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HENRY VIII

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 289 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY VIII . (1491-1547), See also:king of See also:England and See also:Ireland, the third See also:child and second son of Henry VII. and See also:Elizabeth of See also:York, was See also:born on the 28th of See also:June 1491 and, like all the Tudor sovereigns except Henry VII., at See also:Greenwich. His tWo See also:brothers, See also:Prince See also:Arthur and See also:Edmund, See also:duke of See also:Somerset, and, two of his sisters predeceased their See also:father; Henry was the only son, and See also:Margaret, afterwards See also:queen of See also:Scotland, and See also:Mary, after-wards queen of See also:France and duchess of See also:Suffolk, were the only daughters who survived. Henry is said, on authority which has not been traced farther back than See also:Paolo See also:Sarpi, to have been destined for the See also:church; but the See also:story is probably a See also:mere surmise from his theological accomplishments, and from his earliest years high See also:secular posts such as the viceroyalty of Ireland were conferred upon the child. He was the first See also:English monarch to be educated under the See also:influence of the See also:Renaissance, and his tutors included the poet See also:Skelton; he became an accomplished See also:scholar, linguist, musician and See also:athlete, and when by the See also:death of his See also:brother Arthur in 1502 and of his father on the 22nd of See also:April 1509 Henry VIII. succeeded to the See also:throne, his See also:accession was hailed with universal See also:acclamation. He had been betrothed to his brother's widow See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon, and in spite of the protest which he had been made to See also:register against the See also:marriage, and of the doubts expressed by See also:Julius II. and See also:Archbishop See also:Warham as to its validity, it was completed in the first few months of his reign. This step was largely due to the pressure brought to See also:bear by Catherine's father See also:Ferdinand upon Henry's See also:council; he regarded England as a See also:tool in his hands and Catherine as his See also:resident See also:ambassador. The See also:young king himself at first took little See also:interest in politics, and for two years affairs were managed by the pacific See also:Richard See also:Fox (q.v.) and Warham. Then See also:Wolsey became supreme, while Henry was immersed in the pursuit of See also:sport and other amusements. He took, however, the keenest interest from the first in learning and in the See also:navy, and his inborn See also:pride easily led him to support Wolsey's and Ferdinand's See also:war-like designs on France. He followed an English See also:army across the Channel in 1513, and personally took See also:part in the successful sieges of Therouanne and Tournay and the See also:battle of Guinegate which led to the See also:peace of 1514. Ferdinand, however, deserted the English See also:alliance, and amid the consequent irritation against everything See also:Spanish, there was talk of a See also:divorce between Henry and Catherine (1514), whose issue had hitherto been attended with fatal misfortune.

But the renewed antagonism between England and France which followed the accession of See also:

Francis I. (1515) led to a rapprochement with Ferdinand; the See also:birth of the See also:lady Mary (1516) held out hopes of the male issue which Henry so much desired ; and the question of a divorce was postponed. Ferdinand died in that See also:year (1516) and the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian in 1519. Their See also:grandson See also:Charles V. succeeded them both in all their realms and dignities in spite of Henry's hardly serious candidature for the See also:empire; and a lifelong rivalry See also:broke out between him and Francis I. Wolsey used this antagonism to make England arbiter between them; and both monarchs sought England's favour in 1520, Francis at the See also:Field of See also:Cloth of See also:Gold and Charles V. more quietly in See also:Kent. At the See also:conference of See also:Calais in 1521 English influence reached its See also:zenith; but the alliance with Charles destroyed the See also:balance on which that influence depended. Francis was overweighted, and his defeat at See also:Pavia in 1525 made the emperor supreme. Feeble efforts to See also:challenge his See also:power in See also:Italy provoked the See also:sack of See also:Rome in 1527; and the peace of See also:Cambrai in 1529 was made without any reference to Wolsey or England's interests. Meanwhile Henry had been developing a serious interest in politics, and he could See also:brook no See also:superior in whatever See also:sphere he wished to shine. He began to adopt a more See also:critical attitude towards Wolsey's policy, See also:foreign and domestic; and to give See also:ear to the murmurs against the See also:cardinal and his ecclesiastical See also:rule. See also:Parliament had been kept at See also:arm's length since 1515 lest it should attack the church; but Wolsey's expensive foreign policy rendered recourse to See also:parliamentary subsidies indispensable. When it met in 1523 it refused Wolsey's demands, and forced loans were the result which increased the cardinal's unpopularity.

