King Henry VIII
King of England in the 16th century, most famous for his six wives, his daughter Elizabeth, and as a symbol of sheer excess.
Biography
King Henry VIII was the second of the Tudor kings of England, ruling from 1509, when he was eighteen years old, until his death in 1547. Historians remember Henry VIII for bringing about the English Reformation, encouraging the spread of Renaissance ideas, tightening the iron grip of royal authority, and building the Royal Navy. Everyone remembers him for his spectacular and terrifying marital career:
Henry VIII, to six wives he was wedded: one lived; one died; two divorced, two beheaded.
Another even shorter summary lists their fates in order: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.
All of this marrying - and the Reformation that turned England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one - was due to Henry's urgent need for a male heir to succeed him, combined with a royal ego that swelled over the years as Henry's girth did. Wife #3, Jane Seymour, finally gave him one, Edward VI; he died when he was sixteen, only a few years after Henry. The great irony of Henry VIII's long struggle is that his daughter Elizabeth - whose mother, Anne Boleyn, Henry beheaded largely for failing to provide him a son - went on to become perhaps the most successful monarch in English history.
Henry's Wives: Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.