KATHERINE OF ARAGON. ANNE BOLEYN. Jane Seymour. Anne of Cleves. Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. There’s a familiar classroom mnemonic encompassing the fate of the six women fated to be the queens of infamous Tudor monarch Henry VIII: ‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died; Divorced, Beheaded, Survived,’ it rather glibly runs. Now a major new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aims to discard the collective grouping and restore these women’s individuality; each stepping out from underneath Henry’s substantial shadow.
curator Dr Charlotte Bolland says, “The events of the 16th century, in particular the Reformation, have shaped the country for centuries, but beyond the broad strokes of historical narrative, it’s the lives of people that
