Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 22 April 1509, and King of Ireland from 18 June 1542, until his death in 1547.
Born in Greenwich, Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, had been the heir apparent, but died in 1502 at the age of 15. Henry VII died in 1509, and Henry took the throne at the age of 17. He married Catherine of Aragon, who had been Princess of Wales and became widowed from Arthur. Henry had sought a male heir from Catherine, who produced the future Mary I but no surviving male children.
The English church had been in communion with the pope of the Catholic Church. Henry desired to annul the marriage to Catherine, appealing to Pope Clement VII. Since Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the pope delayed the verdict amid political pressure from Charles. Henry had become impatient with the delay, secretly marrying Anne Boleyn in 1532.
Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, declared Henry's marriage to Catherine to be null and void on 23 May 1533. The pope formally rejected the English proceedings and maintained that Henry was married to Catherine, and later excommunicated Henry from the Catholic Church. Henry then broke from the Church, and passed the Act of Supremacy 1534 which established the monarch as Supreme Head of the Church of England. The English Reformation that followed attempted to develop a centralised religious identity in England and Ireland. He dissolved monasteries and convents, seized their wealth, disposed of their assets, destroyed buildings and relics, dispersed or destroyed libraries, and provided for their former personnel and functions.
Henry had six wives in total; during the process of annulment from Catherine, he married Anne Boleyn. Anne produced one child, the future Elizabeth I, and was charged with high treason and executed by beheading in the Tower of London. Henry married Jane Seymour in 1536, who gave birth to Edward, the heir apparent. Catherine Parr was Henry's last wife, taking care of him during his final years until his death in 1547.
Henry's contemporaries considered him an attractive, educated, and accomplished king. He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne" and his reign described as the "most important" in English history. He was an author and composer. As he aged, he became severely overweight and his health suffered, and he was frequently characterised in his later life as a lustful, egotistical, paranoid, and tyrannical monarch. Three of his children became English monarchs: Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
Early years
Henry was born on 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Kent, the third child and second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six (or seven) siblings, only three – his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, and sisters Margaret and Mary – survived infancy. He was baptised by Richard Foxe, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace.
In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three and was made a Knight of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony, he was created Duke of York and a month or so later made Warden of the Scottish Marches.
In May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. The King gave these appointments to his young son to enable himself to retain personal control of lucrative positions and not share them with established families.
Not much is known about Henry's early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king,
In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother. 10-year-old Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall, and the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1504. Henry VII gave his second son few responsibilities, even after the death of Arthur. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship".
Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his son Henry in marriage to the widowed Catherine. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, and they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impediment of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed. Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador instead set out to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.
Early reign
thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait by [[Meynnart Wewyck, 1509]]
Henry VII died in April 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as king. Soon after his father's burial on 10 May, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine, leaving unresolved several issues concerning the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage portion. The new king maintained that it had been his father's dying wish that he marry Catherine.
On 23 June 1509, Henry led the now 23-year-old Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation, which took place the following day. It was a grand affair: the King's passage was lined with tapestries and laid with fine cloth. and gave birth to a son, Henry, on 1 January 1511. After the grief of losing their first child, the couple were pleased to have a boy, and festivities were held, including a two-day joust known as the Westminster Tournament. However, the child died seven weeks later.
Although Henry's marriage to Catherine has since been described as "unusually good", it is known that Henry took mistresses. It was revealed in 1510 that Henry had been conducting an affair with one of the sisters of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, either Elizabeth or Anne Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. The most significant mistress for about three years, starting in 1516, was Elizabeth Blount. Exactly how many Henry had is disputed: David Loades believes Henry had mistresses "only to a very limited extent", Catherine is not known to have protested. In 1518, she fell pregnant again with another girl, who was also stillborn. Shortly thereafter, however, Henry also signed a pact with Ferdinand II of Aragon. After Pope Julius II created the anti-French Holy League in October 1511, and was a considerable failure; Ferdinand used it simply to further his own ends, and it strained the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Nevertheless, the French were pushed out of Italy soon after, and the alliance survived, with both parties keen to win further victories over the French. Henry had led the army personally, complete with a large entourage. His absence from the country, however, had prompted his brother-in-law James IV of Scotland to invade England at the behest of Louis. Nevertheless, the English army, overseen by Queen Catherine, decisively defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513. Among the dead was the Scottish king, thus ending Scotland's brief involvement in the war. Henry met King Francis on 7 June 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold near Calais for a fortnight of lavish entertainment. Both hoped for friendly relations in place of the wars of the previous decade. The strong air of competition laid to rest any hopes of a renewal of the Treaty of London, however, and conflict was inevitable. he became enamoured with Mary Boleyn's sister, Anne Boleyn, then a charismatic young woman in the Queen's entourage. Anne, however, resisted his attempts to seduce her, and refused to become his mistress as her sister had.
