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Henry VIII (28 June 1491 - 28 January 1547) was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later assumed the Kingship, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and his own establishment as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.[1] Henry oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. In 1513, the new king allied with the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I, and invaded France with a large, well-equipped army, but achieved little at a considerable financial cost. Maximillian, for his part, used the English invasion to his own ends, and this prejudiced England's ability to defeat the French. This foray would prove the start of an obsession for Henry, who invaded again in 1544. This time, Henry's forces captured the important city of Boulogne, but again the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, supported Henry only as long as he needed to and England, strained by the enormous cost of the war, ransomed the city back for peace. His contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated and accomplished king, and he has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne".[2] Besides ruling with considerable power, he also engaged himself as an author and composer. His desire to provide England with a male heir - which stemmed partly from personal vanity and partly because he believed a daughter would be unable to consolidate the Tudor dynasty and the fragile peace that existed following the Wars of the Roses[3] - led to the two things for which Henry is most remembered: his six marriages and the English Reformation. Henry became morbidly obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his later life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh, and insecure king.[4] He was succeeded by his son Edward VI. Biography Early years Born at Greenwich Palace, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.[5] Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three - Arthur, Prince of Wales; Margaret; and Mary - survived infancy.[6] He was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace.[7] 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 inducted into the Order 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.[7] Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, and learning at least some Italian.[8][9] Not much is known about his early life - save for his appointments - because he was not expected to become king.[7] In November 1501, Henry also played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding the marriage of his brother, Prince Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.[10] As Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, after 20 weeks of marriage to Catherine.[11] Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, and the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503.[12] Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship."[13] Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur's widow Catherine.[11] Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen very shortly after Arthur's death.[14] On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, and they were betrothed two days later.[15] 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, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.[15] The young Henry's age, only eleven, prevented cohabitation.[14] Isabella's death in 1504, and the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters. Her father preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated.[16] Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daughter ambassador, allowing her to stay in England indefinitely. Devout, she began to believe that it was God's will that she marry the prince despite his opposition.[17] Early reign Henry VII died on 22 April 1509, and the young Henry succeeded him as king, adopting the regnal name of Henry VIII. Soon after his father's burial on 10 May, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine, leaving unresolved issues concerning the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage portion.[15][18] The new king maintained that it had been his father's dying wish that he marry Catherine.[17] Whether or not this was true, it was certainly convenient. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I had been attempting to marry his granddaughter (and Catherine's niece) Eleanor to Henry; she had now been jilted.[19] Henry's wedding to Catherine was kept low-key and was held at the friar's church in Greenwich on 11 June 1509.[18] On 23 June 1509, Henry led Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation, which took place the following day.[20] It was a grand affair: the king's passage was lined with tapestries and laid with fine cloth.[20] Following the ceremony, there was a grand banquet in Westminster Hall.[21] As Catherine wrote to her father, "our time is spent in continuous festival".[18] Two days after Henry's coronation, he arrested his father's two most unpopular ministers, Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. They were charged with high treason and were executed in 1510. Historian Ian Crofton has argued that such executions would become Henry's primary tactic for dealing with those who stood in his way; the two executions were certainly not the last.[5] Henry also returned to the public some of the money supposedly extorted by the two ministers.[22] By contrast, Henry's view of the House of York - potential rival claimants for the throne - was more moderate than his father's had been. Several who had been imprisoned by his father, including the Marquess of Dorset, were pardoned.[23] Others (most notably Edmund de la Pole) went unreconciled; de la Pole was eventually beheaded in 1513, an execution prompted by his brother Richard siding against the king.[24] Soon after, Catherine conceived, but the child, a girl, was stillborn on 31 January 1510. About four months later, Catherine again became pregnant.[25] On New Year's Day 1511, the child - Henry - was born. After the grief of losing their first child, the couple were pleased to have a boy and there were festivities to celebrate, including a jousting tournament.[26] However, the child died seven weeks later.[25] Catherine miscarried again in 1514, but gave birth in February 1516 to a girl, Mary. Relations between Henry and Catherine had been strained, but they eased slightly after Mary's birth,[27] and there is little to suggest the marriage was anything but "unusually good" in the period.[28] During this period, Henry had 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.[29] The most significant mistress for about three years, starting in 1516, was Elizabeth Blount.[27] Blount is one of only two completely undisputed mistresses, few for a virile young king.[30][31] Exactly how many Henry had is disputed: David Loades believes Henry had mistresses "only to a very limited extent",[31] whilst Alison Weir believes there were numerous other affairs.[32] Catherine did not protest, and in 1518 fell pregnant again with another girl, who was also stillborn.[27] Blount gave birth in June 1519 to Henry's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy.[27] The young boy was made Duke of Richmond in June 1525 in what some thought was one step on the path to his eventual legitimisation.[33] In 1533, FitzRoy married Mary Howard, but died childless three years later.[34] At the time of Richmond's death in June 1536, Parliament was enacting the Second Succession Act, which could have allowed him to become king.[35] France and the Habsburgs In 1510, France, with a fragile alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in the League of Cambrai, was winning a war against Venice. Henry renewed his father's friendship with Louis XII of France, an issue which divided his council. Certainly war with the combined might of the two powers would have been exceedingly difficult.[36] Shortly after, Henry also signed a contradictory pact with Ferdinand against France. The problem was resolved with the creation of the anti-French Holy League by Pope Julius II in October 1511, which brought Louis into conflict with Ferdinand.[36] Henry brought England into the Holy League shortly after, with an initial joint Anglo-Spanish attack on Aquitaine planned for the spring to recover it for England. It appeared to be the start of making Henry's dreams of ruling France a reality.[37] The attack, following a formal declaration of war in April, was not led by Henry personally.[38] It 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.[38][39] Henry then pulled off a diplomatic coup by convincing the Emperor to join the Holy League.[40] Remarkably, Henry had also secured the promised title of "Most Christian King of France", and possibly coronation by the Pope himself in Paris, if only Louis could be defeated.[41] On 30 June 1513, Henry invaded France, and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs - a minor result, but one which was seized on by the English for propaganda purposes. Soon after, the English took Thérouanne and handed it over to Maximillian; Tournai, a more significant settlement, followed.[42] Henry had led the army personally, complete with large entourage.[43] His absence from the country prompted his brother-in-law, James IV of Scotland, to invade England at the behest of Louis.[44] The English army, overseen by Queen Catherine, decisively defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513.[45] Among the dead was the Scottish king, ending Scotland's brief involvement in the war.[45] These campaigns had given Henry a taste of the military success he so desired. However, despite initial indications that he would pursue a 1514 campaign, Henry decided against such a move. He had been supporting Ferdinand and Maximilian financially during the campaign but had got back little; England's own coffers were now empty.[46] With the replacement of Julius by Pope Leo X, who was inclined to negotiate for peace with France, Henry signed his own treaty with Louis: his sister Mary would become Louis' wife, having previously been pledged to the younger Charles, and peace secured for eight years, a remarkably long time.[47] Following the deaths of his grandfathers, Ferdinand and Maximilian, in 1516 and 1519 respectively, Charles of Austria ascended the thrones of Spain and Holy Roman Empire; Francis I became king of France on Louis' death.[48] Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's careful diplomacy had resulted in the Treaty of London in 1518, aimed at uniting the kingdoms of western Europe in the wake of a new Ottoman threat, and it seemed that peace might be secured.[49] Henry met Francis I 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.[49] Henry had more in common with Charles, whom he met once before and once after Francis. Charles brought the Empire into war with France in 1521; Henry offered to mediate, but little was achieved and by the end of the year Henry had aligned England with Charles. He still clung to his previous aim of restoring English lands in France, but also to securing an alliance with Burgundy and the continuing support of Charles.[50] A small English attack in the north of France made up little ground. Charles defeated and captured Francis at Pavia, and could dictate peace; he believed he owed Henry nothing. Henry decided to take England out of the war before his ally, signing the Treaty of the More on 30 August 1525.[51] Divorce from Catherine Around this time, Henry conducted an affair with Mary Boleyn, Catherine's lady-in-waiting. There has been speculation that Mary's two children, Catherine and Henry Carey, were fathered by Henry, but this has never been proved and the King never acknowledged them as he did Henry FitzRoy.[52] In 1525, as Henry grew more impatient with Catherine's inability to produce the male heir he desired,[53][54] he became enamoured of Mary's sister, Anne Boleyn, then a charismatic young woman in the Queen's entourage.[55] Anne, however, resisted his attempts to seduce her, and refused to become his mistress as her sister Mary Boleyn had.