Henry VIII

**Henry VIII** (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was the King of England from 1509 until his death.

Henry VIII increased the power of the monarchy and government over the country. Many people he did not like were executed under his orders, including two of his own wives. He was easily led by whoever was his favourite advisor: Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Richard Rich. More and Cromwell were also executed. He passed laws to merge Wales into England and was the first English monarch to be King of Ireland.

His government was able to raised more money because it stopped paying money to the Roman Catholic Church, and it closed down the monasteries. However, he also spent far more money on his own enjoyment and on wars with France and Scotland that did not achieve much. He made the Royal Navy much larger and made other improvements to the armed forces.

Early in his reign, he was seen as a very handsome young, man who had studied a lot and enjoyed sports, music and writing. Later in his reign, he became weak, ill and hugely obese. He also became unpredictable, bad-tempered and unable to admit to making mistakes. He died at the age of 55 in 1547. The next king was his son Edward VI.

## Early life

Henry was born at Greenwich Palace on 28 June 1491 and was the son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. He was one of their seven children. Four of them survived infancy: Arthur, Prince of Wales; Margaret; Henry; and Mary .

He had his own servants and minstrels, including a fool named John Goose. He even had a whipping boy who was punished for Henry when he did something wrong. Prince Henry enjoyed music and jousting was very good at both of them. At the age of 10, he could play many instruments, including the fife, harp, viola and drums. Henry was a scholar, linguist, musician and athlete at his early age. He could speak fluent Latin, French and Spanish. He had the best tutors and he also had to learn jousting, archery, hunting and other military arts.  Henry was very religious.

Henry's older brother Arthur was the heir to the throne and so would have become the king when Henry VII died. Arthur married a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon (her name in Spanish was Catalina de Aragon).  Prince Arthur died a few months later. He was 15 years old, and Henry was 10 years old. After his brother died, Henry was the heir to the throne.

While his father was alive, he was watched closely because the King feared for the safety of his only remaining male heir. Henry could go out only through a private door and then was watched by specially-appointed people. No one could speak to Henry. He spent most of his time in his room, which could be entered only through his father’s bedroom. Henry never spoke in public unless it was to answer a question from his father. He kept his enthusiastic personality under control on public occasions because he feared his father's temper. He was given little training for his future role as king by his father and relied heavily on his counselors in the early years of his reign. In 1509, Henry VII died of tuberculosis as well, and his son became King Henry VIII at 17 years old.

### Early years

Three months after becoming king, Henry married Catherine of Aragon. They tried to have children, as Henry wanted a son who could be the next king. In 1511, she gave birth to a son who they named Henry, but he died seven weeks later. She later gave birth to a girl, the future Queen Mary I. All her other children were stillborn (died before birth). He did have one son (Henry Fitzroy) through a woman he had not married. That son could not become king.

Early on, Henry had two of his father's advisors executed. They were not popular, and Henry claimed they had been stealing from the money that they had been looking after. Henry would often execute anyone he did not like during the rest of his reign. From 1514, Thomas Wolsey became an important advisor to Henry. Wolsey helped Henry change the government to give the king more power. Wolsey later became a cardinal, which made him an important figure in the church.

At first, Henry wanted to be friends with the King of France but soon instead joined with Spain, the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire to weaken France. He dreamed of gaining more lands in France. The results were mixed. England won some battles against France in 1513. The alliance weakened France`s power over the Pope. Scotland invaded England in 1514 but lost badly at the Battle of the Flodden. But Henry spent a lot of money and did not gain much land.

In 1520, 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold' took place in Calais (at the time, the city was part of England, rather than France). It was held to celebrate peace between France and England because they had been at war for a long time. Loads of money was spent on it. People enjoyed music, dancing, food, wine and culture for two-and-a-half weeks. Henry famously wrestled King Francis I of France and lost. However, England and France soon fought again. After they signed a treaty in 1525, there was less fighting.