The King and Queen were not pleased with married life. They enjoyed periods of calm and affection, but Anne refused to play the submissive role expected of her. The vivacity and opinionated intellect that had made her so attractive as an illicit lover made her too independent for the largely ceremonial role of a royal wife and it made her many enemies. For his part, Henry disliked Anne's constant irritability and violent temper. After a false pregnancy or miscarriage in 1534, he saw her failure to give him a son as a betrayal. As early as Christmas 1534, Henry was discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine. Henry is traditionally believed to have had an affair with Madge Shelton in 1535, although historian Antonia Fraser argues that Henry in fact had an affair with her sister Mary Shelton.
These suppressions, as well as the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, in turn, contributed to a more general resistance to Henry's reforms, most notably in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising in northern England in October 1536. Some 20,000 to 40,000 rebels were led by Robert Aske, together with parts of the northern nobility. Henry VIII promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues. Aske told the rebels they had been successful and they could disperse and go home. Henry saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep his promises to them, so when further violence occurred after Henry's offer of a pardon he was quick to break his promise of clemency. The leaders, including Aske, were arrested and executed for treason. In total, about 200 rebels were executed, and the disturbances ended.
Execution of Anne Boleyn
thumb|left|upright=0.75|Portrait by [[Hans Holbein the Younger, ]]
On 8 January 1536, news reached the King and Queen that Catherine of Aragon had died. The following day, Henry dressed all in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet. Queen Anne was pregnant again, and she was aware that there might be consequences if she failed to give birth to a son. Later that month, the King was thrown from his horse in a tournament and was badly injured; it seemed for a time that his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached the Queen, she was sent into shock and miscarried a male child at about 15 weeks' gestation, on the day of Catherine's funeral, 29 January 1536. For most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of this royal marriage.
Although the Boleyn family still held important positions on the Privy Council, Anne had many enemies, including Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Even her own uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had come to resent her attitude to her power. The Boleyns preferred France over the Emperor as a potential ally, but the King's favour had swung towards the latter (partly because of Cromwell), damaging the family's influence. Also opposed to Anne were supporters of reconciliation with Princess Mary (among them the former supporters of Catherine), who had reached maturity. A second annulment was now a real possibility, although it is commonly believed that it was Cromwell's anti-Boleyn influence that led opponents to look for a way of having her executed.
Anne's downfall came shortly after she had recovered from her final miscarriage. Whether it was primarily the result of allegations of conspiracy, adultery, or witchcraft remains a matter of debate among historians. Early signs of a fall from grace included the King's new mistress, the 28-year-old Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters, and Anne's brother, George Boleyn, being refused the Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Nicholas Carew. Between 30 April and 2 May, five men, including George Boleyn, were arrested on charges of treasonable adultery and accused of having sexual relationships with the Queen. Anne was arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. On 17 May 1536, Henry and Anne's marriage was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer at Lambeth Palace and the accused men were executed. Cranmer appears to have had difficulty finding grounds for an annulment and probably based it on the prior liaison between Henry and Anne's sister Mary, which in canon law meant that Henry's marriage to Anne was, like his first marriage, within a forbidden degree of affinity and therefore void. At 8 am on 19 May 1536, Anne was executed on Tower Green.
Marriage to Jane Seymour; domestic and foreign affairs
The day after Anne's execution, the 45-year-old Henry became engaged to Seymour, who had been one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting. They were married ten days later at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, in Anne's closet, by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.
With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic and not foreign policy issues had been Henry's priority in the first half of the 1530s. In 1536, for example, Henry granted his assent to the Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into a single nation. This was followed by the Second Succession Act (the Succession to the Crown Act 1536), which declared Henry's children by Jane to be next in the line of succession and declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them from the throne. The King was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will, should he have no further issue.
On 12 October 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, the future Edward VI. The birth was difficult, and Queen Jane died on 24 October 1537 from an infection and was buried in Windsor. The euphoria that had accompanied Edward's birth became sorrow, but it was only over time that Henry came to long for his wife. At the time, Henry recovered quickly from the shock. Measures were immediately put in place to find another wife for Henry, which, at the insistence of Cromwell and the Privy Council, were focused on the European continent.
