Editing History of England (section)

===Henry VIII===
[[File:After Hans Holbein the Younger - Portrait of Henry VIII - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]]]

[[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] began his reign with much optimism. The handsome, athletic young king stood in sharp contrast to his wary, miserly father. Henry's lavish court quickly drained the treasury of the fortune he inherited. He married the widowed [[Catherine of Aragon]], and they had several children, but none survived infancy except a daughter, [[Mary I of England|Mary]].

In 1512, the young king started a [[War of the League of Cambrai|war in France]]. Although England was an ally of Spain, one of France's principal enemies, the war was mostly about Henry's desire for personal glory, despite his sister [[Mary Tudor, Queen of France|Mary]] being married to the French king [[Louis XII]]. The war accomplished little. The English army suffered badly from disease, and Henry was not even present at the one notable victory, the [[Battle of the Spurs]]. Meanwhile, [[James IV of Scotland]] (despite being Henry's other brother-in-law), activated his alliance with the French and declared war on England. While Henry was dallying in France, Catherine, who was serving as regent in his absence, and his advisers were left to deal with this threat. At the [[Battle of Flodden]] on 9 September 1513, the Scots were completely defeated. James and most of the Scottish nobles were killed. When Henry returned from France, he was given credit for the victory.

Eventually, Catherine was no longer able to have any more children. The king became increasingly nervous about the possibility of his daughter Mary inheriting the throne, as England's one experience with a female sovereign, Matilda in the 12th century, had been a catastrophe. He eventually decided that it was necessary to divorce Catherine and find a new queen. To persuade the Church to allow this, Henry cited the passage in the [[Book of Leviticus]]: "If a man taketh his brother's wife, he hath committed adultery; they shall be childless". However, Catherine insisted that she and Arthur never consummated their brief marriage and that the prohibition did not apply here. The timing of Henry's case was very unfortunate; it was 1527 and the Pope had been imprisoned by emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], Catherine's nephew and the most powerful man in Europe, for siding with his archenemy [[Francis I of France]]. Because he could not divorce in these circumstances, Henry seceded from the Church, in what became known as the [[English Reformation]].

The newly established [[Church of England]] amounted to little more than the existing Catholic Church, but led by the king rather than the Pope. It took a number of years for the separation from Rome to be completed, and many were executed for resisting the king's religious policies.

In 1530, Catherine was banished from court and spent the rest of her life (until her death in 1536) alone in an isolated manor home, barred from contact with Mary. Secret correspondence continued thanks to her ladies-in-waiting. Their marriage was declared invalid, making Mary an illegitimate child. Henry married [[Anne Boleyn]] secretly in January 1533, just as his divorce from Catherine was finalised. They had a second, public wedding. Anne soon became pregnant and may have already been when they wed. But on 7 September 1533, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. The king was devastated at his failure to obtain a son after all the effort it had taken to remarry. Gradually, he came to develop a disliking of his new queen for her strange behaviour. In 1536, when Anne was pregnant again, Henry was badly injured in a jousting accident. Shaken by this, the queen gave birth prematurely to a stillborn boy. By now, the king was convinced that his marriage was hexed, and having already found a new queen, Jane Seymour, he put Anne in the Tower of London on charges of witchcraft. Afterwards, she was beheaded along with five men (her brother included) accused of adultery with her. The marriage was then declared invalid, so that Elizabeth, just like her half sister, became a bastard.

Henry immediately married [[Jane Seymour]], who became pregnant almost as quickly. On 12 October 1537, she gave birth to a healthy boy, Edward, which was greeted with huge celebrations. However, the queen died of [[puerperal sepsis]] ten days later. Henry genuinely mourned her death, and at his own passing nine years later, he was buried next to her.

The king married a fourth time in 1540, to the German [[Anne of Cleves]] for a political alliance with her Protestant brother, the [[Duke of Cleves]]. He also hoped to obtain another son in case something should happen to Edward. Anne proved a dull, unattractive woman and Henry did not consummate the marriage. He quickly divorced her, and she remained in England as a kind of adopted sister to him. He married again, to a 19-year-old named [[Catherine Howard]]. But when it became known that she was neither a virgin at the wedding, nor a faithful wife afterwards, she ended up on the scaffold and the marriage declared invalid. His sixth and last marriage was to [[Catherine Parr]], who was more his nursemaid than anything else, as his health was failing since his jousting accident in 1536.

In 1542, the king started a new campaign in France, but unlike in 1512, he only managed with great difficulty. He only conquered the city of Boulogne, which France retook in 1549. Scotland also declared war and at [[Battle of Solway Moss|Solway Moss]] was again totally defeated.

Henry's paranoia and suspicion worsened in his last years. The number of executions during his 38-year reign numbered tens of thousands. His domestic policies had strengthened royal authority to the detriment of the aristocracy, and led to a safer realm, but his foreign policy adventures did not increase England's prestige abroad and wrecked royal finances and the national economy, and embittered the Irish.<ref name=twsBucholz1>Robert Bucholz, Newton Key, via Google Books, John Wiley & Sons Publishers, 31 December 2019 – History – 472 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-6275-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KfjYvfVOYwoC&dq=wreck+royal+finances&pg=PA101 Early Modern England 1485–1714: A Narrative History], retrieved 27 March 2020, see pages 102, 104, 107, 122–3</ref> He died in January 1547 at age 55 and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI.