Editing House of Tudor (section)

== Henry VIII ==
[[File:After Hans Holbein the Younger - Portrait of Henry VIII - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|Henry VIII of England: Henry's quarrels with the Pope led to the creation of the [[Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919|Church of England]]]]

The new King [[Henry VIII]] succeeded to the throne on 22 April 1509. He married [[Catherine of Aragon]] on 11 June; they were crowned at [[Westminster Abbey]] on 24 June. Catherine had previously been the wife of Henry's older brother Arthur (died 1502); this fact made the course of their marriage a rocky one from the start. A papal dispensation had to be granted for Henry to be able to marry Catherine, and the negotiations took some time. Despite the fact that Henry's father died before he was married to Catherine, he was determined to marry her anyway and to make sure that everyone knew he intended on being his own master.

When Henry first came to the throne, he had very little interest in actually ruling; rather, he preferred to indulge in luxuries and to partake in sports. He let others control the kingdom for the first two years of his reign, and then when he became more interested in military strategy, he took more interest in ruling his own realm.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Life of King Henry VIII (1491–1547). Biography of Henry Tudor, King of England |url=http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbio.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422002955/http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbio.htm |archive-date=22 April 2012 |access-date=17 October 2013 |publisher=Luminarium.org}}</ref> In his younger years, Henry was described{{By whom|date=June 2020}} as a man of gentle friendliness, gentle in debate, and who acted as more of a companion than a king. He was tall, handsome and cultured and generous in his gifts and affection and was said to be easy to get along with.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Introduction to Tudor England |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/tudors |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529054622/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/tudors |archive-date=29 May 2022 |access-date=1 June 2022 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> The Henry that many people picture when they hear his name is the Henry of his later years, when he became obese, volatile, and was known for his great cruelty.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lipscomb |first=Suzannah |author-link=Suzannah Lipscomb |date=2009 |title=Who was Henry? |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/who-was-henry-viii |url-status=live |journal=History Today |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=14–20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226101633/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/who-was-henry-viii |archive-date=26 December 2022 |access-date=27 June 2020 |quote=Popular perceptions of Henry VIII, according to focus groups consulted by the market research agency BDRC for Historic Royal palaces, are that he was a fat guy who had six, or maybe eight wives, and that he killed a lot of them.}}</ref>

[[File:Catalina de Aragón, por un artista anónimo.jpg|thumb |upright|[[Catherine of Aragon]]: the Church of England annulled her marriage after she failed to produce a [[male heir]] to the Tudor dynasty]]
Catherine did not bear Henry the sons he was desperate for; her first child, a daughter, was stillborn, and her second child, a son named [[Henry, Duke of Cornwall]], died 52 days after birth. A further set of stillborn children followed, until a surviving daughter, [[Mary I of England|Mary]], was born in 1516. When it became clear to Henry that the Tudor line was at risk, he consulted his chief minister [[Cardinal Wolsey]] about the possibility of annulling his marriage to Catherine. Along with Henry's concern that he would not have an heir, it was also obvious to his court that he was becoming tired of his aging wife, who was six years older than he was. Wolsey visited Rome,{{When|date=June 2020}} where he hoped to get the Pope's consent for an annulment. However, the Holy See was reluctant to rescind the earlier papal dispensation and felt heavy pressure from Catherine's nephew, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], in support of his aunt. Catherine contested the proceedings, and a protracted legal battle followed. Wolsey fell from favour in 1529 as a result of his failure to procure the annulment, and Henry appointed [[Thomas Cromwell]] in his place as chief minister {{Circa | 1532}}.

Despite his failure to produce the results that Henry wanted, Wolsey actively pursued the annulment (divorce was synonymous with annulment at that time). However, Wolsey never planned that Henry would marry [[Anne Boleyn]], with whom the king had become enamoured while she served as a lady-in-waiting in Queen Catherine's household. It is unclear how far Wolsey was actually responsible for the [[English Reformation]], but it is very clear that Henry's desire to marry Anne Boleyn precipitated the schism with Rome. Henry's concern about having an heir to secure his family line and to increase his security while alive would have prompted him to ask for an annulment sooner or later, whether Anne had precipitated it or not. Wolsey's sudden death at [[Leicester]] on 29 November 1530 on his journey to the [[Tower of London]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Abbey; Cardinal Wolsey |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/ep/planning/conservation/scheduledmonuments/scheduledmonumentslist/leicesterabbey/theleicesterabbeystory/history-cardinalwolsey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509112412/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/ep/planning/conservation/scheduledmonuments/scheduledmonumentslist/leicesterabbey/theleicesterabbeystory/history-cardinalwolsey |archive-date=9 May 2012 |access-date=19 January 2012 |website=Environment & Planning |publisher=Leicester City Council}}</ref> saved him from the public humiliation and inevitable execution he would have suffered upon his arrival at the Tower.{{Sfn|Smith|1992|pp=18-21}}

=== Break with Rome ===
[[File:Cromwell,Thomas(1EEssex)01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex]], Henry VIII's chief minister responsible for the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]]]]

