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'Henry VIII' (
28 June 1491 –
28 January 1547) was
King of England and
Lord of Ireland, later
King of Ireland, from
22 April 1509 until his death. Henry was then the second monarch of the
House of Tudor, succeeding his father,
Henry VII. Henry VIII is infamous for having been
married six times. He wielded perhaps the most unfettered power of any English monarch, and brought about the
Dissolution of the Monasteries and the union of
England and
Wales.
Henry VIII was the second son of
Henry VII and
Elizabeth of York. His elder brother,
Arthur, Prince of Wales, died in 1502, leaving Henry as heir to the throne.
Many significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the
Church of England from the
Roman Catholic Church and established the king as the supreme head of the Church in England.
Henry VIII is known to have been an avid
gambler and
dice player. In his youth, he excelled at sports, especially
jousting, hunting, and
real tennis. He was also an accomplished musician, author, and
poet; his best known piece of music is ''
Pastime with Good Company'' ("The Kynges Ballade"). Henry VIII was also 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
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, such as
Christ Church, Oxford,
Hampton Court Palace,
palace of Whitehall, and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He founded
Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford in 1546.
[1]
Early life and first marriage
Eighteen year-old Henry VIII after his crowning in 1509.
Born at the
Palace of Placentia in
Greenwich, Henry VIII was the third child of
Henry VII and
Elizabeth of York. Only three of Henry VIII's six siblings —
Arthur (the
Prince of Wales),
Margaret and
Mary — survived infancy. In 1493, Henry was appointed Constable of
Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports. In 1494, he was created
Duke of York. He was subsequently appointed
Earl Marshal of England and
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin, French, and Spanish. It was initially anticipated that Henry would have a career in the Church, as it was expected that the throne would pass to Prince Arthur, Henry's older brother.
In 1502, however, Arthur suddenly died, and Henry was thrust into all the duties of his late brother, becoming Prince of Wales and, of course, heir to the throne. Henry's father renewed his efforts to seal an alliance between England and Spain via marriage (and he did not want to return Catherine's dowry); thus, in place of the dead Arthur, Henry was offered up to Spain for marriage to Prince Arthur's widow,
Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and
Queen Isabella I of Castile.
In order for the new Prince of Wales to marry his brother's widow, a dispensation from the
Pope normally would have been required to overrule the impediment of
affinity. However, Catherine swore that her first marriage was never consummated (she had never had sex with Arthur); thus no
papal dispensation was necessary on those grounds — merely a dispensation to dissolve a
ratified marriage. Still, both the English and Spanish parties agreed that an additional papal dispensation of affinity would be prudent to remove all doubt regarding the legitimacy of the marriage. Due to the impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella, the Pope granted his dispensation in the form of a
Papal bull. Thus, fourteen months after her young husband's death, Catherine found herself betrothed to his brother, the new Prince of Wales. By 1505, however, the king lost interest in an alliance with Spain, and Henry declared that his betrothal had been arranged without his assent.
Continued diplomatic maneuvering over the fate of the proposed marriage lingered until the death of Henry VII in 1509. Only 17 years old, Henry married his brother's widow, Catherine
11 June 1509, and on
24 June 1509, the two were crowned, at
Westminster Abbey.
Religious upheaval and marriage to Anne Boleyn
Main articles: English Reformation
In
1525, Henry's increasing impatience with what he perceived to be Catherine's inability to produce the desired heir was given a new spur when he became attracted to a charismatic young courtier in the Queen's entourage,
Anne Boleyn. Henry ordered
Cardinal Wolsey to begin formal proceedings with Rome to annul his marriage on the grounds that Catherine's brief marriage to the sickly Arthur had, indeed, been consummated. The king's secretary, William Knight, went to Rome to petition Pope
Clement VII for the annulment, but the Pope was highly reluctant to grant the king’s request due to pressure from Catherine's nephew,
Emperor Charles V, and an unwillingness to overturn the previous Pope's decision. Wolsey's efforts to lobby for the annulment were unavailing. These failures, concomitant with his growing estrangement from Catherine, finally led to Wolsey's dismissal as
Lord Chancellor by Henry in
1529. His replacement, Sir
Thomas More, seemed an even less likely candidate to secure Henry's desired end, given his scruples about the suit and his loyalty to Rome.
