The work on this page was completed independent By Navdeep Sandhu (8BH)  

Henry VIII

Henry VIII was born in Greenwich Palace on the 28th of January 1491. He was born to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Although they saw very little of Henry they were loving parents.  

Childhood

As you would expect of a royal prince, Henry was very spoiled. He had his own servants, minstrels and a fool called John Goose who was under Henry control, so Henry's power started when he was very young. Henry even had a whipping boy who got punished when he did something wrong! The group of people were there to please him whenever Henry told them to.

Youth

As Henry grew older he accomplished several things. He was very well known for his love for music. During his later years he composed great pieces of music including 'Helas Madame' and when he was only 10 years old he could play many instruments including the fife, harp, viola and drums. It is said that he owned a large amount of instruments: 10 trombones, 14 trumpets, 5 bagpipes, 76 recorders and 78 flutes.

When he went to school Henry's hobbies were writing books, poems, pieces of music and taking part in many sports. Henry grew up to be the author of a successful book, which was also a best seller in England. Henry was also very fond of hunting. He would often go out into the woods and hunt stags. He was also good at many other sports like wrestling and arching. When he grew older it was said that 'Henry could use a bow and arrow better than any man in England.'

Henry could also speak certain foreign languages. Altogether he spoke four languages, Spanish, English, French and Latin.

From when Henry was a young child he was brought up to believe in his faith. As he grew up he became more and more religious and in 1521 the Pope gave him the title 'Defender of the faith'.

By realising that he was good at all of these things, Henry probably thought that he was better than most people and he probably gained self confidence which would help him become a successful ruler. He was on the right track to succeeding in power. Many of the things that are listed above were the things that made Henry popular and well known. Later in his life, being popular with people helped Henry to get them to listen to him and eventually getting them to obey him.  

Heir to the Throne

Henry inherited a lot of power from his father when he became King. Before when Henry's father ruled England, his brother Arthur was heir to the throne but after Arthur's death Henry became the heir.

When Henry was 10 years old (November 1501) he attended his brother's wedding. Arthur was going to marry a Spanish princess called Catherine. Arthur was 15 years old at the time and on his wedding day he danced and seemed to be very happy and healthy.

Shortly after the wedding Arthur and Catherine went to live in Wales but 4 months later he died.

Young Henry who was nearly 11 was now the heir and a papal dispensation (treaty) was signed that would allow Catherine to marry the next heir to the throne (Henry).

As Henry was now heir he was protected all the time and wasn't allowed to see a lot of people. Henry had very little training on how to be a king.  

Henry Takes the Throne

In 1509 Henry gained power when his father died of tuberculosis and when he became the new king. Henry was 17 and because he lacked the training he relied heavily on his councillors in the early years of his reign.

Henry now had all the power that had been his fathers. From his father he had inherited 1.5 million pounds and shortly after his coronation he married Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon in 1509. After the wedding he received more money from Catherine's parents, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. They sent over 100,000 crowns to him as a wedding present.

Henry had automatically received his father's money and power. All the money he had received helped Henry gain more power, as it was with his money that he was able to get his own ways and buy certain things. He also now had power over the whole of England and was on the way to succession.  

The Church & His Wives

After 20 years of living a married life Henry thought it would be for the best if he had a male heir to the throne so that the Tudor family would be able to rule in England after him. Henry's wife, Catherine, had only given birth to one surviving child, Princess Mary, and in those days men were thought more powerful than women. Since Catherine was too old to have any healthy sons Henry went and found a new lady, Anne Boleyn, who was to be his second wife, but in order to marry her he needed to divorce Catherine first.

In those times the church was the only thing that was more powerful than the King or Queen and in order to get a divorce it had to be granted by the Catholic Church.