### Split with Rome

The most important event that occurred in England when Henry was the king was the country's change in religion. At first, there was no sign that Henry would do so. Eight years into Henry's reign, the Protestant Reformation began in Germany. Until then, all of Western Europe had been part of the Roman Catholic Church. When the Reformation began, some countries broke away from the Roman Catholic Church to form Protestant churches. At first, Henry was against that. The Reformation did not spread to England straight away. However, by the 1530s, there were many powerful people in England who liked the idea of the Reformation.

Henry became desperate to have a son. By 1527, Henry was wanting to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. The Roman Catholic Church believed that he could not divorce without asking the Pope. Henry asked the Pope, but the Pope would not so and said it went against the teachings of the church. Henry blamed Wolsey for failing to change the Pope's mind. He sacked Wolsey and ordered him to be put on trial,though Wolsey died before the trial could happen. Then, Thomas More became his main advisor, but he opposed the divorce and so was replaced a few years later by Thomas Cromwell. Henry also chose Thomas Cranmer to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry knew that Cranmer would do what he wanted, and Cranmer agreed that Henry could have a divorce from Catherine. The Pope did not know that and so he let Cranmer become the archbishop.

A powerful ruler might have forced the Pope to change his mind, but the most powerful rulers opposed the divorce. Catherine's nephew was Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and Catherine came from Spain, the largest Catholic country. In 1534, attempts to reach an agreement over the divorce failed.

Henry asked Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, which meant that the king, not the Pope, was the head of the church in England. That created the new Church of England. The Pope was so angry that he excommunicated Henry. which denied him the sacraments. Henry then forced all priests and bishops to accept him as the new leader. Anyone who refused was punished. Among those killed were More and his old teacher John Fisher.

Henry was not a true Protestant. He wanted the Church of England to be similar to the Roman Catholic Church but under his control. Some Protestants were even executed, including Anne Askew. However, Henry was easily led by people like Crownell, Cranmer and Bolyen, who secretly wanted the country to become Protestant. It was not until the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I that the Church of England became fully Protestant.

Henry and Cromwell thought that monasteries, in which Roman Catholic monks and nuns lived, had more money and land than the monks and nuns needed. Henry forced the monks and nuns to move out of the monasteries. Then, he gave their money and land to men who supported him. Most of the men who received money and land from the closed monasteries were Protestants. This event was called the dissolution of the monasteries.

### Later marriages

After his divorce from Catherine, Henry VIII married Anne, who was younger than Catherine and still able to have children. Henry soon became unhappy with the marriage. He and Anne did not get on well as they had before they married. Anne had many enemies in the government, including Henry's most loyal minister, Cromwell. Henry was also unhappy that Anne, just like Catherine, had only a daughter and no sons. Henry started looking for another wife.

In January 1536, Henry fell off a horse while jousting and was badly injured. He took a long time to wake up and his leg was wounded. The wound never properly healed, and he had a disgusting unknown liquid on his leg for the rest of his life. That meant it was hard for him to do exercise, so after this he started to become obese. The head injury may have also caused him to become more bad-tempered.

Later that year, Cromwell helped Henry to find a way to get rid of Anne by finding people who said that she had been the lover of several other men. Anne was put on trial and found guilty, and she was executed by having her head chopped off by a French swordsman.

Henry's third wife was Jane Seymour. She soon gave birth to a son called Edward. That made Henry very happy, but a few days later, Jane died because of complications during the birth. Henry had loved her very much and he never got over his sadness at her death. He lost interest in everything and became fatter. He became angry with Cromwell for suggesting that he should get married again after Jane's death.

After a while, Henry changed his mind. As he still had only one son, he realised that it might be a good idea to marry again, and he agreed to marry Anne of Cleves, a German princess. When Anne arrived, Henry did not think she was as pretty as she looked in the pictures that he had seen, and he was not satisfied with her. Anne was also unhappy and agreed to cancel the marriage after only a few months. Since Cromwell had helped arrange the marriage, Henry was angry and had him executed by beheading.

