The tradition is that the bride always steals the show, as the wedding day is the brides day. Well, not always.

On the day Henry Vlll married his Anne Boleyne, you would have thought that she would have looked and felt the belle of the ball. After all, she was significantly younger than Henrys former 48 year old wife. Although theres a difference of opinion whether Anne was quite as young as she said she was then, as now, women recorded their age after their own fashion she was young by all standards. She may or may not have been fifteen, but she was certainly less than twenty-five.

Suffice it to say, when it came to dressing, Henry was as much of a peacock as any woman. When he came down the aisle on his wedding day, he had no intention of being upstaged by anyone, including his bride. Though people today accept the fact that a bride might spend thousands of dollars on the dress, while the groom is likely to hire his suit for $100 plus, this was not the case at Henrys second wedding. In fact, the Grooms outfit was way more expensive than that of Anne.

She should have sensed something wrong right there and then. Its a known fact that men are usually at their best when trying to impress a woman, then slowly revert to type as soon as they feel that the race has been won. In the case of Henry, here was a man revealing a mean streak on the wedding day itself. How could you expect anything better once the knot was tied?

Trusting fool that she was, Anne even countenanced a secret marriage ceremony because he said, Its all right, my pet. I know I havent got my divorce yet, but we will have a second, public marriage once the divorce comes through. In the meantime, this marriage will be just a secret between me and you. Trust me.

She could trust him all right, right to the time his eyes were caught by wife candidate number three. Then he immediately remembered not the second, public wedding, but that first secret one. Full of remorse for his transgression, he confessed to the public at large that his marriage to Anne couldn't possibly be valid as he was still married to wife number one at the time he exchanged his vows with Anne.

Hopefully, wife number three ended up with a better wedding dress than Anne did.