King of England from 1509 (crowned June 24) until his death, aged 56, and having reigned 37 years and 9 months, Henry VIII is most popularly remembered as the king who broke the bond of the national church with Rome, and for his many marriages in his desperation to secure a male heir.
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The second son of Henry VII, prince Henry was not originally intended for the throne. While growing up, his brother Arthur was groomed for kingship. Towards that goal Arthur married the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon. Within a few months of their wedding, however, Arthur died suddenly, and Henry was called back into service. On the legal basis of the claim that Catherine's marriage to Arthur was never consummated, affirmed by a decree from Pope Alexander VI, Henry married his brother's widow, a woman he genuined seemed to have loved. The prince was crowned Henry VIII upon the death of his father in 1509.
Henry VIII was a staunch critic of the evangelicalism sparked by Luther's movement on the Continent. Thinking himself well-enough theologically informed he wrote a sharp rebuttal to Luther's book, Babylonian Captivity in 1521. For his effort, Pope Leo X awarded him the title "Defender of the Faith" in 1521 (a title that is still, with royal emptyness, applied to the modern monarch).
Henry VIII would have remained loyal to Rome if only Catherine would give him a male heir. Despite eight pregnancies, she could only give him a daughter, Mary. Neurotically obsessed with the matter, he felt—on a mistaken reading of Lev — that he was being cursed by God for marrying his brother's wife. He was, patently, also driven by his hormones, which he did little to master. Having already had numerous sexual liaisons, he had fathered a bastard named Henry Fitzroy in 1519. By 1527 this had become "the King's Great Matter"; he needed to find a way to annul his marriage to Catherine so that he would be free to remarry. He had, meanwhile, fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, who, cleverly, refused to sleep with him until she was made queen. Despite all his efforts, Cardinal Wolsey—foolish and over-ambitious in his own ways—got nowhere with the pope's dispensation for the annulment. Furious, he sacked Wolsey, who escaped beheading only because he died of acute dysentry while on the way to meet the king. The "Matter" was then assigned to Thomas Cromwell, who found a solution to the problem: praemunire, a supposedly ancient law of the land that no appeal may be made to any authority outside England in matters affecting the nation. This allowed Henry the final say in the divorce of his wife and to marry Anne Boleyn—who, by early 1533 and against her own cunning, was pregnant with Henry's child. By the Act of Supremacy declared in 1534, Henry VIII officially broke with Rome, making himself "the Supreme Head of the Church of England."
Anne Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth instead, making Henry even more desparate. Also, by then he had fallen for Jane Seymour. In 1536 charges of adultery were brought against Anne Boleyn, her brother and other supposed lovers; she was beheaded on 19 May 1536. Ten days later Henry married Jane Seymour. Finally, Henry got his male heir, Edward in Oct 1537. Twelve days later Jane died, stricked with a sever fever. That was all the children Henry would get, though he married three more times.
However one looks at it, the so-called "reformation" initiated by Henry VIII was a very mixed pot. On the one hand he trampled on popes to get his way and confiscated and stripped their properties to fund his coffer and exploits. On the other he had no difficulty entertaining evangelicals (like Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn) and burning countless of them as heretics as well (especially under the watch of Thomas More). He left the church more or less what he found it minus the popes, cardinals and monks, chantries and monastries. Turning the church more decidely in the direction of true reformation would be left to others after him.
Politically, Henry VIII could not count much in terms of real accomplishments, though he often fancied himself a major player in European politics. Few persons, it has often been opined and seldom disputed, had so much going for him to do good who yet accomplished so little as this man whose reign loomed so visibly in the history of the English. Grossly overweight, hampered and odoured by a festering leg sore that refused healing, he died a pathetic man, assured only that he escaped the curse of God because he had a male heir.
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Summary:
1491, Jun 28 - Prince Henry is born at Greenwich Palace.
1502, Apr 2 - Prince Arthur dies at Ludlow Castle, Shropshire.
1503, Aug 8 - Margaret, sister of Henry VIII by two years, marries King James IV of Scotland in Edinburgh.
1504, Nov - Pope Julius II issues dispensation for Henry to marry his brother's widow.
1509, Apr 21 - Henry VII dies but his death is kept a secret for two days to prevent the possibility of usurpation.
1509, Apr 24 - Henry VIII publicly declared heir to the throne, under the regency of his grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, until his eighteenth birthday.
1509, Jun 11 - Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon married at the church of Friars Observant, Greenwich.
1509, Jun 24 - Coronation of Henry VIII, and Catherine as queen consort at Westminster Abbey.
1511, Jan 1 - Catherine gives birth to a boy, who lived fifty-five days.
