Family[]
Henry VIII of England (June 28, 1491 - January 28, 1547) was King of England from 1509 to 1547. He was the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. He had three children, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, who all became Monarch of the Tudor Dynasty.
Early Life[]
Henry was born Henry Tudor on June 28, 1491, at the Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, Kent. He was the 2nd son of Henry VII of England and his wife, Elizabeth of York. Henry was baptized by Richard Foxe in the Church of the Observant Franciscans. As a child, he was given many positions of power including the Bishop of Exeter, Earl Marshall of England, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Knight of the Bath, Duke of York and Warden of the Scottish Marches.
He was never intended to be King of England as he had an older brother, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. He was given an education in religion and a lot of general knowledge. He also learned how to speak French, Latin and some Italian.
However, on April 2, 1502, his brother died to the sweating sickness and he was given education on how to be a king. In order to keep the marriage alliance between Spain and England, Henry VII offered up Henry to marry Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine's mother, Isabella of Castile, approved of the marriage and a treaty was signed on June 23, 1503, declaring their betrothal. Henry rejected the marriage proposal at 14, but Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine's father made her an ambassador to England, so she could not leave.
Ascension[]
Henry VII died on April 21, 1509, to tuberculosis and Henry succeeded him as King of England. Shortly after his ascension, Henry declared he would marry Catherine, declining a marriage proposal to Eleanor of Austria, niece of Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I.
On June 23, 1509, Henry and Catherine were married at the friar's church in Greenwich. The following day, both Henry and Catherine went to their coronation and officially became King and Queen of England.
On June 26, 1509, Henry had two unpopular ministers to Henry VII arrested, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley who were both executed August 17, 1510. He also released Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset and Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk who was a potential claimant to the English Throne. de la Pole was later executed on April 30, 1513. On January 31, 1510, Catherine gave birth to a daughter who died shortly after. On January 1, 1511, a son, Henry Tudor, 1st Duke of Cornwall was born. That son died a few months later. She had two other stillborn sons in 1514 and 1515 who died shortly after birth. But then on February 18, 1516, a daughter, Mary was born. She would become the future Queen of England.
While the marriage to Catherine was a good one, Henry had taken on a few mistresses. One was a sister of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, named Anne Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. A second mistress was known as Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, future Queen Consort of England. A third mistress and the most well known was Elizabeth Blount. She was his mistress for a few years and birthed him a son named Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset. FitzRoy married Mary Howard, who was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
FitzRoy died in July 1536, just before Parliament passed the Second Succession Act, which would have made him a legal heir to the throne of England.
War with France and Scotland[]
In October 1511, Pope Julius II created Anti-French Holy League and Henry was quick to ally England with it. A joint invasion force with Spanish and English forces was planned to invade Aquitaine. Ferdinand, however, had no intention of doing this so. Henry was not given any leading position and the battle was a failure. This strained relationships between the two countries.
Even with the strained relationship, the French were pushed out of Italy and retreated back to France. Henry then convinced Maximilian to abandon Louis XII of France and made him join the Holy League. With France weakened he led his army into France winning minor victories in the Battle of the Spurs on August 16, 1513, and another win in Thérouanne. It was given to Maximilian and Henry proceeded to take Tournai.
While Henry and most of the English army were away in France, James IV of Scotland took the opportunity and invaded England on September 9, 1513. Catherine, however, rallied the troops that were left and helped decisively defeat the Scots in the Battle of Flodden, James IV was killed in the battle, leaving his son, the year-old, James V of Scotland king.
Despite his successes, he had received very little in the war and Henry backed out in 1514 with England running out of money.
At this point, Julius II had died and a new Pope, Leo X was coming into power. Leo wanted to negotiate for peace with France, so Henry took the initiative. He brokered peace with Louis XII and offered her his sister, Mary Tudor's hand in marriage.
A period of eight years of peace arose after this as both Louis XII and Maximilian I had died in 1515 and 1519 respectively, leaving a young Francis I of France and Charles V as King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor. Taking advantage of this peace, Henry's advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, created a treaty which hoped to create perpetual peace among England, France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. This treaty was called the Treaty of London. Not only would the treaty create peace in Europe, but it would also prepare it for war with a rising Ottoman power in Asia.
