Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Henry VIII


Henry VIII
by Rob Cottignies

“Alas, what shall I do for love?
For love, Alas, what shall I do?
Since now so kind, I do you find
To keep you me unto…”

Those romantic words were written by Henry VIII, former king of England, to his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Henry VIII, or as his friends knew him- Hanky Ocho, has a pretty bad reputation. He’s been called a tyrant, glutton, murderer, and worst of all- British. Most of the king’s infamy comes from having six wives, two of which got their heads prematurely removed. But what many people don’t know is that Hank was also a musician, writer, and quite the self-proclaimed lover.

Although Henry VIII has a bad name, he was definitely one of the most influential people in the history of England and the world as a whole.

Born in Greenwich, England, on June 28 of 1491, Henry VIII was the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He and his brother, Prince Arthur, were born into the Tudor Dynasty. Since Arthur was the first born and rightful heir to the throne, Henry was named Duke of York. Henry was content with his position since he was highly admired as a handsome, courteous man who frequently hunted and played tennis. And because royalty is how it is, Arthur married Spain’s Princess Catherine of Aragon.

Henry was a very religious man, known to have gone to mass up to three times per day. He was also admired for his incredible intelligence, being fluent in English, French, Latin, and Spanish. Henry wrote often, with his most important text being Defense of the Seven Sacraments, which was written in response to Martin Luther and his attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It was this book that made Pope Leo X decide to name Henry ‘Defender of the Faith’, a choice he would’ve likely regretted had he seen the rest of the then-Duke’s life.

Henry’s world changed drastically in 1502, when Prince Arthur died of either tuberculosis or plague, making Henry heir to the throne.

Seven years later, Henry VII died from tuberculosis, birthing the reign of King Henry VIII. Since he was just seventeen and not yet properly educated to be king, he looked to his elders for advice.

Arthur’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, was now without a husband, so Henry decided to marry her on June 11, 1509. They were jointly crowned on June 24 of the same year. Since Catherine was five years older than Henry and involved in politics, he often went to her for advice. She was the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who funded Christopher Columbus’s bogus journey to the New World. This gave Henry more power than he already had, which was tremendous.

Henry and Catherine were a happy couple for over twenty years. Henry *only* had two mistresses during their marriage, which was relatively small based on the time period and his title of King.

Now that Henry had a wife, he needed an heir to his throne.

Soon after the wedding, Catherine gave birth to a stillborn child. A year later, she had a son who survived the childbirth. Henry threw a huge celebration for his son, Henry IX. But sadly, fifty-two days after being born, the child died.

In 1516, Catherine bore a daughter who survived infancy and childhood, who would much later become known as “Bloody” Mary.

Henry needed a male heir, since he refused to have England be ruled by a woman after his death. Catherine was now beyond childbearing years and Henry had alternately fallen in love with a woman named Anne Boleyn, who was a sister of one of his mistresses and among Catherine’s maids of honor.

In these times, divorces were not legal unless granted by the Pope, so Henry sent his Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey to Pope Clement VII in 1527 asking for an official divorce for Henry from Catharine. But the same Pope who gave Henry’s sister Margaret an annulment from James IV declined the king’s request. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V also said no, at least partly because Catherine was his aunt.

Henry petitioned the Pope’s decision until he offered to rethink the case, which kept Henry in suspense for seven years, until the Pope responded with another negative. During this time, Henry was very harsh to Catherine, insisting that she join a convent, which would void the marriage. Catherine refused, to ensure Mary would be the ruler of England upon Henry’s death. He eventually forbade her from seeing Mary.

At Court, Henry and would appear with Anne Boleyn in the Queen’s chair. People started referring to Anne as Queen, and Catherine refused to acknowledge anyone who wouldn’t call her Queen Catharine.

Although Henry appeared to be married to Anne Boleyn, his marriage with Catherine was still valid. Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canturbury) and Thomas Cromwell (Secretary of State) suggested to the king that he simply get the marriage annulled in England. Since the King of England was able to enact any law he wanted, Henry had Parliament pass the Act in Restraint of Appeals in 1533, which stated that all church cases were to be decided in England instead of Rome, where the Pope was.

He then signed the Act Of Supremacy, which made the King of England (himself) the head of both church and state.

In January of 1533, Henry ordered Thomas Cranmer to annul the marriage to Catherine and married Anne Boleyn.

