Firebrand, Freedom & Providence

Henry is ailing and increasingly paranoid. Most of his previous five wives were killed or discarded. He had of course broken with the Pope so he could divorce his first wife and remarry, only to execute his new wife, Anne Boleyn, whose Protestant sympathies exceeded his preferences. His final queen, Catherine, who was able to read the Bible in English thanks partly to Anne’s influence, was even more Protestant.  She wrote two devotional books, becoming the first woman to publish in English under her own name.