On June 7, 1520, Wolsey organized an event that would come to be known as the Field of Cloth of Gold, which hoped to create peace between France and England. The event turned out to be a waste though. England had spent a lot of money on it, and Henry ignored the French and formed an alliance with Charles V instead.
Both Charles and Henry led joint attacks in France in 1521. Henry gained little ground, but Charles managed to defeat Francis in the Battle of Pavia. After this Henry backed out of the war again, signing the Treaty of the More with France on August 30, 1525.
The King's Great Matter[]
During his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry was having an affair with a woman known as Mary Boleyn. At the same time, he was starting to fall for her sister, Anne Boleyn. Anne however, refused to be his mistress. It was at this point, he made the decision that he wanted to divorce Catherine and marry Anne as she was still at the age where she could produce heirs and Catherine was not. This divorce prompted the English Reformation.
Henry first went to the new Pope, Clement VII, with his proposal saying that he had married his brother's widow and as a result, he would not have any male heirs. After this failed, he tried to convince Catherine to go to a nunnery. Catherine refused. He also tried sending, William Knight, his personal secretary to convince him, but Knight failed as well.
The Pope did humor him and made an ecclesiastical court with Lorenzo Campeggio as the head of it. He, however, would not convince Campeggio to vote in Henry's favor. As planned the court didn't come to any decision and it was recalled back to Rome in 1529.
Wolsey was given most of the blame, which contributed to his fall from grace. He lost all power he had and as he was awaiting trial in 1530, he died to natural causes. A close friend of Henry's, Thomas More took his place upon his death as Lord Chancellor of England.
In 1531, Catherine was banished from court, and all her things were given to Anne. In 1532, Archbishop William Warham died, allowing Anne to use her influence over Henry and convinced him to appoint a man named Thomas Cranmer as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
With a Protestant queen and Archbishop, the Protestant Movement was growing more powerful.
Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn and Protestantism[]
In the Winter of 1532, Henry traveled to Calais to meet with the French King Francis I in order to gain his support in his marriage to Anne Boleyn. After the success of his support, Henry returned to England, where he secretly married Anne. Shortly after she was pregnant.
On January 25, 1533, there was a second official wedding in which Anne officially became his second wife. On May 23, 1533, Archibishop Cranmer ruled that Henry was no longer married to Catherine and his marriage to Anne was valid. Catherine became Princess Dowager, and Anne became the Queen Consort of England. On September 7, 1533, Anne gave birth to a child, who would become the future, Elizabeth I of England.
Following the marriage, parliament, Cromwell, Howard and Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden and Henry himself pushed the reformation throughout England and they had pretty much succeeded by May 1532. As a result of this drastic change in religious practice, More resigned as the Lord Chancellor and was replaced by Audley.
The Act of Succession 1533, was passed by Cromwell and it declared Mary, Catherine's daughter illegitimate and Elizabeth became the legal heir to the throne. The Acts of Supremacy were passed in 1534, which declared Henry the head of the Church of England. Rome also became powerless in England. As a result of these acts, Pope Clement started the ex-communication process.
The marriage was not a great one, as Anne would not be submissive like Catherine was. As a result, Henry started to have disdain for her, and she made many enemies in court. Some of these included Charles Brandon, Cardinal John Fisher, and Thomas More. After two failed pregnancies, Henry started looking for a way to divorce Anne.
While all this was happening in their marriage, people in England were expected to acknowledge Henry as the head of the Church of England. Not all agreed though. Two prominent ones were More and Fisher. Henry or Cromwell had no desire to have them executed, so they tried to get them to take the Oath of Supremacy, but they refused. They were found guilty by Richard Rich of treason and both were executed in 1535.
Henry also had Cromwell dissolve many of the monasteries of England in order to bolster the treasury. This resulted in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion led by a lawyer, Robert Aske. Aske and all the leading rebels were executed in 1537 after Henry managed to convince them that he would not kill them.
