King Henry VIII & Charles Brandon

Lifelong Friends

If you think growing up today - with XBoxes and online gaming and a whole host of technological toys - is fun for boys, imagine what it must have been like for young lads growing up in real English royal palaces four centuries back: endless games of hide-and-seek, watching servants prepare feasts...and watching from behind screens and peepholes as nobles belched their way through those endless feasts of eating and drinking.

For Henry, an heir to the throne, and Charles Brandon, son of the King's standard-bearer, a childhood of adventure turned into an adolescence for two handsome, athletic men to enjoy jousting, riding, falconry...and more serious pursuits. Of these sorts of childhoods legends are born.

Charles became one of Henry’s intimate friends, and in turn was elevated from mortal commoner by Henry to become the Duke of Suffolk, a hereditary peer. Charles remained one of Henry’s confidantes in affairs of state and the heart, his influence and wealth growing even larger as Henry’s intrigues mounted.

But Charles had learned of intrigue as well. Despite owing everything in his life to Henry, Charles threw caution to the wind and romanced Henry’s younger sister, Mary, behind the King’s back. When Mary’s husband – the King of France, to whom she had been wed in 1514 to help cement a political alliance between the two countries – died, Charles was sent with Henry’s condolences and to bring Mary back to England. It was assumed that Henry was already planning another dynastic match for Mary, so Charles and Mary had to act quickly. Without the King’s approval, Charles and Mary eloped. Henry, of course, was furious.

Henry forgave his boyhood friend (after imposing a huge fine on him), and later Charles threw his support and energy behind Henry’s desire to dissolve his own marriage, his first, to Catherine of Aragon. Even schoolboys playing online games today know the rest of that story...the Pope refused, Henry stood firm and overnight made Catholicism illegal in the realm. Another major world religion – Anglicanism – was born.

Forgiven for his misdeeds and invited again to royal festivities, Charles was named High Steward in the new Queen’s coronation. His continued support of Henry’s new ecclesiastical policies garnered him vast tracts of land that had formerly belonged to monasteries.

Henry, who had reluctantly accepted Charles' third marriage to his sister Mary, ended up accidentally providing him with a fourth wife as well. Catherine of Aragon's best friend, Maria de Salinas, married an English nobleman and had a daughter, Catherine Willoughby. Her father's death left her an heiress and ward of King Henry, who sold her wardship to Charles Brandon as a prospective bride for his son. In 1534, however, Charles’ wife Mary died, leaving him a widower. Teenage Catherine Willoughby was beautiful and sharp - so Charles pushed his son aside and hustled her to the altar himself, as his fourth bride.

Charles Brandon died in 1545, but his marriage adventures with Henry VIII extended beyond the grave. In 1547, Henry was rumored to be tired of his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, and casting his own eye on 20-something widow Catherine Willoughby. The two Catherines were friends, and both must have been horrified, but nothing came of it, and Catherine Willoughby escaped the doubtful privilege of becoming Henry VIII's seventh queen.