1511, Nov 17 - Treaty of Westminster provides a framework of countries of the 'Holy League' to provide military assistance.
1512 - Cardinal Wolsey becomes Henry's chief minister, de facto.
1513, July - Henry at war against France, leaving Catherine as regent.
1513, Sept 9 - Battle of Flodden Field, Northumberland; English forces under Thomas Howard defeat the Scots; King James IV of Scotland IHenry VIII's brother-in-law) and more than twelve thousand of his men killed.
1514, Oct - Henry VIII marries off his sister Mary to the aged Louis XII of France. Louis died on 1 Jan 1515 and Mary secretly marries Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
1515, Dec 24 - Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor, succeeding Archbishop William Warham.
1516, Feb 18 - Mary is born to Catherine and Henry VIII at Greenwich.
1518 - Thomas More enters Henry's service as Master of the Court of Requests.
1518 - Cardinal Wolsey made Papal Legate.
1519 - Charles V of Spain elected Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of Maximilian I.
1520, Jun 7-24 - 'Field of Cloth of Gold,' the meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France.
1521, Nov 24 - Pope Leo X grants Henry VIII title of 'Defender of the Faith.'
1522 - Anne Boleyn first appears in court.
1524, Mar 10 - Henry VIII is injured in a jousting match against Charles Brandon; the wound never healed and became a source of suffering esp. in Henry's later years.
1525 - Henry nearly drowns in hunting accident near Hitchen, Hertfordshire.
1527, May 17 - Wolsey convenes a legatine court to try the validity of Henry's marriage to Catherine but fails to achieve agreement.
1529, Jun 21 - Legative court meets at Blackfriar to again determine on Henry's marriage but is adjourned after more than a month without resolution.
1529, Oct - Wolsey is dismissed from his post as Chancellor for failure to resolve the king's 'great matter,' and is succeeded by Thomas More.
1530, Nov 4 - Wolsey arrested on charge of treason but dies of severe dysentry on 29 Nov.
1531, Mar 8 - Convocation of bishops recognizes Henry VIII as Head of the Church of England "as far as the law of God allows."
1531, July - Henry separates from Catherine.
1532, May 16 - Thomas More, seeing how the wind is blowing, resigns his post as Chancellor. He is succeeded by Thomas Cromwell.
1533, Jan 23 - Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn (already pregnant) in the Palace of Westminster.
1533, May 23 - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury divorces Henry and Catherine.
1533, Jun 1 - Anne Boleyn is crowned queen by Cranmer at Westminster Abbey.
1533, Sept 7 - Anne Boleyn gives birth to Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace.
1534, Nov - Act of Supremacy passed making the king "the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England," making the break with Rome final and complete.
1535, Jul 6 - Thomas More is beheaded at Tower Hill.
1536, Jan 7 - Catherine of Aragon dies.
1536, Jan 29 - Catherine is buried; Anne Boleyn miscarriages a boy.
1536, May 19 - Anne Boleyn is beheaded for adultery, together with five of her alleged lovers—one of them her brother. Next morning Henry marries Jane Seymour.
1536, Oct - The "Pilgrimage of Grace" rebellion.
1537 - Cranmer publishes the Bishops' Book.
1537, Oct 12 - Prince Edward (VI) is born to Jane Seymour & Henry.
1539, Apr - Miles Coverdale's "Great Bible" published, following a royal injunction issued the previous year that a copy of the English Bible should be available in every parish church.
1540, Jan 6 - Marriage to Anne of Cleve solemnized.
1540, Jun 10 - Thomas Cromwell charged with treason.
1540, Jul 9 - Marriage to Anne of Cleve formally annulled.
1540, Jul 28 - Thomas Cromwell beheaded; the same day Henry marries Katherine Howard.
1542, Feb 16 - Katherine Howard beheaded on charges of adultery.
1542, Nov 24 - Massive Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss; King James V dies 18 Dec, leaving behind ten-day old Mary (Queen of Scot) on the throne.
1543, - Henry marries Catherine Parr.
1544, July-Sept - Henry on the Continent warring against France but was betrayed by his ally Charles V who made a separate peace with Francis. England would end up paying for the cost of the war for the next twenty years.
1545 - France threatens invasion of England; the Mary Rose sinks in Portsmouth harbour during one of the alarms raised of French ships in the area.
1545, Dec 27 - Scots win a major victory over English forces at Ancrum Moor in Henry's "Rough Wooing" campaign.
1546, Mar-Aug - Henry allows Bishop Stephen Gardiner to investigate Catherine Parr for heresy.
1547, Jan 28 - Henry dies, aged 56, "a rotund colossus" and having reigned 37 years and 9 months.
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