At the same time, Henry discovered and promoted other men of a different temper. Foremost among these were two gifted young clerics,
Thomas Cromwell and
Thomas Cranmer. It was Cranmer who first suggested in 1529 that Henry should consult the "theology faculties of the continental universities" for an opinion about the validity of his marriage. The project, abetted by apparent bribes and favours, achieved the hoped-for success, with favourable opinions offered to the
English Parliament in 1530. Cranmer's support of the King's efforts to put aside Catherine of Aragon were rewarded with a position as ambassador to the imperial court, and shortly thereafter, he was appointed to replace
William Warham as
Archbishop of Canterbury upon the latter's death. Cromwell, meanwhile, earned a position as chief adviser to the king with his even more daring proposal that Henry consider abolishing papal supremacy and declare himself head of the Church in England. Both Cromwell and Cranmer were protégés of Boleyn, who shared her growing sympathies with Protestant doctrines taking shape on the continent. Threats of withheld papal tithes having failed to move Clement VII to action, Henry finally took matters into his own hands: he secretly married Boleyn in January 1533, and shortly thereafter, had his allies in Parliament pass a statute forbidding further appeals to Rome. Archbishop Cranmer quickly moved to declare Henry's marriage to Catherine invalid and his new one to Anne Boleyn valid. Boleyn was crowned Queen of England on June 1, and gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth (later
Elizabeth I of England), three months later.
The Pope reacted by moving to
excommunicate Henry in July 1533. (Historians disagree on the exact date of the excommunication; according to Winston Churchill's ''History of the English Speaking Peoples'', the bull of 1533 was a draft with penalties left blank and was not made official until 1535. Others say Henry was not officially excommunicated until 1538, by Pope Paul III, brother of Cardinal Franklin de la Thomas.) Considerable religious upheaval followed. Urged by Cromwell, Parliament passed several acts that enforced the breach with Rome in the spring of 1534. The
Statute in Restraint of Appeals prohibited appeals from English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope. It also prevented the Church from making any regulations without the King's consent. The
Ecclesiastical Appointments Act 1534 required the clergy to elect bishops nominated by the Sovereign. The
Act of Supremacy 1534 declared that the King was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England"; the
Treasons Act 1534 made it
high treason punishable by death to refuse to acknowledge the King as such. The Pope was also denied sources of revenue such as
Peter's Pence.
Rejecting the decisions of the Pope, Parliament validated the marriage between Henry and Anne with the
Act of Succession 1533. Catherine's daughter, the Lady Mary, was declared illegitimate, and Anne's
issue were declared next in the line of succession. Included in this declaration was, most notably, a clause repudiating "any foreign authority, prince or potentate". All adults in the Kingdom were required to acknowledge the Act's provisions by oath and those who refused to do so were subject to imprisonment for life. The publisher or printer of any literature alleging that Henry's marriage to Anne was invalid was automatically guilty of high treason and could be punished by death. Additionally, it separated his church from the Pope.
Opposition to Henry's religious policies was quickly suppressed in England. A number of dissenting monks were tortured and executed. The most prominent resisters included
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, Henry's former Lord Chancellor, both of whom refused to take the oath and were subsequently convicted of high treason and beheaded at Tyburn in 1535. Thomas Cromwell, for whom was created the post of "Vicegerent in Spirituals", was authorized to visit monasteries, ostensibly to ensure that they followed royal instructions, but in reality to assess their wealth. Cromwell's commissioners for the suppression of religious houses included Lavton, Pollard and
Moyle. The death of Abbot
Richard Whyting is just one example of the bloodshed during the suppression. In 1536, an Act of Parliament allowed Henry to seize the possessions of the lesser monasteries (those with annual incomes of £200 or less). These suppressions in turn contributed to further resistance among the English people, most notably in the
Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising in northern England in October of the same year. Henry VIII promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues to his attention, then invited the rebel leader,
Robert Aske to have a royal banquet with him. At the banquet, Henry tactfully asked Aske to write down what had happened so he could have a better idea of the problems he would 'change'. Aske did what the King asked, though he had actually just written what would later be used against him as a confession. The King's word could not be questioned (as he was held as God's chosen, and second only to God himself) so Aske told the
rebels they had been successful and they could disperse and go home. However, because Henry saw the rebels as
traitors, he did not feel obliged to keep his
promises. The rebels realized that the
King was not keeping his promises and rebelled again later that year, but their strength was not as great and the King ordered the rebellions crushed. The leaders, including Aske, were arrested and executed for treason. Dissolution of the remaining, larger monasteries followed a subsequent authorizing act by Parliament in April 1539.
Execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn
Though she was instrumental in helping to bring about these radical religious changes, the King's relationship with his Queen quickly soured. After the Princess Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne had at least two pregnancies that ended in either miscarriage or stillbirth, resurrecting old frustrations that Henry had experienced with Catherine. Determined to father a male heir, and perhaps encouraged by Thomas Cromwell, Henry had Anne arrested on charges of using
witchcraft to trap him into marrying her, of having adulterous relationships with five other men, of
incest with her brother
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, of injuring the King and of conspiring to kill him, which amounted to treason. The charges were most likely fabricated. The court trying the case was presided over by Anne's own uncle,
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. In May 1536, the Court condemned Anne and her brother to death, either by
burning at the stake or by
decapitation, whichever the King pleased. The other four men Queen Anne had allegedly been involved with were to be
hanged, drawn and quartered; however, their sentences were ultimately commuted to decapitation. Anne and her brother George were also beheaded soon thereafter. At her final Mass, the Queen publicly swore to her innocence in the presence of a priest and various witnesses. She was also charged with the attempted poisoning of Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII.
Birth of a prince and death of his third wife, Queen Jane
One day after Anne's execution in 1536 Henry became engaged to, and 10 days later married
Jane Seymour, one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting to whom the King had been showing favour for some time. The
Act of Succession 1536 declared Henry's children by Queen Jane to be next in the line of succession, and declared both the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them from the throne. The King was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his
will. Jane gave birth to a son,
Prince Edward the future Edward VI, in 1537; Jane died at Greenwich Palace on
24 October 1537 of
puerperal fever. After Jane's death, the entire court mourned with Henry for an extended period. Henry considered Jane to be his sole "true" wife, being the only one who had given him the male heir he so desperately sought.
Major acts in the kingdom
Silver
groat of Henry VIII, minted c. 1540. The reverse depicts the quartered arms of England and France
At about the same time as his marriage to Jane Seymour, Henry granted his assent to the
Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into one unified nation. The Act provided for the sole use of English in official proceedings in Wales, inconveniencing the numerous speakers of the
Welsh language.
Henry demanded the surrender of
Otford Palace from the archbishop of Canterbury in 1537. Later, in 1540, Henry sanctioned the destruction of shrines to Roman Catholic Saints. In 1542, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. As a reward for his role, Thomas Cromwell was created
Earl of Essex.
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.
Mistresses
Historians are sure of the names of only two of Henry's mistresses:
Elizabeth Blount and
Mary Boleyn (
Anne's sister). Elizabeth Blount gave birth to Henry's illegitimate son,
Henry FitzRoy. The young boy was made Duke of Richmond in June 1525 in what some thought was one stop on the path to legitimatising him. This never occurred, however, and Fitzroy never acceded to the throne. In 1533, he married Mary Howard of the Norfolk Howards, but died only three years later without any successors. At the time of FitzRoy's death, the king was trying to get a law passed that would allow his otherwise illegitimate son to become king.
There is also evidence to link him to several other women, such as Jane Popicourt, 1510, a Frenchwoman at the court and a mistress of the kidnapped Duc de Longueville; Lady Anne Stafford, in 1514, sister of the duke of Buckingham and wife of Lord Hastings; and Margaret Shelton, in 1534-5, cousin of Anne and Mary Boleyn. There are also references to a lady he housed in a manor house (unknown year), an 'unknown lady' in 1534, and a lady from
Tournai, in his excursions into France in 1513.
Innovative court
Henry was the quintessential
Renaissance Man, and his court was a centre of scholarly and artistic innovation. The discovery of America or "The New World" set the stage for Henry's innovative attitude. His
court jester was named
Will Somers. Henry was among the first European rulers to learn about the true geography of the world, a revolutionary discovery. In 1507, the cartographers
Martin Waldseemüller and
Matthias Ringmann published the first "modern" map of the world, the first map to accurately depict the American Continent and a separate Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, a radical thought for the time.
[2] This discovery developed an atmosphere of exploration and discovery in the arts and sciences of which Henry took full advantage in his court and daily life.
