Fact-Checking ‘Six’ the Musical: 10 Misleading Lyrics About the Tudor Queens

The musical Six took the world by storm when it first debuted, premiering in the West End in January 2019 and on Broadway in February 2020. While its run was interrupted by COVID-19, fans have shown their devotion by eagerly making their way to the movie theaters for the filmed production, Six: The Musical Live! But how accurate is this "histo-remix" at depicting its subject matter?

Six styles itself as a concert/music contest between the six wives of the English king, Henry VIII. The wives each get the opportunity to tell their stories (using the musical styles of pop icons), and the queen who had it worst as Henry's wife gets to lead their band. While the musical actively flips the traditional historical narrative to center the women, it definitely has some problems when it comes to historical accuracy.

The musical gives each of the queens the chance to tell their stories, but some of these come with sharp deviations from what actually happened and how the historical women would have seen their situation. The following 10 Six lyrics are misleading or downright false, resulting in an inaccurate presentation of the very women the musical tries to honor.

"Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"

This line far predates Six, but it's a fitting place to start fact-checking, because the mnemonic does a poor job explaining the fates of Henry VIII's wives. While the common belief is that Henry VIII created the Church of England so he could divorce his first wife, he never actually got divorced. Instead, his marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were annulled, a process that effectively rewrote history to say that the marriages never happened in the first place.

Furthermore, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves weren't the only ones to have their marriages annulled. While Anne Boleyn was famously beheaded, Henry also had their marriage annulled two days before her execution. This was significant because it officially labeled their daughter Elizabeth as a bastard, impeding her future claim to the throne.

Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr are accurately defined in the rhyme, but their descriptors are not very useful. Jane provided the king with a son, which kept her family in power long after her death. Parr was an active stepmother for all of Henry's children, which gave her influence over all three future monarchs. Six does a good job expanding on these labels, but it never addresses the times when they are inaccurate.

"My name is Catherine of Aragon. Was married twenty-four years; I'm a paragon of royalty."

The musical is thorough in its examination of Henry's attempts to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, including both Henry's argument that their marriage was unholy due to Leviticus 20:21 and a reference to the Legatine Court where Catherine fell to her knees and asked Henry whether she had ever done anything to fail him as a wife.

However, the number of years attributed to the marriage in "Ex-Wives" is complicated. Catherine married Henry on June 11, 1509, and the marriage was annulled by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer on May 23, 1533, explaining the stated 24 years. However, this is not how either Henry or Catherine would have counted their marriage. Because annulment undoes the marriage, Henry's official stance was that the marriage didn't exist. Catherine's understanding of the marriage went the other direction.

As the song "No Way" references, Catherine publicly claimed to be the Queen of England and Henry's wife until her death in January 1536. Since the Pope refused to grant Henry an annulment, the Catholic Church also considered their marriage to last until her death, which would be 26 years. While this lyric highlights how long Catherine's marriage was compared to the other queens (the next longest was Catherine Parr, who was married to Henry for three and a half years), it ignores the way that Catherine consistently represented herself.

"Politics? Not my thing."

Perhaps the most historically jarring line in the entire musical comes when Anne Boleyn jokes about her disinterest in politics. While Six portrays her as a party girl stumbling into dangerous situations, Anne is widely recognized as one of Henry's most politically minded love interests. In fact, Henry warned his next wife, Jane, "the last queen had died in consequence of meddling too much in state affairs."

As the musical says, Anne spent much of her youth at the French court, but this was not simply an aesthetic influence on her. She received a high-quality education in France and watched the king's mother and sister wield considerable political power. When she began her courtship with Henry, she would engage him in religious debates, offer advice on problems within the court, and even shared illegal books which she had acquired from France. She also used her influence to encourage religious reform and promote educational opportunities.

In addition, Anne was well-recognized for controlling which advisors kept Henry's favor and which were cast aside. Her first great enemy was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who lost his power at the English court and was eventually accused of treason thanks to Boleyn and her allies. As Henry's previous advisors lost power, Anne's family and allies gained prominence. Six's co-creator, Lucy Moss, explained that "Don't Lose Ur Head" was meant to mock the historical stereotype of Anne as "calculating and manipulative," but in doing so, it stripped her of many of her most powerful decisions.

"Tried to elope, but the Pope said, 'Nope!' Our only hope was Henry."