In 1538, as part of the negotiation of a secret treaty by Cromwell with Charles V, a series of dynastic marriages were proposed: Mary would marry a son of King John III of Portugal, Elizabeth would marry one of the sons of King Ferdinand I of Hungary and the infant Edward would marry one of Charles's daughters. It was suggested the widowed Henry might marry Christina of Denmark, Dowager Duchess of Milan. However, when Charles and Francis made peace in January 1539, Henry became increasingly paranoid, perhaps as a result of receiving a constant list of threats to the kingdom (real or imaginary, minor or serious) supplied by Cromwell in his role as spymaster. Enriched by the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry used some of his financial reserves to build a series of coastal defences and set some aside for use in the event of a Franco-German invasion.
Marriage to Anne of Cleves
left|thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait of [[Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1539]]
Having considered the matter, Cromwell suggested Anne, the 25-year-old sister of William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England, for the Duke fell between Lutheranism and Catholicism. Other potential brides included Christina of Denmark, Anna of Lorraine, Louise of Guise and Amalia of Cleves. Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the King. Despite speculation that Holbein painted her in an overly flattering light, it is more likely that the portrait was accurate; Holbein remained in favour at court. After seeing Holbein's portrait, and urged on by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, the 49-year-old King agreed to wed Anne.
When Henry met Anne, however, he was much displeased with her appearance. The King was reportedly taken aback and told his courtiers "I promise you, I see no such thing as hath been shown me of her, by pictures and report. I am ashamed that men have praised her as they have done, and I love her not!" Anne did not argue, and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated. Anne's previous betrothal to Francis of Lorraine provided further grounds for the annulment. The marriage was subsequently dissolved in July 1540, and Anne received the title of "The King's Sister", two houses, and a generous allowance.
Shortly after, the religious reformers (and protégés of Cromwell) Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garret were burned as heretics. Cromwell was now surrounded by enemies at court, with Norfolk also able to draw on his niece Catherine's position. In 1540, Henry sanctioned the complete destruction of shrines to saints. In 1542, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. Abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords. Consequently, the Lords Spiritualas members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were knownwere for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal.
Second invasion of France and the "Rough Wooing" of Scotland
thumb|upright=0.75|Henry in 1540, by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]
The 1539 alliance between Francis and Charles had soured, eventually degenerating into renewed war. With Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn dead, relations between Charles and Henry improved considerably, and Henry concluded a secret alliance with the Emperor and decided to enter the Italian War in favour of his new ally. An invasion of France was planned for 1543. In preparation for it, Henry moved to eliminate the potential threat of Scotland under his young nephew, James V. The Scots were defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November 1542, and James died on 15 December. Henry now hoped to unite the crowns of England and Scotland by marrying his son Edward to James's successor, Mary. The Scottish regent Lord Arran agreed to the marriage in the Treaty of Greenwich on 1 July 1543, but it was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland on 11 December. The result was eight years of war between England and Scotland, a campaign later dubbed "the Rough Wooing". Despite several peace treaties, unrest continued in Scotland until Henry's death. However, Henry had refused Charles's request to march against Paris. Charles's own campaign fizzled, and he made peace with France that same day. Henry was left alone against France, unable to make peace. Francis attempted to invade England in the summer of 1545 but his forces reached only the Isle of Wight before being repulsed in the Battle of the Solent. Financially exhausted, France and England signed the Treaty of Camp on 7 June 1546. Henry secured Boulogne for eight years. The city was then to be returned to France for 2 million crowns (£750,000). Henry needed the money; the 1544 campaign had cost £650,000, and England was once again facing bankruptcy. The chronic wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated, preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry's mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.
thumb|upright=0.8|This suit of armour was commissioned when Henry's midsection had a girth of 51 inches.
The theory that Henry had syphilis has been dismissed by most historians. Historian Susan Maclean Kybett ascribes his death to scurvy, which is caused by insufficient vitamin C most often due to a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in one's diet.
A 2010 study suggests Henry may have been of Kell-positive blood type to explain both his physical and mental deterioration, being consistent with some symptoms of the McLeod syndrome, and the high mortality in the pregnancies attributed to him.
Henry's obesity hastened his death at the age of 55, on 28 January 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall, on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. The tomb he had planned (with components taken from the tomb intended for Cardinal Wolsey) was only partly constructed and was never completed (the sarcophagus and its base were later removed and used for Lord Nelson's tomb in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral). Henry was interred in a vault at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, next to Jane Seymour. Over 100 years later, King Charles I (ruled 1625–1649) was buried in the same vault.
