Henry VIII (28 June 1491-28 January 1547) was King of England and Ireland from 21 April 1509 to 28 January 1547, succeeding Henry VII and preceding Edward VI. King Henry was best known for his six marriages (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr), his role in spearheading the English Reformation, his expansion of royal power, his execution or banishment of those at his court who fell out of his favor, his costly continental wars with King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and his legal union of England, Ireland, and Wales. A lustful, egotistical, harsh, and insecure king, Henry was one of the most charismatic figures to sit on the English throne.
Biography[]
Early life[]
A young King Henry
Henry was born in Greenwich, Kent, England on 28 June 1491, the son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the brother of Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret Tudor, and Mary Tudor. He was appointed Earl Marshal of England, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a Knight of the Order of the Bath, and Warden of the Scottish Marches at the age of three, ensuring that his father could control such important titles without giving them to other families. In 1502, his brother Arthur died of the sweating sickness, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The 10-year-old Henry became the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, making him heir to the throne. He was betrothed to marry his brother's widow, and Henry acceded to the throne on his own father's death on 21 April 1509. On 11 June 1509, Henry and Catherine married, becoming King and Queen of England.
Early reign[]
Henry VIII in jousting armor
Two days after his coronation, Henry had his father's unpopular ministers Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley imprisoned, and he had them both executed in 1510. Henry would continue to use execution as his primary tactic for dealing with those who stood in his way, developing an aura of fear around him. However, he was also known to be attractive, educated, and accomplished, and he took several mistresses during his marriage to Queen Catherine. From 1516 to 1519, he took Catherine's lady-in-waiting Elizabeth Blount as a mistress, and he made their illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy Duke of Richmond and Somerset; he died at the age of 17 in 1536.
In 1510, King Henry renewed his father's friendship with King Louis XII of France as France warred against the Republic of Venice in the War of the League of Cambrai, but he also signed a pact with King Ferdinand II of Aragon, his father-in-law. In 1511, he entered the war against France, and he planned an Anglo-Spanish invasion of Aquitaine in 1512 to recover the region for England. However, this invasion was a disaster. On 30 June 1513, King Henry invaded France and defeated the French at the Battle of the Spurs. Soon after, he captured Therouanne and Tournai. His absence from England allowed for his brother-in-law James IV of Scotland to invade England, but Queen Catherine oversaw the decisive defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Flodden, during which King James was killed and his army destroyed. By 1514, however, England's coffers were empty, and Henry signed a treaty with King Louis, marrying off his sister Mary to the French king. The English and French signed an eight-year peace treaty, and Henry's close adviser, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, persuaded him to sign the 1518 Treaty of London with Louis' successor, Henry's cousin Francis I of France, to preserve peace.
Foreign and domestic challenges[]
However, Henry was annoyed by Francis' arrogance and his insistence that France had better wrestlers, music, men, and other features, and Henry even lost a wrestling match with Francis in front of several diplomats from both countries during the 1521 renewal of the treaty near Calais; Henry wanted to prove that France's wrestlers were not always better. This embarrassment led to Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, a Lancastrian claimant to the throne, attempting to overthrow the "usurper" Tudor monarchy, but Henry was made aware of this plot, and he had Buckingham beheaded.
King Henry with Emperor Charles V
King Henry refused to renew the Treaty of London due to the air of competition between England and France, and he instead decided to approach Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, with an alliance offer. King Henry promised his daughter Mary's hand in marriage to Charles V, having previously arranged for her betrothal to King Francis' son Dauphin Henry, and he also showed Charles his impressive navy. They decided that the combination of England's powerful navy with Charles' massive Habsburg empire would be unstoppable, and they concluded an alliance with each other. In 1525, King Henry celebrated Charles' victory over Francis at the Battle of Pavia with grand celebrations, including jousting. Charles later broke his word, marrying Isabella of Portugal (whose dowry was 1 million pounds) rather than waiting for Mary to grow up.
