Why it failed?:Henry The 8th's Reign

Henry Tudor (AKA Henry The 8th) is still revered in history of not just Great Britain but the western world as one of Europe's most recognized rulers.

Now, you already know of Henry the 8th as a morbidly obese King who divorces (or executes) whoever is his wife, or basically anybody else who went against him. However, it was only one of the reasons why his reign had failed, and this is what this page will cover. Some of the reasons why the reign of Henry the 8th failed.

## Henry's Ballooning Weight

As many people who have basic knowledge of Henry the 8th know is that Henry is known to be that morbidly obese King. Nobody really knows on what his weight was in his older years, but he could be around 30-50 pounds overweight by the time of his death.

The big contributor to his ballooning weight were the "Tudor Feasts" which served around 10,000 calories a day, and Henry the 8th would eat around half of what was served everyday.

Now, to us modern people that is considered too much. Not many people today eat that many calories everyday. Back then, they were served huge portions of food in a lot of varieties.

But many people don't know of Henry in his "Yonder years" (when he was young), during his youth Henry was very active as he would engage in activities like wrestling, dancing, and his favorite Jousting. What happened in one of his Jousts that he fell off his Horse, and that Horse would fall on both of his legs, injuring one of them to the point where it got a nasty infection, in fact so bad was the injury it would periodically ooze a foul smelling puss. This injury would make Henry less active, but he would still have a daily intake of calories of 5,000. Pretty soon, it would cause his weight to balloon, and it's unlikely that it'll be determined whether or not he had any complications brought on by his intake of calories, it's possible that he could've suffered from at least Diabetes or High-Blood Pressure (or both).

## Having only one male heir

It is also known that Henry was married 6 times, so you would think that he would have a lot of children, yes? Well, no. He only had 3 children. When he was married to his first wife; Catherine of Aragon, she was pregnant several times, but was only able to give birth to a girl ("Bloody" Mary), like wise with his marriage to Anne Boleyn as she gave birth to Elizabeth the 1st. It wasn't until his marriage to Jane Seymour when he finally had a male heir (Edward the 6th), but it was a costly triumph for Henry as Jane would die shortly after Edward's birth. He had no children with the other 3 wives, possibly because he was getting older, and heavier.

## His path to tyranny

It's not precisely known when and how Henry the 8th became the "infamous" tyrant King that he would eventually be known for. When he ascended to the throne after the death of his brother at the age of 18. Britain rejoiced Henry because he was nothing like his father (Henry the 7th), but Henry would eventually be just like his father, if not much worse.

One theory could be that it was marriage to Anne Boleyn. Anne (as well as her family) were protestants, and Anne herself was a supporter of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Before Henry married Anne, he supported the Pope and the Catholic Church, it was only when Henry met Anne and fell in love with her when he went against Catholicism. Anne wasn't exactly a "good little girl" herself. According to a lot of records that survive, Anne was quite abrasive in her religious beliefs and regularly fought with members of Henry's court (who were "pro-catholic").

Another theory is that because Henry loved jousting, he was no stranger to the dangerous accidents that came with the sport, and Henry had many accidents from Jousting (including the already mentioned leg injury), he also fell on his head one time, which is believed by many at the time to injure his brain to the point where his entire personality changed.

Henry the 8th also wasn't afraid of spending the "moola". Not only did he spend money on Food (for his feasts) but he also spend a lot of money on clothes (especially on shoes which he had over 1,000 pairs).

Henry would also spend money on warfare. Remember that the Tudor Period as well as the reign of Henry the 8th, Great Britain didn't exist in its current form, it had 2 separate kingdoms, you known them as England and Scotland, and Scotland was allies with France during his reign. Henry had to deal with France as well as Scotland, but it was France that was Henry's most coveted prize. His trusted Church Cardinal; Thomas Wolsey did suggest to Henry one time to try to settle his score with France peaceably (hence the Field of The Cloth of Gold) but no treaty came out of the event. Eventually, Henry would invade France in 1544 when he and his forces laid siege to the French town of Boulogne which surrendered on September 18 of that year. It was a very costly battle for Britain as it ran out of money and Boulogne was given back to France a few years later.

## Marriage Problems

As said before, Henry was married 6 times. But as you may have guessed already, they were far from happy. When Henry married Catherine of Aragon in 1509, he was in love with her, not just to maintain his father's alliance with Spain. At the time, marriages were to form (and/or maintain) political and military alliances, and not for love.

### Catherine of Aragon

Henry married Catherine shortly after his brother (Edward the 5th) died (as Catherine was married to Henry's brother). The longest of all of Henry's marriages, Henry wanted to divorce Catherine as she was getting older and not being able to reproduce. This is when Henry went through a lot of trouble with the Catholic Church in order to do this.

### Anne Boleyn

The most infamous of Henry's marriages. Though, Henry loved Anne, they were only married for 3 years. After Henry's other "Cardinal" Thomas Cromwell got a forced confession from a man that Anne had cheated on Henry with, that is when he ordered her execution. Anne was eventually beheaded at the Tower of London.

### Jane Seymour

Henry was only married to her for a few months. When she gave birth to Edward the 6th, she died a few days later.

### Anne of Cleves

When Thomas Cromwell gave Henry a picture of the German Lady named Anne, Henry was excited to meet her, but wasn't happy that she was nothing how she looked in the picture Cromwell gave her. He never consummated the marriage, and divorced her after 6 months, and had Cromwell executed.

### Catherine Howard

Henry married her on the same day Cromwell was executed. But they were only married for 2 years, the situation was the same as with Anne Boleyn as Catherine had affairs with other men, and like Anne was beheaded.

### Catherine Parr

A mixed marriage as Parr would successfully get Henry to being back his daughters to the line of succession, but she would argue with Henry periodically about the ideas of Theology. It is unknown if Henry divorced her, but she indeed lived and stayed by Henry's side until his death in 1547.

### Sibling Rivalry

Even after Henry the 8th's death. There was still turmoil within his family. Edward the 6th became King after Henry's death at the age of 10, but he would die 5 years later. Edward was mostly protestant and even tried to get Britain on the side of the Protestants, which his oldest sister ("Bloody" Mary) tried to reverse after Edward's death, it wasn't until Elizabeth the 1st when Britain turned fully Protestant.

Yes, Henry the 8th's reign did fail, In fact, both his daughters would eventually die childless, and the House of Tudor lineage would end, only to be replaced by the House of Stuart (who Mary Queen of Scots belonged to) after Elizabeth's death in 1603 and even brought about the "Union of Crowns" that same year where the Stuarts would marry into Irish royalty. Helping Britain get on the path of the nation we came to know and love today.

That'll be all for this wiki page. Don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis as well. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.