Later years
Henry desired to marry once again to ensure that a male could succeed him. Thomas Cromwell, now 1st Earl of Essex, suggested
Anne, the sister of the Protestant
Duke of Cleves, who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England.
Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the King. She was painted totally without any signs of her pockmarked face. After regarding Holbein's flattering portrayal, and urged by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, Henry agreed to wed Anne. On Anne's arrival in England, Henry is said to have found her utterly unattractive, privately calling her a "Flanders Mare." Nevertheless, he married her on
6 January 1540.
Henry desired to end the marriage, not only because of his personal feelings but also because of political considerations. The Duke of Cleves had become engaged in a dispute with the Holy Roman Emperor, with whom Henry had no desire to quarrel. Queen Anne was intelligent enough not to impede Henry's quest for an annulment. She testified that her marriage was never consummated. Henry was said to have come into the room each night and merely kissed his new bride on the forehead before sleeping. The marriage was subsequently annulled on the grounds that Anne had previously been contracted to marry another European nobleman. She received the title of "The King's Sister," and was granted
Hever Castle, the former residence of Anne Boleyn's family. The Earl of Essex, meanwhile, fell out of favour for his role in arranging the marriage, and was subsequently
attainted and beheaded. The office of Vicegerent in Spirituals, which had been specifically created for him, was not filled.
On
28 July 1540 (the same day Lord Essex was executed) Henry married the young
Catherine Howard (also referred to as Katherine), Anne Boleyn's first cousin. He was absolutely delighted with his new queen. Soon after her marriage, however, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier,
Thomas Culpeper. She also employed
Francis Dereham, who was previously informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. Thomas Cranmer, who was opposed to the powerful Catholic Howard family, brought evidence of Queen Catherine's activities to the King's notice. Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, he allowed Cranmer to conduct an investigation, which resulted in Queen Catherine's implication. 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.
Catherine's marriage was annulled shortly before her execution. As was the case with Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard could not have technically been guilty of adultery, as the marriage was officially null and void from the beginning. Again, this point was ignored, and Catherine was executed on
13 February 1542. She was only about eighteen years old at the time.
Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow
Catherine Parr, in 1543. She argued with Henry over religion; she was a radical, but Henry remained a conservative. This behaviour almost led to her undoing, but she saved herself by a show of submissiveness. She helped reconcile Henry with his first two daughters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth. In 1544, an Act of Parliament put them back in the line of succession after Edward, Prince of Wales, though they were still deemed illegitimate. The same Act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will.
A
mnemonic for the fates of Henry's wives is "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived". An alternative version is "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded: One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded". (Or, more succinctly, "Two beheaded, one died, two divorced, one survived.") The
doggerel, however, may be misleading. Firstly, Henry was never divorced from any of his wives; rather, his marriages to them were annulled. Secondly, four marriages — not two — ended in annulments. The marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were annulled shortly before their executions and, although her marriage to Henry was annulled, Anne of Cleves survived him as did Catherine Parr.
The cruelty and tyrannical disposition of Henry became more and more apparent as he advanced in years and failed in health. And the fearful series of political executions, which had commenced with that of
Edmund de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk in 1513, ended with
Henry Earl of Surrey, in January, 1547. According to Holinshed, the number of executions in this reign amounted to 72,000.
Henry VIII began The English Reformation which was the process by which the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff in England was eliminated and replaced with Royal Supremacy and the institution of a Church of England outside of the Roman Catholic Church and under the power of the Supreme Governance of the English monarch. The English Reformation was more of a political than a theological dispute which was at the root of it. The breakup between Rome and England started in the reign of Henry VIII and is therefore sometimes called the Henrician Reformation. Henry didn’t really establish new ideas about religion, he just wanted England’s church independent.
In 1521, he defended the Papacy from Martin Luther's claims of heresy in a book he wrote that was called The Defence of the Seven Sacraments.
The group that was mainly threatened by Henry was the Roman Catholic Church because Henry wanted to separate from and establish England’s own church.
Henry’s actions impacted Europe in that England established its own church and separated from the Roman Catholic church, this gave England’s church its own power and influenced other states to establish their own churches.
