Henry VIII

6 Key excerpts on "Henry VIII"

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  Art in England

  • Sara N. James(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Oxbow Books

    (Publisher)

  The character of the monarch: Henry VIII Henry VIII (1509–1547), the bright, articulate, handsome, and robust second son of Henry VII, ascended the throne at age 17. At the outset of his reign, he largely continued his father’s conservative, domestically-focused plans, styles, and traditions. In fact, had he died young, he might have slipped into obscurity. In mid-life, however, the tide changed. Henry’s frenetic obsession to produce a legitimate male heir would effectively divide his reign into two distinct parts, the latter of which would have sweeping consequences in government, religion, art, and architecture. His reign witnessed more change than any reign since that of William the Conqueror. In addition, the emphasis on the conspicuous display of magnificence to promote power reached almost obsessive proportions. As a result, the king, nobles, and the artists they employed developed more complex and sophisticated methods of communicating religious, social, and political ideas. 1 Even for a second son, Henry’s upbringing and education varied significantly from the norm, which probably affected Chapter 7 I MAGE MAKING AND IMAGE BREAKING : A RT UNDER THE T UDOR MONARCHS – H ENRY VIII, E DWARD VI, AND M ARY I, 1509–1558 Sara N. James 230 his adult behavior. First, he grew up in a heavily female environment. While male tutors groomed his older brother Arthur for the throne at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire near the Welsh border, Henry received his education at home with his sisters, with his mother taking an active role. Perhaps Henry VII intended his second son to enter a career in the church, as was often the case with ambitious continental families. Henry did indeed show a facility for theological studies. After Arthur’s death in 1502, however, Henry’s education shifted to preparation for the role of king and dynasty-builder. He would be the first king since at least the twelfth century to receive a sophisticated, Latinate education.

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  The Making of the Modern English State, 1460-1660

  • Philip Edwards(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Henry VIII's large frame and terrifying gaze in the portraits suggest that he was completely in charge of policy and dominant at Court. But was he dominant, or instead largely passive? Was he the master puppeteer fully in command, or merely the puppet of factions who really controlled the direction of policy? There is simply no agreement on this among modern historians. The reign of Henry VIII seems to fall into three distinct periods: the first from 1509 to 1529 is characterised by an initial 97 reaction against the policies of Henry VII `the aristocratic reac-tion'), preparation for war with France, and the rise and con-sequent dominance of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey. The second period, 1530±40, was a decade of enormous change and reform, encompassing the Anglican Reformation and engineered by that skilled bureaucrat, Thomas Cromwell. The last period from Cromwell's execution in July 1540 to the king's own death in January 1547 was notable for the absence of a clear first minister and for a return to war and consequent economic hardship: a dismal period of decline that has been condemned as `puerile and fatuous compared to the giant strides and historic achieve-ments of the middle years of his reign'. 1 The reign of Henry VIII ended as it had begun ± in warfare against the medieval enemy, France. The `aristocratic reaction' and the rise of Thomas Wolsey The start of the new reign witnessed what is termed `an aristo-cratic reaction' to the policies of Henry VII. The new king turned his back on his father's regime and the latter's attempt to brow-beat the nobility into subjection. One of Henry VIII's first acts was to allow the execution of Empson and Dudley as a sop to the nobles . Henry VIII was clearly making a bid for popularity as well as, be it noted, demonstrating a very cruel, ruthless streak right at the start despite his youth.

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  British Kings (Volume-2)

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • White Word Publications

    (Publisher)

  Henry oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Henry was an attractive and charismatic man in his prime, educated and accomplished. He was an author and a composer. He ruled with absolute power. His desire to provide England with a male heir—which stemmed partly from personal vanity and partly because he believed a daughter would be unable to consolidate the Tudor Dynasty and the fragile peace that existed following the Wars of the Roses—led to the two things that Henry is remembered for today: his wives, and the English Reformation that made England a mostly Protestant nation. In later life he became morbidly obese and his health suffered; his public image is frequently depicted as one of a lustful, egotistical, harsh and insecure king. ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Early years: 1491–1509 Born at 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. Elizabeth of York, his mother, died when Henry was aged 11. Death of Arthur Arthur around the time of his marriage c.1501 ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Catherine as a young widow, by Henry VII's court painter, Michael Sittow, in c.1502. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, after only 20 weeks of marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

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  Dark History of the Tudors

  Murder, adultery, incest, witchcraft, wars, religious persecution, piracy

  • Judith John(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Amber Books Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Henry VIII is pictured here as an erudite, strong and handsome man. However, he is much more recognisable in his later portraits, where his large girth, jowls and humourless expression belie his poor health and temper.

  II

  TUDORS

  Henry VIII: BIRTH OF A LEGEND

  For a young man with a healthy sense of self-worth raised as a prince, Henry had no trouble accepting his new role as King. Taking on the mantle of monarchy with ease, Henry’s first and abiding priority was to make a strong, indelible mark on his kingdom. This was achieved beyond even his wildest dreams, making Henry VIII forever remembered as an autocratic, relentless and dynamic ruler. The most infamous King in British history had begun his 38-year reign.

