Part 2. Henry Ⅷ：The Defender of the Faith Who was Evicted from the Church
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Before Henry Ⅷ Becomes a King
The full name of Henry Ⅷ was Henry Tudor. He is the son of the first Tudor King, Henry Ⅶ. Henry Ⅷ was born in June 28th, 1491. We don’t know much about his childhood, but he didn’t prepare to be king at first. In 1502, his elder brother, Arthur, the Prince of Wales, died at the age of fifteen, just after his wedding day for 6 months. Henry got what all his brother have - the title of prince of Wales, and his widow, Catherine of Aragon, who was the only child of king Fordinand of Spain.
Spain was then a powerful country, and King Henry Ⅶ didn’t want the alliance between two countries to break, so he let young Henry engage Catherine, even if he was only eleven. She will be the first wife of Henry Ⅷ.
During that time it was the Renaissance Period. The word ‘Renaisance’ is a word from French that means ‘reborn’ in Enlish. Just like what it means, the Renaissanse took a totally reborn from arts, philosophy, to science and economy. It made a great change that pulled the whole Europe out from the dark night of Middle age. And absolutely, this kind of great change took place at the root of Middle age – Religion – too. Many of the new ideas clashed with the traditional Church. The Reformation began.
Henry Ⅷ was a quite controversial king in British history. He was always remembered by world mainly at two terms: Push the Renaissance took place in England, and the number of his wives, notably there were to of them were killed in order of him. The reason of why Henry changed his wife so frequently was, he was very attached to the importance of having a male heir in his life. Henry wanted a king to keep the Tudors on the throne of England but not a Queen. A Queen always means the end of the reign of the family to Great Britain because her sons or daughters will always follow her husband’s surname. This was a topic throughout Henry’s life. These is what we should know before we start Henry Ⅷ’s story.
| Chart of Henry Ⅷ’s Six Wives |
|---|
| Name | Result | Nationality | Time of Maried | Time of Divorced/Died |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catherine of Aragon | Banished from court and died alone | Spain | 1509 | 1533 |
| Anne Boleyn | Beheaded | England | 1533 | 1536 |
| Jane Seymour | Died from an infection | England | 1536 | 1537 |
| Anne of Cleves | Divorced | Germany | 1539 | 1540 |
| Catherine Howard | Beheaded | England | 1540 | 1542 |
| Catherine Parr | Died After Henry Ⅷ | England | 1542 | 1548 |
In 1509, there were three important things happened: Henry Ⅶ died, Henry Ⅷ became the king, and he married Catherine of Aragon.
Became a King
Henry Ⅷ became King in 1509, just after his eighteenth birthday. We don’t know if it is a good birthday gift to him, when a prince becomes a king, it always means his father or mother died.
Soon after the coronation, Henry married Catherine of Aragon. But there was not a wedding ceremony, because the king of Spain still defaulted on his half of the charge for the wedding ceremony of Arther and Catherine.
Catherine was a beautiful and intellegeint lady, and Henry loved her. They had been the perfect royal couple for almost twenty years.
Young Henry was handsome and robust, and full of energy. He was 1.83 metres tall, while the average height of men at that time was 1.60 metres. He had bright blue eyes and red hair.
Henry was an all-round talent too. He liked joust the most, and also playing tennis and hunting. He can speak many languages, including English, Fench, Latin and Spanish. He’s also a great scholar, who studied Ancien Greek, Mathematics, Astronoy and religous Writings.
He was quite accomplished at music too. He can play several instruments very well: the harp, the organ, the lute and the virginals. He was a good singer and dancer, and also a comploser. It is said the song Green Sleeves was his composition:
King Henry soon became the patron of the arts. There were many writers, poets, painters and musicians came to his court, and Henry was always very welcome at them. He was busy with banquets, dancing and sports, decorate his castles and palaces, but it didn’t hind the ambition in his mind - he wanted the glory of a war.
Wars and Peace, and Other Things it Brought
Wars
To Gelders and North Africa
Henry sent archers to attack on the Duke of Gelders first, his land was at Germany now. It is a succesfully military action. But the next war Henry was not such a succesful. He sent Lord Darcy with 1,000 men to support the Spanish king Ferdinand against the Moors in North Africa in May 1511, and they were failed.