But Anne was smart and knew Henry wanted a male heir more than anything. Not wanting to simply be used for that, she refused to have sex with him. She had always refused to become Henry’s mistress, as her sister Mary was, and was not about to change her ways.

However, Anne mysteriously gave birth in September of the year they were married. Henry was so convinced she was going to have a male that he started throwing celebrations, which on until he found out he had another daughter, which he named Princess Elizabeth, after his mother.

Henry was convinced this was a sign that Anne would next produce a healthy boy. Anne got pregnant a couple more times after Elizabeth, but all those ended in miscarriages, which naturally upset Henry. (Let’s hope it was because of the sadness, but we know he still sought a male heir.)

As Anne became unhealthy, Henry’s eye (amongst other parts) began to wander to other women. Now Anne Boleyn had to be taken out of the picture, which was pretty easy now that Henry was in charge of such affairs.

Henry signed the Treason Act in 1534, stating that anyone who denied his power would be tried as a traitor, which all-but-definitely meant guilt and execution.

Henry used the Act against Anne, her personal musician had (under torture) given him names of men she slept with, including Anne’s own brother George. It didn’t take long for Henry to declare that adultery against him was equivalent to treason. He also accused her of incest and plotting to kill him. All the men except one were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Anne and her brother went on trial at the same time and were convicted. George was hanged with the rest of the men, while it was Henry’s choice to see Anne beheaded.

Under his orders, Henry’s wife was officially taken out of the picture in 1536. It has been said that the beheading of Anne Boleyn started Henry’s “reign of terror”.


Because of laws like these and the power Henry had given himself, Pope Paul III excommunicated him from the Catholic Church in 1538. In retaliation, Henry made the Church of England strictly Protestant and signed the Six Articles Act, which said that his church was to have no pope.

Excommunicated but not defeated, Henry still didn’t have a son.

Shortly after Anne Boleyn was killed, Henry married Jane Seymour, one of Anne’s maids of honor. (Classy.) To avoid looking foolish again, he declared he would wait for her to deliver a healthy son before crowning her as Queen. Jane was actually pleased with this, based on what happened to his first two wives. She wanted Henry to spend more time with his children- Mary, Elizabeth, and Henry Fitzroy, who was Henry VIII’s illegitimate son from an affair.

In 1537, Jane gave birth to Henry’s long-awaited son, Edward VI and an enormous celebration was ordered. Sadly, Jane was stricken with puerperal fever and died twelve days later. Since Henry mourned her passing for over two years, Jane Seymour is said to be Henry’s most beloved wife.


In 1540, Thomas Cromwell arranged for Henry to marry Anne of Cleves. Henry was very excited to be married a fourth time until he finally met his bride-to-be, who was said to be ugly, dull, and annoying, among other negative qualities. He wanted the marriage to be called off immediately but could not be granted this due to political reasons.

On January 6, 1540, they were married. At Henry’s request, the marriage was never consummated. Henry quickly decided to have the marriage annulled and Cromwell’s head cut off for arranging such an awful alliance. Henry gave her many things when they split up, such as houses and money. She is said to be his most fortunate wife.

Shortly after, Hank married again, this time to Anne’s maid of honor, Catherine Howard. (What was it with him and maids of honor?) Catherine was young and pretty, which made her stray from her overweight, aging husband in favor of someone she planned to marry before she had even met the king. This man was immediately hanged as a traitor and Catherine was taken to the Tower of London, where she got to choose the dress for her beheading. After the deed was done, Catherine was buried next to the body of her decapitated cousin, Anne Boleyn.

Three years later, Henry married his sixth and final wife, Catharine Parr. She was very concerned with the education of Mary and Elizabeth and did all she could to get them proper tutoring. She was a very pleasant wife for Henry, who was in declining health dating back to when Jane Seymour had died. She knew her job was not to give the king a son but to nurse him, which she did until his death on January 28, 1547.

What exactly killed Henry is still uncertain.

King Henry VIII was one of the most controversial, feared, unique, respected men in history. Although most people only know him as a tyrant who cut his wives heads off, they are highly mistaken. Well, not really, but his legacy involves much more than that. Henry VIII is not only a very important part of England’s history, but his actions affected the entire world.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the exploits of Hanky Boy.