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Quick Facts
- NAME: Henry VIII
- OCCUPATION: Political Leader, King
- BIRTH DATE: June 28, 1491
- DEATH DATE: January 28, 1547
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Greenwich, United Kingdom
- PLACE OF DEATH: London, United Kingdom
Best Known For
As king of England (1509-47), Henry VIII presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation.
Henry VII. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 02:16, Feb 08, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322
Henry VII [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322, February 08
" Henry VII." 2012. Biography.com 08 Feb 2012, 02:16 http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322
' Henry VII', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322 [accessed Feb 08, 2012]
" Henry VII," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322 (accessed Feb 08, 2012).
Henry VII [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 08]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322.
Henry VII, http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322 (last visited Feb 08, 2012).
Henry VII, http://www.biography.com/people/henry-viii-9335322 (last visited Feb 08, 2012).
Synopsis
(born , June 28, 1491, Greenwich, near London, Eng.—died Jan. 28, 1547, London) king of England (1509–47) who presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation. His six wives were, successively, Catherine of Aragon (the mother of the future queen Mary I), Anne Boleyn (the mother of the future queen Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (the mother of Henry's successor, Edward VI), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
Accession to the throne
Henry was the second son of Henry VII, first of the Tudor line, and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, first king of the short-lived line of York. When his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, Henry became the heir to the throne; of all the Tudor monarchs, he alone spent his childhood in calm expectation of the crown, which helped give an assurance of majesty and righteousness to his willful, ebullient character. He excelled in book learning as well as in the physical exercises of an aristocratic society, and, when in 1509 he ascended the throne, great things were expected of him. Six feet tall, powerfully built, and a tireless athlete, huntsman, and dancer, he promised England the joys of spring after the long winter of Henry VII's reign.
Henry and his ministers exploited the dislike inspired by his father's energetic pursuit of royal rights by sacrificing, without a thought, some of the unpopular institutions and some of the men that had served his predecessor. Yet the unpopular means for governing the realm soon reappeared because they were necessary. Soon after his accession, Henry married Catherine of Aragon, Arthur's widow, and the attendant lavish entertainments ate into the modest royal reserves.
More serious was Henry's determination to engage in military adventure. Europe was being kept on the boil by rivalries between the French and Spanish kingdoms, mostly over Italian claims; and, against the advice of his older councillors, Henry in 1512 joined his father-in-law, Ferdinand II of Aragon, against France and ostensibly in support of a threatened pope, to whom the devout king for a long time paid almost slavish respect.
Henry himself displayed no military talent, but a real victory was won by the earl of Surrey at Flodden (1513) against a Scottish invasion. Despite the obvious pointlessness of the fighting, the appearance of success was popular. Moreover, in Thomas Wolsey, who organized his first campaign in France, Henry discovered his first outstanding minister. By 1515 Wolsey was archbishop of York, lord chancellor of England, and a cardinal of the church; more important, he was the king's good friend, to whom was gladly left the active conduct of affairs. Henry never altogether abandoned the positive tasks of kingship and often interfered in business; though the world
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