Annullment from Catherine of Aragon[]
Henry and Catherine in court
After nearly drowning in a ditch after a failed stunt, Henry realized that he had no male heir to succeed him, and he demanded that Cardinal Wolsey arrange for a divorce from Catherine. Henry made his son Henry FitzRoy a duke, angering Catherine, who felt that Henry was putting his bastard son above Mary, his legitimate child. His passion for Catherine's lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn (the daughter of nobleman Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and the sister of Henry's previous lover, Mary Boleyn) grew as he sought to divorce Catherine, but she initially refused to become his mistress.
Henry later took advantage of the 1527 Sack of Rome and the captivity of the Pope to press for permission to divorce his wife, but the Pope refused, and Henry saw this as a failure on Cardinal Wolsey's part. The Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Wiltshire (Boleyn's father), and Henry's own brother-in-law and close friend, the Duke of Suffolk, had already been plotting to push Wolsey out of power, with Wiltshire discovering financial improprieties related to the cardinal. In 1530, Henry sentenced Wolsey to death, but he died on the journey to London. In 1533, after declaring his supremacy in religious matters, he divorced Catherine, and the Church of England split from the Catholic Church. Henry's defiance of the Pope led to the creation of Anglicanism; Henry believed in many core Catholic doctrines, but ceased to be a member of the Church, as he was excommunicated (as was his ally, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer).
Reformation[]
King Henry in 1532
King Henry, as the leader of the Church of England, now sought to eradicate the influence of the Catholics in England. His 1534 Act of Supremacy established him as the supreme head of the Church of England, replacing the Pope. From 1536 to 1541, he oversaw the dissolution of monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland, appropriated their income, disposed them of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions. The dissolution boosted the crown's income, and it also funded his wars in Europe during the 1540s. He also proposed radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the "divine right of kings" to England. He achieved many of his political aims through his ministers, and Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, and Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in his administration. Some of these ministers were banished or executed if they failed him, and he became known as a violent man, using execution to get rid of rivals.
Marriages[]
King Henry at Pontefract Castle in 1541
After his marriage to Catherine was annulled, he married Anne Boleyn, and he was married to her from 1533 to 1536. Anne gave birth to his second daughter, the future Elizabeth I of England, but she had three subsequent miscarriages and failed to produce male issue. An angry King Henry accused Anne of adultery, incest, and plotting to kill him, and he had her executed in 1536 after annulling their marriage. In 1536, he decided to marry Anne's lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, but she died in childbirth in 1537, giving birth to the future King Edward VI of England before she died. In early 1540, he married Anne of Cleves at the advice of Thomas Cromwell, but he found her unattractive and divorced her; he then had Cromwell executed for suggesting that they marry. Later in 1540, he married Catherine Howard, a member of Anne of Cleves' household and the Duke of Norfolk's niece. She committed adultery during her marriage with Henry, and Henry found out about her indiscretions, leading to her execution just 16 months later. In 1543, he married his last wife, Catherine Parr, a friend of Princess Mary. They remained married until Henry's death.
Foreign policy[]
King Henry at Boulogne
King Henry was known for his wasteful wars with King Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V on mainland Europe, often switching sides during the Italian Wars. In 1539, after Francis and Charles went to war, Henry allied with Charles and entered the Italian War of 1542-46 on the side of the Holy Roman Empire. Before he could invade France, however, he decided to pre-emptively attack Scotland, which was an ally of France. In the "Rough Wooing" of 1542-1551, he defeated King James V of Scotland's army at the Battle of Solway Moss, and, having "roughly wooed" Mary, Queen of Scots for his son Edward, he was able to force the Scottish regent James Hamilton, Duke of Chatellerault to accept the marriage in 1543. However, the Parliament of Scotland refused to accept this marriage, leading to warfare that would continue until after Henry's death. In July 1544, Henry finally went to France, attacking Montreuil and Boulogne. Boulogne fell, but the campaign fizzled, and the bankrupt Henry was forced to return home.
Final years[]
Later in life, Henry became obese, suffering from pus-filled boils and gout. He later suffered from scurvy, and a combination of scurvy and obesity led to his death at the Palace of Whitehall in 1547 at the age of 55. His last words were reputed to be, "Monks! Monks! Monks!," referencing the monks he caused to be evicted during the 1530s. His son Edward briefly succeeded him as monarch.