[56][nb 1] It was in this context that Henry considered his three options for finding a dynastic successor and hence resolving what came to be described at court as the King's "great matter". These options were legitimising Henry FitzRoy, which would take the intervention of the pope and would be open to challenge; marrying off Mary as soon as possible and hoping for a grandson to inherit directly, but Mary was an undersized child and was unlikely to conceive before Henry's death; or somehow rejecting Catherine and marrying someone else of child-bearing age. Probably seeing the possibility of marrying Anne, the third was ultimately the most attractive possibility to Henry,[58] and it soon became the King's absorbing desire to annul his marriage to Catherine.[59] It was a decision that would see Henry reject papal authority and initiate the English Reformation. Henry's precise motivations and intentions over the coming years are not widely agreed on.[60] Henry himself, at least in the early part of his reign, was a devout and well-informed Catholic to the extent that his 1521 publication Assertio Septem Sacramentorum ("Defence of the Seven Sacraments") earned him the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) from Pope Leo X.[61] The work represented a staunch defence of papal supremacy, albeit one couched in somewhat contingent terms.[61] It is not clear exactly when Henry changed his mind on the issue as he grew more intent on a second marriage. Certainly, by 1527 he had convinced himself that in marrying Catherine, his brother's wife, he had acted contrary to Leviticus 20:21,[nb 2] an impediment the Pope had never had (he now believed) the authority to dispense with. It was this argument Henry took to Pope Clement VII in 1527 in the hope of having his marriage to Catherine annulled, forgoing at least one less openly defiant line of attack.[60] In going public, all hope of tempting Catherine to retire to a nunnery or otherwise stay quiet were lost.[62] Henry sent his secretary, William Knight, to appeal directly to the Holy See by way of a deceptively worded draft papal bull. Knight was unsuccessful; the Pope could not be misled so easily.[63] Other missions concentrated on arranging an ecclesiastical court to meet in England, with a representative from Clement VII. Though Clement agreed to the creation of such a court, he never had any intention of empowering his legate, Lorenzo Campeggio, to decide in Henry's favour.[63] This bias was perhaps the result of pressure from Charles V, Catherine's nephew, though it is not clear how far this influenced either Campeggio or the Pope. After less than two months of hearing evidence, Clement called the case back to Rome in July 1529, from which it was clear that it would never re-emerge.[63] With the chance for a divorce lost and England's place in Europe forfeit, Wolsey bore the blame; charged with praemunire in October 1529, his fall from grace was "sudden and total".[63] Briefly reconciled with Henry (and officially pardoned) in the first half of 1530, he was charged once more in November 1530, this time for treason, but died while awaiting trial.[63][64] After a short period in which Henry took government upon his own shoulders,[65] Sir Thomas More took on the role of Lord Chancellor and chief minister to Henry. Intelligent and able, but also a devout Catholic and opponent of the divorce, More initially cooperated with the king's new policy, denouncing Wolsey in Parliament.[66] A year later, Catherine was banished from court, and her rooms were given to Anne. Anne was an unusually educated and intellectual woman for her time, and was keenly absorbed and engaged with the ideas of the Protestant Reformers, though the extent to which she herself was a committed Protestant is much debated.[57] When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, Anne's influence and the need to find a trustworthy supporter of the divorce had Thomas Cranmer appointed to the vacant position. This was approved by the Pope, unaware of the King's nascent plans for the Church.[67] Marriage to Anne Boleyn In the winter of 1532, Henry met with Francis I at Calais and enlisted the support of the French king for his new marriage.[68] Immediately upon returning to Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service.[69] She soon became pregnant, and there was a second wedding service in London on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be valid.[70] Catherine was formally stripped of her title as queen, becoming instead "princess dowager" as the widow of Arthur. In her place, Anne was crowned queen consort on 1 June 1533.[71] The queen gave birth to a daughter slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533. The child was christened Elizabeth, in honour of Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York.[72] Following the marriage, there was a period of consolidation taking the form of a series of statutes of the Reformation Parliament aimed at finding solutions to a series of particular problems, whilst protecting the new reforms from challenge, convincing the public of their legitimacy, and exposing and dealing with opponents.[73] Although the canon law was dealt with at length by Cranmer and others, these acts were advanced by Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Audley and the Duke of Norfolk as well as a significant role for Henry himself.[74] Following these acts, Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor, leaving Cromwell as Henry's chief minister.[75] With the Act of Succession 1533, Catherine's daughter, Mary, was declared illegitimate; his marriage to Anne legitimate; and Anne's issue next in the line of succession.[76] With the Acts of Supremacy Parliament also recognised the King's status as head of the church in England and with the Act in Restraint of Appeals abolished the right of appeal to Rome.[77] It was only then that Pope Clement took the step of excommunicating Henry and Thomas Cranmer, although it was not made official until some time later.[nb 3] The king and queen were not pleased with married life. The royal couple 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, given that Henry expected absolute obedience from those who interacted with him in an official capacity at court. 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.[80] Henry is traditionally believed to have had an affair with Margaret ("Madge") Shelton in 1535, although historian Antonia Fraser argues that Henry in fact had an affair with her sister Mary Shelton.[30] Opposition to Henry's religious policies was quickly suppressed in England. A number of dissenting monks, including the first Carthusian Martyrs, were executed and many more pilloried. The most prominent resisters included John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, both of whom refused to take the oath to the King.[81] Neither Henry nor Cromwell sought to have the men executed; rather, they hoped that the two might change their minds and save themselves. Fisher openly rejected Henry as supreme head of the Church, but - unlike Fisher - More was careful to avoid openly breaking the Treason Act, which (unlike later acts) did not forbid mere silence. Both men were subsequently convicted of high treason, however - More on the evidence of a single conversation with Richard Rich, the Solicitor General. Both were duly executed in the summer of 1535.[81] These suppressions, as well as the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act of 1536, in turn contributed to more general resistance to Henry's reforms, most notably in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising in northern England in October 1536.[82] Some 20,000 to 40,000 rebels were led by Robert Aske, together with parts of the northern nobility.[83] Henry VIII promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues to his attention. Aske told the rebels they had been successful and they could disperse and go home.[84] Henry saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep his promises with them, so when further violence occurred after Henry's offer of a pardon he was quick to break his promise of clemency.[85] The leaders, including Aske, were arrested and executed for treason. About 200 rebels were executed, and the disturbances ended.[86] Execution of Anne Boleyn On 8 January 1536 news reached the king and the queen that Catherine of Aragon had died. Henry called for public displays of joy regarding Catherine's death. The queen was pregnant again, and she was aware of the consequences if she failed to give birth to a son. Later that month, the King was unhorsed in a tournament and was badly injured and it seemed for a time that the king's life was in danger. When news of this accident reached the queen, she was sent into shock and miscarried a male child that was about 15 weeks old, on the day of Catherine's funeral, 29 January 1536.[87] For most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage.[88] Given the king's desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne's pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth's birth and before the birth of the male child she miscarried in 1536.[89] Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536.[90] Although the Boleyn family still held important positions on the Privy Council, Anne had many enemies, including the 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, and the King's favour had swung towards the latter (partly because of Cromwell), damaging the family's influence.[91] Also opposed to Anne were supporters of reconciliation with Princess Mary (among them the former supporters of Catherine), who had now reached maturity. A second divorce 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.[92] 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.[57] Early signs of a fall from grace included the King's new mistress, Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters,[93] and Anne's brother, George Boleyn, being refused the Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Jane Seymour's brother, who became Earl of Hertford.[94] Between 30 April and 2 May, five men, including Anne's brother, were arrested on charges of treasonable adultery, accused of having sexual relationships with the queen. Anne was also arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on 17 May 1536.[95] At 8 am on 19 May 1536, Anne was executed on Tower Green.[96] Marriage to Jane Seymour; domestic and foreign affairs The day after Anne's execution in 1536 Henry became engaged to Seymour, who had been one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting. They were married ten days later.[97] On 12 October 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, the future Edward VI.[98] The birth was difficult, and the queen died on 24 October 1537 from an infection and was buried in Windsor.[99] 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.[100] Measures were immediately put in place to find another wife for Henry, which, at the insistence of Cromwell and the court, were focused on the European continent.[101] 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 Act of Succession 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 also granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will, should he have no further issue.[102] However, when Charles and Francis made peace in January 1539, Henry became increasingly apprehensive. Cromwell as spymaster supplied Henry with a constant list of threats to the kingdom (real or imaginary, minor or serious), and Henry became increasingly paranoid.[103] 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.[104] Marriage to Anne of Cleves At this time, Henry wished to marry once again to ensure the succession. Cromwell, now Earl of Essex, suggested Anne, the sister of the Duke of Cleves, who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England, for the duke fell between Lutheranism and Catholicism.[105] Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the king.[106] 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.[107] After regarding Holbein's portrayal, and urged by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, the king agreed to wed Anne.[108] However, it was not long before Henry wished to annul the marriage so he could marry another.[109][110] Anne did not argue, and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated.[111] The subject of Anne's previous marriage arrangements with the Duke of Lorraine's son eventually provided for the answer, one complicated enough that the remaining impediments to an annulment were thus removed.[112] The marriage was subsequently dissolved, and Anne received the title of "The King's Sister", two houses and a generous allowance.[111] It was already clear that Henry had fallen for Catherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece, the politics of which worried Cromwell, for Norfolk was a political opponent.[113] Shortly after, the religious reformers (and protégés of Cromwell) Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garret were burned as heretics.[111] Cromwell, meanwhile, fell out of favour although it is unclear exactly why, for there is little evidence of differences of domestic or foreign policy; despite his role, he was not officially accused of being responsible for Henry's failed marriage.[114] Cromwell was now amongst enemies at court, with Norfolk also able to draw on his niece's position.[113] Cromwell was charged with treason, selling export licences, granting passports, and drawing up commissions without permission, and may also have been blamed for the Cleves failure and the failure of the foreign policy it accompanied.[115][116] He was subsequently attainted and beheaded.[114] Cromwell was not replaced as Vicegerent in Spirituals, a position which had been created for him.[117] Marriage to Catherine Howard On 28 July 1540 (the same day Cromwell was executed), Henry married the young Catherine Howard, a first cousin and lady-in-waiting of Anne Boleyn.[118] He was absolutely delighted with his new queen, and awarded her the lands of Cromwell and a vast array of jewellery.[119] Soon after her marriage, however, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She employed Francis Dereham, who was previously informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. The court was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; they dispatched Thomas Cranmer to investigate, who brought evidence of Queen Catherine's previous affair with Dereham to the king's notice.[120] Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, Dereham confessed. It took another meeting of the council, however, before Henry believed and went into a rage, blaming the council before consoling himself in hunting.[121] When questioned, the queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Queen Catherine's relationship with Thomas Culpeper. Culpeper and Dereham were executed, and Catherine too was beheaded on 13 February 1542.[122] In 1540, Henry sanctioned the 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; only archbishops and bishops came to comprise the ecclesiastical element of the body. The Lords Spiritual, as members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were known, were for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal. Second invasion of France and the "Rough Wooing" 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. He decided to enter the Italian War in favour of his new ally. An invasion of France was planned for 1543.[123] In preparation for it, Henry moved to eliminate the potential threat of Scotland under the youthful James V. This would continue the Reformation in Scotland, which was still Catholic, and Henry hoped to unite the crowns of England and Scotland by marriage of James' daughter, the future Mary, Queen of Scots to his son Edward. Henry made war on Scotland for several years in pursuit of this goal, a compaign dubbed "the Rough Wooing". The Scots were defeated at Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November 1542,[124] and James died on 15 December. The Scottish Regent Arran agreed to the marriage in the Treaty of Greenwich on 1 July 1543. Despite the success with Scotland, Henry hesitated to invade France, annoying Charles. Henry finally went ahead in June 1544 with a two-pronged attack. One force under Norfolk ineffectively besieged Montreuil. The other, under Suffolk, laid siege to Boulogne. Henry later took personal command, and Boulogne fell on 18 September.[125][126] However, Henry had refused Charles' request to march against Paris. Charles' own campaign fizzled, and he made peace with France that same day.[127] Henry was left alone against France, unable to make peace. Francis tried to invade England in the summer of 1545, but it was a fiasco. WIth both kingdoms out of money, they signed the Treaty of Camp on 7 June 1546. Henry secured Boulogne for eight years, 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 bankrupt.[127] Meanwhile, though Henry still clung to the Treaty of Greenwich, the Scots repudiated it in December 1543. Henry launched another war on Scotland, sending an army to burn Edinburgh and lay waste to the country. The Scots would not submit, though. defeat at Ancrum Moor prompted a second invasion force. This war was nominally ended by the Treaty of Camp. Disorders in Scotland, including French and English interventions, continued up to Henry's death.[126][127] Marriage to Catherine Parr Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in July 1543.[128] A reformer at heart, she argued with Henry over religion. Ultimately, Henry remained committed to an idiosyncratic mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism; the reactionary mood which had gained ground following the fall of Cromwell had neither eliminated his Protestant streak nor been overcome by it.[129] Parr helped reconcile Henry with his daughters Mary and Elizabeth.[130] In 1543, an Act of Parliament put the daughters back in the line of succession after Edward, Prince of Wales. The same act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will.[131] Death and succession Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (140 cm), and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout. His obesity and other medical problems can be traced from the jousting accident in 1536, in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous leg wound he had sustained years earlier, to the extent that his doctors found it difficult to treat. The wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated, thus preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed. The jousting accident is believed to have caused Henry's mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.[132][133] The theory that Henry suffered from syphilis has been dismissed by most historians.[134] A more recent theory suggests that Henry's medical symptoms are characteristic of untreated Type II diabetes. [133] Alternatively, his wives' pattern of pregnancies and his mental deterioration have led some to suggest that the king may have been Kell positive and suffered from McLeod syndrome.[135] According to another study, Henry VIII's history and body morphology was probably the result of traumatic brain injury after his 1536 jousting accident, which in turn led to a neuroendocrine cause of his obesity. This analysis identifies growth hormone deficiency (GHD) as the source for his increased adiposity but also significant behavioural changes noted in his later years, including his multiple marriages.[136] Henry's obesity hastened his death at the age of 55, which occurred on 28 January 1547 in the Palace of Whitehall, on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. He died soon after allegedly uttering his last words: "Monks! Monks! Monks!" perhaps in reference to the monks he caused to be evicted during the dissolution of the monasteries.[137] Henry VIII was interred in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, next to Jane Seymour.[138] Over a hundred years later, Charles I was buried in the same vault.[139] After his death, his only legitimate son, Edward, inherited the Crown, becoming Edward VI. Since Edward was only nine years old at the time, he could not exercise actual power. Henry's will designated 16 executors to serve on a council of regency until Edward reached the age of 18. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, Jane Seymour's elder brother, to be Lord Protector of the Realm. In default of heirs to Edward, 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, Queen Mary of France, the Greys. The descendants of Henry's sister Margaret - the Stuarts, rulers of Scotland - were however excluded from succession.[140] This final provision failed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England upon Elizabeth's death. Public image 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. Henry himself kept a considerable collection of instruments; he was skilled on the lute, could play the organ, and was a talented player of the virginals.[141] He could also sight read music and sing well.[141] He was an accomplished musician, author, and poet; his best known piece of music is "Pastime with Good Company" ("The Kynges Ballade"). He is often reputed to have written "Greensleeves" but probably did not. He was an avid gambler and dice player, and excelled at sports, especially jousting, hunting, and real tennis. He was known for his strong defence of conventional Christian piety.[6] The King was involved in the original construction and improvement of several significant buildings, including Nonsuch Palace, King's College Chapel, Cambridge and Westminster Abbey in London. Many of the existing buildings Henry improved were properties confiscated from Wolsey, such as Christ Church, Oxford; Hampton Court Palace; the Palace of Whitehall; and Trinity College, Cambridge. Henry was an intellectual. The first English king with a modern humanist education, he read and wrote English, French, Latin and was thoroughly at home in his well-stocked library. He personally annotated many books and wrote and published one of his own. He is said to have written the song "Helas madam". He founded Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, in 1546. To promote the public support for the reformation of the church, Henry had numerous pamphlets and lectures prepared. For example, Richard Sampson's Oratio (1534) was an argument for absolute obedience to the monarchy and claimed that the English church had always been independent from Rome.[142] At the popular level, theatre and minstrel troupes funded by the crown travelled around the land to promote the new religious practices: the pope and Catholic priests and monks were mocked as foreign devils, while the glorious king was hailed as a brave and heroic defender of the true faith.[143] Henry worked hard to present an image of unchallengeable authority and irresistible power.[144] A big, strong man (over six feet tall and broad in proportion), he excelled at jousting and hunting. More than pastimes, they were political devices that served multiple goals, from enhancing his athletic royal image to impressing foreign emissaries and rulers, to conveying Henry's ability to suppress any rebellion. Thus he arranged a jousting tournament at Greenwich in 1517, where he wore gilded armour, gilded horse trappings, and outfits of velvet, satin and cloth of gold dripping with pearls and jewels. It suitably impressed foreign ambassadors, one of whom wrote home that, "The wealth and civilisation of the world are here, and those who call the English barbarians appear to me to render themselves such."[145] Henry finally retired from jousting in 1536 after a heavy fall from his horse left him unconscious for two hours, but he continued to sponsor two lavish tournaments a year. He then started adding weight and lost the trim, athletic figure that had made him so handsome; Henry's courtiers began dressing in heavily padded clothes to emulate - and flatter - their increasingly stout monarch. Towards the end of his reign his health rapidly declined due to unhealthy eating.[146][147][148] Government The power of Tudor monarchs, including Henry, was 'whole' and 'entire', ruling, as they claimed, by the grace of God alone.[149] The crown could also rely on the exclusive use of those functions that constituted the royal prerogative. These included acts of diplomacy (including royal marriages), declarations of war, management of the coinage, the issue of royal pardons and the power to summon and dissolve parliament as and when required.