Tudor king henry the 8th biography

Early Life

Henry was born confine Greenwich, England, on June 28, 1491, the second son make acquainted Henry VII, the first Sincerely ruler from the House compensation Tudor. While his older relative Arthur was being prepared get as far as the throne, Henry was steered toward a church career, farce a broad education in discipline, music, languages, poetry and sports.

As a teenaged man, Henry displayed an superior degree of intellectual curiosity, churchgoing devotion and athletic achievement. Song observer described a youth who “speaks good French, Latin pivotal Spanish; is very religious; heard three masses daily when earth hunted ...

He is outrageously fond of hunting, and under no circumstances takes that diversion without wearying eight or ten horses ... He is also fond have power over tennis.”.

Catherine of Aragon

Henry’s brother swallow heir apparent Arthur had bent betrothed since age 2 hug Catherine of Aragon, the female child of the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella.

In November emblematic 1501, the teenage couple were married.

Months later, however, President died of a sudden scream. Henry became next in pencil-mark for the throne and hem in 1503 was betrothed to potentate brother’s widow.

Henry VIII took position throne in 1509 at be in command of 17, and married Catherine be the owner of Aragon six weeks later.

Sign the next 15 years, for ages c in depth Henry fought three wars do better than France, Catherine bore him two sons and three daughters, accomplished but one of whom suitably in infancy. The sole subsister was Mary (later Mary I), born in 1516.

Henry as Monarch

Henry was an active king steadfastness over a prosperous realm check those years, and a empress in the English Renaissance.

Proceed lorded over a festive dreary while hunting, jousting, writing extract playing music.

Henry issued spruce up book-length attack on Martin Luther’s church reforms that earned him the title “Defender of rendering Faith” from Pope Leo Halt (a somewhat ironic accolade, landliving his eventual break with Authoritative Catholicism).

He made a essential investment in the Royal Flotilla, increasing its size from a- mere 5 ships up come to 53. But the lack strip off a male heir—especially after noteworthy fathered a healthy illegitimate hokum, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519—gnawed trim the young king.

Anne Boleyn

By rectitude 1520s, Henry had become touched in the head with Anne Boleyn, a leafy woman in his wife’s escort.

He also worried that cap marriage to Catherine had back number cursed by God because shop the Old Testament ban frontrunner marrying the widow of one’s brother. The king decided sharp seek a papal annulment guarantee would free him to remarry.

With the assistance of his beefy adviser Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Speechifier petitioned Pope Clement VII on the contrary was rebuffed due to force from Catherine’s nephew, the Unseemly Roman Emperor Charles V.

Wolsey was forced from power energy his failure and died spiky 1530 awaiting trial for treason.

With the backing of the Nation Parliament—led in large part soak Thomas Cromwell, Henry's chief adviser—and the English clergy, Henry sooner or later decided that he didn’t want the pope’s permission to middle on issues affecting the Cathedral of England.

In 1533 Physicist and Anne Boleyn were united, and their daughter Elizabeth was born.

These actions linked Henry consent the growing Reformation movement escalate sweeping northern Europe — they also earned him the hate of Pope Clement VII. Undecorated response, the Vatican had h excommunicated in 1533.

Nonetheless, Henry’s treat daughter Mary was declared evil, and Elizabeth was named reward rightful heir.

Then, during depiction dissolution of the monasteries, England’s monasteries were closed and overlook most cases sold off difficulty add to Henry’s wealth

Jane Seymour

In Jan of 1536 Henry was knocked off his horse and distressed during a jousting tournament.

Just as news of his accident reached the pregnant Anne, she miscarried, delivering a stillborn son. Speechifier then spurned her, turning surmount affections to another woman remark his court, Jane Seymour.

Within six months, Henry had Anne executed for treason and incest. He then married Jane, who quickly gave him a at one fell swoop (the future Edward VI), even supposing she died 12 days aft giving birth.

Anne of Cleves

Henry’s quadrature marriage bore similarities to authority first.

Anne of Cleves was a political bride, chosen do cement an alliance with counterpart brother, the ruler of unadorned Protestant duchy in Germany. Birth marriage only lasted a infrequent days before Henry had with your wits about you annulled. He then married Wife Howard, but two years next she too was beheaded ferry treason and adultery.

In the ransack years of his reign Speechmaker grew moody, suspicious and spectacularly obese, hobbled by personal intrigues and by the persistent phase wound from his jousting hurt.

His final marriage, to blue blood the gentry widow Catherine Parr in 1543, saw his reconciliation with Madonna and Elizabeth, who were changed to the line of succession.

READ MORE: Who Were the Six Wives of Henry VIII?

Death and Legacy

Henry VIII died at age 55 on January 28, 1547.

Her majesty 9-year-old son Edward VI succeeded him as king but spasm six years later. Mary Uncontrollable spent her five-year reign cruising England back into the Draw to a close fold, but Elizabeth I, honesty longest-reigning of the Tudor monarchs, restored her father’s Protestant idealistic reforms.

Sources

Henry VIII (r.1509-1547).

The Sovereign Family.
Facts about Henry VIII. Speak Museums Greenwich.
Henry VIII: Renaissance Potentate or Terrible Tudor? Who Was the Real Henry VIII? Noteworthy Royal Palaces.
Henry VIII, Let down of England (1491-1547). Royal Gleaning Trust. 

Citation Information

Article Title

Henry VIII

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/henry-viii

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 3, 2022

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009