In doing so, he fundamentally altered the course of Christian and European history. Subsequent to his remarriage, Henry issued a string of decrees that removed his kingdom from papal rule, ending the supremacy of the Catholic Church and creating the Church of England.
Henry simply jumped on the convenient bandwagon of a wider movement for religious reform. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 created the Church of England and made Henry its head – and as a consequence Britain changed forever.
Many historians argue that Henry grew tyrannical only after Katharine of Aragon failed to provide an heir but the evidence proves otherwise. If someone could not be legally executed, the king simply invented a new charge.
Henry VIII: First Years as King. He issued a book-length attack on Martin Luther’s church reforms that earned him the title “Defender of the Faith” from Pope Leo X. But the lack of a male heir—especially after he fathered a healthy illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519—gnawed at the king.
King Henry VIII did not just make changes to the church, he started one of his own. He broke away from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. In this way, he was the leader of the English Reformation.
He was a powerful man and charismatic figure; perhaps best known for his tumultuous love life and the establishment of the Church of England. He is also credited with establishing the Royal Navy, encouraging shipbuilding and the creation of anchorages and dockyards.
Contents. King Henry VIII (1491-1547) ruled England for 36 years, presiding over sweeping changes that brought his nation into the Protestant Reformation. He famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance, marital bliss and a healthy male heir.
In a reign of 24 years Henry VII changed the social and economic structure of this country. He divided and undermined the powers of the nobility, promoting men of ability rather than the royal blood, and focused his attention on education and trade rather than warfare.
But Henry was also a patron of the arts and humanist learning, and was a driving force behind an enthusiastic building campaign. He also fortified England, building an impressive navy that would impact the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I.
William I ('William the Conqueror'), r1066–87 This brave, brutal, illiterate but clever Norman warlord attained at the battle of Hastings (14 October 1066) the most durable victory of any monarch in English history. At the head of 5,000 knights, he made himself master of a kingdom with perhaps 1.5 million inhabitants.
Elizabeth of York was crowned queen on 25 November 1487. She gave birth to several more children, but only four survived infancy: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary. Despite being a political arrangement at first, the marriage proved successful and both partners appear to have slowly fallen in love with each other.
Henry VII, an intelligent and tactful King Henry VII's tactful manner and intelligent mind meant that he was undoubtedly the better King due to his unswerving determination to transform England into a blend of harmony, wealth and social success.
This is why he named the book the “Winter King”. Henry VII had a dubious claim to the throne of England based on ancestry alone. He had spent most of his early years in exile on the continent and essentially had no thought or chance of becoming King of England.
But his lasting legacy was the break with the Church – the Catholic Church – which had wielded enormous political and social power, not always benignly, throughout the Middle Ages. It took Henry 18 years to realise that he didn’t want to stay married to the first Mrs Tudor, Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow.
Henry’s principal advisors were now more likely to be laymen – men like More, and his successor, Thomas Cromwell – than men of the cloth, like his previous Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, discredited for failing to get what Henry wanted – a divorce.
But the Pope would not give Henry a divorce, partly for fear of upsetting Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor – who happened to be Catherine of Aragon’s nephew – even though there were possible theological grounds for annulment because she had been his brother’s widow.
Understandably, the Irish rebelled against English (and Protestant) rule – and Irish wars were a feature of the Tudor period and beyond. Henry tried to persuade his nephew, James V of Scotland, to follow his lead and break with Rome. James’s refusal provoked an irritated Henry to send a wrecking army into the borders.
James’s refusal provoked an irritated Henry to send a wrecking army into the borders. In return, James invaded England with a large army, which was roundly defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. The following year, representatives of both countries concluded the Treaty of Greenwich, which not only made peace, ...
Be clear; the course of history was re-written, not because of any particular religious zeal or alleged moral imperative, but as a matter of expediency, to enable Henry to get his own way. Henry simply jumped on the convenient bandwagon of a wider movement for religious reform.
The fate of a nation decided on a king’s whim – or his desire for a male heir. No challenge blighted Henry VIII’s accession to the English throne. The country was at peace and it seemed to be a golden age. In contrast to the ailing, bloated, tyrant he was to become, the youthful king is often portrayed as a true renaissance prince – a modern man ...
Any of us would have emerged as a mass of contradictions and frustrations. So Henry VIII, crowned king at the prime of his life, just eighteen years old and physically magnificent with more enthusiasm and energy than most of his contemporaries, became a conflicted and confused man.
How can one adequately describe Henry’s personality? Imagine yourself as Henry VIII, the second son suddenly yanked into the spotlight by your older brother’s death. Sheltered and smothered by a father suddenly aware that he has just one heir left; handsome and intelligent and, by turns, both recklessly indulged and then denied. Any of us would have emerged as a mass of contradictions and frustrations. So Henry VIII, crowned king at the prime of his life, just eighteen years old and physically magnificent with more enthusiasm and energy than most of his contemporaries, became a conflicted and confused man. But it is a shame to let the last twenty years of his life color the interpretation of his entire life. One should not see him as simply an ogre king who beheaded two wives, divorced two others, and rejected another in one of the most humiliating ways possible.
This second son was a necessary insurance policy for the new Tudor dynasty. Childhood mortality was high and diseases such as small pox, the sweating sickness, and the plague were rife throughout England. A king needed as many healthy heirs as possible, and the birth of a second son was an occasion for celebration.
Elizabeth of York, despite repeated pregnancies, had not borne another healthy son; after Henry’s birth, there was just one more male child – a son called Edmund, born in 1499 and dead just a year later.
And in 1494, Arthur’s baby brother was titled duke of York, the traditional title of the king’s brother. At this early age, all we know of Prince Henry was that he was considered a handsome and precocious toddler, but one would expect such descriptions of the king’s son.
For the new king, the birth of a healthy second child, and his wife’s rapid recovery, were good omens. Even as he attempted to enforce his rule in the always troublesome northern England which had been Richard III’s base of support, Henry VII could rest assured that his dynasty was becoming secure.
It was a time of unparalleled scientific experiment, intellectual fervor, and spirited debate. In such a time, traditional views of kingship were bound to change for both the ruler and those he ruled.
Henry eliminated five of the seven Catholic sacraments, leaving just the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Henry also placed more importance on justification by faith for salvation. Like the Lutherans, Anglicans simply had to have faith in God and repent their sins to receive salvation.
Henry VIII, king of England, reformed the Roman Catholic Church to suit his own needs. His changes are known as the English Reformation and occurred in the 16th Century. He was motivated to make the reforms so that he could divorce his first wife who had failed to provide him with a male heir. Divorce was forbidden by the church.
Essentially, the greatest reform of Henry was that he connected the throne of England as the head of the new church in England. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team.
He broke away from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. In this way, he was the leader of the English Reformation. Unlike other Protestant reformers, Henry did not have serious disagreements with the Catholics in terms of dogma and teachings; his issues were of of personal and political nature. ...
Divorce was forbidden by the church. Since Henry wanted a divorce, he separated from the church. He was put at the helm of the Church of England. The religion was not radically changed in terms of the ritual and services. The Holy Bible was written in English instead of Latin and was translated by English priests.
After splitting from the Catholic Church in 1533, King Henry seized the property of Catholic institutions in his realm. He instituted his own church hierarchy with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the top bishop in the kingdom. Henry even placed himself as the head of the Church of England, essentially taking on the role ...
Even though the Church of England did not differ much in its beliefs from the Catholic Church, Henry VIII did make some changes. This had much to do with the influence of other Protestant reformers in Europe at ...
By the end of his reign, England was looking to increase its influence in Europe having left the control of the Pope and begun to transform its own society. Tudor England is one of the most engaging periods of English history, and Henry is the centrepiece of those years.
Henry's reputation had been examined by many historians, and you can get a flavour of that in the work of Ronald Hutton. Susan Loughlin gives a neat summary of the different approaches to Henry here. It is also interesting to investigate Henry's psychology as well as his image. 1 Guided Discussion.
Henry VIII rejected Catholicism and founded the Church of England in 1533 after the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry's decision to leave the Catholic church and marry Anne Boleyn, Catherine's lady-in-waiting, prompted the pope to excommunicate him.
Henry wanted a male heir, and Catherine, who was in her 40s, had given birth to only one daughter. He hoped to conceive a son via a second marriage though he also specifically wanted to marry Anne. After their marriage, Henry became the head of the Church of England, effectively ending England's association with Catholicism and the pope; however, ...