[150] Nevertheless, as evident during Henry's break with Rome, the monarch worked within established limits, whether legal or financial, that forced him to work closely with both the nobility and parliament (representing the gentry).[150] In practice, Tudor monarchs used patronage to maintain a royal court that included formal institutions such as the Privy Council as well more informal advisers and confidants.[151] Both the rise and fall of court nobles could be swift: although the often-quoted figure of 72,000 executions during his reign is inflated,[152] Henry did undoubtedly execute at will, burning or beheading two of his wives, twenty peers, four leading public servants, six close attendants and friends, one cardinal (John Fisher) and numerous abbots.[144] Among those who were in favour at any given point in Henry's reign, one could usually be identified as a chief minister,[151] 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.[153] In particular, historian G. R. Elton has argued that one such minister, Thomas Cromwell, led a "Tudor revolution in government" quite independently from the king, whom Elton presented as an opportunistic, essentially lazy participant in the nitty-gritty of politics who relied on others both for ideas and to do most of the work. Where Henry did intervene personally in the running of the country, Elton argued, he mostly did so to its detriment.[154] The prominence and influence of faction in Henry's court is similarly discussed in the context of at least five episodes of Henry's reign, including the downfall of Anne Boleyn.[155] From 1514 to 1529, however, it was Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), a cardinal of the established Church, who oversaw domestic and foreign policy for the young king from his position as Lord Chancellor.[156] Wolsey centralised the national government and extended the jurisdiction of the conciliar courts, particularly the Star Chamber. The Star Chamber's overall structure remained unchanged, but Wolsey used it to provide for much-needed reform of the criminal law. The power of the court itself did not outlive Wolsey, however, since no serious administrative reform was undertaken and its role eventually devolved to the localities.[157] Wolsey helped fill the gap left by Henry's declining participation in government (particularly in comparison to his father) but did so mostly by imposing himself in the King's place.[158] His use of these courts to pursue personal grievances, and particularly to treat delinquents as if mere examples of a whole class worthy of punishment, angered the rich, who were annoyed as well by his enormous wealth and ostentatious living.[159] Wolsey had greatly disappointed the king when he failed to secure a divorce from Queen Catherine. The treasury was empty after years of extravagance; the peers and people were dissatisfied and Henry needed an entirely new approach; Wolsey had to be replaced. After 16 years at the top, he lost power in 1529 and in 1530 was arrested on false charges of treason and died in custody. Wolsey's fall was a warning to the Pope and to the clergy of England of what might be expected for failure to comply with the king's wishes. Henry then took full control of his government, although at court numerous complex factions continued to try to ruin and destroy each other.[160] Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540) also came to define Henry's government. Returning to England from the continent in 1514 or 1515, he 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".[161] Cromwell, driven in part by his religious beliefs, attempted to reform the body politic of the English government through discussion and consent, and through the vehicle of continuity and not outward change.[162] He was seen by many people as the man they wanted to bring about their shared aims, including Thomas Audley. By 1531, Cromwell and those associated with him were already responsible for the drafting of much legislation.[162] Cromwell's first office was that of the master of the King's jewels in 1532, from which Cromwell began invigorate the government finances.[163] By this point, Cromwell's power as an efficient administrator in a Council full of politicians, exceeded that Wolsey had achieved.[164] 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.[164] He did so, however, in a haphazard fashion that left several remnants, because he needed to retain Henry's support, his own power, and the possibility of actually achieving the plan he set out.[165] Cromwell made the various income streams put in place by Henry VII more formal and assigned largely autonomous bodies for their administration.[166] The role of the King's Council was transferred to a reformed Privy Council, much smaller and more efficient than its predecessor.[167] A difference emerged between the financial health of the king, and that of the country, although Cromwell's fall undermined much of his bureaucracy, which required his hand to keep order among the many new bodies and prevent profligate spending which strained relations as well as finances.[168] Cromwell's reforms ground to a halt in 1539, the initiative lost, and he failed to secure the passage of an enabling act, the Proclamation by the Crown Act 1539.[169] Cromwell's association with the Cleves marriage, whilst not fatal in itself, weakened Cromwell as an anti-Cromwell faction was on the rise. Henry then pursued the hand of Catherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece, and it was Norfolk who eventually brought Cromwell down. He was executed on 28 July 1540.[170] Finances Financially, the reign of Henry was a near-disaster. Although he inherited a prosperous economy (and further augmented his royal treasury by seizures of church lands), Henry's heavy spending and long periods of mismanagement damaged the economy.[171] Henry hung 2,000 tapestries in his palaces - by comparison, James V of Scotland hung just 200 tapestries.[172] He took pride in showing off his collection of weapons, which included exotic archery equipment, 2,250 pieces of land ordnance and 6,500 handguns.[173] Henry inherited a vast fortune from his father Henry VII who had, in contrast to his son, been frugal and careful with money. This fortune was estimated to £1,250,000 (£375 million by today's standards).[174] Much of this wealth was spent by Henry on maintaining his court and household, including many of the building works he undertook on royal palaces. Tudor monarchs had to fund all the expenses of government 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),[175] but were eroded by inflation and rising prices brought about by war. Indeed it was war and Henry's dynastic ambitions in Europe that meant that the surplus he had inherited from his father was exhausted by the mid-1520s. Whereas Henry VII had not involved Parliament in his affairs very much, 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.[176] The Crown had profited a small amount in 1526 when Wolsey had 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 overall economy of the country. In part, it helped to bring about a period of very high inflation from 1544 onwards.[177] Reformation Henry is generally credited with initiating the English Reformation - the process of transforming England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one - though his progress at the elite and mass levels is disputed,[178] and the precise narrative not widely agreed.[60] Certainly, in 1527, Henry, until then an observant and well-informed Catholic, appealed to the Pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine.[60] No annulment was immediately forthcoming, the result in part of Charles V's control of the Papacy.[179] The traditional narrative gives this refusal as the trigger for Henry's rejection of papal supremacy (which he had previously defended), though as historian A. F. Pollard has argued, even if Henry had not needed a divorce, Henry may have come to reject papal control over the governance of England purely for political reasons.[180] 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.[181] 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.[182] 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 in 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;[183] 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.[182] Finally, in response to the excommunication of Henry, 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.[184] The King had much support from the Church under Cranmer.[185] Henry, to Cromwell's annoyance, 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.[110] It was followed by the beginnings of a reformed liturgy and of the Book of Common Prayer, which would take until 1549 to complete.[186] The victory won by religious conservatives did not convert into much change in personnel, however, and Cranmer remained in his position.[187] Overall, the rest of Henry's reign saw a subtle movement away from religious orthodoxy, helped in part by the deaths of prominent figures from before the break with Rome, especially the executions of Thomas More and John Fisher in 1535 for refusing to renounce papal authority. Henry established a new political theology of obedience to the crown that was continued for the next decade. It reflected Martin Luther's new interpretation of the fourth commandment ("Honour thy father and mother"), brought to England by William Tyndale. The founding of royal authority on the Ten Commandments was another important shift: reformers within the Church utilised the Commandments' emphasis on faith and the word of God, while conservatives emphasised the need for dedication to God and doing good. The reformers' efforts lay behind the publication of the Great Bible in 1539 in English.[188] Protestant Reformers still faced persecution, particularly over objections to Henry's annulment. Many fled abroad where they met further difficulties, including the influential Tyndale,[189] who was eventually executed and his body burned at Henry's behest. When taxes once payable to Rome were transferred to the Crown, Cromwell saw the need to assess the taxable value of the Church's extensive holdings as they stood in 1535. The result was an extensive compendium, the Valor Ecclesiasticus.[190] In September of the same year, Cromwell commissioned a more general visitation of religious institutions, to be undertaken by four appointee visitors. The visitation focussed almost exclusively on the country's religious houses, with largely negative conclusions.[191] In addition to reporting back to Cromwell, the visitors made the lives of the monks more difficult by enforcing strict behavioural standards. The result was to encourage self-dissolution.[192] In any case, the evidence gathered by Cromwell led swiftly to the beginning of the state-enforced dissolution of the monasteries with all religious houses worth less than £200 vested by statute in the crown in January 1536.[193] After a short pause, surviving religious houses were transferred one by one to the Crown and onto new owners, and the dissolution confirmed by a further statute in 1539. By January 1540 no such houses remained: some 800 had been dissolved. The process had been efficient, with minimal resistance, and brought the crown some £90,000 a year.[194] The extent to which the dissolution of all houses was planned from the start is debated by historians; there is some evidence that major houses were originally intended only to be reformed.[195] Cromwell's actions transferred a fifth of England's landed wealth to new hands. The programme was designed primarily to create a landed gentry beholden to the crown, which would use the lands much more efficiently.[196] Although little opposition to the supremacy could be found in England's religious houses, they had links to the international church and were an obstacle to further religious reform.[197] Response to the reforms was mixed. The religious houses had been the only support of the impoverished,[198] and the reforms alienated much of the population outside London, helping to provoke the great northern rising of 1536-1537, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.