Six makes it seem like Henry and Anne Boleyn tried to get married secretly, but the actual proceedings were public and extensive, as Henry sought every legal option to end his first marriage. This was known as the "Great Matter" within the English court, where Henry fought for seven years to earn the ability to marry Anne.

Henry initially claimed that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid because she had previously married his older brother, but that matter had already been repeatedly settled, as papal approval had been required before the marriage took place. Even so, Henry began privately and publicly arguing for an annulment from the Vatican.

The Pope did not simply reject the discussion. He agreed to let English representatives settle the issue and even gave permission for Henry to remarry while the topic was debated. However, he also gave Catherine the right to appeal their findings, prolonging the debate. Henry asked Catherine to release him from their marriage by retiring to a convent, a solution which Catholic leaders also supported, but she refused, forcing the matter to be settled by the Vatican.

The first major court proceeding took place in June 1529, but it was suspended before it could reach a verdict. In the interim, Catherine's nephew Charles V gained increasing control over the Pope, and Henry pressured Cardinal Wolsey out of power in favor of Thomas More, whom he hoped would speed up the annulment process. However, the Pope retracted his earlier permission for Henry to remarry, announcing that no marriage could take place until a decision was reached.

Still, the Vatican repeatedly delayed making any decisions. Only when alerted that Henry planned to marry Anne without the matter being settled did the Pope do anything, forbidding Henry from marrying until he reached his verdict under threat of excommunication. It wasn't until 1532, six years after Henry started looking for a way out of his marriage, that the Pope finally ruled that Henry must cast aside Anne and return to Catherine.

Only then did Henry finally marry Anne. While this guaranteed his excommunication from the Catholic Church, it was also dubious under the Church of England, as he was still technically married to Catherine. Their marriage was only annulled in May 1533, after Henry had already had two wedding ceremonies with Anne. Given how many years passed while the matter was contested, the lyrics from Six come across as simplistic, if not outright false.

"If that's how it's gonna be, maybe I'll flirt with a guy or three, just to make him jel."

Continuing the ditzy presentation of Anne Boleyn, Six suggests that she flirted with other men to make Henry jealous after he began seeing other women. This line is undoubtedly in response to the charges of adultery that were filed against her, but many historians argue that the affairs never actually happened. Anne was charged with seducing multiple men, including her own brother, and conspiring to marry one of them after the king's death.

The incestuous claims alone should be enough to cause doubt about the other accusations. Neither Anne nor four of her accused partners ever admitted to any sexual encounters, and the only one who did was believed to have done so under torture. Furthermore, many of the dates given for Anne's affairs have been proven impossible, as one or both parties were not at the listed location.

While it's possible that Anne had flirtations, it would have been an uncharacteristically foolish move for a woman who consistently proved herself to be a master of court politics. She had many enemies and had displeased Henry on personal and political levels, providing plenty of reasons to fabricate the accusations against her. Having Anne admit to flirting with other men ignores this context and suggests that her downfall was her own fault, a representation that is not only historically unlikely but also antithetical to the show's values.

"Too bad I don’t agree. So I’m gonna hang it up for everyone to see."

The most common story about Anne of Cleves is that she wasn't as beautiful as her portrait, and that her appearance forced Henry VIII to end the marriage. However, this narrative has little evidence and ignores the other factors at play. After all, the English ambassador to Anne reportedly claimed that the portrait had "expressed [Anne's] image very lively," suggesting that it was reasonably accurate.

There were many other reasons the marriage might have failed. Their first meeting was disastrous, as Henry had tried to stage a disguised encounter, which his unknowing fiancée firmly rejected. Worse still, they were unable to consummate the marriage. Henry claimed that this was because Anne was physically repulsive, but it's likely that the failure had more to do with Henry's impotence and Anne's sexual inexperience. Finally, political circumstances changed, and Henry had reason to believe that his new marriage might force him into a war against the Holy Roman Empire.

While the portrait excuse is called out in "Get Down," the song claims that Anne went on to display the Holbein portrait herself, a detail that has absolutely no historical grounding. Anne did not even have access to the portrait, as it remained in the Royal Collections after their annulment. Anne's only known rebellion against Henry came when she returned her wedding ring, requesting that it be broken "as a thing which she knew of no force or value." Anne's grievance was with the apparent meaninglessness of their wedding; the centrality of the portrait only emerged after her death.

"Now I ain’t sayin’ I’m a gold digger but check my prenup and go figure."

