Henry VIII

King of England (r. 1509-1547)

• Born: June 28, 1491
• Birthplace: Greenwich, near London, England
• Died: January 28, 1547
• Place of death: London, England

Through administrative changes, a break with the Roman Catholic Church, and the subsequent establishment of the Church of England, Henry VIII strengthened the position of the monarch in English society. Furthermore, his chaotic and violent marital history revealed a side of Henry’s character that is ambiguous and has led many scholars into the realm of psychological speculation.

Early Life

Henry VIII was the second son of the first Tudor king and the Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry VII , and Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist Edward IV. Henry VII gained the Crown by defeating Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485; Richard III was killed in the battle, and Henry Tudor, a Welshman, immediately assumed the throne. During his early years, Prince Henry was overshadowed by his older brother, Arthur, who was his father’s heir. Little is known of Henry’s education except that the poet John Skelton was involved; Skelton wrote Speculum principis (also known as A Mirror for Princes ) in 1501 as a guidebook for Henry. It is also believed that Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother, was involved with her grandson’s education. Whatever the nature and source of his education, Henry later demonstrated that he had a firm grasp of the classics, a limited knowledge of music, and fluency in three languages. Young Henry was interested in most forms of contemporary sport and was recognized for his athletic abilities.

Henry remained a secondary figure as long as his brother was alive. His father never assigned him any responsibility or seriously pursued any marriage arrangement for Henry. Henry VII did express some tentative interest in a marriage between Prince Henry and Eleanor, daughter of Philip, the duke of Burgundy, but it was not seriously considered. In April, 1502, Prince Arthur, earlier married to Catherine of Aragon , died in Wales from tuberculosis at the age of fifteen. Suddenly, the overlooked second son became the heir to the throne and the focus of great attention and interest. Henry VII became very protective of his only surviving son. Negotiations with Madrid were conducted in 1503, and on June 23 of that year a treaty was signed that provided for the marriage of Henry to the widow, Catherine of Aragon, on Henry’s attainment of the age of fifteen. One obstacle that had to be overcome was acquiring a dispensation from Rome to permit the marriage. The need for the dispensation was based on a scriptural directive that prohibited one from marrying the widow of one’s brother. Catherine argued that only a dispensation on the basis of the impediment of public honesty was required because the marriage had never been consummated. Both English and Spanish officials agreed, however, that a dispensation on the basis of the impediment of affinity in the first degree collateral should be obtained. Problems (financial, political, personal, and with the church) continued to plague the marriage treaty. On April 21, 1509, Henry VII died at Richmond Palace; six weeks later, on June 11, 1509, Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.

Life’s Work

The thirty-six-year reign of one of the greatest monarchs in English history began with great expectations for a bright and progressive era in English affairs. Henry VIII, the eighteen-year-old king, was exceptionally handsome and stood slightly more than 6 feet in height. He was clearly different from his father: Whereas Henry VII was reserved and secretive, Henry VIII was open and frequently discussed matters of state freely. Henry VIII set out to create a public image of himself as a Renaissance prince in the tradition of Desiderius Erasmus and other notables of the Northern Renaissance. In fact, while he was familiar with the general scope of the literature, Henry VIII did not understand the ideals that motivated the writings of Erasmus, John Colet, and Sir Thomas More. On the second day of his reign, Henry ordered the arrest of two of his father’s principal advisers and administrators, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, on charges of extortion. They were executed sixteen months later.

During the early years of his reign, Henry was content to pursue sports and court games. In 1512, in an effort to demonstrate that he was a warrior king, Henry entered into an alliance with Spain against France. While nothing of military substance emerged from the war, Henry gained popularity through the capture of Tournai. The most significant development of the war was Henry’s recognition of the abilities of Thomas Wolsey. From 1515 to 1529, Wolsey served Henry as lord chancellor of England and as archbishop of York; Wolsey also became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and entertained the ambition of becoming pope. In 1517, another able administrator, More, was named as a councillor to the king. More, who was considered one of the superior intellects of the age and who was the author of De optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula utopia (1516; Utopia , 1551), observed that Henry compartmentalized his thoughts and discussions. Philosophic consideration of ideals had no impact on pragmatic situations; Henry did not allow these two separate concerns to intersect, for the result would be unpredictability, and with that, danger.

As Lutheranism developed on the Continent, Henry stood firm in his support of Rome. In 1520, Martin Luther wrote several pamphlets in which he denied or challenged several major tenets of Catholic theology. One of the most serious of Luther’s assertions concerned sacramental theology; in response, Henry, in 1521, wrote Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum (Assertio septem sacramentorum: Or, An Assertion of the Seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther , 1687), which denounced Luther’s views and reaffirmed the traditional Catholic teaching on the Sacraments.

As the 1520’s progressed, Henry’s reign entered a period that became increasingly unsettled; this situation was a result of a number of factors. The public enthusiasm for the king that had greeted the new monarch and carried him through the early years of the reign was diminished significantly. Furthermore, Henry, as well as the other monarchs of Europe, ruled in the shadow of Charles V , the Holy Roman Emperor and unquestionably the most powerful individual in Europe during the first half of the sixteenth century. Finally, and most important for Henry, his marriage with Catherine had produced only one surviving child, Mary, and no male heir.