[199] Elsewhere the changes were accepted and welcomed, and those who clung to Catholic rites kept quiet or moved in secrecy. They would re-emerge in the reign of Henry's daughter Mary (1553-1558). Military Apart from permanent garrisons at Berwick, Calais, and Carlisle, England's standing army numbered only a few hundred men. This was increased only slightly by Henry.[200] Henry's invasion force of 1513, some 30,000 men, was composed of billmen and longbowmen, at a time when the other European nations were moving to hand guns and pikemen. The difference in capability was at this stage not significant, however, and Henry's forces had new armour and weaponry. They were also supported by battlefield artillery, a relatively new invention, and several large and expensive siege guns.[201] The invasion force of 1544 was similarly well-equipped and organised, although command on the battlefield was laid with the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, which in the case of the latter produced disastrous results at Montreuil.[126] Henry is traditionally cited as one of the founders of the Royal Navy.[202] 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.[202] He also flirted with designing ships personally - although his contribution to larger vessels, if any, is not known, it is believed that he influenced the design of rowbarges and similar galleys.[203] Henry was also responsible for the creation of a permanent navy, with the supporting anchorages and dockyards.[202] Tactically, Henry's reign saw the Navy move away from boarding tactics to employ gunnery instead.[204] The Navy was enlarged up to fifty ships (the Mary Rose was one of them), and Henry was responsible for the establishment of the "council for marine causes" to specifically oversee all the maintenance and operation of the Navy, becoming the basis for the later Admiralty.[205] Henry's break with Rome incurred the threat of a large-scale French or Spanish invasion.[79] 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.[206] 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 personally visited for a few months to supervise.[79] Wolsey had many years before conducted the censuses required for an overhaul of the system of militia, but no reform came of it.[207] Under Cromwell, in 1538-9, the shire musters were overhauled, but Cromwell's work served most to demonstrate quite how inadequate they were in organisation.[79] The building works, including that at Berwick, along with the reform of the militias and musters, were eventually finished under Queen Mary.[208] Ireland 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.[209] 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.[210] However, upon the death of the 8th Earl of Kildare, governor of Ireland, fractional 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 Lieutenant of Ireland by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey in 1520.[211] 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.[212] Surrey was recalled in 1521, with Piers Butler - one of claimants to the Earldom of Ormond - appointed in his place. Butler proved unable to control opposition, including that of Kildare. Kildare was appointed chief governor in 1524, resuming his dispute with Butler, which had before been in a lull. Meanwhile, the 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.[213] 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 the king's son, as lord lieutenant. Richmond had never before visited Ireland, his appointment a break with past policy.[214][215] 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.[216] 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.[216] His son, Thomas, Lord Offaly was more forthright, denouncing the king and leading a "Catholic crusade" against the king, who was by this time mired in marital problems. Offaly had the Archbishop of Dublin murdered, and besieged Dublin. Offaly led a mixture of Pale gentry and Irish tribes, although he failed to secure the support of Lord Darcy, a sympathiser, or Charles V. What was effectively a civil war was ended with the intervention of 2,000 English troops - a large army by Irish standards - and the execution of Offaly (his father was already dead) and his uncles.[217][218] Although the Offaly revolt was followed by a determination to rule Ireland more closely, Henry was wary of drawn-out conflict with the tribes, and a royal commission recommended that the only relationship with the tribes was to be promises of peace, their land protected from English expansion. The man to lead this effort was Sir Antony St Leger, as Lord Deputy of Ireland, who would remain into the post past Henry's death.[219] Until the break with Rome, it was widely believed that Ireland was a Papal possession granted as a mere fiefdom to the English king, so in 1541 Henry asserted England's claim to the Kingdom of Ireland free from the Papal overlordship. This change did, however, also allow a policy of peaceful reconciliation and expansion: the Lords of Ireland would grant their lands to the King, before being returned as fiefdoms. The incentive to comply with Henry's request was an accompanying barony, and thus a right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, which was to run in parallel with England's.[220] The Irish law of the tribes did not suit such an arrangement, because the chieftain did not have the required rights; this made progress tortuous, and the plan was abandoned in 1543, not to be replaced.[221] Historiography The complexities and sheer scale of Henry's legacy ensured that, in the words of Betteridge and Freeman, "throughout the centuries [since his death], Henry has been praised and reviled, but he has never been ignored".[153] 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.[153] 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, "laud[ing him] as the king and statesman who, whatever his personal failings, led England down the road to parliamentary democracy and empire".[153] Pollard's interpretation, which was broadly comparable to 17th century publications of Lord Herbert of Cherbury and his contemporaries, remained the dominant interpretation of Henry's life until the publication of the doctoral thesis of G. R. Elton in 1953. That thesis, entitled "The Tudor Revolution in Government", maintained Pollard's positive interpretation of the Henrician period as a whole, but reinterpreted Henry himself as a follower rather than a leader. For Elton, it was Cromwell and not Henry who undertook the changes in government - Henry was shrewd, but lacked the vision to follow a complex plan through.[153] Henry was little more, in other words, than an "ego-centric monstrosity" whose reign "owed its successes and virtues to better and greater men about him; most of its horrors and failures sprang more directly from [the king]".[222] Although the central tenets of Elton's thesis have now been all but abandoned, it has consistently provided the starting point for much later work, including that of J. J. Scarisbrick, his student. Scarisbrick largely kept Elton's regard for Cromwell's abilities, but returned agency to Henry, who Scarisbrick considered to have ultimately directed and shaped policy.[153] For Scarisbrick, Henry was a formidable, captivating man who "wore regality with a splendid conviction".[223] The effect of endowing Henry with this ability, however, was largely negative in Scarisbrick's eyes: to Scarisbrick the Henrician period was one of upheaval and destruction and those in charge worthy of blame more than praise.[153] Even among more recent biographers, including David Loades, David Starkey and John Guy, there has ultimately been little consensus on the extent to which Henry was responsible for the changes he oversaw or the correct assessment of those he did bring about.[153] This lack of clarity about Henry's control over events has contributed to the variation in the qualities ascribed to him: religious conservative or dangerous radical; lover of beauty or brutal destroyer of priceless artefacts; friend and patron or betrayer of those around him; chivalry incarnate or ruthless chauvinist.[153] One traditional approach, favoured by Starkey and others, is to divide Henry's reign into two halves, the first Henry being dominated by positive qualities (politically inclusive, pious, athletic but also intellectual) who presided over a period of stability and calm, and the latter a "hulking tyrant" who presided over a period of dramatic, sometimes whimsical, change.[151][224] Other writers have tried to merge Henry's disparate personality into a single whole; Lacey Baldwin Smith, for example, considered him an egotistical borderline neurotic given to great fits of temper and deep and dangerous suspicions, with a mechanical and conventional, but deeply held piety, and having at best a mediocre intellect.[225] Marriages and issue By Catherine of Aragon (married Greenwich Palace 11 June 1509; annulled 23 May 1533) Unnamed daughter: 31 January 1510-31 January 1510, miscarriage Henry, Duke of Cornwall: 1 January 1511-22 February 1511, died aged almost two months Unnamed son: November 1513, died shortly after birth Henry, Duke of Cornwall: December 1514, died within one month of birth Queen Mary I: 18 February 1516-17 November 1558, married Philip II of Spain in 1554; no issue Unnamed daughter November 1518: stillbirth in the 8th month of pregnancy[1] By Anne Boleyn (married Westminster Abbey 25 January 1533; annulled 17 May 1536) beheaded on 19 May 1536 Queen Elizabeth I: 7 September 1533-24 March 1603, never married; no issue Henry, Duke of Cornwall: August/September 1534 Unnamed son: 29 January 1536, miscarriage of a child, believed male, in the fourth month of pregnancy[2] By Jane Seymour (married York Place 30 May 1536; Jane Seymour died 24 October 1537) King Edward VI: 12 October 1537-6 July 1553, unmarried; no issue By Elizabeth Blount Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset: 15 June 1519-23 July 1536, Illegitimate; acknowledged by Henry VIII in 1525; no issue Footnotes Jump up ^ For arguments in favour of the opposite argument - that Henry himself initiated the period of abstinence, potentially after a brief affair - see Bernard, G. W. (2010). Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions..[57] Jump up ^ Although Henry would have read the verse in its Latin (vulgate) form, the translation used in the 1604 King James Bible is instructive: "And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless". Jump up ^ Historians disagree on the exact date of the excommunication: Winston Churchill puts the date the bull was made official as 1535;[78] G. R. Elton as November 1538;[79] and J. J. Scarisbrick as 17 December 1538, through promulgation by Pope Paul III.[1] References ^ Jump up to: a b Scarisbrick 1997, p. 361 Jump up ^ Guy 2000, p. 41. Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2009, p. 70 Jump up ^ Ives 2006, pp. 28-36 ^ Jump up to: a b Crofton 2006, p. 128 ^ Jump up to: a b Crofton 2006, p. 129 ^ Jump up to: a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 3 Jump up ^ Churchill 1966, p. 24 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 14-15 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 4 ^ Jump up to: a b Crofton 2006, p. 126 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 4-5 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 6 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 22 ^ Jump up to: a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 8 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 22-23. ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 23 ^ Jump up to: a b c Loades 2009, p. 24 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 12 ^ Jump up to: a b Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 18-19 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 19 Jump up ^ Hall 1904, p. 17 Jump up ^ Starkey 2008, pp. 304&nbdash;306 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 31-32 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 26 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 18 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Loades 2009, pp. 48-49 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 103 Jump up ^ Hart 2009, p. 27 ^ Jump up to: a b Fraser 1994, p. 220 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, pp. 47-48 Jump up ^ Weir 1991, pp. 122-3 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 98, 104 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 255 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 255, 271 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 27 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 27-28 ^ Jump up to: a b Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 28-31 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 30-32 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 62 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 33-34 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 62-63 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 35-36 Jump up ^ Guicciardini 1968, p. 280 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 63 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 65-66 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 66-67 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 67-68 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, pp. 68-69 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 69 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 70-71 Jump up ^ Cruz & Suzuki 2009, p. 132 Jump up ^ Smith 1971, p. 70 Jump up ^ Crofton 2006, p. 51 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 154 Jump up ^ Weir 2002, p. 160 ^ Jump up to: a b c Gunn, Steven. "Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions (review)". Reviews in History. Retrieved 5 April 2013. Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 88-89 Jump up ^ Brigden 2000, p. 114 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Elton 1977, pp. 103-107 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, pp. 75-76 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 91-92 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Elton 1977, pp. 109-111 Jump up ^ Haigh 1993, p. 92f Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 116 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 123 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 175-176 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 123 Jump up ^ Starkey 2003, pp. 462-464 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 124 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 178 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, pp. 128-131 Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, pp. 68-71 Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, p. 68 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 136 Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, p. 69 Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, pp. 69-71 Jump up ^ Churchill 1966, p. 51 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Elton 1977, p. 282 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 138 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, pp. 192-4 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 262-3 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 260 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 261 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 261-2 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 262 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 348 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 141 Jump up ^ Ashley 2002, p. 240 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 4 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 250-251 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 252-253 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, p. 142 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 55 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 253 Jump up ^ Hibbert et al. 2010, p. 60 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 350 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 353 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 355 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 275 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 355-256 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 350-351 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 72-73 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 74-75 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 368-369 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 369-370 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 373-374 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 373-375 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 370 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, p. 289 ^ Jump up to: a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 373 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 372-3 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, pp. 289-291 ^ Jump up to: a b Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 376-7 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 378-9 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 290 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 296 Jump up ^ Farquhar 2001, p. 75 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 430 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 430-431 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 431-432 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 432-433 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 75 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 75-76 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 76-77 ^ Jump up to: a b c Elton 1977, pp. 306-307 ^ Jump up to: a b c Loades 2009, pp. 79-80 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 456 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 301 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 457 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 331, 373 Jump up ^ "The jousting accident that turned Henry VIII into a tyrant". The Independent (UK). 18 April 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2010. ^ Jump up to: a b Sohn, Emily (11 March 2011). "King Henry VIII's Madness Explained". discovery.com. Retrieved 25 March 2011. Jump up ^ Hays 2010, p. 68 Jump up ^ Whitley & Kramer 2010, p. passim Jump up ^ Ashrafian 2011, p. passim Jump up ^ Davies 2005, p. 687 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 207 Jump up ^ Dean and Canons of Windsor. "Henry VIII's final resting place" (PDF). Windsor Castle: College of St George. Retrieved 12 March 2013. Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 332-333 ^ Jump up to: a b Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 15-16 Jump up ^ Chibi 1997, pp. 543-560 Jump up ^ Betteridge 2005, pp. 91-109 ^ Jump up to: a b Hibbert et al. 2010, p. 928 Jump up ^ Hutchinson 2012, p. 202 Jump up ^ Gunn 1991, pp. 543-560 Jump up ^ Williams 2005, pp. 41-59 Jump up ^ Lipscomb 2009, p. passim Jump up ^ Guy 1997, p. 78 ^ Jump up to: a b Morris 1999, p. 2 ^ Jump up to: a b c Morris 1999, pp. 19-21 Jump up ^ Harrison & Edelen 1995, p. 193 ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Betteridge & Freeman 2012, pp. 1-19 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 323 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 407 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 48-49 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 60-63 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 212 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 64 Jump up ^ Derek Wilson (2003). In the Lion's Court: Power, Ambition, and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII. Macmillan. pp. 257-60. ISBN 978-0-312-30277-1. Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 168-170 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, p. 172 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 174 ^ Jump up to: a b Elton 1977, p. 213 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 214 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 214-215 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 216-217 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 215-216 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 284-286 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 289-292 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 215-216, 355-6 Jump up ^ Thomas 2005, pp. 79-80 citing Thurley 1993, pp. 222-224 Jump up ^ Davies 2005, pp. 11-29 Jump up ^ Weir 2002, p. 13 Jump up ^ Weir 2002, p. 64 Jump up ^ Weir 2002, p. 393 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 312-314 Jump up ^ "Competing Narratives: Recent Historiography of the English Reformation under Henry VIII". 1997. Retrieved 14 April 2013. Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 110-112 Jump up ^ Pollard 1905, pp. 230-238 Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, p. missing ^ Jump up to: a b Bernard 2005, p. 71 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 185 Jump up ^ Lehmberg 1970, p. missing Jump up ^ Bernard 2005, p. 195 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 291 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 297 Jump up ^ Rex 1996, pp. 863-894 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 3177 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 232-233 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 233 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 233-234 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 234-235 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 235-236 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 236-237 Jump up ^ Stöber 2007, p. 190 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 238 Jump up ^ Meyer 2010, pp. 254-256 Jump up ^ Meyer 2010, pp. 269-272 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 32 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 32-33 ^ Jump up to: a b c Loades 2009, p. 82 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 82-83 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 83-84 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 84-85 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 183, 281-283 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 87-88 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, p. 391 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 180 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 181-182 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 183-184 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 181-185 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 185-186 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 186-187 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 206-207 ^ Jump up to: a b Loades 2009, p. 187 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 187-189 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 207-208 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, p. 191 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 191-192 Jump up ^ Loades 2009, pp. 194-195 Jump up ^ Elton 1977, pp. 23,332 Jump up ^ Scarisbrick 1968, p. 17 Jump up ^ Starkey 2008, pp. 3-4 Jump up ^ Smith 1971, p. passim Jump up ^ Starkey 2003, p. 160 Jump up ^ Starkey 2003, p. 553 Bibliography Ashley, Mike (2002). British Kings & Queens. Running Press. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3. Ashrafian, Hutan (2011). "Henry VIII's Obesity Following Traumatic Brain Injury". Endocrine 42 (1): 218-9. doi:10.1007/s12020-011-9581-z. PMID 22169966. Bernard, G. W. (2005). The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church. ISBN 978-0-300-10908-5. Betteridge, Thomas (2005). "The Henrician Reformation and Mid-Tudor Culture". Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 35 (1): 91-109. doi:10.1215/10829636-35-1-91. Betteridge, Thomas; Freeman, Thomas S. (2012). Henry VIII in History. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-6113-5. Brigden, Susan (2000). New Worlds, Lost Worlds. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-014826-8. Chibi, Andrew A. (1997). "Richard Sampson, His Oratio, and Henry VIII's Royal Supremacy". Journal of Church and State 39 (3): 543-560. doi:10.1093/jcs/39.3.543. ISSN 0021-969X. Churchill, Winston (1966). The New World. History of the English Speaking Peoples 2. Cassell and Company. Crofton, Ian (2006). The Kings and Queens of England. Quercus Books. ISBN 978-1-84724-141-2. Cruz, Anne J.; Suzuki, Mihoko (2009). The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07616-9. Davies, Jonathan (2005). "'We Do Fynde in Our Countre Great Lack of Bowes and Arrows': Tudor Military Archery and the Inventory of King Henry VIII". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 83 (333): 11-29. ISSN 0037-9700. Elton, G. R. (1953; revised 1962). The Tudor Revolution in Government: Administrative Changes in the Reign of Henry VIII. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09235-7. Elton, G. R. (1977). Reform and Reformation: England, 1509-1558. Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-5952-9. Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasure of Royal Scandals. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-7394-2025-9. Fraser, Antonia (1994). The Wives of Henry VIII. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-73001-9. Guicciardini, Francesco (1968). Alexander, Sidney, ed. The History of Italy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00800-4. Gunn, Steven (1991). "Tournaments and Early Tudor Chivalry". History Today 41 (6): 543-560. ISSN 0018-2753. Guy, John (1997). The Tudor monarchy. Arnold Publishers. ISBN 978-0-340-65219-0. Guy, John A. (2000). The Tudors: a Very Short Introduction. Harrison, William; Edelen, Georges (1995) [1557]. The Description of England: Classic Contemporary Account of Tudor Social Life. Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 978-0-486-28275-6. Hays, J. N. (2010). The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western History. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4613-1. Hart, Kelly (2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (1 ed.). The History Press. ISBN 0-7524-4835-8. Hall, Edward (1904). The Triumphant Reign of Henry VIII. T.C. & E.C. Jack. Haigh, Christopher (1993). English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society under the Tudors. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822162-3. Hibbert, Christopher; Weinreb, Ben; Keay, Julia; Keay, John (2010). The London Encyclopaedia (3 ed.). ISBN 978-1-4050-4925-2. Hutchinson, Robert (2012). Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-250-01261-6. Ives, Eric (2006). "Will the Real Henry VIII Please Stand Up?". History Today 56 (2): 28-36. ISSN 0018-2753. Lehmberg, Stanford E. (1970). The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-07655-5. Lipscomb, Suzannah (2009). "Who was Henry?". History Today 59 (4). Loades, David (2009). Henry VIII: Court, Church and Conflict. The National Archives. ISBN 978-1-905615-42-1. Marvin, Frederic (2010) [1902]. The Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women: Collected from Various Sources. Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-1-4400-6608-5. Meyer, G. J. (2010). The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty. Presidio Press. ISBN 978-0-385-34076-2. Morris, T.A. (1999). Tudor Government. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-98167-2. Retrieved 20 March 2013. Pollard, A. F. (1905). Henry VIII. Longmans, Green & Company. Rex, Richard (1996). "The Crisis of Obedience: God's Word and Henry's Reformation". The Historical Journal 39 (4): 863-894. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00024687. JSTOR 2639860. Scarisbrick, J. J. (1968). Henry VIII. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-01130-4. Scarisbrick, J. J. (1997). Henry VIII (2 ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07158-2. Smith, Lacey Baldwin (1971). Henry VIII: the Mask of Royalty. ISBN 978-0-89733-056-5. Starkey, David (2003). Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-7298-5. Starkey, David (2008). Henry: Virtuous Prince. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-728783-3. Stöber, Karen (2007). Late Medieval Monasteries and Their Patrons: England and Wales, C.1300-1540. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-284-3. Thomas, Andrea (2005). Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland 1528-1542. John Donald Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85976-611-1. Thurley, Simon (1993). The Royal Palaces of Tudor England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05420-0. Weir, Alison (1991). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3683-4. Weir, Alison (2002). Henry VIII: The King and His Court. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 0-345-43708-X. Whitley, Catrina Banks; Kramer, Kyra (2010). "A New Explanation for the Reproductive Woes and Midlife Decline of Henry VIII". The Historical Journal 52 (4): 827. doi:10.1017/S0018246X10000452. ISSN 0018-246X. Wilkinson, Josephine (2009). Mary Boleyn: the True Story of Henry VIII's Favourite Mistress (2 ed.). Amberley Publishing. ISBN 0-300-07158-2. Williams, James (2005). "Hunting and the Royal Image of Henry VIII". Sport in History 25 (1): 41-59. doi:10.1080/17460260500073082. ISSN 1746-0263. Williams, Neville (1971). Henry VIII and his Court. Macmillan Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-02-629100-2. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: Henry VIII, King of England (1509-47), who presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation. His six wives were, successively, Catherine of Aragon (the mother of the future queen Mary I), Anne Boleyn (the mother of the future queen Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (the mother of Henry's successor, Edward VI), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Henry was the second son of Henry VII, first of the Tudor line, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, first king of the short-lived line of York. When his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, Henry became the heir to the throne; of all the Tudor monarchs, he alone spent his childhood in calm expectation of the crown, which helped give an assurance of majesty and righteousness to his willful, ebullient character. He excelled in book learning as well as in the physical exercises of an aristocratic society, and, when in 1509 he ascended the throne, great things were expected of him. Six feet tall, powerfully built, and a tireless athlete, huntsman, and dancer, he promised England the joys of spring after the long winter of Henry VII's reign. Henry and his ministers exploited the dislike inspired by his father's energetic pursuit of royal rights by sacrificing, without a thought, some of the unpopular institutions and some of the men that had served his predecessor. Yet the unpopular means for governing the realm soon reappeared because they were necessary. Soon after his accession, Henry married Catherine of Aragon, Arthur's widow, and the attendant lavish entertainments ate into the modest royal reserves. More serious was Henry's determination to engage in military adventure. Europe was being kept on the boil by rivalries between the French and Spanish kingdoms, mostly over Italian claims; and, against the advice of his older councillors, Henry in 1512 joined his father-in-law, Ferdinand II of Aragon, against France and ostensibly in support of a threatened pope, to whom the devout king for a long time paid almost slavish respect. Henry himself displayed no military talent, but a real victory was won by the Earl of Surrey at Flodden (1513) against a Scottish invasion. Despite the obvious pointlessness of the fighting, the appearance of success was popular. Moreover, in Thomas Wolsey, who organized his first campaign in France, Henry discovered his first outstanding minister. By 1515 Wolsey was archbishop of York, lord chancellor of England, and a cardinal of the church; more important, he was the King's good friend, to whom was gladly left the active conduct of affairs. Henry never altogether abandoned the positive tasks of kingship and often interfered in business; though the world might think that England was ruled by the Cardinal, the King himself knew that he possessed perfect control any time he cared to assert it, and Wolsey only rarely mistook the world's opinion for the right one. Nevertheless, the years from 1515 to 1527 were marked by Wolsey's ascendancy, and his initiatives set the scene. The Cardinal had some occasional ambition for the papal tiara, and this Henry supported; Wolsey at Rome would have been a powerful card in English hands. In fact, there was never any chance of this happening, any more than there was of Henry's election to the imperial crown, briefly mooted in 1519 when the emperor Maximilian I died, to be succeeded by his grandson Charles V. That event altered the European situation. In Charles, the crowns of Spain, Burgundy (with the Netherlands), and Austria were united in an overwhelming complex of power that reduced all the dynasties of Europe, with the exception of France, to an inferior position. From 1521, Henry became an outpost of Charles V's imperial power, which at Pavia (1525), for the moment, destroyed the rival power of France. Wolsey's attempt to reverse alliances at this unpropitious moment brought reprisals against the vital English cloth trade with the Netherlands and lost the advantages that alliance with the victor of Pavia might have had. It provoked a serious reaction in England, and Henry concluded that Wolsey's usefulness might be coming to an end. While the greatness of England in Europe was being shown up as a sham, the regime was also losing popularity at home. The fanciful expectations of the early days could not, of course, endure; some measure of reality was bound to intrude. As it was, journalists and writers continued to be full of hope for a king who, from 1517, commanded the services of a new councillor, Sir Thomas More, one of the outstanding minds of the day. But More soon discovered that Henry found it easy to keep his enjoyment of learned conversation apart from the conduct of policy. Nothing for the moment could dent Wolsey's strength, and this had serious drawbacks for the King, who supported him. The country was showing increasing signs of its discontent, and Wolsey's efforts to remedy grievances only exasperated men of influence without bringing satisfaction to the poor. Feelings came to the boil in the years 1523-24. Although he disliked Parliaments, Wolsey had to agree to the calling of one in 1523, but the taxes voted were well below what was required. Next year, the attempt to levy a special tax led to such fierce resistance that Henry rescinded it, he and the Cardinal both trying to take the credit for the remission of what they had been jointly responsible for imposing. While he had Wolsey to take the blame, Henry could afford such fiascoes; the Cardinal could not. By 1527 a government policy that, though seemingly Wolsey's, was really the King's was facing bankruptcy; ineffective abroad, unpopular at home, it made the regime look as empty of positive purpose as in fact it was. At this point, the King entered affairs unmistakably and spectacularly. Among his failures so far had been his or Catherine's inability to provide a male heir to the throne; several stillbirths and early deaths had left only a girl, the princess Mary (born in 1516), to carry on the line, and no one relished the thought of a female succession with all the dynastic and political uncertainties it would bring. Being the man he was, Henry could not suppose the fault to be his. His rapidly growing aversion to Catherine was augmented by his infatuation with one of the ladies of the court, Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of his earlier mistresses. Henry was no profligate; indeed, he had a strong streak of prudery, but he sought the occasional relief from marriage to a worthy but ailing wife to which princes have generally been held entitled. In Anne he met his match; this 20-year-old girl, brought up in a tough school of courtly intrigue, would be more than a king's mistress. It took Henry, who in any case needed to marry her if the expected issue was to solve the succession problem, some six years to achieve their joint purpose. Inadvertently, he provoked a revolution. From 1527 Henry pursued what became known as “the King's great matter”: his divorce from Catherine. He convinced himself that his first marriage had been against the divine law; that is, against the biblical injunction (Lev.) forbidding marriage with a brother's widow. The deaths of the children proved God's judgment on the union. With his characteristic readiness to convert his own desires into the law of God, Henry rapidly assured himself that he