Death and succession
King Henry VIII died in the Palace of Whitehall in 1547
Later in life, Henry was grossly overweight, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (137 cm), and possibly suffered from
gout. The well known theory that he suffered from
syphilis was first promoted approximately 100 years after his death. More recent support for this idea has come from a greater understanding of the disease and has led to the suggestion that
Edward VI,
Mary I, and
Elizabeth I all displayed symptoms characteristic of
syphilis. Henry's increased size dates from a
jousting accident in 1536. He suffered a thigh wound which not only prevented him from exercising, but also gradually became ulcerated and may have indirectly led to his death, which occurred on
28 January 1547 at the
Palace of Whitehall. He died on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. Henry VIII was buried in
St George's Chapel in
Windsor Castle, next to his wife Jane Seymour. Almost a hundred years later
Charles I would also be buried in his grave. Within a little more than a decade after his death, all three of his legitimate children sat on the English throne, and they had no descendants.
Under the
Act of Succession of 1543, Henry's only surviving legitimate son, Edward, inherited the Crown, becoming
Edward VI. Edward was the first
Protestant monarch to rule England. 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 Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, the
Princess Mary and her heirs. If Mary's issue also failed, the crown was to go to Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn,
Princess Elizabeth, and her heirs. Finally, if Elizabeth's line also became extinct, the crown was to be inherited by the descendants of Henry VIII's deceased younger sister,
Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. The descendants of Henry's older sister
Margaret Tudor - the royal family of
Scotland - were therefore excluded from succession according to this act.
Legacy
No account of the legacy of Henry VIII can overlook its dominating fact — the launching of the
English Reformation. Though mainly motivated by dynastic and personal concerns, and despite never really abandoning the fundamentals of the Catholic faith, Henry ensured that the greatest act of his reign would be one of the most radical and decisive of any English monarch. His break with Rome in 1533-4 was an act with enormous consequences for the course of modern English history well beyond the end of the
Tudor dynasty: not only in making possible the subsequent transformation of England into a vibrant (albeit very distinctive) Protestant society but also in the shift of economic and political power from the Church to the gentry, chiefly through the seizure and transfer of monastic lands and assets — a short-term strategy with long term social consequences. Henry's decision to entrust the regency of his son Edward's minor years to a decidedly Protestant regency council dominated by Edward Seymour — most likely for the simple tactical reason that Seymour seemed likely to provide the strongest leadership for the kingdom — ensured that the Protestant reformation would be consolidated and even furthered during his son's reign. Such ironies marked other aspects of his legacy. He fostered humanist learning and yet was responsible for the deaths of several outstanding English humanists. Obsessed with securing the succession to the throne, he left no legitimate heirs but a young son (who died before his sixteenth birthday) and two daughters devoted to mutually incompatible religions. The power of the state was magnified, yet so too (at least after Henry's death) were demands for increased political participation by the middle class. Henry worked with some success to once again make England a major player on the European scene but depleted his treasury in the course of doing so, a legacy that would remain an issue for English monarchs through the very end of the Tudor dynasty.
Together with
Alfred the Great and
Charles II, Henry is traditionally called one of the founders of the
Royal Navy. There are good reasons for this — his reign featured some naval warfare and, more significantly, large royal investment in shipbuilding (including a few spectacular '
great ships' such as ''
Mary Rose''), dockyards (such as
HMNB Portsmouth) and naval innovations (eg the use of
cannon on-board ship - although
archers were still deployed on medieval-style
forecastles and bowcastles as the ship's primary armament on large ships, or co-armament where cannon were used). However, it is a misnomer since Henry did not bequeath to his immediate successors a '
navy' in the sense of a formalised organisation with structures, ranks, formalised munitioning structures etc but only in the sense of a set of ships (albeit some spectacular ones).
Elizabeth I still had to cobble together a set of privately owned ships to fight off the
Spanish Armada (which consisted of about 130 warships and converted merchant ships) and in the former, formal sense the modern British
navy, the
Royal Navy, is largely a product of the Anglo-Dutch naval rivalry of the seventeenth century.
Henry's break with
Rome incurred the threat of a large-scale French or Spanish invasion. To guard against this he strengthened existing coastal defence fortresses (such as
Dover Castle and, also at
Dover,
Moat Bulwark and
Archcliffe Fort—he personally visited for a few months to supervise, as is commemorated in the modern exhibition in Dover Castle's keep there). He also built a chain of new 'castles' (in fact, large bastioned and garrisoned gun batteries) along Britain's southern coast from
East Anglia to
Cornwall, largely built of material gained from the
demolition of monasteries. These were also known as Henry VIII's
Device Forts.
