Let’s take a trip down memory lane, or glimpse into the future, to 8th grade history with Mr. Weger. The renaissance period was one of the many significant cultural events that was covered in that class and brought us to where we are today. One of the many names mentioned was King Henry VIII, famous for his six wives and the changes he brought to England in order to divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Many of his other contributions and how his actions affected future generations are overlooked or completely ignored. While his split from the Catholic Church is extremely significant to history itself, his other contributions, such as strengthening the British Navy, are just as important.
In August 1485, Henry VII was declared King of England after a thirty year war, the War of the Roses. He married Elizabeth of York and they had four children. On June 28, 1491 Henry was born at Greenwich, the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth. Henry was the second son of the monarchs making him the spare heir. His older brother, Arthur, was the heir to the throne. As the spare, Henry was being prepared for either a church career or a lesser noble role. He was raised by his mother and tutors alongside his two sisters, Margaret and Mary, who both became Queens. His early life was surprisingly not as well documented as most would expect a child of the royal family would be. He finally makes a more prominent appearance after the death of his older brother on April 2, 1502. The ten year old second son was now the heir to the English throne. Less than a year later, his mother died, followed by his grandmother shortly thereafter.
Before his death, Prince Arthur had been married to the Spanish Princess Katherine of Aragon. The two had been betrothed since Arthur was two and Katherine three. Katherine, or Katalina as she was known in Spain, was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The Spanish monarchs are best known for the Spanish Inquisition and funding Christopher Columbus’s expedition to America.
After the death of her first husband, Katherine was left alone in a foreign country. Her father and Henry VII couldn’t decide on what to do with her. Henry VII wanted to keep her large dowry and considered marrying her himself. Ferdinand refused this, but he made no move to remove his daughter from England. Katherine was left alone in England with no cash inflow. Despite being borderline bankrupt and being forced to fire the majority of her staff, Katherine became the first female ambassador in England. It was suggested that she marry Arthur’s younger brother, but marrying your brother’s widow was not allowed by the church. Katherine swore that her first marriage had never been consummated, making it invalid.
Finally on April 27, 1509, Henry VII died, passing the throne to his son. On the 11th of June, Henry VIII married Katherine, for love. Two weeks later, they were crowned together.
Towards the end of his reign, Henry VII grew very unpopular with the people. His son, along with his new wife, were celebrated when they ascended the throne together. Henry had a love for the arts and was an avid sportsman, a true renaissance man. Not long after the wedding, Katherine became pregnant. She unfortunately miscarried a daughter, but she and Henry believed they had plenty of time to have more children. Their next child was a son, Henry Duke of Cornwall, the celebrated son and heir. Tragedy struck again when he died fifty-two days later. After the loss of two children, Henry sought to prove himself in other ways.
In 1512, he declared war on France with the help of Cardinal Wosley. Previously, Henry’s council had been denying him the right to declare war. Even though he was the King, he still needed their official seal of approval. Wosley got around this by writing bills that didn’t need the seal.
Bypassing the council wasn’t the only thing Henry needed to be able to go to war. Henry had inherited a navy with only five ships. In previous times of war, the crown would commission merchant vessels to be outfitted for battle. Henry built the dockyards of Woolwich and Deptford along with the first naval dock at Portsmouth. At the time of his
death, Henry had increased the Royal Navy to forty ships and created the Navy Board to control the navy.
Henry set off for war with his prized ship, the Mary Rose. Built with the state of the art design for the time, the Mary Rose, along with its sister ship the Peter Pomegranate, was a formidable war ship. The Mary Rose was instrumental in the sea battles against the French. On land, Henry’s army captured the town of Thérouanne and the city of Tournai.
Back in England, Katherine, who Henry had appointed regent in his absence, led the British forces to fight the Scottish. At the Battle of Flodden, Katherine’s forces defeated and killed King James IV. She sent his bloodied cloak to her husband in France along with a letter giving him all the credit. During the fighting with Scotland, Katherine had been pregnant. This son ended up being a stillborn, with her fourth pregnancy ending the same way. In France, Henry was losing and running out of money. He returned home in defeat.
Finally on February 18, 1516, the couple’s only surviving child Mary was born. Two more pregnancies followed, but neither child survived. While Henry was concerned over the lack of a male heir, Katherine put her focus on her daughter. A well educated woman herself, she focused on Mary’s education and the education of women in England.
In 1520, the monarchs attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. A treaty between France and England was signed and sealed with the betrothal of Mary and Dauphin Francis. The alliances fell through and Mary was betrothed to her twenty two year old cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
With this new alliance, England went to war again. In the first two years Spain didn’t contribute. By the third year, Henry had given up; Spain on the other hand won and took control of the Pope. Charles broke his engagement to Mary.
Henry was becoming increasingly unhappy with his wife. He had several mistresses, resulting in one illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Henry’s eyes eventually snagged on the younger sister of one of his mistresses, Anne Boleyn. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Lady Elizabeth Howard. She was a lady in waiting for Margaret of Austria and later part of Queen Claude of France's inner circle. Upon her return to England she became a lady in waiting to Katherine.
Henry grew obsessed with Anne but it is unclear if she actually wanted the king or not. Anne refused his gifts and even left court momentarily to escape the king. Henry wanted a divorce, but Katherine refused. For the entirety of their divorce trial, Katherine continued to state that she never consummated her first marriage. Henry appealed to the Pope but he was under the control of Charles V, Katherine’s nephew. After a long trial, Henry was denied a divorce.
Henry’s closest advisors, most notably Thomas Cranmer who became Archbishop of Canterbury, encouraged Henry to embrace protestant reforms and split from Rome. Up until this point, Henry had been against protestant reformation, even writing papers against popular reformer Martin Luther. Finally, in 1533 Henry was granted his divorce by Cranmer and married Anne in a secret ceremony. She was crowned queen in June of that year. In 1534, Henry created the Act of Supremacy which made him and his descendants the Supreme Heads of the Church of England. Any who disagreed with this was executed. After the divorce, Katherine was banished from court and was no longer allowed to see her daughter. Henry gave them the chance to see each other if they swore loyalty to him and Anne; they both refused. The people were outraged and hated Anne. Henry and Anne went on to have one daughter, Elizabeth I, and later ended their marriage with the beheading of Anne. Henry married four more times, with
his third marriage to Jane Seymour giving him a long awaited son, Edward VI.
By the time of his death in 1547, Henry had gone to war with France for a third time and kicked off the beginning of the medical reforms in England. His split from the church led to Mary I earning her nickname Bloody Mary, as she tried to make England Catholic again. Elizabeth I used the fleet her father had built to defeat the Spanish Armada and make England one of the greatest sea powers of the time.
Sources: National Portrait Gallery, The War of the Roses: History.com, Royal Museums Greenwich, Reformation: History.com, The Royal Navy 1, The Mary Rose, Henry Fitzroy, Third French War, Medical Reforms, Early Life, University of Mary Washington
Katherine of Aragon’s 7-Year Wait to Marry Henry VIII: BBC Select
The Six Wives of Henry VIII: History Tea Time
Henry VIII: OverSimplified
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