Execution of Anne Boleyn[]
On January 7, 1536, Catherine of Aragon died to what we now know as heart cancer, but then it was thought of as a sign of poisoning. At this point, Anne was yet again pregnant and if she failed to give him a son, her life would be in danger due to the mysterious death of Catherine. She ended up having a miscarriage after she heard the news that Henry had fallen off his horse and hurt himself which could mean his death.
During these times, there was heavy political tensions within the court. Anne had made many enemies throughout the court, most notably Charles Brandon and her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. There was also tension between which European King to side with. Anne, the Boleyn family, and their followers supported an alliance with France, while Cromwell and Henry were some of the supporters of an alliance with Spain. Cromwell knew of their pro-France sentiment so he looked for a reason to permanently deal with her.
After Anne had her final miscarriage, Cromwell managed to use Henry's disappointment to his advantage and told him of many things she had supposedly done. Things like practicing witchcraft, having sexual affairs with her father and brother as well as many other noblemen in England, and she might have been arranging to have the king killed.
Anne was soon replaced by the king's new mistress, Jane Seymour, and this began her downfall. Then between the dates of April 30 and May 2, Anne and five men were arrested. Those men being George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, the Queen's brother, Henry Norris, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, and Francis Weston. All five were accused of sexual affairs with the Queen.
After a brief trial, they were all found guilty. The five men were executed on May 17, 1536, and Anne was beheaded two days later on May 19.
Marriage to Jane Seymour[]
On May 20, Henry was engaged to Jane Seymour and then officially married on May 30. She was pregnant soon after and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the future Edward VI of England. Jane, however, died from an illness of childbirth on October 24, 1537, 12 days after her son was born.
Henry was both happy and upset. He had a son, but it had come at the cost of his wife. At first, he moved on and it was only later that he started longing for her. Cromwell and other members of the court knew that Henry had to find another wife soon and looked all over Europe.
Marriage to Anne of Cleves[]
Since Cromwell was charged with finding a new wife for Henry, he looked for an alliance that could possibly benefit England. For that, he saw Cleves as an option. Cleves was not a completely Catholic state and they had some military power that might come in handy if England were to be attacked. Cromwell sent Hans Holbein, a painter, like his father, to make a portrait of Anne and return to England. Hans returned after a while and once Henry saw Anne, he agreed to the marriage proposal.
After being married for around six months, Henry wanted to break the marriage off, and unlike Catherine of Aragon, she did not fight and even said that the marriage had not been consummated. There was also the fact that she was betrothed to Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, at some point in the past.
This failed marriage attempt is often given as one of the reasons that led to the downfall of Cromwell.
In 1540, Cromwell was charged with treason and executed on July 28, 1540. Two days later, on July 30, some proteges of his were burned at the stake; Robert Barnes, William Jerome, and Thomas Garret. Another three; Thomas Abel, Richard Fetherstone, and Edward Powell were hung.
Marriage to Catherine Howard[]
On July 28, 1540, Henry was married again to a young, Catherine Howard, a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and niece of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She was also a first cousin to Anne Boleyn.
He enjoyed his new Queen that he gave her everything that was once Cromwell's. She, however, soon got into a sexual relationship with an English courtier, Thomas Culpeper. She also employed a past love interest, Francis Dereham as a member of her household.
Cranmer looked into Catherine's past and discovered that she had sexual affairs with Dereham in the past, and their marriage might have been arranged. Catherine told them that it was Dereham who had forced himself upon her, and Henry believed her at first. Then as more evidence came to light, he lost all trust and she was executed on February 13, 1542. Dereham and Culpeper were executed three months earlier on December 10, 1541.
Marriage to Catherine Parr[]
In July 1543, Henry married his final wife. Catherine Parr, widow of the recently deceased John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer. Catherine supported the English Reformation, but Henry, in the end, decided to keep aspects of Catholicism and Protestantism. One notable thing she did during her marriage to Henry was she managed to reconcile Henry with his daughters, and as a result, an Act of Succession in 1543, determined that his daughters would be in the line to inherit the throne behind their half-brother Edward.
