Henry VIII and his Six Wives
Before Reading
Stage 2
Before reading activities (page 44)
1 Yes 2 No 3 No 4 Yes 5 Yes 6 No 7 Yes 8 No
9 No 10 Yes
activities answers
We’re going to read all the letters tomorrow. I can’t
wait! I’ll write again soon and tell you all about them.
Your loving daughter
Margaret
chApters 2 And 3 while reading
• Anne Boleyn: wonderful black eyes, beheaded, wild
and dangerous, three and a half years, Princess
Elizabeth, a witch, six fingers, Tower of London,
a sword.
• Katherine of Aragon: divorced, twenty-four years,
Princess Mary, Spain, Henry’s brother Arthur, a
gold cross.
Activity 2 before reading
Encourage students to speculate and make guesses
but do not tell them the answers. They will find out
as they read that the correct answers are:
• Katherine of Aragon was divorced.
• Anne Boleyn was beheaded.
• Jane Seymour died after her child was born.
• Anne of Cleves was divorced.
• Katherine Howard was beheaded.
chApters 4 And 5 while reading
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Activity 3 before reading
Encourage discussion and speculation. The obvious
modern words are:
president, pop star, car, cycling, telephone,
photograph, New York, apartment.
Possible words which don’t actually appear in the
story:
Italy, gun.
Words that do appear in the story:
princess, queen, England, horse, tennis, letter, sword,
painting, London, palace.
Princess Elizabeth
Jane Seymour
King Henry
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Holbein
Anne of Cleves
King Henry
chApter 6 while reading
1F 2T 3F 4T 5T 6F 7F
Before reAding chApter 7
Encourage speculation. Possible answers:
1 Because she could not say no. / Because her family
wanted her to be Queen of England.
2 Open answer.
3 Often angry and shouting. Fat and ugly.
4 Probably, yes.
5 Yes, she did.
6 Mary, Katherine of Aragon’s daughter.
Activity 4 before reading
Encourage students to speculate. Possible answers:
1 Yes, usually. A king was very powerful.
2 Yes, because many babies and children died from
illness.
3 Yes. The King wanted a son to be a strong ruler after
him.
4 No. Women were not at all equal to men.
5 Yes. Kings of that time usually did kill their enemies.
While Reading
chApter 1 while reading
oxford bookworms library stage 2
© Oxford University Press
Dear Mother
Yesterday, I went to Whitehall Palace with my lady
Catherine Parr. We found a box with a large gold H on
the top. Inside, there were letters from Henry’s first five
wives. There was also a beautiful gold necklace and a
piece of hair.
Catherine Parr told me all about King Henry. When
he was young, he was very handsome and he liked
horse riding and playing tennis. But when he was old, he
became very fat.
31 henry viii and his six wives
After Reading
Activity 1 after reading
activities answers
Words across: 1 younger 3 calm 5 Tower of London
7 sword 9 artist 10 necklace
Words down: 1 yellow 2 letters 3 Catholic 4 son 6
lover 8 maid
1
O
Y
E
L
L
O
W
R
D
2
L
E
T
T
E
R
7
S
10
N
3
C
A
5
T
H
W O
L
I
E C
A
O
U
N
G
S
O
N
F
L
R
L
O
V
E
R
O
M
4
E
R
9
K
E
A
C
A
6
N
8
T
E
M
A
I
D
D
O
S
T
N
Activity 2 after reading
Open answers. Encourage discussion.
Activity 3 after reading
1 Elizabeth, about her mother, Anne Boleyn.
2 Edward, about his mother, Jane Seymour.
3 Mary, about her mother, Katherine of Aragon.
Activity 4 after reading
Henry VIII, King of England, was a tall and handsome
young man, who liked horse riding, tennis and playing
music. He wrote many beautiful songs and had a
wonderful singing voice.
When he was older, he became very fat. He had a
very bad leg, and often couldn’t walk. And when his leg
hurt, he was always angry.
He married six times because he wanted a son to be
King after him. His one son, Edward VI, died just before
he was sixteen.
Henry VIII is famous in England’s history because
he broke with the Pope and the Catholic Church, and
started the Church of England.
In 1547 he became very ill and died. His three
children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, all became King
and Queen after him. None of them had any children so
Henry’s family came to an end.
Activity 5 after reading
Open answers.
© Oxford University Press
Project work after reading
If appropriate, students might like to work in
groups, selecting a different famous person in each
group. After they have researched and written their
texts, each group could then hold a quiz to find out
how much the rest of the class knows about the
subject of their mini-biography.
oxford bookworms library staGe 2
32 henry viii and his six wives