Invade France
The next year Henry rekindled the Hundred Years War. He invaded France in 1512, with his father-in-law, the Spanish king FerdinandⅡ, who totaly messed up this war. At first, they reached agreement to attack France from Aquitaine, but when Henry and his army reached that, they found the Spanish army was not there, but at Navarre, where the Spanish King wanted to conquer. They were defeated by the French army, and when they reached ,the war ended and the Spanish army was prepared to go back. This war made both of them lost heavily, and both of them said it was the wrong of others’.
The following year, Henry decided not to rely on others. He invaded France again and won a battle that Henry called ‘The Battle of Spurs’. However. there was a Scottish King Jame Ⅳ thought it was a good time to invade England, so Henry had to come back. The history proved Jame was wrong: he was killed. But Henry no ot glad at all. This accident thoroughtly messed up his plan to invade France.
He wanted to return in 1514, but Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, didn’t agree with that: The war cost a lot of money but only got a little land. He convinced Henry to make peace with France.
The Field of the Cloth of Cold
In 1520, Cardinal Wolsey organized a meeting between two kings in Picardy of France. He wants them to sign a peace treaty to make sure that they will never war again. The meeting was extravagant. A beautiful palace was built for that and the tents are all made of Gold Cloth. The palace Henry stayed covers an area of almost 1 hectare. It had a hall and a roomy chapel inside, and a fountain outside, which uninterrupted shooting out the Claret wine, Spiced wine and water. An immense amount of money was spent on this occasion.
Before the meeting began, the two king appointments didn’t shave their beard before they met to remind them keep the promise, but Henry soon forgot it.
The mother of the French King was angry when she found this thing, but the Earl of Wiltshire Thomas Boleyn explained it’s Catherine of Aragon’s idea because she likes the appearance of smooth and clean to Henry. The mother of the empire accepted this explanation and said: ‘The love between the kings not in their beards but in their hearts.’
The entire English court of 5800 people went to Picardy. When the two Kings met, the history said: ‘They were hugged like two good brothers.’ Henry wore a cloak made of gold cloth. There were jousts huntings, and banquets of course, in the joust king François of France was defeated by King Henry, he made François got a nosebleed. Every of them wanted to show their power. This extravasant meeting gave this place a name: The Field of the Cloth of Gold.
To achieve the aim of this meeting, two kings signed a peace freaty, but it seems never works: after two years they were at war again.
Problems in Religion and Marriage
The Defender of the Faith.
The Reformation began in 1517. It was put forward by a German monk called Martin Luther. In this period there were many religious problems. The Catholic Church was very powerful and very rich.They forced people to pay high taxes to them. People are all tired of this, and Martin Luther wanted to make radical changes. This created a new sect of the Christian relion: the Protestantism.
Henry did not like Martin Luther’s ideas. He wrofe the ‘Defence of the Seven Sacraments’ and dedicated to the Pope Leo X.
The Pope was very happy and gave Henry and all English Monarchs before himt he title ‘Defender of the Faith’. You can see the English king now(Charles Ⅲ) is still using this title.
The Problem of Henry’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon
As th first peragraph says, Henry Ⅷ was very attach importance to have a son. After two years before lenry married Catherine she gave birth to a son. Henry set a great celebration for him, but the little prince died after two months. Henry was very disappointed, but he said to Catherine: ‘We’re still young. We still have chance for that.’ But after four sons died and only one daughter, Mary survived, Henry was tired of Catherine.
He began to believe what the Bible said in Leviticus 20:21 :‘If a man married his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.’
Henry believed this is why he cannot have a son. In 1526 Henry met a young lady called Anne Boleyn, who was the daughier of Thomas Boleyn, And her sister was one of the maids of Carherine of Aragon. It is said that Henry may have a child with her sister called Henry Fitzroy. Anyway, Henry fell in love with Anne immediately. Anne had long, black hair and dark eyes. She spoke French and wore elegant French clothes, and she was lively, infelligent and interested in politics. This was just what Henry liked. He soon desided to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn and, have a son with her. So he sent Cardinal Wolsey to convince the pope to give him permission to divorce Cathrine, but after a few years the Pope refused the divorce.
The Break with Rome
After getting the Pope’s answer, Henry was furious with Wolsey and the Church. He accused Wolsey of treason and he died soon after In 1529. Henry chose another Lord Chancellor of England called Thomas More. (He was beheaded in 1532 because he was a Catholic and opposed Henry’s break with Rome.)
