King Henry VIII {Part I}

THE EMPEROR · Subject: King Henry VIII {Part I} Sun 14 Jun 2009 - 19:18

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.

Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy. Although in the great part of his reign he brutally suppressed the influence of the Protestant Reformation in England,[1] a movement having some roots with John Wycliffe in the 14th century, he is more popularly known for his political struggles with Rome. These struggles ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Although some[who?] claim that Henry became a Protestant on his death-bed, he advocated Catholic ceremony and doctrine throughout his life. Royal support for the English Reformation began with his heirs, the devout Edward VI and the renowned Elizabeth I, whilst daughter Mary I temporarily reinstated papal authority over England. Henry also oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. He is also noted for his six wives, two of whom were beheaded.

Early years: 1491-1509

Born in Greenwich Palace, Henry VIII was the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three — Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary — survived infancy. In 1493, at the age of two, 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. As it was expected that the throne would pass to Prince Arthur, Henry's older brother, Henry was prepared for a life in the church.

In 1502, Arthur, just 15 years old, died suddenly. His death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother Henry, who then became Prince of Wales. Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering Henry, Prince of Wales, in 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.
Catherine as a young widow, by Henry VII's court painter, Michael Sittow in c.1502.

In order for the new Prince of Wales to marry his brother's widow, a dispensation from the Pope was normally required to overrule the impediment of affinity. Catherine swore that her marriage to Prince Arthur had not been consummated. 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.

The impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella I, induced Pope Julius II to grant dispensation in the form of a Papal bull. So, 14 months after her young husband's death, Catherine found herself betrothed to his even younger brother, Henry. Yet by 1505, Henry VII lost interest in a Spanish alliance and the younger Henry declared that his betrothal had been arranged without his consent.

Continued diplomatic manoeuvring over the fate of the proposed marriage lingered until the death of Henry VII in 1509. Only 17 years old, Henry married Catherine on 11 June 1509 and, on 24 June 1509, the two were crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Marriages

Contrary to his popular image, Henry may not have had many affairs outside marriage and, apart from women he later married, the identities of only two mistresses are completely undisputed: Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn.

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 step on the path to legitimatising him. In 1533, FitzRoy married Mary Howard, Anne Boleyn's first cousin, but died three years later without any successors. At the time of FitzRoy's death the king was trying to pass a law that would allow his otherwise illegitimate son to become king.

Mary Boleyn was the sister of Anne Boleyn who later married Henry. She is thought to have been his mistress at some point between 1519 and 1526. There has been speculation that Mary's two children, Catherine and Henry were fathered by Henry, but this has never been proven and the King never acknowledged them as he did Henry FitzRoy.

In 1510 it was reported that Henry was conducting an affair with one of the sisters of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, either Elizabeth or Anne Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. Chapuys wrote that: the husband of that lady went away, carried her off and placed her in a convent sixty miles from here, that no one may see her..

Henry also seems to have had an affair with one of the Shelton sisters in 1535. Traditionally it has been believed that this was Margaret, but recent research has led to the claim that this was actually Mary.

There are also grounds for suspecting that he had an affair with an unknown woman in 1534. Alison Weir has argued that, aside from these five affairs, there were also numerous other short-term and secret liaisons, most of them conducted in the king's river-side mansion of Jordan House.

Henry attended a meeting with the French king at Calais in the winter of 1532, in which he enlisted the support of Francis I of France for his new marriage. Immediately upon returning to Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service. She soon became pregnant and there was a second wedding service, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move quickly. 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 good and valid.

Catherine was formally stripped of her title as queen, and Anne was consequently crowned queen consort on 1 June 1533. The queen gave birth slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533. Anne had given birth to a girl who was christened Elizabeth, in honour of Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York. Rejecting the decisions of the Pope, Parliament validated the marriage of Henry and Anne with the Act of Succession 1533. Catherine's daughter, Lady Mary, was declared illegitimate, and Anne's issue were declared next in the line of succession. Most notable in this declaration was 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 were subject to imprisonment for life. Any publisher or printer of any literature alleging that the marriage was invalid was automatically guilty of high treason and could be punished by death.

Separation from Rome: 1533-1540

Meanwhile, the House of Commons had forbidden all appeals to Rome and
exacted the penalties of præmunire against all who introduced papal
bulls into England. The House of Commons also prevented the Church from
making any regulations without the king's consent. It was only then
that Pope Clement at last took the step of launching sentences of
excommunication against Henry and Thomas Cranmer, declaring at the same
time the archbishop's decree of annulment to be invalid and the
marriage with Anne null and papal nuncio was withdrawn from England and
diplomatic relations with Rome were broken off. Several more laws were
passed in England. 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 to acknowledge the King as
such. In response to the excommunications, the Peter's Pence Act was
passed in 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.

In defiance of the Pope the Church of England was now under Henry’s
control, not Rome's. Protestant Reformers still faced persecution,
particularly over objections to Henry's divorce.[citation needed] Many
fled abroad where they met further difficulties, including the
influential William Tyndale, who was eventually burned at King Henry's
behest. Theological and practical reforms would follow only under
Henry's successors (see end of section).

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. 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.
The Tower of London, the site of many royal executions.

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 to the King and were subsequently convicted of high
treason and beheaded at Tower Hill, just outside the Tower of London,
while the usual punishment for such traitors would have been to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered.

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, 1536. 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 a royal
banquet. At the banquet, Henry 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, although what he had written
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
realised that the King was not keeping his promises and rebelled again
later that year, but their strength was less in the second attempt and
the King ordered the rebellion crushed. The leaders, including Aske,
were arrested and executed for treason.