Wives, mistresses, and children
{| class="wikitable"
|+Known children of Henry VIII of England
|-
! Name
! Birth
! Death
! Notes
|-
! colspan=4 | By Catherine of Aragon (married Palace of Placentia 11 June 1509; annulled 23 May 1533)
|-
| Unnamed daughter
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 31 January 1510
| stillborn
|-
| Henry, Duke of Cornwall
| 1 January 1511
| 22 February 1511
| died aged almost two months
|-
| Unnamed son
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 17 September 1513
| died shortly after birth
|-
| Unnamed son
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | November 1514
| died shortly after birth
|-
| Queen Mary I
| 18 February 1516
| 17 November 1558
| married Philip II of Spain in 1554; no issue
|-
| Unnamed daughter
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 10 November 1518
| stillborn in the 8th month of pregnancy or lived at least one week
|-
! colspan=4 | By Elizabeth Blount (mistress; bore the only illegitimate child Henry VIII acknowledged as his)
|-
| Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset
| 15 June 1519
| 23 July 1536
| illegitimate; acknowledged by Henry VIII in 1525; no issue
|-
! colspan=4 | By Anne Boleyn (married Dover 14 November 1532, and then again Westminster Abbey 25 January 1533; annulled 17 May 1536) beheaded 19 May 1536
|-
| Queen Elizabeth I
| 7 September 1533
| 24 March 1603
| never married; no issue
|-
| Unnamed child
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | Summer 1534
| miscarriage or false pregnancy
|-
| Unnamed child
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 1535
| Possible miscarriage
|-
| Unnamed son
| colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 29 January 1536
| miscarriage of a child, believed male, in the fourth month of pregnancy
|-
! colspan=4 | By Jane Seymour (married Palace of Whitehall 30 May 1536) died 24 October 1537
|-
| King Edward VI
| 12 October 1537
| 6 July 1553
| died unmarried, age 15; no issue
|-
! colspan=4 | By Anne of Cleves (married Palace of Placentia 6 January 1540) annulled 9 July 1540
|-
| colspan=4 style="text-align: center" | no issue
|-
! colspan=4 | By Catherine Howard (married Oatlands Palace 28 July 1540; annulled 23 November 1541) beheaded 13 February 1542
|-
| colspan=4 style="text-align: center" | no issue
|-
! colspan=4 | By Catherine Parr (married Hampton Court Palace 12 July 1543) Henry VIII died 28 January 1547
|-
| colspan=4 style="text-align: center" | no issue
|}
Succession
Upon Henry's death, he was succeeded by his only surviving son, Edward VI. Since Edward was then only nine years old, he could not rule directly. Instead, Henry's will designated 16 executors to serve on a regency council until Edward reached 18. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, elder brother to Jane Seymour (Edward's mother), to be Lord Protector of the Realm. Under provisions of the will, if Edward died childless, the throne was to pass to Mary, Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, and her heirs.
If Mary's issue failed, the crown was to go to Elizabeth, Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn, and her heirs. Finally, if Elizabeth's line became extinct, the crown was to be inherited by the descendants of Henry VIII's deceased younger sister, Mary, the Greys.
The descendants of Henry's sister Margaret Tudorthe Stuarts, rulers of Scotlandwere thereby excluded from the succession. This provision ultimately failed when James VI of Scotland, Margaret's great-grandson, became king of England and Ireland in 1603.
Edward VI himself would disregard the will and name Jane Grey his successor.
Public image
thumb|left|Musical score of "[[Pastime with Good Company", , composed by Henry]]
Henry cultivated the image of a Renaissance man, and his court was a centre of scholarly and artistic innovation and glamorous excess, epitomised by the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He scouted the country for choirboys, taking some directly from Wolsey's choir, and introduced Renaissance music into court. Musicians included Benedict de Opitiis, Richard Sampson, Ambrose Lupo, and Venetian organist Dionisio Memo, He was skilled on the lute and played the organ, and was a talented player of the virginals. He could also sightread music and sing well.
