Henry VIII

Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491 and he died on January 28, 1547.

He was the son of Henry VII, first of the Tudor line, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, from the line of York.

He was a great athlete and an excellent student who practiced hunting and dancing, physical exercises from the aristocratic society. He was a typical humanist from the Renaissance.

He ascended the throne in 1509, after his elder brother Arthur died in 1502. To do so, he married his wife, Katherine of Aragon, the daughter of the King of Spain.

This period was marked by a contentious context with bad relationships between England and the rest of Europe, and especially Spain, as well as religious conflicts with the Pope and Rome.

Henry VIII didn’t get along with his wife since she was not able to bless him with an heir to the throne. In 1527, he finally managed to ask for his divorce and the unfortunate Katherine of Aragon was accused of adultery in 1536 (the real reason behind it was she had not blessed him with a male heir). Henry VIII remarried with Anne Boleyn.

From there on, wives succeeded one another. To make it short, here is a list: Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I, who was accused of infidelity and beheaded, Jane Seymour, who birthed Edward VI, Henry’s successor, but died two weeks after the birth from complications, Anne of Cleves, whose marriage with Henry VIII was annulled months later, Katherine Howard, the maid of honour of Anne of Cleves, she was accused of treason and was beheaded, and finally, Katherine Parr, her zeal for Protestantism made her enemies in the court, and she wasn’t killed before Henry VIII died ?

Did you notice Henry VIII liked Katherines?

Despite being a devout Catholic in his younger years, (Henry VIII defended the Pope against Protestant ideas…), his divorce with Katherine of Aragon led him to declare in 1534 that he was the head of the Church in England. This sparked the English Reformation which triggered England’s transition to being a Protestant country.

But why is that? The Pope didn’t allow the dissolution of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon’s marriage… and his future wife Anne Boleyn was already carrying one of his future children… Henry VIII had to maintain his image !

Also, he established the Royal Navy and enabled the construction of numerous warships.

After Henry VIII died, his son Edward VI took the throne as a Protestant king. When he died, his sister Mary, only alive daughter from Henry VIII’s union with Katherine of Aragon, took over and restored Catholicism in England.

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