When Henry went to request a divorce the Pope saw no good reason why the marriage should end so the request was refused. After that Henry sent his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey to try to persuade the Pope with his decision but it didn't work. By this time Henry had realised that it was easier to punish others for the things that he did wrong (he probably learned this from his parents and the whipping boy), so he replaced the Cardinal with Thomas More. After 1532 the request had still been rejected so Henry, who had had enough of the Catholic Church, put an end to it and proclaimed himself the head of the Church of England. He managed to this by simply chucking all the people of the church onto the streets to beg. Next he did the deed that had caused all this, he divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn.

But Henry didn't stop there, after he had stopped the Catholic Church he felt as though he had mastered the impossible and he realised that he now had the power to control everything if he tried. He then shut down all the nunneries and monk's houses so that they could be sold to his friends.

By now all of England began to think of Henry as a tyrant but were too scared to do anything about it because they would probably have been killed for going against the King's will. Henry believed that he was always right and that because he had beaten a superior thing above him he had enough power to control everybody.

One of the things that Henry also had the power to do now was to be married and divorced however many times he wished. This power resulted him to having six wives...  

Anne Boleyn

Anne was crowned as queen in 1533. Later she gave birth to her only surviving child, Elizabeth (she didn't bear a heir for Henry) and because Henry still didn't have a son he decided that he would marry a new wife. In May 1536 Anne was arrested and charged with having affairs with 5 men, including her brother George! The charges weren't true but Anne and the men were convicted and beheaded on the 19th of May. On the 30th of May Henry married his third wife.

Jane Seymour

In October 1537, Henry's third wife gave Henry a son called Edward. Twelve days later she died. Henry grieved for her but two years later he found his fourth wife.

Anne of Cleves

When Henry saw Anne for the first time he thought she was ugly and didn't want to marry her, but a treaty had been signed so the wedding took place. Henry was so relieved when Anne agreed to divorce him that he gave her property and money. Anne stayed in England and in less than twenty days after the marriage had ended, Henry married his fifth wife.

Katherine Howard

Katherine was 15 or 16 when she married Henry but in the past she had had two affairs, one with a man named Francis Dereham and one with her music teacher, Thomas Culpepper. When she became queen she was still having the affair with Culpepper, but she was soon found out and arrested. In February 1542 Katherine was beheaded. Henry was heartbroken but the following year he married his sixth and final wife.

Katherine Parr

Katherine was the only one of his wives to outlive Henry, as he died on January 28, 1547. After a few months Katherine married her true love, Thomas Seymour. Henry's last wife died in childbirth on September 7, 1548.  

The People of England

The people of England thought of Henry as a cruel, fat and lazy tyrant. Of course they were also very afraid of him, as Henry would execute anybody who would come in his way or disagree with him, even his ministers. Henry would do this so that the people who disagreed with him would be finished before they could start a rebellion against him. Henry was also cruel to his ministers, he would often put them in charge of anything that was political so that if any of his plans were backfired it would instantly be the minister's fault and they would then be executed.

To keep his power, Henri did many things. One of the things that he did was to keep everybody in England so that they could never escape from his power; nobody was allowed to leave the country. If an escape had been attempted, that person would be executed. Another thing that he did to people who disagreed with his rules and regulations was to give them a bad name. With that bad name they wouldn't be able to find a job and earn any money to live.

Henry was also very cruel to people who were ranked below him. Beggars and vagabonds were put in stocks and often had their ears cut off if they ever did anything to displease Henry. 

Henry became known as a cruel tyrant by the people of England because he was unfair and believed that he was always right, but Henry also had a lot of power and wealth. He had inherited money from his father and began to gain power from then on. He was brave enough to stand up to the Pope and he believed in fighting for what he wanted, even if his people were too frightened to stand up to him. Henry gained a lot of power from when he took over the church. He was able to marry and divorce whomever he wanted and it shows because of all the wives he had and how they died.

As Henry had all of this power he would have left a secure throne for his son Edward. Henry had also conquered a lot of areas of land, which Edward would inherit along with the wealth in power. So even though some people thought that Henry was a tyrant he was a very powerful and successful King.