In 1533 Henry chose Thomas Cranmer to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Cranmer believed in the absolute power of the king. He helped to establish the Protestant Church of England, as the state religion of England – Protestant Episcopal Church. Thomas Cranmer was the first Archbishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He later annlled Henry’s marriage to Catterine of Aragon.
Henry and Anne Bolegn were secretly married in January 1533. After Thomas Cranmer annulled Henry marriage with Catherine, Anne Belegyn became the Queen of England. Catherine of Aragon was banished from court and died alone three years later. The Pope was furious with Henry and evicted him from the Catholic Church.
But Henry was not became a Protestant, he was still a Catholic untill he die.
Other Children and Wives of Henry
In September, Anne gave birth to a girl, Princess Elizabeth. Henry was disappointed, but he still subscribed to an act called The Succession act. This act declared Mary was his illegitimate daughter because her mother – Catherine of Aragon’s marriage with Henry was annulled. Mary have not the right heir to the throne and Elizabeth became the first-line heir.
Anne was pregnant with a boy later, but during her pregnancy there was a competition in which Henry fell down the horse and almost died. Anne was shocked and she miscarried.
Henry was soon tired of Anne because she did not give him a son. She was accused of adultery with a young man. They were beheaded in May 1536. While Anne Boleyn move towards the executioner she was smiling. Everybody knows the adultery was just an excuse.
Anne Boleyn was the first queen that he killed in British history . Even Henry blames the cause of he cannot have a son on every body but he himself, we should still know that it should be the responsibility of Henry.
A study in 2011 says Henry’s blood group could be the The Kell blood group. The Kell blood group system is a rare type of blood that only 10% or less people have. If Henry was Kell positive but his wife’s not, then there would be antibodies group in her body. It may be nothing happens to her pregnancy in the first time, but in the second or more time of pregnancy the fetus will absolutely can’t mature. This is the explanation of why Catherine and Anne cannot have a son.
After Anne’s execution, Henry subscribed to The Second Succession Act. This Act declared Elizabeth was illegitimate daughter too and she was expeled from the list of hers. It made the illegitimate child Henry Fitzroy have the chance heir to the throne.
There were three selections infront of Henry if he want to have a male heir now.
- Recognise his illegitimate child and legitimate him to heir the throne.
- Let his elder daughter Mary give birth to a grandson, while she was only nine years old at that time.
- To marry another woman and have a child with her.
Henry undoubitedly chosc the easiest one: to marry another woman.
Henry met a lady called Jane Seymour, and leven days after Anne Boylen’s execution, Henry married her. She was a quiet, docile lady who brought happines to the royal family.
One year later, in October 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Prince Edward. King Henry was overjoyed and the whole country celebrated.
In the fiction The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain wrote about this event like this:
IN the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him. All England wanted him too. England had so longed for him, and hoped for him, and prayed God for him, that, now that he was really come, the people went nearly mad for joy. Mere acquaintances hugged and kissed each other and cried. Everybody took a holiday, and high and low, rich and poor, feasted and danced and sang, and got very mellow; and they kept this up for days and nights together. By day, London was a sight to see, with gay banners waving from every balcony and housetop, and splendid pageants marching along. By night, it was again a sight to see, with its great bonfires at every corner, and its troops of revellers making merry around them. There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, who lay lapped in silks and satins, unconscious of all this fuss, and not knowing that great lords and ladies were tending him and watching over him—and not caring, either. But there was no talk about the other baby, Tom Canty, lapped in his poor rags, except among the family of paupers whom he had just come to trouble with his presence.
There was a great celebration, but unfortunately, after twelve days the Queen died from anifetion. some people say the infection was caused by the tradition of the royal family. When a prince or Prineess was born, there must be a lot of important people standing around the bed and watching to make sure the prince or princess was truly but not changed. The tradition was stapped when King Charles Ⅲ was born by the way. They guess Queen Jane Seymour was died by the infection by the bacteria that the guests brought in.
Jane Seymour was lucky, to not under the curse of King Henry, but she was unlucky too, to die from the bacteria that the guests brought in. After her death Henry mourned her for a long time. Jane Seymour may be his favourite wife.