Henry was an avid gambler and dice player, and excelled at sports, especially jousting, hunting and real tennis. He was also known for his strong defence of conventional Christian piety. Nevertheless, as evident during Henry's break with Rome, the monarch stayed within established limits, whether legal or financial, that forced him to work closely with both the nobility and Parliament (representing the gentry). Among those who were in favour at any given point in Henry's reign, one could usually be identified as a chief minister, though one of the enduring debates in the historiography of the period has been the extent to which those chief ministers controlled Henry rather than vice versa.
thumb|upright=0.75|[[Thomas Cromwell in 1532 or 1533]]
Thomas Cromwell also came to define Henry's government. Returning to England from the continent in 1514 or 1515, Cromwell soon entered Wolsey's service. He turned to law, also picking up a good knowledge of the Bible, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1524. He became Wolsey's "man of all work". Driven in part by his religious beliefs, Cromwell attempted to reform the body politic of the English government through discussion and consent, and through the vehicle of continuity, not outward change. Many saw him as the man they wanted to bring about their shared aims, including Thomas Audley. By 1531, Cromwell and his associates were already responsible for the drafting of much legislation.
Cromwell did much work through his many offices to remove the tasks of government from the Royal Household (and ideologically from the personal body of the King) and into a public state. Henry took pride in showing off his collection of weapons, which included exotic archery equipment, 2,250 pieces of land ordnance and 6,500 handguns. Tudor monarchs had to fund all government expenses out of their own income. This income came from the crown lands that Henry owned as well as from customs duties like tonnage and poundage, granted by Parliament to the King for life. During Henry's reign the revenues of the Crown remained constant (around £100,000), but were eroded by inflation and rising prices brought about by war. Indeed, war and Henry's dynastic ambitions in Europe exhausted the surplus he had inherited from his father by the mid-1520s.
Henry VII had not involved Parliament in his affairs very much, but Henry VIII had to turn to Parliament during his reign for money, in particular for grants of subsidies to fund his wars. The dissolution of the monasteries provided a means to replenish the treasury, and as a result, the Crown took possession of monastic lands worth £120,000 (£36 million) a year. The Crown had profited by a small amount in 1526 when Wolsey put England onto a gold, rather than silver, standard, and had debased the currency slightly. Cromwell debased the currency more significantly, starting in Ireland in 1540. The English pound halved in value against the Flemish pound between 1540 and 1551 as a result. The nominal profit made was significant, helping to bring income and expenditure together, but it had a catastrophic effect on the country's economy. In part, it helped to bring about a period of very high inflation from 1544 onwards.
Reformation
thumb|Henry VIII sitting with his feet upon [[Clement VII, 1641]]
Henry is generally credited with initiating the English Reformationthe process of transforming England from a Catholic country to a Protestant onethough his progress at the elite and mass levels is disputed, and the precise narrative not widely agreed upon. Certainly, in 1527, Henry, until then an observant and well-informed Catholic, appealed to the Pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. The traditional narrative gives this refusal as the trigger for Henry's rejection of papal supremacy, which he had previously defended. Yet as E. L. Woodward put it, Henry's determination to annul his marriage with Catherine was the occasion rather than the cause of the English Reformation so that "neither too much nor too little" should be made of the annulment. Historian A. F. Pollard has argued that even if Henry had not needed an annulment, he might have come to reject papal control over the governance of England purely for political reasons. Indeed, Henry needed a son to secure the Tudor Dynasty and avert the risk of civil war over disputed succession.
In any case, between 1532 and 1537, Henry instituted a number of statutes that dealt with the relationship between king and pope and hence the structure of the nascent Church of England. These included the Statute in Restraint of Appeals (passed 1533), which extended the charge of praemunire against all who introduced papal bulls into England, potentially exposing them to the death penalty if found guilty. Other acts included the Supplication against the Ordinaries and the Submission of the Clergy, which recognised Royal Supremacy over the church. The Ecclesiastical Appointments Act 1534 required the clergy to elect bishops nominated by the Sovereign. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 declared that the King was "the only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England" and the Treasons Act 1534 made it high treason, punishable by death, to refuse the Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the King as such. Similarly, following the passage of the Act of Succession 1533, all adults in the kingdom were required to acknowledge the Act's provisions (declaring Henry's marriage to Anne legitimate and his marriage to Catherine illegitimate) by oath; those who refused were subject to imprisonment for life, and any publisher or printer of any literature alleging that the marriage to Anne was invalid subject to the death penalty. Finally, the Peter's Pence Act was passed, and it reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions" of the Pope. The King had much support from the Church under Cranmer.
