Henry VIII didn’t just execute Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard — he erased them.

Not because they were guilty.

Not because they were dangerous.

But because they injured his ego, and Henry VIII could not tolerate narcissistic shame.

He ERASED them.
• Their coats of arms torn down
• Initials removed from palaces
• Portraits hidden or destroyed
• Their reputations smeared
• Their names forbidden at court
• Their supporters scattered
• His daughter by Anne was sent away immediately and lost her status as Princess Elizabeth. She was hence Lady Elizabeth Tudor.

This is classic narcissistic annihilation:
“If you injure me, you cease to exist.”

He literally rewrote history documents to frame himself as:
• righteous
• innocent
• betrayed
• the victim
• morally justified

He needed to believe he wasn’t the problem — THEY were.

Typical narcissistic rewriting of the narrative.

The charges against both women were manufactured or exaggerated — not to seek justice, but to restore Henry’s fragile self-image.

Henry VIII’s entire marital history reads like a narcissistic abuse cycle

He:
• love bombed
• isolated
• tested loyalty
• demanded admiration
• punished perceived slights
• rewrote narratives
• replaced women quickly
• destroyed those who “shamed” him

The man was a pathological narcissist with absolute power.

And Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were two women who suffered the worst aspect of that pathology:
Total erasure as punishment for wounding him.

Anne and Katherine weren’t executed because they were guilty.
They were executed because Henry was “wounded” by them. He became the victim in his eyes.

“How misfortunate I am to have so many ill-conditioned wives!” — King Henry VIII in ‘The Tudors’ (S4E5)