Will of Henry VIII of England

The will of Henry VIII of England was a significant constitutional document, or set of contested documents created in the 1530s and 1540s, affecting English and Scottish politics for the rest of the 16th century. In conjunction with legislation passed by the English Parliament, it was supposed to have a regulative effect in deciding the succession to the three following monarchs of the House of Tudor, the three legitimate and illegitimate children (the Third Succession Act expressly recognized the illegitimacy of Henry's daughters) of King Henry VIII of England. Its actual legal and constitutional status was much debated; and arguably the succession to Elizabeth I of England did not respect Henry's wishes.
==Last testament==
Henry VIII made a final revision to his last will and testament on December 30, 1546. It was signed using the "dry stamp", a device in use since 1545 and under the control of Anthony Denny and John Gates. It confirmed the line of succession as Edward, Mary and Elizabeth; following them, the Grey and Suffolk families. The will was read, stamped and sealed on January 27, 1547, when the dying king was past speech. He died within hours, the next day.
The document still exists, but this fact was not generally known or accepted by the 1560s, when some believed it was lost, or had been destroyed.Levine, p. 155.
==Executors==
The will appointed 16 executors. That body had little impact in the short term because its powers were given to a smaller group. It was officially (with one other) the council of Edward VI of England until March 12, 1547, when Protector Somerset nominated the council. The effective end of the Somerset Protectorate came in early 1550. Those executors who were still alive (13 of the original 16, Browne, Denny and then Wriothesley having died) had a leading constitutional role, in theory from October 13, 1549.
The executors comprised:Albert Frederick Pollard, England under Protector Somerset: an essay (1900), pp. 20–1; archive.org.
Name 	Position/profession 	Religious orientation	Date of death
Thomas Bromley 	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	(?, mostly absent) 	1555
Sir Anthony Browne 	Courtier 	Catholic 	1548
Thomas Cranmer 	Archbishop of Canterbury 	Reformer 	1556
Sir Anthony Denny 	Courtier 	Reformer 	1549
John Dudley, Viscount Lisle 	Military leader 	Reformer 	1553
Sir William Herbert 	Courtier 	Reformer 	1570
Sir Edward Montague 	Chief Justice of the Common Pleas	(?, mostly absent) 	1557
Sir Edward North 	Lawyer 	Neutral 	1564
Sir William Paget 	Politician 	Neutral 	1563
William Paulet, Baron St John of Basing	Politician 	Neutral 	1572
John Russell 	Admiral 	Reformer 	1555
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford 	Military leader 	Reformer 	1552
Cuthbert Tunstall 	Bishop of Durham 	Catholic 	1559
Sir Edward Wotton 	Administrator 	? Catholic 	1551
Nicholas Wotton 	Cleric and diplomat 	? Catholic 	1567
Thomas Wriothesley 	Administrator 	Catholic 	1550
Pollard wrote that the traditional view, that the balance of the group of executors on the religious question was deliberately poised to create an equilibrium, is mistaken since the exclusion of Stephen Gardiner tipped the balance to the evangelical reformers. MacCulloch considers that in 1550, after the fall of Somerset, there was a balance but that the evangelicals maneuvered to a position of superiority.
==Third Succession Act==
The constitutional standing of Henry VIII's last will depended on the Third Succession Act that received the royal assent in 1544. Section VI of the act provides that the line of succession, if not continued by the King's children by his marriages, should be regulated by the contents of the King's last will. The wording is conditional on the will being signed by the King's hand. The issue of the "dry stamp" signature was brought up in the context of Anglo-Scottish diplomacy, carried out by Robert Melville on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1567. Since the provisions of the will disadvantaged all the claimants of the House of Stuart, the point remained important.
==Notes==
==References==
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Category:Works by Henry VIII
Category:1546 works
Henry 8
Category:1530s in England
Category:1540s in England