  ‘Kings of England in times past never had any superior but God.’

  T he second son of King Henry VII, young Henry was born on 28 June 1491 at Greenwich Palace and groomed as a prince throughout his early childhood. His brother, Arthur, older than Henry by five years, would take the throne on their father’s death. Henry was therefore allowed a slightly more informal childhood to the heir to the throne. Known for being a learned man, Henry was tutored under John Skelton, a Cambridge scholar who taught him the classics. Lord Mountjoy mentored him in how to act like a gentleman. William Hone tutored him in theology, a subject in which he became very interested. In this religious education were the roots of his later dispute with the Catholic Church. At the time of Henry’s coronation and for almost 1000 years prior to that, Catholicism had been the only religion of England and much of Europe.

  Becoming Henry

  Henry excelled at sports, loving horse riding, jousting, hunting and wrestling in particular. He was also well known for his dancing skills. In contrast to his father, who was seen as a miserly killjoy, Henry knew how to enjoy himself. Made Duke of York at the age of three and appointed to the Order of the Garter at age five, Henry might have entered the Church – a common tradition for the second son – if his older brother, Arthur, had lived to be King.

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  Reformation England 1480-1642

  • Peter Marshall(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  What is not in doubt is the crucial importance of the personality and preju-dices of the King. Henry looks like a conservative Catholic, fiercely attached to the mass. But at the same time he was lukewarm about purgatory, and cheer-fully sanctioned the destruction of monasteries and shrines. Whether Henry was always doubtful about some aspects of traditional religion or whether he came to repudiate devotional attitudes he had held intensely in his youth is a 67 Glyn Redworth, ‘A Study in the Formulation of Policy: The Genesis and Evolution of the Act of Six Articles’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History , 37 (1986); Marshall, Beliefs , pp. 77–8. 68 MacCulloch, Cranmer , p. 316. 69 David Starkey, The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and Politics (London, 1985), Chapters 6 and 7; Eric Ives, ‘Henry VIII: The Political Perspective’, in MacCulloch, Henry VIII , pp. 27–34. 70 George Bernard, ‘The Making of Religious Policy, 1533–1546: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way’, Historical Journal , 41 (1998); George Bernard, King’s Reformation , passim ; Wooding, Henry VIII , pp. 82–9; Glyn Redworth, ‘Whatever Happened to the English Reformation?’, History Today (October 1987). Henry VIII’s Reformation 1525–47 51 disputed question. 71 He was certainly anticlerical, deeply distrustful of clerical power and pretensions. Most of all, Henry believed in himself, and the Royal Supremacy he had become convinced was his birthright. Pamela Tudor-Craig and Richard Rex have persuasively suggested that Henry modelled himself on the kings of the Old Testament – rulers with a hotline to the Almighty and a divine mandate to reform abuses and preserve true religion. 72 Henry’s own political testament was a speech to parliament at Christmas 1545 in which he bemoaned a lack of unity, accusing some of being ‘too stiff in their old mump-simus’ (old-fashioned Catholicism) and others of being ‘too busy and curious in their new sumpsimus’ (evangelical reforming).

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  The Age of Reformation

  The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603

  • Alec Ryrie(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

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  Henry’s commitment to the Royal Supremacy became inescapable in 1536, when both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were dead, and their two surviving daughters were both declared bastards. Henry could easily have been reconciled to Rome at this point, trading a little personal humiliation for greatly increased international and internal security. Princess Mary’s legitimacy would have had to be accepted, but there would have been no obstacle to papal recognition of his third marriage, to Jane Seymour. Yet the king does not seem even to have considered the prospect. He now truly believed that he was Supreme Head of the Church, and he would defend that status against all comers.

  So does all this amount to an English Reformation? Perhaps it was the beginnings of one. The grubby tale of marital breakdown is an eternal one, but only in the early sixteenth century could it have blown up into a jurisdictional dispute and into national schism. The European Reformation did not cause the English political crisis of 1527–34, but it made the eventual solution to that crisis possible. Christian humanism had given Henry VIII a taste for Biblical arguments, and that, combined with his self-righteous theatricality, made him less likely to seek a modest, legalistic solution to the crisis. Lutheran arguments about the spiritual authority of kings, filtered through Tyndale and through Anne Boleyn, gave Henry the moral confidence he needed first to bully the Church, then to threaten schism and finally to make good on that threat. The spread of evangelical doctrines in the universities, at court and in a few other small but influential circles gave Henry much-needed allies, as the squabble over his marriage turned into a broader battle with the papacy. And the successful schisms of the German and Scandinavian princes proved that it could be done without courting annihilation either from the emperor or from God. Henry’s schism was not, yet, a Protestant Reformation. But it was a Reformation made possible by Protestantism.

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