In the meantime, Henry had noticed a 17year-old lady at court, Catherine Howard, and thought that she might make a good wife. Catherine Howard was a cousin of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry and Catherine got married in 1540, but Catherine was much younger than Henry and soon got tired of him and started to flirt with other men. After they had been married for just over a year, Henry found out that Catherine had been having an affair with Thomas Culpeper. She was found guilty of treason and was executed, just like Anne Boleyn had been a few years before.

Henry's sixth and last wife was Catherine Parr and outlived Henry. She was a woman in her thirties who had already been married twice. Her first two husbands had died after being much older than she was. Henry thought that she would be more sensible and faithful than his other wives, and he turned out to be right. Catherine stayed married to Henry for over three years until he died, but they did not have any children.

## Death and legacy

After divorcing Catherine of Aragon, Henry began to suffer many different ailments, he never again regained health. He died on 28 January 1547 at the age of 55 and was buried in Windsor Castle. Henry was the father of two queens and one king: Mary I of England, Elizabeth I of England and Edward VI of England. None of them had any children of their own.

In 1536, the Act of Union was passed under Henry's rule, which had a long-lasting effect on Wales as a nation. The law meant that Welsh people were forced to speak English and things such as road signs were translated into English. The royal family, which were based in London, was now officially in charge of Wales. However, the Act also meant that Welsh citizens were given the same legal rights as the English people and so there was an upside to this new law.

## Issue

Henry had many wives and mistresses and had many children:

- Henry, Duke of Cornwall, died at a very young age.

- Unnamed son, born on 17 September 1513, died shorty after birth.

- Unnamed son, born on November 1514, died shortly after his birth

- Queen Mary I, married Philip II of Spain, no issue.

- Unnamed son, stillborn at eight months in pregnancy or lived at least a week.

- Queen Elizabeth I, did not marry.

- Unnamed _child_, born Summer 1534.

- Unnamed _child_, born and died in 1535. A possible miscarriage.

- Unnamed son, born and died January 1536. Miscarriage at the fourth month of pregnancy.

## Personality

Henry often liked to be captured in his portraits with either food or pets. He had many pets. Henry was often seen with his dog. He owned a white pug and was very aware of how much his dog represented him as a wealthy man.

Henry spent a lot of time at a magnificent building, Hampton Court Palace, which belonged to his friend, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. After falling out with Wolsey, Henry took the palace for himself. He made the palace far larger and built things such as tennis courts and jousting yards.

## References

- General references
- Ives, E. W. "Henry VIII (1491–1547)", in _The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography_ (2004), online at OUP, a good starting point
- Pollard, A. F. _Henry VIII_ (1905) 470 pp; the first modern biography

- Rex, Richard. _Henry VIII and the English Reformation._ (1993). 205 pp.
- Ridley, Jasper. _Henry VIII._ (1985). 473 pp.  popular biography
- Starkey, David. "Henry." (2009). Very detailed biographical account of Henry's early life

## Other websites

- VIII on Citizendium

## Infobox (royalty)

- **name**: King Henry VIII
- **image**: After Hans Holbein the Younger - Portrait of Henry VIII - Google Art Project.jpg
- **caption**: _Portrait of Henry VIII_ after Hans Holbein the Younger,
- **alt**: Full-length portrait of King Henry VIII
- **succession**: King of England
Lord of Ireland, Lord/King of Ireland
- **moretext**: (Style of the English sovereigns, more...)
- **coronation**: 24 June 1509
- **cor-type**: Coronation of Henry VIII and Catherine, Coronation
- **predecessor**: Henry VII of England, Henry VII
- **successor**: Edward VI
- **birth date**: 28 June 1491
- **birth place**: Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England
- **death date**: 28 January 1547 (aged 55)
- **death place**: Palace of Whitehall, Westminster, England
- **burial date**: 16 February 1547
- **burial place**: St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire
- **issue-link**: #Wives, mistresses, and children
- **issue-pipe**: more...
- **house**: House of Tudor, Tudor
- **father**: Henry VII of England
- **mother**: Elizabeth of York
- **signature**: HenryVIIISig.svg