Nor did success abroad now See also:

blunt the edge of domestic discontent. His See also:fate, however, was sealed by his failure to obtain a divorce for Henry from the papal See also:court. The king's hopes of male issue had been disappointed, and by 1526 it was fairly certain that Henry could have no male See also:heir to the throne while Catherine remained his wife. There was Mary, but no queen regnant had yet ruled in England; Margaret See also:Beaufort had been passed over in favour of her son in 1485, and there was a popular impression that See also:women were excluded from the throne. No See also:candidate living could have secured the See also:succession without a recurrence of See also:civil war. Moreover the unexampled fatality which had attended Henry's issue revived the theological scruples which had always existed about the marriage; and the See also:breach with Charles V. in 1527 provoked a renewal of the See also:design of 1514. All these considerations were magnified by Henry's See also:passion for See also:Anne See also:Boleyn, though she certainly was not the See also:sole or the See also:main cause of the divorce. That the succession was the main point is proved by the fact that Henry's efforts were all directed to securing a wife and not a See also:mistress. Wolsey persuaded him that the necessary divorce could be obtained from Rome, as it had been in the See also:case of See also:Louis XII. of France and Margaret of Scotland. For a See also:time See also:Clement VII. was inclined to concede the demand, and See also:Campeggio in 1528 was given ample See also:powers. But the prospect of See also:French success in Italy which had encouraged thepope proved delusive, and in 1529 he had to submit to the yoke of Charles V. This involved a rejection of Henry's suit, not because Charles cared anything for his aunt, but because a divorce would mean disinheriting Charles's See also:cousin Mary, and perhaps the eventual succession of the son of a French princess to the English throne.

Wolsey See also:

fell when Campeggio was recalled, and his fall involved the See also:triumph of the See also:anti-ecclesiastical party in England. See also:Lay-men who had resented their exclusion from power were now promoted to offices such as those of See also:lord See also:chancellor and lord privy See also:seal which they had rarely held before; and parliament was encouraged to propound lay grievances against the church. On the support of the laity Henry relied to abolish papal See also:jurisdiction and reduce clerical See also:privilege and See also:property in England; and by a See also:close alliance with Francis I. he insured himself against the enmity of Charles V. But it was only gradually that the breach was completed with Rome. Henry had defended the papacy against See also:Luther in 1521 and had received in return the See also:title " defender of the faith." He never liked Protestantism, and he was prepared for peace with Rome on his own terms. Those terms were impossible of See also:acceptance by a See also:pope in Clement VII.'s position; but before Clement had made up his mind to reject them, Henry had discovered that the papacy was hardly See also:worth conciliating. His eyes were opened to the extent of his own power as the exponent of See also:national antipathy to papal jurisdiction and ecclesiastical privilege; and his appetite for power See also:grew. With See also:Cromwell's help he secured parliamentary support, and its usefulness led him to extend parliamentary re-presentation to See also:Wales and Calais, to defend the privileges of Parliament, and to yield rather than forfeit its confidence. He had little difficulty in securing the Acts of See also:Annates, Appeals and Supremacy which completed the separation from Rome, or the See also:dissolution of the monasteries which, by transferring enormous See also:wealth from the church to the See also:crown, really, in See also:Cecil's See also:opinion, ensured the See also:reformation. The abolition of the papal jurisdiction removed all obstacles to the divorce from Catherine and to the legalization of Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn (1533)• But the recognition of the royal supremacy could only be enforced at the cost of the heads of See also:Sir See also:Thomas More, See also:Bishop See also:Fisher and a number of monks and others among whom the See also:Carthusians signalized themselves by their devotion (1535-1536). Anne Boleyn fared no better than the See also:Catholic martyrs; she failed to produce a male heir to the throne, and her conduct afforded a See also:jury of peers, over which her See also:uncle, the duke of See also:Norfolk, presided, sufficient excuse for condemning her to death on a See also:charge of See also:adultery (1536). Henry then married Jane See also:Seymour, who was See also:obnoxious to no one, gave birth to See also:Edward VI., and then died (1537).

The dissolution of the monasteries had meanwhile evoked a popular protest in the See also:

north, and it was only by skilful and unscrupulous See also:diplomacy that Henry was enabled to suppress so easily the See also:Pilgrimage of See also:Grace. Foreign intervention was avoided through the renewal of war between Francis and Charles; and the insurgents were hampered by having no See also:rival candidate for the throne and no means of securing the See also:execution of their See also:programme. Nevertheless their rising warned Henry against further doctrinal See also:change. He had authorized the English See also:Bible and some approach towards See also:Protestant See also:doctrine in the Ten Articles. He also considered the possibility of a See also:political and theological alliance with the Lutheran princes of See also:Germany. But in 1538 he definitely rejected their theological terms, while in 1539-IRO they rejected his political proposals. By the See also:statute of Six Articles (1539) he tcok his stand on Catholic doctrine; and when the See also:Lutherans had rejected his alliance, and Cromwell's nominee, Anne of See also:Cleves, had proved both distasteful on See also:personal grounds and unnecessary because Charles and Francis were not really projecting a Catholic crusade against England, Anne was divorced and Cromwell beheaded.

End of Article: HENRY VIII

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