Political Affairs[]
Henry retained good and bad relations with the two other prominent kings of Europe at the time, but he managed to get along with Francis better. As a monarch, he primarily focused on domestic policies over foreign ones.
The Laws in Wales Act of 1535 and 1542 officially uniting England and Wales. Another notable domestic thing he did was order the dissolution of the monasteries within England. He placed Cromwell in charge of this in 1538, and Cromwell reported that they had been hiding massive amounts of wealth instead of sharing it with the people like they were supposed to do. This further convinced Henry that the church was corrupt and led to the dissolution of 800 monasteries. Henry sold the land and items within them bolstering the exchequer of England. He also put aside some land he liked and had other monasteries turned into Anglican churches.
While not getting involved with many foreign affairs, he did take note of his surroundings and when the King of Spain and France had started getting along again, he rightly worried about an invasion. Not wanting to be caught unaware, he put a lot of funds into strengthening his navy, army and coastal defenses.
Second War with France and Scotland[]
In 1539, a relationship between Francis and Charles had fallen apart and Henry sought to capitalize on this. He proposed alliance with Charles, and at this point both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were dead, so they were no longer an obstacle like they were in the past.
Charles initiated what would become known as the Italian War. Francis I of France and Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire faced off against Henry VIII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. While Charles attacked France right away, Henry moved on Scotland in order to prevent a possible invasion of England while he was away or an alliance between Scotland and his enemies.
On November 24, 1542, Henry defeated the forces of James V of Scotland in the Battle of Solway Moss. James died a few weeks later to what is believed to fever. On his death, Regent James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Arran agreed to a marriage between, Henry's son and the six-day-old daughter of James, the future Mary I of Scotland, in the Treaty of Greenwich. The treaty was rejected by Scotland's Parliament, causing another eight-year war between the two countries.
After some hesitation on Henry's part to invade France, he finally started invading June 1544. The 3rd Duke of Norfolk laid siege on Montreuil, while the Duke of Suffolk laid siege to Boulogne. Henry later took command of Brandon's forces and the city fell on September 18, 1544. Charles then proposed a march on Paris, but Henry declined the offer. Charles then signed a treaty with Francis that day leaving Henry alone in France.
Francis tried to go to war with England but did not make it past the Isle of Wight as he was beaten back in the Battle of the Solent. At this point both England and France were bankrupt and signed the Treaty of Camp in 1546, making peace between the two countries. Boulogne was also offered to France after eight years at a value of 2,000,000 crowns or 750,000 Euros.
Death[]
Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547, due to many things including obesity and gout. His decline began during a jousting accident in 1536, and he was unable to do many of the things he used to do, including physical activity. He was buried next to Jane Seymour in St George's Chapel on February 16, 1547. Catherine married a brother of Seymour, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. She died in 1548 due to childbirth issues.
Succession[]
He was succeeded by, his nine-year-old son, Edward who had his coronation on February 20, 1547. Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, another brother of Jane Seymour, was chosen to be his Lord Protector until Edward VI became 18 years old. According to the Third Succession Act. Edward would have the most prominent claim to the throne, but if he died childless, Mary and her children would get the throne. If she died childless, Elizabeth would get it. If somehow, all of his line went extinct, which it did, the descendants of his sister, Margaret, would become the monarch of England. This ended up happening as when Elizabeth died childless, the throne passed onto a great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, James VI of Scotland, who also became known as James I of England.
Named Issue[]
| Name | Birthdate | Death Date | Mother |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Tudor | Jan 1, 1511 | Feb 22, 1511 | Catherine of Aragon |
| Mary I of England | Feb 18, 1516 | Nov 17, 1558 | Catherine of Aragon |
| Elizabeth I of England | Sept 7, 1533 | Mar 24, 1603 | Anne Boleyn |
| Henry Tudor | Aug 1534 | Aug 1534 | Anne Boleyn |
| Edward VI of England | Oct 12, 1537 | Jul 6, 1553 | Jane Seymour |
| Henry FitzRoy | Jun 15, 1519 | Jul 23, 1536 | Elizabeth Blount |