The only surviving piece of clothing worn by Henry VIII is a
cap of maintenance, awarded to the Mayor of
Waterford, along with a bearing sword, in
1536. It currently resides in the
Waterford Museum of Treasures.
Style and arms
Henry VIII was the first English monarch to regularly use the style "Majesty", though the alternatives "Highness" and "Grace" were also used from time to time.
Several changes were made to the royal style during his reign. Henry originally used the style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of
God,
King of England,
France and
Lord of Ireland". In 1521, pursuant to a grant from
Pope Leo X rewarding a book by Henry attacking
Martin Luther and defending
Catholicism, the royal style became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France,
Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland". After the breach with
Rome,
Pope Paul III rescinded the grant of the title "Defender of the Faith", but an
Act of Parliament declared that it remained valid.
In 1535, Henry added the "supremacy phrase" to the royal style, which became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland and of the Church of England in
Earth Supreme Head". In 1536, the phrase "of the
Church of England" changed to "of the Church of England and also of
Ireland".
In 1541, Henry had the
Irish Parliament change the title "Lord of Ireland" to "
King of Ireland" (see
Crown of Ireland Act 1542) after being advised that many
Irish people regarded the
Pope as the true head of their country, with the Lord acting as a mere representative. The reason the Irish regarded the Pope as their overlord was because Ireland had originally been given to the English King
Henry II by
Pope Adrian IV in the twelfth century as a feudal territory under papal overlordship. The meeting of Irish Parliament that proclaimed Henry VIII King of Ireland was the first meeting attended by the Gaelic Irish chieftains as well as the Anglo-Irish aristocrats. The style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head" remained in use until the end of Henry's reign.
Henry's
motto was ''Coeur Loyal'' (true heart) and he had this embroidered on his clothes in the form of a heart symbol and with the word 'loyal'. His emblem was the
Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis.
Henry VIII's
arms were the same as those used by his predecessors since
Henry IV: ''Quarterly, Azure three
fleurs-de-lys Or (for
France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for
England)''.
Ancestors
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|
| '''By Catherine of Aragon''' (married 11 June 1509 annulled 23 May 1533; she died 6 January 1536) |
| ''Miscarried daughter'' | 31 January 1510 | 31 January 1510 | |
| Henry, Duke of Cornwall | 1 January 1511 | 22 February 1511 | |
| ''Unnamed son'' | November 1513 | November 1513 | |
| ''Henry, Duke of Cornwall'' | December 1514 | December 1514 | |
| Queen Mary I | 18 February 1516 | 17 November 1558 | married 1554, Philip II of Spain; no issue |
| ''Unnamed daughter'' | 10 November 1518 | 10 November 1518 | |
| '''By Anne Boleyn''' (married 25 January 1533 annulled 1536; she was executed 19 May 1536) | |||
| Queen Elizabeth I | 7 September 1533 | 24 March 1603 | never married, no issue |
| "Henry Tudor" | 1534 | 1534 | Historians are uncertain if the child was born and died shortly after birth, or if it had been a miscarriage. The affair was hushed up and we cannot even be certain of the child's sex. |
| ''"Edward Tudor"'' | 29 January 1536 | 29 January 1536 | |
| '''By Jane Seymour''' (married 30 May 1536; she died 25 October 1537) | |||
| King Edward VI | 12 October 1537 | 6 July 1553 | |
| '''By Anne of Cleves''' (married 6 January 1540 annulled 1540; she died 17 July 1557) | |||
| no issue | |||
| '''By Catherine Howard''' (married 28 July 1540 annulled 1541; she was executed 13 February 1542) | |||
| no issue | |||
| '''By Catherine Parr''' (married 12 July 1543; died 5 September 1548) | |||
| no issue | |||
| '''By Elizabeth Blount''' | |||
| Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset | 15 June 1519 | 18 June 1536 | illegitimate; married 1533, the Lady Mary Howard; no issue |
| '''By The Lady Mary Boleyn''' (Some historians, such as Alison Weir, now question whether Henry Carey was fathered by Henry VIII.[3]) | |||
| Catherine Carey | c. 1524 | 15 January 1568 | reputed illegitimate; married Sir Francis Knollys; had issue |
| Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon | 4 March 1526 | 23 July 1596 | reputed illegitimate; married 1545, Ann Morgan; had issue |
| '''By Mary Berkeley''' | |||
| Sir Thomas Stucley | c. 1525 | 4 August 1578 | reputed illegitimate; married Anne Curtis; had issue |
| Sir John Perrot | c. 1527 | September 1592 | reputed illegitimate; married (1) Ann Cheyney and (2) Jane Pruet; had issue |
| '''By Joan Dyngley''' | |||
| Etheldreda Malte | c. 1529 | aft. 1555 | reputed illegitimate; married 1546–1548 to John Harrington; no known issue |
'
★ ' ''Note: Of Henry VIII's reputedly illegitimate children, only the Duke of Richmond and Somerset was formally acknowledged by the King. The paternity of his other alleged illegitimate children is not fully established. There may also have been other illegitimate children born to short-term unidentified mistresses.''
