Henry VIII is remembered for his radical changes to the English Constitution, his break away from the European Roman Catholic Church, and his six marriages.
Born on 28th June 1491, he was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. When Henry was 10 years old, his older brother Arthur died, leaving his widow of 20 weeks, Catherine of Aragon. Henry became the new Prince of Wales and heir to the throne. Except, he was not given the same education as his older brother, instead being strictly supervised and remaining private. This fuelled the theory that he ascended to the throne without knowing how to be a proper king…
To maintain the relationship between England and Spain, Henry VII said that Henry would marry Catherine when he came of age. In 1509 after his father died, Henry and Catherine were married, and a huge banquet was held. Together the couple had many miscarriages, but they would go on to have a girl, Mary (future Queen Mary I or ‘Bloody Mary’).
During their marriage, Henry had numerous mistresses and affairs. Most notably at the start were Mary and Anne Boleyn. Mary was Catherine’s lady-in-waiting and Anne was Mary’s sister. Henry became infatuated with Anne and basically decided that he needed to find a way to marry her.
In 1527 he went to Pope Clement VII to organise an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. However, Clement was a former prisoner and under close watch of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, who was also Catherine’s nephew and a devout catholic. Henry was trying to have a trial held in England, however he was unsuccessful even after the attempts of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
Henry sacked Wolsey and appointed Thomas Cromwell, his most loyal official. After Wolsey’s denouncement, Henry divorced Catherine. He had ordered Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury to rule his marriage null and void, and in 1533 he pronounced the King married to Anne Boleyn.
Together, Henry and Cromwell began to take away the land and assets that catholic nuns and monks owned, leading to the ‘dissolution of the monasteries’, the break away from the European Roman Catholic Church, and the establishment of the Church of England. Henry appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Three years after his marriage to Anne, Henry argued that her inability to produce a male heir was an act of treason and Anne was executed in 1536.
Henry would go on to marry four more times:
- Jane Seymour (m. 1536, died 1537)
- Anne of Cleves (m. 1540, annulled 1542)
- Catherine Howard (m. 1540, executed 1452)
- Catherine Parr (m. 1543, widowed 1547)
Discover the music from Henry VIII’s lifetime (including music he penned himself) when he radically changed the English Constitution, broke away from the European Roman Catholic Church, and established the theory of the divine right of kings in England.