While this line was obviously intended as a reference to the Kanye West song, it presents an image of Anne of Cleves as someone who had plans for the end of her marriage, which is definitely not accurate. Her marriage contract did require Henry to provide Anne with lands and a pension after his death, but there was no clause for exiting the marriage in any other way. In fact, Henry tried to find a way out of the marriage before the wedding but was unable to find any legal avenue.

Instead of benefiting from forethought, Anne just fell into a lucky situation. Her family would make powerful enemies if Henry tried to accuse her of infidelity, and her brother's ambassador made it clear that they would respond if Anne was mistreated. When she willingly agreed to the annulment, Henry responded by giving her the title of the "King's Sister," multiple grand properties, and a yearly stipend. Six is correct that this was a far better ending than any of Henry's other wives got, but it had nothing to do with Anne or her family planning for the untimely end of the marriage.

"He was twenty-three. And I was thirteen, going on thirty."

Writings about Catherine Howard have traditionally fallen into one of two camps. She was either a ditzy teenager, jumping from one man to another for her own pleasure, or an innocent girl, constantly being victimized by those around her. Six obviously leans on the latter of these presentations, adding a lot of sympathy to a figure who gets very little attention in popular culture. But one of the most important elements of deciding between these narratives is her age, which is heavily debated.

Catherine was probably born between 1518 and 1524, and the difference between those years is vast enough to drastically change her circumstances. Henry Mannox, the one referenced in this lyric, became Catherine's music teacher in 1536. Therefore, their dalliance might have begun when she was as young as 12 or as old as 18. We also don't know how old Mannox was, with sources putting him anywhere from 21 to 36 when they were together. There's quite a difference between an 18-year-old and a 21-year-old having an intimate relationship and a 12-year-old with a 36-year-old. Six picked possible, but not guaranteed, ages to highlight the abuse narrative.

"He's a really nice guy, just so sincere."

When it comes to Catherine Howard's potential lovers, Thomas Culpeper is the most divisive. In the musical, Catherine suggests that he was a good friend who ruined everything by pushing for sexual intimacy, but this is unlikely. According to a 1541 letter, Culpeper had already raped a woman two years before being tried for his affair with Catherine. He was also rumored to be having many affairs at court, and he put all the blame on her when their relationship was discovered.

While this line comes from a part of the song where Catherine is naive about the world around her, it seems unlikely that the real woman would have been unaware of his reputation. More likely is that she was a young woman married to a man decades older than her who chose to start a relationship with someone she did find attractive.

However it went down, it was unlikely that Catherine was ever unaware of his intentions. In the best-case scenario, Catherine may have gotten into a consensual relationship with a man she truly loved. This would have been foolish, but possible, for a young woman with no understanding of court life. However, there's a darker theory: she may have been raped or blackmailed into a physical relationship, with Culpeper hoping to marry the dowager queen after Henry died. We may never know the true nature of their relationship, but Six's depiction is almost certainly a vast oversimplification intended to show that her dynamic with men was "never, ever different."

"I don't have a choice. If Henry says it's you, then it's you."

In the song "I Don't Need Your Love," Catherine Parr explains how she had to reject her suitor, Thomas Seymour, when Henry approached her to become his sixth wife. This is largely accurate, as Catherine truly did send a letter to Seymour explaining that she must "renounce utterly mine own will" by marrying Henry instead of him. But while it was probably very difficult to imagine rejecting Henry VIII, it was not impossible.

Henry considered multiple women to become his wife after Jane Seymour's death, and several rejected his proposals. Marie de Guise (future queen of Scotland) was rumored to have joked that, "I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck." Christina of Denmark also famously rejected the English king. Henry went to great lengths to secure her hand, but she rejected the idea, explaining, "If I had two heads, one should be at the king of England’s disposal." In both of these cases, the women were able to escape Henry's interest with the help of powerful family members and safer marriages.

It would have been much harder for an Englishwoman to reject the king, but not impossible. After all, Anne Boleyn refused to sleep with Henry until they were married, keeping him at bay for six years. Another woman from the English court, Catherine Willoughby, was rumored to be a favorite of Henry's for ten years, yet she never became his wife. Catherine Parr had good reason to fear refusing Henry's proposal, but other figures prove that rejection was not a guaranteed death sentence, as the musical suggests.

Hamilton proved that musicals have the power to make people care about history, even prompting some fans to dig into the historical records themselves. However, they also come with a major disadvantage. Historical accuracy will always be secondary to narrative intrigue, which allows false narratives to be memorized by audiences who may not do the research required to separate fact from fiction.