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Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII Tudor (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. He was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. He is famous for having been married six times and for wielding the most untrammeled power of any British monarch. Notable events during his reign included the break with Rome and the subsequent establishment of the independent Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the union of England and Wales.

Several significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church and established Henry as the supreme head of the Church in England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (which united England and Wales into one nation), the Buggery Act 1533, the first anti-sodomy enactment in England; and the Witchcraft Act 1542, which punished 'invoking or conjuring an evil spirit' with death.

Henry VIII is known to have been an avid gambler and dice player. He excelled at sport, especially jousting, hunting, and royal tennis, during his youth. He was also an accomplished musician, author, and poet; his best known piece of music is Pastyme With Good Company (The Kynges Ballade). Henry VIII was also involved in the construction-from-scratch and improvement of several significant buildings, including Nonsuch Palace, King's College Chapel and Westminster Abbey - the existing buildings improved were often properties confiscated from Wolsey (such as Christ Church, Oxford, Hampton Court Palace and palace of Whitehall).

Early life

Born at the Palace of Placentia at Greenwich, Henry VIII was the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Only three of Henry VIII's six siblings: Arthur (the Prince of Wales), Margaret and Mary, survived infancy. His Lancastrian father acquired the throne by right of conquest, his army defeating and killing the last Plantagenet king Richard III, but further solidified his hold by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV. In 1493, the young Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1494, he was created Duke of York. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, though still a child.

In 1501 he attended the wedding of his elder brother Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, who were at the time only about fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively. The two were sent to spend time in Wales, as was customary for the heir-apparent and his wife, but Arthur caught an infection and died. Consequently, at the age of eleven, Henry, Duke of York, found himself heir-apparent to the Throne. Soon thereafter, he was created Prince of Wales.

Henry VII was still eager to maintain the marital alliance between England and Spain through a marriage between Henry, Prince of Wales, and Catherine. Since the Prince of Wales sought to marry his brother's widow, he first had to obtain a dispensation from the Pope from the impediment of affinity. Catherine maintained that her first marriage was never consummated; if she were correct, no papal dispensation would have been necessary, but merely a dissolution of ratified marriage. Nonetheless, both the English and Spanish parties agreed on the necessity of a papal dispensation for the removal of all doubts regarding the legitimacy of the marriage. Due to the impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella, the Pope hastily granted his dispensation in a Papal Bull. Thus, fourteen months after her husband's death, Catherine found herself engaged to his brother, the Prince of Wales. By 1505, however, Henry VII lost interest in an alliance with Spain, and the young Prince of Wales was forced to declare that his betrothal had been arranged without his assent.

Early reign

Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509 upon his father's death. Catherine's father, the Aragonese King Ferdinand II, sought to control England through his daughter, and consequently insisted on her marriage to the new English King. Henry VIII wed Catherine of Aragon about nine weeks after his accession on June 11 1509 at Greenwich, despite the concerns of Pope Julius II and William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, regarding the marriage's validity. They were both crowned at Westminster Abbey on 24 June 1509. Queen Catherine's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1510. She gave birth to a son, Henry, on 1 January 1511, but he only lived until February 22.

Upon his accession, Henry was faced with the problematic issues posed by Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, two nobles of Henry VII's reign who imposed heavy arbitrary taxes on the nobility. In one of the many ways in which he tried to separate himself from the principles of his father's reign, he had them imprisoned in the Tower of London and later beheaded. Henry's constant willing for war would prove to be another way in which he undertook to distance himself from Henry VII's reign, his predecessor favouring peace.

t;nowiki>* Note: Of Henry VIII's reputedly illegitimate children, only the Duke of Richmond and Somerset was formally acknowledged by the King. The paternity of his other alleged illegitimate children is not fully established. There may also have been other illegitimate children born to short-term mistresses who we no longer know of.

Trivia

His court jester was named Will Somers.

References

Bowle, John. Henry VIII: A Study of Power in Action Little, Brown, 1964.

Bryant, M. Private Lives. Cassell, 2001.

Eakins, L. E. (2004). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".

Farrow, John V. The Story of Thomas More. Collins, 1956.

"Henry VIII". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.

Jokinen, A. (2004). "Henry VIII (1491–1547)".

Moorhouse, Geoffrey. Great Harry's Navy: How Henry VIII Gave England Seapower

Public Broadcasting Service. (2003). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".

Thurston, H. (1910). "Henry VIII". The Catholic Encyclopedia. (Vol. VII). New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Vallieres, S. (1999). "Tudor Succession Problems"

Wagner, John A. (2003). "Bosworth Field to Bloody Mary: An Encyclopedia of the Early Tudors." (Greenwood). ISBN 1-57356-540-7.

Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Bodley Head, 1991.

External links

Henry VIII World History Database

Buehler, Edward. (2004). "Tudor and Elizabethan Portraits".

Castelli, Jorge H. (2004). "Henry VIII".

Stevens, Garry. (2003). "Henry VIII: Intrigue in the Tudor Court".

Perrott, Terry. (2004). "Sir John Perrott".

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