thumb|left|upright=0.85|A 16th-century depiction of the [[Parliament of England|Parliament of King Henry VIII]]
To Cromwell's annoyance, Henry insisted on parliamentary time to discuss questions of faith, which he achieved through the Duke of Norfolk. This led to the passing of the Act of Six Articles, whereby six major questions were all answered by asserting the religious orthodoxy, thus restraining the reform movement in England. To guard against this, in 1538 he began to build a chain of expensive, state-of-the-art defences along Britain's southern and eastern coasts, from Kent to Cornwall, largely built of material gained from the demolition of the monasteries. These were known as Henry VIII's Device Forts. He also strengthened existing coastal defence fortresses such as Dover Castle and, at Dover, Moat Bulwark and Archcliffe Fort, which he visited for a few months to supervise. Technologically, Henry invested in large cannon for his warships, an idea that had taken hold in other countries, to replace the smaller serpentines in use. (the Mary Rose among them), and Henry was responsible for the establishment of the "council for marine causes" to oversee the maintenance and operation of the Navy, becoming the basis for the later Admiralty.
Ireland
thumb|left|The division of Ireland in 1450
At the beginning of Henry's reign, Ireland was effectively divided into three zones: the Pale, where English rule was unchallenged; Leinster and Munster, the so-called "obedient land" of Anglo-Irish peers; and the Gaelic Connaught and Ulster, with merely nominal English rule. Until 1513, Henry continued the policy of his father, to allow Irish lords to rule in the King's name and accept steep divisions between the communities. However, upon the death of the Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy of Ireland, fractious Irish politics combined with a more ambitious Henry to cause trouble. When Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, died, Henry recognised one successor for Ormond's English, Welsh and Scottish lands, whilst in Ireland another took control. Kildare's successor, the 9th Earl, was replaced as Lord Deputy of Ireland by the Earl of Surrey in 1520. Surrey's ambitious aims were costly but ineffective; English rule became trapped between winning the Irish lords over with diplomacy, as favoured by Henry and Wolsey, and a sweeping military occupation as proposed by Surrey. Surrey was recalled in 1521, with Piers Butler – one of the claimants to the Earldom of Ormond – appointed in his place. Butler proved unable to control opposition, including that of Kildare. Kildare was appointed lord deputy in 1524, resuming his dispute with Butler, which had before been in a lull. Meanwhile, James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond, an Anglo-Irish peer, had turned his support to Richard de la Pole as pretender to the English throne; when in 1528 Kildare failed to take suitable actions against him, Kildare was once again removed from his post.
The Desmond situation was resolved on his death in 1529, which was followed by a period of uncertainty. This was effectively ended with the appointment of Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset and the King's son, as lord deputy. Richmond had never before visited Ireland, his appointment a break with past policy. For a time it looked as if peace might be restored with the return of Kildare to Ireland to manage the tribes, but the effect was limited and the Irish Parliament soon rendered ineffective. Ireland began to receive the attention of Cromwell, who had supporters of Ormond and Desmond promoted. Kildare, on the other hand, was summoned to London; after some hesitation, he departed for London in 1534, where he would face charges of treason.
A particular focus of modern historiography has been the extent to which the events of Henry's life (including his marriages, foreign policy and religious changes) were the result of his own initiative and, if they were, whether they were the result of opportunism or of a principled undertaking by Henry. The traditional interpretation of those events was provided by historian A. F. Pollard, who in 1902 presented his own, largely positive, view of the King, lauding him, "as the King and statesman who, whatever his personal failings, led England down the road to parliamentary democracy and empire".
| boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc;
| 1 = 1. Henry VIII of England
| 2 = 2. Henry VII of England
| 3 = 3. Elizabeth of York
| 4 = 4. Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond
| 5 = 5. Margaret Beaufort
| 6 = 6. Edward IV of England
| 7 = 7. Elizabeth Woodville
| 8 = 8. Owen Tudor
| 9 = 9. Catherine of Valois
| 10 = 10. John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset
| 11 = 11. Margaret Beauchamp
| 12 = 12. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
| 13 = 13. Cecily Neville
| 14 = 14. Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers
| 15 = 15. Jacquetta of Luxembourg
See also
- Family tree of English monarchs
- History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom
- List of English monarchs
Notes
References
Works cited
Further reading
Biographical
Scholarly studies
- <!-- The Reign of Henry VIII.-->
- <!-- Parliament under Henry VIII. -->
- History of foreign policy.
Historiography
Primary sources
- Multiple volumes, covers from 1509 to January 1547. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office (1864–1920).
External links
- Henry VIII at the official website of the British monarchy
- Henry VIII at the official website of the Royal Collection Trust