was living in mortal sin with Catherine and must find relief if he was again to become acceptable to God. He appealed to Rome for a declaration of annulment. Popes had usually obliged kings in such matters, but Henry had picked both his time and his case badly. He was asking Pope Clement VII to help him discard the Emperor's aunt, but Clement, the Emperor's prisoner in 1527-28, never thereafter dared resist Charles, whose powerful feelings of familial honour and public prestige barred any concession to Henry's wishes. Moreover, the Pope's reluctance was increased by the fact that he was being asked to declare illegal an earlier exercise of papal power-which had licensed Henry's marriage to his brother's widow-of a kind that brought a good deal of money to the papal coffers. Thus Henry's attempts to solve his dilemma in the accepted legal way were doomed from the start. Wolsey, in a worse dilemma, since only success in the impossible could keep him in power, obtained a trial of the case in England, but this was frustrated by his fellow judge, Cardinal Campeggio, on orders from Rome (1529). Within weeks, Wolsey was ousted, but his disappearance solved nothing, and the councillors who succeeded him could offer little help to their king, who knew only what he wanted, not how to get it. The chancellorship went to Thomas More, who had told Henry that he did not approve of the divorce and who wished to devote himself to a fight against Lutheran heresy. Confusion was the keynote of policy for some three years, while the King dithered between hope that Rome might yet be forced to let the formal trial of his first marriage take place in England and stirrings of a more radical nature-to reject Rome outright. But, though he occasionally talked of doing just that, neither he nor anyone else knew how to convert talk into action. Action called for a revolution, and the revolution required a man who could conceive and execute it. That man was Thomas Cromwell, who, in April 1532, won control of the council and thereafter remained in command for some eight years. The revolution consisted of the decision that the English Church should separate from Rome, becoming effectively a spiritual department of state under the rule of the king as God's deputy on earth. The revolution that he had not intended gave the King his wish: in January 1533 he married Anne Boleyn; in May a new archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, presided over the formality of a trial that declared the first marriage annulled; in September the princess Elizabeth was born. The Pope retaliated with a sentence of excommunication; it troubled no one. The supreme headship on earth over the Church of England, though he had not sought it, represented Henry's major achievement. It had very wide ranging consequences, but those that immediately concerned the King were two. In the first place, the new title consolidated his own concept of kingship, his conviction that (as he once said) he had no superior on earth. It rounded off the majestic image of divinely instituted royal rule that it was Henry's constant ambition to present to an awed and obedient world. But, in the second place, it created a real personal problem for the King: earlier, in his book Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum (1521), he had attacked Luther and had expressed a profound devotion to the papacy and had been rewarded with the title of Defender of the Faith. Now he had turned against the Pope; his act was equal to encouraging the Protestant Reformation, a thing attractive to Cranmer and Cromwell (and perhaps Anne Boleyn), but not to Henry, who despised Luther. The religion of the newly independent church was for its head to settle: for the rest of his life, Henry, who prided himself on his theological learnings, was to give much time and thought to the nature of the true religion. With the exception of the papal primacy, he never gave up the main tenets of the faith in which he had grown up, but he changed his mind on details and arrived at an amalgam of his own in which transubstantiation and clerical celibacy mingled with radical views about the worldly authority of the church and man's ability to seek salvation without the aid of priests. Cromwell's decade, the 1530s, was the only period of the reign during which a coherent body of policies was purposefully carried through. Cromwell's work greatly enlarged Henry's power, especially by transferring to the crown the wealth of the monasteries, dissolved in 1536-40, and new clerical taxes; but it also, more explicitly than ever, subjected the King to the law and to the legislative supremacy of Parliament. Since Henry knew how to work with parliaments, the immediate effect was to make him appear more dominant than ever and to give to his reign a spurious air of autocracy-spurious because in fact the rule of law remained to control the sovereign's mere will. The appearance of autocracy was misleadingly emphasized by the fact that all revolutions have their victims. As heads rolled, the King's earlier reputation as a champion of light and learning was permanently buried under his enduring fame as a man of blood. Old friends such as More, refusing to accept the new order, fell before the onslaught, as did some 50 other men caught by the treason laws. Between 1538 and 1541 the families of Pole and Courtenay were destroyed by the axe for treasons linked with efforts abroad to reverse the course of events in England but mainly because they could claim royal blood and represented a dynastic danger to the unprolific Tudor line. The King now embarked on the series of matrimonial adventures that made him appear both a monster and a laughingstock. He soon tired of Anne, who failed to produce a male heir; in 1536 she was executed, with other members of the court, for alleged treasonable adultery. Catherine of Aragon, rejected but unbowed, had died a little earlier. Henry immediately married Jane Seymour, who bore him his son Edward but died in childbirth (1537). The next three years were filled with attempts to replace her, and the bride chosen was Anne, sister of the Duke of Cleves, a pawn in Cromwell's policy for a northern European alliance against dangers from France and the Emperor. But Henry hated the first sight of her and at once demanded his freedom, an end achieved by a quick divorce. The Cleves fiasco destroyed Cromwell; it enabled his many enemies to turn the King against him, and in July 1540 his head fell on the scaffold. Henry had by now become truly dangerous: always secretive and suspicious, now he was beginning to show paranoiac tendencies. Convinced that he controlled everyone, he was in fact readily manipulated by those who knew how to feed his suspicions and pander to his self-righteousness. Full of experience-the oldest king in Europe-and increasingly competent in the routine of rule, he lacked the comprehensive vision and large spirit that would have made him a great man. His temperamental deficiencies were aggravated by what he regarded as his undeserved misfortunes and by ill health; he grew enormously fat. His mind did not weaken, but he grew restless, peevish, and totally unpredictable; often melancholy and depressed, he was usually out of sorts and always out of patience. In 1540-42 he briefly renewed his youth in marriage to the 20-year-old Catherine Howard, whose folly in continuing her promiscuity, even as queen, brought her to the block. The blow finished Henry. Thereafter, he was really a sad and bitter old man, and, though he married once more, to find a measure of peace with the calm and obedient Catherine Parr, his physical ruin was complete. But he was still the king and, from Cromwell's fall (which he regretted too late), the only maker of policy. Policy in the hands of a sick, unhappy, violent man was not likely to be either sensible or prosperous, and so it proved. Left to himself, Henry concentrated on keeping the realm united, despite the growing strife between the religious factions, and on keeping before the world his own image as the glorious monarch of the age. The first resulted in frequent explosions against the ingratitude of his subjects and against his councillors. The second brought him back to his first love-war and conquest, the sport of kings. In 1542 the Emperor and the King of France resumed hostilities. After a pretense of independence, Henry again joined the former: the Scots promptly joined the French. The Scots were routed at Solway Moss (1542), and their king died soon after: this opened the possibility of subjugating that country permanently by means of a marriage alliance between the infant heirs to the two thrones. But the Scottish dream quickly collapsed as Henry's crude handling of that nation gave control to a pro-French party, determined to resist even an alliance with England; physical conquest was beyond the King's means. Henry personally managed both the war and the subsequent negotiations, and he displayed amazing energy for so sick a man. But energy is not the same thing as competence. The war proved ruinous. Money had to be raised by selling off the monastic lands, which had brought a good income; the desperate expedient of debasing the coinage, though it brought temporary succour, led to a violent inflation that made things worse. Yet, even after the Emperor made peace with France (1544), Henry would not let go until two years later. As the year 1546 drew to a close, it was apparent to all observers that the King had not long to live. Not that it was clear to the man most concerned; he continued as before, lamenting religious dissension, attending to the business of government, continuing the pretense of deathless majesty, destroying the powerful Howard family, whom he suspected of plotting to control his successor. Conscious almost to the very end, he died on Jan. 28, 1547. He left the realm feeling bereft and the government the more bewildered because, to the last, he had refused to make full arrangements for the rule of a boy king. As king of England from 1509 to 1547, Henry VIII presided over the beginnings of the English Reformation, which was unleashed by his own matrimonial involvements, even though he never abandoned the fundamentals of the Roman Catholic faith. Though exceptionally well served by a succession of brilliant ministers, Henry turned upon them all; those he elevated, he invariably cast down again. He was attracted to humanist learning and was something of an intellectual himself, but he was responsible for the deaths of the outstanding English humanists of the day. Though six times married, he left a minor heir and a dangerously complicated succession problem. Of his six wives, two joined a large tally of eminent persons executed for alleged treason; yet otherwise his regime observed the law of the land with painful particularity. Formidable in appearance, in memory, and in mind, and fearsome of temper, he yet attracted genuine devotion and knew how to charm people. Monstrously egotistical and surrounded by adulation, he nevertheless kept a reasonable grasp on the possible; forever taking false steps in politics, he emerged essentially unbeaten and superficially successful in nearly everything he attempted to do. Henry VIII has always seemed the very embodiment of true monarchy. Even his evil deeds, never forgotten, have been somehow amalgamated into a memory of greatness. He gave his nation what it wanted: a visible symbol of its nationhood. He also had done something toward giving it a better government, a useful navy, a start on religious reform and social improvement. But he was not a great man in any sense. Although a leader in every fibre of his being, he little understood where he was leading his nation. But, if he was neither statesman nor prophet, he also was neither the blood-stained monster of one tradition nor the rowdy bon vivant of another. Though cold, self-centred, ungiving, forever suspicious of the ways of the world, he could not descend to the second stereotype; despite a ruthlessness fed by self-righteousness, he never took the pleasure in killing required of the first. Simply, he never understood why the life of so well-meaning a man should have been beset by so many unmerited troubles. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
