AllMovie

A Kultur Video release, this documentary is a portrait of King Henry VIII, one of England's most colorful monarchs, the man who started his own religion so he could get a divorce. Like most histories of the king, this program elaborates on Henry's frustrated quest to sire a male heir to his crown, an effort that spurred him to become husband to six different wives. Inheriting the crown upon the death of his father, Henry VII, in 1509, Henry VIII first married Catharine of Aragon, a union that produced only a daughter. Disappointed, Henry founded the Church of England, which allowed him to divorce Catharine. He beheaded his second wife after she too bore him only a daughter, Elizabeth Tudor (Elizabeth I, "the Virgin Queen"). Wife number three finally gives Henry the son he craves, Edward, but the mother dies in childbirth and Edward follows her at a young age.