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Henry VIII, King of England

Henry VIII,
king of England from 1509 to 1547,
instigated the REFORMATION of the English church in order
to secure a divorce from the first of his six wives.

Born at Greenwich on June 28, 1491,
he was the second son of Henry VII,
founder of the TUDOR dynasty,
and Elizabeth of York.

He received a good education,
particularly in languages and theology.

He also delighted in music,
composing a number of songs himself,
and in sports,
especially hunting and jousting.

On the death of his older brother,
Prince Arthur,
in 1502,
Henry became heir apparent;
he succeeded his father on Apr. 22, 1509.

Marital Career.

Shortly before his coronation Henry married CATHERINE OF ARAGON,
the daughter of Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain,
who had previously been Arthur's wife.

The new marriage was happy
for a number of years,
but by 1527,
Henry was concerned because Catherine had borne no male heir
to continue the Tudor line.

He concluded that his marriage displeased God--in a biblical text (Leviticus 20:21),
marriage
to a dead brother's widow is forbidden--and he ordered his chief minister,
Cardinal WOLSEY,

to approach the papacy
for a decree that the marriage was invalid and that Henry was free
to marry again.

By this time the king had fallen in love
with Anne BOLEYN.

Catherine opposed the annulment,
as did her nephew CHARLES V,
Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain.

Because Charles dominated Italy during this period,
Pope CLEMENT VII was unable
to grant Henry's request.

A divorce trial held in London in 1529 was adjourned without a decision.

In anger at the delay Henry dismissed Wolsey.

By 1532 he had found a new chief minister,
Thomas CROMWELL,
who proposed that England break
with the papacy so that the archbishop of Canterbury,
the highest officer in the English church,
could grant the divorce.

Legislation
to this effect was passed by Parliament in 1533.

As a result Henry was free
to marry Anne,
and the Church of England (see ENGLAND,
CHURCH OF) was established as an independent national church,
no longer in communion
with the Roman Catholic church or the pope.

In September 1533,
Anne Boleyn bore Henry a daughter,
who was christened Elizabeth.

She was declared heir
to the throne in place of Catherine's daughter,
Mary,
who was now regarded as illegitimate.

Anne Boleyn,
however,
like Catherine,
failed
to bear a son.


for this reason,
and because of her infidelity
to the king,
she was executed in 1536.

Henry's third wife,
Jane SEYMOUR,
did bear a son,
Edward,
but she died in 1537,
shortly after his birth.

The fourth wife,
ANNE OF CLEVES,
was a member of a Protestant ruling family from Germany.

Thomas Cromwell had negotiated the marriage (1540) because he feared a Catholic alliance against England and wished
to gain diplomatic support from Lutherans on the Continent,
but Henry was displeased
with Anne's appearance and divorced her almost immediately.

Shortly after,
Cromwell was charged
with treason and executed.

The king then married Catherine HOWARD,
a niece of Cromwell's enemy Thomas Howard,
duke of Norfolk.

Catherine was beheaded in 1542 on charges of unchastity.

Henry's last wife,
who survived him,
was Catherine PARR.

None of his last three wives bore him children.

Reformation.

In his role as supreme head of the church,
Henry supervised the general direction of the Reformation.

Between 1536 and 1540 all of the monasteries and nunneries in England were dissolved and their property confiscated by the government.

An oath of supremacy,
promising loyalty
to the king as head of the church,
could be required of all subjects,
and those who refused it,
like Sir Thomas MORE,
could be executed.

In 1521,
Henry had written a treatise against Martin Luther,

for which Pope Leo X had awarded him the title "Defender of the Faith."

Despite the organizational charges of his Reformation,
Henry never adopted Protestant doctrines.

The Latin Mass remained in use throughout his life,
and theological changes were relatively minor,
although both Cromwell and Thomas CRANMER,
Henry's archbishop of Canterbury,
favored Protestant beliefs.

Foreign Affairs.

Several wars between England and France were fought during Henry's reign.

He was personally in command of the English army that captured the towns of Therouanne and Tournai and defeated the French in the famous Battle of the Spurs (1513).

In 1520,
Henry met the French king FRANCIS I in a grandiose demonstration of friendship on the so-called Field of the Cloth of Gold,
near Calais.

Soon after,
however,
he joined Emperor Charles V in war (1522-27) against France.

A third war was fought in 1544-46.

Henry's forces also defeated the Scots in the notable battles of Flodden (1513) and Solway Moss (1542).

Legacy.

Henry VIII's will provided
for the succession of his three children in the normal order,
despite the fact that both daughters had earlier been excluded from the succession.

When he died,
on Jan. 28, 1547,
his son became EDWARD VI.

His daughters later succeeded in turn as MARY I and ELIZABETH I.

Henry has been criticized
for his greed and despotism and
for squandering national resources on needless foreign wars.

He was,
however,
able
to hold the country together during a period of rapid change and factional strife,
and he fostered the development of a sophisticated court in which fine artists and musicians found patronage.