The epigram divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived is widely known to Anglophone students of world history but there are a few historical footnotes to keep in mind. As far as the fates of the wives, technically, the poem should be "Annulled, annulled, died; annulled, beheaded, survived" as Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn was annulled before her beheading, as well