In 1527, Henry directed Wolsey to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine so that he could be free to marry Anne Boleyn . Negotiations with Rome dragged on for years as Charles V, at the urging of his aunt, Catherine of Aragon, pressured Pope Clement VI not to grant the annulment. Henry’s increasing frustration led to the fall of Wolsey in 1529 and the subsequent rise of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer as the principal advisers to the king on state and religious matters. The influence of Protestants at the court became evident during the early 1530’s. In 1533, a group of English bishops granted the king his annulment; Henry married Boleyn, who soon gave birth to Princess Elizabeth. In 1534, Henry and Cromwell pushed the Act of Succession and the Act of Supremacy from the Reformation Parliament, and the break with Rome was complete. In 1535-1536, the Henrician government suppressed opposition to these policies through the Pilgrimage of Grace in the northern counties. In 1536, the dissolution of the monasteries took place and the Ten Articles of Religion, which were sympathetic to the Protestants, appeared. In 1539, when it was perceived that the public did not support the changes, the Six Articles of Religion, which were Catholic in tenor, were pronounced. During the 1530’s, Henry and Cromwell reorganized the administration of the government; the result was a primitive but effective bureaucracy.

In 1540, Cromwell was executed on the charge of treason. In 1536, Boleyn was executed on the charge of adultery. Henry’s next wife, Jane Seymour, provided him with a son, Edward, in 1537 and then died of natural causes associated with the birth. Marriages to Anne of Cleves , Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr followed. Only Parr survived Henry.

During the 1540’s, Henry’s health declined steadily, but he retained his mental acumen. Before his death, he wrote a will that provided for a regency to rule the country during his son’s minority. If Edward died without heirs, the crown would pass to Mary, and similarly, on to Elizabeth. Henry died on January 28, 1547.

Significance

The impact of Henry VIII on the development of the English nation and constitution is extensive. Through the manipulation of Wolsey and Cromwell, Henry managed to expand his powers over church and state. Yet he appeared to do so in full cooperation with Parliament. From his personal perspective, the reign was a triumph because he succeeded in transferring the crown to his son, Edward Tudor, and, in so doing, maintained the Tudor Dynasty.

Bishop William Stubbs, a leading English historian of the late nineteenth century, once remarked that Henry was such a complex and immense historical figure that no biographer or historian should undertake to master all aspects of his turbulent life. Stubbs’s caution has been accepted by some and rejected by others, but most historians credit Stubbs with making an astute observation.

Bibliography

Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, and Bridget Boland, eds. The Lisle Letters: An Abridgement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. In this collection of the letters of Lord Lisle (Arthur Plantagenet) and other members of his family between 1533 and 1540 when Lisle served as deputy of Calais Henry is presented as an individual who was motivated by his determination to secure the continuance of the Tudor Dynasty and by his policy to establish an effective, centralized government.

Dickens, A. G. The English Reformation. 2d ed. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991. Dickens’s analysis of Henry’s performance in the development of the English Reformation is generally sympathetic. By the late 1520’s, Henry was viewed as sympathetic to many of Luther’s concepts; the Henrician Reformation was part of a larger movement on the Continent.

Elton, Geoffrey R. The Tudor Constitution, Documents, and Commentary. 2d ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Elton stresses the impact of Cromwell on administrative changes. Through the use of primary documents relating to the Crown’s approach to the Reformation, the council, finances, and the courts, the Henrician administration of the 1530’s is interpreted as the work of a master political architect, Cromwell.

Elton, Geoffrey R. The Tudor Revolution in Government, Administrative Changes in the Reign of Henry VIII. Reprint. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1962. In this classic study the author argues that the policies and achievements of Cromwell during the 1530’s constituted a revolution in the management of the English state. The beginnings of the modern bureaucratic English government can be traced to Cromwell.

Graves, Michael A. R. Henry VIII: A Study in Kingship. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2003. Attempts to separate myth from reality to better understand Henry’s life. Good discussion of the relationship between king and Parliament and its historical precedents and effects. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Jensen, De Lamar. Reformation Europe: Age of Reform and Revolution. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1981. In this general survey of the Reformation, Henry is presented as a brilliant politician, clear in his purposes, who manipulated his ministers as well as situations in order to pursue his goals.

Loades, David, ed. Chronicles of the Tudor Kings. Godalming, Surrey, England: Bramley Books, 1997. Anthology of eighty brief essays about all aspects of the culture and reign of the Tudor kings of England. Includes illustrations, genealogical table, maps, glossary, bibliography, and index.

McEntegart, Rory. Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, 2002. Study of Henry’s alliance and consultation with the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, analyzing his partial incorporation of German religious ideology into his own theology and the nascent Church of England. Looks both at the evolution of Henry’s religious thought and the wider political implications of that evolution. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Scarisbrick, J. J. Henry VIII. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. In this definitive study of Henry, the king emerges as being in control of the regime, a bright and clever politician, and a dedicated reformer in religion. The Scarisbrick thesis has become the standard interpretation of Henry VIII and has superseded the thesis advanced by A. F. Pollard in Henry VIII (1902), in which the king was viewed as a reluctant reformer who was loyal to Catholic doctrines.

Smith, Lacey Baldwin. Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Henry is portrayed in this biography as an observant and effective administrator who was eccentric in his work habits. The eccentricity frequently led contemporaries to conclude that Henry was not interested in the administration of the realm.

Starkey, David. “After the ’Revolution.’” In Revolution Reassessed: Revisions in the History of Tudor Government and Administration, edited by Christopher Coleman and David Starkey. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986. In this chapter, the author summarizes the attacks which have dismantled the principal points of the Elton thesis.

Wilson, Derek. In the Lion’s Court: Power, Ambition, and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002. Vivid study of the perils of Henry VIII’s court that details the fates of six of its members. Thematically designed to suggest parallels between the lives of these “six Thomases” and Henry’s six wives. Includes illustrations, maps, sixteen pages of plates, bibliographic references, and index.