Henry Ⅷ now had male heir. He made Edward receive an excellent education from the best scholars, and built manificent palaces to show how important that Edward is. These palaces include St. James’s Palace and White Hall Palace, and they are still exist now.
Henry’s Later Years
In 1536, There were some revolts in England agaist Henry’s break with Rome. After revolts were pacified, Henry recognized that there were too many monasteries in England and Wales, and the most serious problem was they did not obey king Henry but to the Pope of Rome.
There were more than 850 monasteries all about England and Wales. They controlled a lot of treasures and a quarter of all the land of England. Henry needed money so he and his lord chancellor Cromwell, decided to close all the monasteries in England and take all their treasures and land. Cromwall sent his men to inspect them, and when they came back, they said there was corruption in the monasteries. This is a good reason to close them. Cromwell’s men took the rich treasures and save them to the King. Some monasteries were destroyed and others were sold to the noblity. The land and treasures of the monasteries now belonged to King Henry and he became the richest monarch in Europe.
Henry was now forty-eight. He was very fat and his health was not good. He became short-rempered and oppressive, and everyone had to obey him.
But Henry’s political position in Europe became weak. He needs a strong ally against France and Spain to gether, so Cromwell convinced him to marry a German princess called Anne of Cleves.
Henry sent a German painter, Hans Holbein, to paint Anne’s portrait. Hans painted a lovely lady to convince Henry to marry her.
But Anne gave Henry a horrible surprise. Anne was very usly and fat and some people said that she looked like a horse. Henry was very angry with Cromwell, and he was beheaded by order of Herry in 1540. He married Anne for political reasons and devorced her seven months later in July. Anne of Cleves was agreed to the devorce too. She got a lot of presents as an apology for the devorce, inclueding a Palace and a castle. She kept a good relationship with Henry after the marriage.
After the divorce Catherine Howard became Henry’s fifith wife in the same month. She was only 19 years old and was very frivolous. It is said that she had an extramarital affair with her distant cousin. She was accused of treason and beheaded in 1542.
Henry’s last wife in his life was Catherine Parr. They married in 1543. Catherin Parr was a mature, gentle, and well educated woman of thirty-one, and she became a kind and loving step-mother to two princesses and the prince. She brought them to court and took interest in their education. She also encouraged Henry to found Trinity College of Oxford. Henry’s choise was right in his last marriage.
Under the influence of Catherine Howard, Henry was compromised with his two daughters. He subcribed The Third Suecession Act, which declared prince Edward will be the first on Succession to the throne. If he does not have hair when he dies, then his sister Mary and Elizabeth will follow him heir to the throne. Elizabeth and Mary had the right again heir to the throne.
Henry’s final years were tormented by illness. The sport he likes the most – jousts, brought serious harm to his body. There were twice injured that caused the most serious harm. In 1524 in a joust Henry was stabbed by the opponent’s spear. The wound was above his right eye. This harm made him have to bear the hemicrania all the rest of his life. And in 1536 in another joust Heny was thrown off the horse and he remained unconscious for two hours. His legs and one or more long bones were crushed Everybody thinks that he died at the beginning. This harm caused serious brain trauma and an ulcer on his leg and some said it maybe the cause of his ill temper in his later years.
Overweight was also a serious problem in his old years. He could not even walk by himself and had to be carried everywhere by servants. His headaches were more severe and ulcers on his leg were more and more too, his other illness include Cushing’s syndrome, McLeod’s syndrome, diabetes and syphilis Cathrine Parr became his nurse and took care of him patiently.
Henry died on 28 January 1547 by his obese. In his will he reiterated ‘The Third succession Act’ and added if Mary or Elizabeth were heir to the throne, then the right of succession would belong to his yonger sister - the suffolk family. Henry was buried at St. George’s Minster at Windsor Castle, next to his third wife, Jane Seymour, the wife he loved the most.
After You Read
Special Thanks:
Mrs.LiuBing (to request me wirte this article), Youdao Dictionary Pen (to check if there are grammatical mistakes in this article and offer suitable word for me when I’m writing)
References
References
BOOK
Gina D. B. Clemen, Zhang Tao, Wang Xiaochun.Great English Monarches and Their Times[M].Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press:Shanghai,2021:6-38.
Links of Book
WEBSITES
The Field of Cloth of Gold