In popular culture
Film
There have been many films about Henry and his court, notably:
★ ''
The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933), starring
Charles Laughton, whose performance as Henry earned him an
Academy Award
★ ''
The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (1973), starring
Keith Michell, based on an earlier TV series (see below).
★
Richard Burton and
Geneviève Bujold were nominated for Academy Awards for
Best Actor and
Best Actress for their roles as Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn in ''
Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969).
★ ''
Carry On Henry'' (1970), starring
Sid James.
★ A young Henry, played by
Robert Shaw, also appears as one of the main characters in the multiple-
Oscar-winning movie about
Thomas More,
''A Man for All Seasons'' (1966), based upon
Robert Bolt's play of the same name - a role played by
Keith Baxter on
Broadway and later by
Martin Chamberlain in
Charlton Heston's
remake.
★ Henry VIII (again played by
Charles Laughton) was also a featured character in a movie about the early years of
Elizabeth I, ''
Young Bess'' (1953).
★ In 2006 a film called ''
The Other Boleyn Girl'', starring
Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn,
Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and
Eric Bana as Henry VIII, began filming.
Television
Henry has also made many television appearances.
★ A notable example is the 1970 BBC series ''
The Six Wives of Henry VIII'', starring Keith Michell, made up of six television plays, one per wife, each by a different author.
★ Another is the
2003 ITV feature-length ''Henry VIII'', with
Ray Winstone as Henry, critically panned for portraying Henry as an
East End gangster, speaking with Winstone's characteristic
Cockney tones, surrounded by a court speaking in
Received Pronunciation.
★ Henry also was played by actor
Jared Harris in the BBC adaptation of
''The Other Boleyn Girl''.
★ Henry was also briefly portrayed in once scene in ''
The Virgin Queen'' (2005 mini-series).
★ In 2006,
Showtime and Peace Arch Entertainment announced a new series called ''
The Tudors'' dramatising Henry VIII as a young man. The series opened to the highest ratings in three years for the Showtime network and was recently reupped for a second season. The 2007 series stars
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the young king during the early years of his reign.
[4] Some historians have criticised the show's historical inaccuracies, yet others have praised the efforts in reviving a key historical figure.
★ ''
The Simpsons'' have also done their own portrayal of Henry in the episode "
Margical History Tour" with
Homer as King Henry 8th,
Marge as
Catherine of Aragon, and
Lisa as
Mary I.
★ In documentary, the leading academic on Henry,
David Starkey, produced the
Channel 4 series ''Henry VIII'' and
''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' - the latter gave one episode each to
Catherine of Aragon and
Anne Boleyn, one jointly to
Jane Seymour and
Anne of Cleves, and another jointly to
Catherine Howard and
Catherine Parr. Henry also has an episode to himself in the more recent series
''Monarchy''.
Music
In 1910, Fred Murray and
R. P. Weston wrote a
music hall song, "
I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am", which plays off Henry VIII's numerous wives, although the lyrics make it clear that it is actually about a man named Henry who is the eighth with that name to have married the woman alluded to in the song. It became a
signature song of
Harry Champion, and became a #1 hit on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the
United States when it was revived in 1965 by British rock band
Herman's Hermits.
In 1973,
Rick Wakeman of
progressive rock band
Yes released ''
The Six Wives of Henry VIII'', a concept album with six instrumental tracks dedicated to each of Henry's wives. The track listing is not chronologically correct, as the album lists the wives in the following order:
★
Catherine of Aragon
★
Anne of Cleves
★
Catherine Howard
★
Jane Seymour
★
Anne Boleyn
★
Catherine Parr
In the liner notes Wakeman explained: ''"This album is based around my interpretations of the musical characteristics of the wives of Henry VIII. Although the style may not always be in keeping with their individual history, it is my personal conception of their characters in relation to keyboard instruments".''