In order to allow Henry to dissolve his marriage and marry Anne Boleyn, the English parliament enacted laws breaking ties with Rome, and declaring the king Supreme Head of the Church of England (from [[Elizabeth I]] the monarch is known as the [[Supreme Governor of the Church of England]]), thus severing the ecclesiastical structure of England from the Catholic Church and the Pope. The newly appointed [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Thomas Cranmer]], was then able to declare Henry's marriage to Catherine [[annulment|void]]. Catherine was banished from court, and she spent the last three years of her life in various English houses under "protectorship", similar to house arrest.{{Sfn|Tittler|Jones|2004|p=37}} This allowed Henry to marry Anne Boleyn. She gave birth on 7 September 1533 to a daughter, [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth]], named in honour of Henry's mother.{{Sfn|Tittler|Jones|2004|p=36}} Anne had two further pregnancies which ended in miscarriage. In 1536, Anne was arrested, along with six courtiers. [[Thomas Cromwell]], Anne's former ally, stepped in again, claiming that she had taken lovers during her marriage to Henry, including her own brother, [[George Boleyn]], and she was tried for [[high treason]] and [[incest]]. These charges were most likely fabricated, but she was found guilty and executed in May 1536.

=== Protestant alliance ===

Henry married again, for a third time, to [[Jane Seymour]], the daughter of a Wiltshire knight, and with whom he had become enamoured while she was still a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne. Jane became pregnant, and in 1537 produced a son, who became [[King Edward VI]] following Henry's death in 1547. Jane died of [[puerperal fever]] only a few days after the birth, leaving Henry devastated. Cromwell continued to gain the king's favour when he designed and pushed through the [[Laws in Wales Acts]], uniting England and Wales.

In 1540, Henry married for the fourth time to the daughter of a Protestant German duke, [[Anne of Cleves]], thus forming an alliance with the Protestant German states. Henry was reluctant to marry again, especially to a Protestant, but he was persuaded when the court painter [[Hans Holbein the Younger]] showed him a flattering portrait of her. She arrived in England in December 1539, and Henry rode to [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] to meet her on 1 January 1540. Although the historian [[Gilbert Burnet]] claimed that Henry called her a ''Flanders Mare'', there is no evidence that he said this; in truth, court ambassadors negotiating the marriage praised her beauty. Whatever the circumstances were, the marriage failed, and Anne agreed to a peaceful annulment, assumed the title ''My Lady, the King's Sister'', and received a large settlement, which included [[Richmond Palace]], [[Hever Castle]], and numerous other estates across the country. Although the marriage made sense in terms of foreign policy, Henry was still enraged and offended by the match. Henry chose to blame Cromwell for the failed marriage, and ordered him beheaded on 28 July 1540.{{Sfn|Loades|1991|p=4}} Henry kept his word and took care of Anne in his last years alive; however, after his death Anne suffered from extreme financial hardship because Edward VI's councillors refused to give her any funds and confiscated the homes she had been given. She pleaded to her brother to let her return home, but he only sent a few agents who tried to assist in helping her situation and refused to let her return home. Anne died on 16 July 1557 in [[Chelsea Manor]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Warnicke |first=Retha |date=2005 |title=Anne of Cleves, Queen of England |journal=History Review |issue=51 |pages=39–40}}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Cranmer]], Henry's first Protestant [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], responsible for the [[Book of Common Prayer]] during Edward VI's reign]]

The fifth marriage was to the young [[Catherine Howard]], niece of the Catholic [[Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk]]. Catherine was promoted by Norfolk in the hope that she would persuade Henry to restore the Catholic religion in England. Henry called her his "rose without a thorn", but the marriage ended in failure. Henry's infatuation with Catherine started before the end of his marriage with Anne when she was still a member of Anne's court. Catherine was young and vivacious, but Henry's age made him less inclined to use Catherine in the bedroom; rather, he preferred to admire her, which Catherine soon grew tired of. Catherine, forced into a marriage to an unattractive, obese man over 30 years her senior, had never wanted to marry Henry, and allegedly conducted an affair with the King's favourite, [[Thomas Culpeper]], while Henry and she were married. During her questioning, Catherine first denied everything but eventually she was broken down and told of her infidelity and her pre-nuptial relations with other men. Henry, first enraged, threatened to torture her to death but later became overcome with grief and self-pity. She was accused of treason and was [[executed]] on 13 February 1542, destroying the English Catholic holdouts' hopes of a national reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Her execution also marked the end of the Howard family's power and influence within the English court.{{Sfn|Loades|1991|pp=4–8}}

By the time Henry conducted another marriage with his final wife [[Catherine Parr]] in July 1543, the old Roman Catholic advisers, including the Duke of Norfolk, had lost all their power and influence. Norfolk himself was still a committed Catholic, and he was nearly persuaded to arrest Catherine for preaching Lutheran doctrines to Henry while she attended his ill health. However, she managed to reconcile with the King after vowing that she had only argued about religion with him to take his mind off the suffering caused by his ulcerous leg. Her peacemaking also helped reconcile Henry with his daughters Mary and Elizabeth and fostered a good relationship between her and Edward.