Henry VIII of England was a good king (3)

My, I'm impressed with Atheist's homework, having had to empty my credenza finding a good response to it. Our Tudor tales will begin at the same place in near agreement with each other. Sadly, in mine we'll watch the monarch tumble down a much less rosy path than our readers just saw above.Henry's father, King Henry VII, came up hardly short of ruthlessness at Bosworth Field or afterward. He did enter marriage alliance with the rival House of York, determined to put down the Wars of the Roses and end Richard III's chaotic reign. While king, Henry VII kept England out of war so it could recover politically and economically from the disastrous 15th century, even at cost of giving up on Brittany. Henry VIII was a promising, strong young man who acceded in 1509 with a full treasury, a consensus of the surviving noble families, and high popular support [1]. Almost immediately he began to squander this advantageous position. The 1520 Field of Cloth of Gold as diplomatic exercise and joust was an extravagant boondoggle, as he was at war with Francis I by the next year at a time when England had little stake in France [2].Then his desire to be rid of a Catherine of Aragon who couldn't birth a male to secure his dynasty began to strain England's relationship to church, and to the broader Christendom, a fracas hardly salved by Cardinal Wolsey's 1529 firing and subsequent arrest after so many years of loyal service [3]. We must remember the Pope had already granted a special dispensation for Henry to marry Catherine, his older brother's widow. An annulment was too much to ask. The wives' tale and beheading of Anne Boleyn on adultery charges, also for failure to produce the desired heir, are well known and need no exposition here.Significant was that Henry chose such waste of time while Spain and Portugal were building massive empires in the New World. Spain turned particularly hostile after being incensed over Queen Catherine's ouster. If the Tudor king built up to 40 warships during his reign, then the Hapsburg Charles V sent 40 vessels, including 15 large ships of war, against the French in the single Battle of Muros in 1543, managing this while running the Spanish Main to Cuba [4]. England ultimately fell 90 years behind in the naval race. Good thing it was an Englishman who would discover commercial potential in tobacco to become interested in a Virginia Spain overlooked, and that Portugal didn't go after India as seriously as it might have [5].England's break with Rome and Henry's confiscation of the monastic estates - for by then he was short of funds after taking his court to dizzy heights of spending - left the country with no allies in continental Europe until common cause with the new Dutch Republic was reached under Elizabeth. Forced loans kept him afloat as he embarked on his fruitless serial conflict with France. The wrong enemy to be fighting would consume 2.1M pounds, the bulk of it during the 1542-1547 war in which he finished his life [6]. That the Catholicism of his daughter Mary, and later of Mary Queen of Scots, would become grave problems for England was now assured [7]. We could stretch to argue that Henry VIII's reign helped set up conditions for the English Civil Wars that would follow in the next century.Reluctant to bring Henry's corpulence into the picture, I can't help concluding this and the many health problems it caused impaired the king's ability to think clearly. As the physical decline of his final years set in about 1542, he not only engaged that longest of his wars with France, but executed Catherine Howard, his second-to-last wife, and appears to have become mired in habits that ensured he wouldn't live long enough to prevent a minority at Edward VI's accession. Yet another dutiful wife, Catherine Parr, acted as his nurse [8]. In a race to the bottom among future judges, perhaps Henry's wasn't the very worst reign England endured, but I confess a hard task to describe it as a good one. England would never achieve ideal position in the world until the day of the Georges.[1] full treasury: BBC History, http://www.bbc.co.uk...[2] Cloth of Gold: Diarmaid MacCulloch, ed., 1995. The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety. pp. 60-71, 118-119.[3] Wolsey: History Learning Site, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk...[4] Batalla de Muros. Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, p. 271. http://www.armada.mde.es...[5] Rolfe plants tobacco: Encyclopedia Virgina, http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org...Spain: Cheryl Martin & Mark Wasserman, 2008: Latin America and Its People, 2 ed., vol. I.[6] Forced loans: MacCulloch, pp. 86-87; Accounts pp. 86-92, Lifetime estimate and final war, p. 91.[7] Mary & Mary Queen of Scots: Alison Weir, 1996. The Children of Henry VIII. pp. 200, 323.[8] physical decline, Parr acting as his nurse: BBC History, http://www.bbc.co.uk...