A widely believed legend is that the song
Greensleeves was written by Henry. It is said that he composed it for his lover and future Queen,
Anne Boleyn. However, there is no evidence that he was the author and the song is written in a style which was not known in England until after Henry died.
Media
See also
★
The Rough Wooing
★
Device Forts
References
1. [1] Official School website. URL accessed August 15, 2007.
2. "The map reflected a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American land mass and forever changing mankind's understanding and perception of the world itself." Library of Congress.[2]
3. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir, p. 216
4. Official Showtime announcement of new series ''The Tudors''
----
★ Bowle, John. ''Henry VIII: A Study of Power in Action'' Little, Brown, 1964.
★ John Lloyd and John Mitchinson "The Book of General Ignorance". faber and faber,2006
★ Bryant, M. ''Private Lives''. Cassell, 2001.
★
Eakins, L. E. (2004). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".
★ Farrow, John V. ''The Story of Thomas More''. Collins, 1956.
★ "Henry VIII". (1911). ''Encyclopædia Britannica,'' 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
★ Kranes, Marsha et al. ''Know It All''. New York: Tess Press, 1998.
★
Jokinen, A. (2004). "Henry VIII (1491–1547)".
★ Moorhouse, Geoffrey. ''Great Harry's Navy: How Henry VIII Gave England Seapower''
★
Public Broadcasting Service. (2003). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".
★ Nostro, Rit "at only 17 years old. He assumed the throne of England and married his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon"
[3]
★
Thurston, H. (1910). "Henry VIII". ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. (Vol. VII). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
★
Vallieres, S. (1999). "Tudor Succession Problems"
★ Wagner, John A. (2003). "Bosworth Field to Bloody Mary: An Encyclopedia of the Early Tudors." (Greenwood). ISBN 1-57356-540-7.
★ Weir, Alison. ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''. Bodley Head, 1991.
★
Ask Ireland: Waterford Museum of Treasures Collection: Cap of Maintenance
★ C. D. C. Armstrong, ‘Gardiner, Stephen (c.1495x8–1555)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
★ Henry VIII, "Assertio septem sacramentorum aduersus Martin. Luther" (1521)
Treasure 9 National Library of Vatican City displayed via
The European Library
Further reading
★
J S Brewer; Robert Henry Brodie;
James Gairdner. ''Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII'', preserved in the
Public Record Office, the
British Museum, and elsewhere. 1965 2d ed. (
TannerRitchie Publishing)
★ Childs, Jessie. ''Henry VIII's Last Victim: The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey''. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006 (hardback, ISBN 0-224-06325-1).
★
★
Reviewed by C.J. Sansom in
''The Guardian'', October 21, 2006.
★
Luther Martin. ''Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters,'' 2 vols., tr.and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913, 1918.
vol. 1 (1507–1521) and
vol. 2 (1521–1530) from
Google Books. Reprint of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006). ISBN 1-59752-601-0
★ Wagner, John A. "Bosworth Field to Bloody Mary: An Encyclopedia of the Early Tudors." Greenwood, 2003.
★ Weir, Alison. ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court''. Ballantine Books, 2001.
★ Williams, Neville. ''Henry VIII and His Court''. Macmillan, 1971.
External links
★
Henry VIII Chronology World History Database
★
'Luminarium: King Henry VIII' Life, works, essays, study resources
★
Henry VIII Podcast Show
★
Henry VIII and his wives
★
Henry VIII World History Database
★
Buehler, Edward. (2004). "Tudor and Elizabethan Portraits".
★
Castelli, Jorge H. (2004). "Henry VIII".
★
Stevens, Garry. (2003). "Henry VIII: Intrigue in the Tudor Court".
★
Perrott, Terry. (2004). "Sir John Perrott".
★
Illustrated history of Henry VIII.
★
Henry VIII at Find A Grave
★
Martin Luther to Henry VIII, September 1, 1525
★
Henry VIII to Martin Luther. August, 1526
★
Henry VIII to Frederic, John, and George, Dukes of Saxony. January. 20, 1523 re: Luther.
★
Biographical resources dedicated to King Henry VIII
★
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