Henry was born on 28 June 1491, at the Palace of Placentia. He was the third child and second son of King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth of York. Of Henry’s six siblings, only three survived infancy: Arthur, Margaret and Mary.
Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, and learning some Italian. Not much is known about his early life because he was not expected to become King. In November 1501, he played a considerable role in the ceremonies surrounding his brother’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
In early 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, probably of sweating sickness. Arthur’s death thrust his duties upon the 10-year old Henry. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks; Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, he later ascended the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship (in other words: spoiled).
Henry VII still wanted to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, so he offered Henry in marriage to Arthur’s widow, Catherine. Both Isabella I of Castile and Henry VII were keen on the idea. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage and they were betrothed two days later. However, Isabella’s death in 1504 complicated matters. Henry VII’s relations with Catherine’s father, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, had deteriorated, therefore poor Catherine was left in limbo for some time, culminating in young Henry’s rejection of the marriage.
Henry VII died on 21 April 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as King Henry VIII. Soon after his father’s burial, he declared that he would indeed marry Catherine. Their wedding was kept low key and was held in Greenwich on 11 June 1509. On 23 June, Henry led Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation.
Soon after, Catherine conceived, but the child (a girl) was stillborn. About 4 months later, Catherine was pregnant again. On New Year’s Day 1511, a boy – Henry – was born. The couple were pleased, and festivities were held, including a 2-day joust. However, the child died seven weeks later. Catherine had two stillborn sons in 1514 and 1515; in 1516, she gave birth to a girl, Mary. Although Henry and Catherine’s marriage was described as unusually good, it is known that Henry took mistresses. The most significant mistress for about 3 years, starting in 1516, was Elizabeth Blount. There is no evidence that Catherine protested. Blount gave birth to Henry’s illegitimate child, Henry FitzRoy, in June 1519.
In 1510, France was winning a war against Venice. Henry decided to become friends with King Louis XII of France; however, shortly thereafter Henry also signed a pact with Ferdinand II. After Pope Julius II created the anti-French Holy League in 1511, Henry followed Ferdinand’s lead and brought England into the new League (never mind that he was friends with Louis). An initial Anglo-Spanish attack was planned to recover Aquitaine for England, the start of making Henry’s dreams of ruling France a reality. However, this attack was a considerable failure; Ferdinand used it to further his own ends (surprise!) and it strained the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Henry then pulled off a diplomatic coup by convincing the Emperor to join the Holy League; he also secured the title of Most Christian King of France from the Pope and coronation by the Pope himself if only Louis could be defeated.
On 30 June 1513, Henry invaded France and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs – a relatively minor result, but one which was seized on by the English for propaganda purposes. However, his absence from England had prompted his brother-in-law, James IV of Scotland, to invade England. Nevertheless, an English army overseen by Catherine of Aragon, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden; the King was among the dead. These campaigns gave Henry a taste of the military success he wanted so much. With the replacement of Julius by Pope Leo X, Henry signed a peace treaty with France: his sister Mary would become Louis’ wife and peace was secured for 8 years!
Charles V ascended the thrones of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, in 1516 and 1519 respectively; and Francis I became King of France in 1515. This left three relatively young rulers and an opportunity for a clean slate. Enter Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and his careful diplomacy! In 1518, the Treaty of London was signed, uniting the kingdoms of western Europe against the new threat: the Ottoman Empire. Henry and Francis met on 7 June 1520 at the Field of Cloth of Gold, a mini tent golden city built just for that meeting. However, the competition between the two young kings laid to rest any hopes of a renewal of the Treaty of London and conflict was inevitable. Charles entered a war with France in 1521; good guy Henry offered to mediate, but by the end of the year, he was siding with Charles. Charles defeated and captured Francis at Pavia and could dictate peace, but he believed he owed Henry nothing, so Henry took England out of the war.
During his marriage to Catherine, Henry conducted an affair with Mary Boleyn, and there was speculation that Mary’s two children, Henry and Catherine, were fathered by Henry; however, he never acknowledged them. In 1525, Henry was growing more impatient with Catherine’s inability to produce a son (it takes two to tango, you know?), so he fell in love with his former mistress’ sister, Anne Boleyn. Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and refused to become his mistress. It soon became Henry’s obsession to annul his marriage to Catherine and to marry the younger Anne. This decision would lead Henry to reject papal authority and initiate the English Reformation.
By 1527, Henry had convinced himself that in marrying Catherine he had acted contrary to Leviticus 20:21. It was this argument that Henry presented to Pope Clement VII in the hope of having his marriage annulled. His excitement was so big he forgot that going public would mean that all hope of tempting Catherine to retire to a nunnery or otherwise stay quiet was lost – she was going to fight back. An ecclesiastical court was to meet in England with a representative of the Pope. Though Clement agreed to the creation of this court, he never intended to empower his legate to decide in Henry’s favour. After less than two months of hearing evidence, Clement called the case back to Rome and it was clear that it would never re-emerge. Who bore the fault for this failure? Thomas Wolsey. He was charged with praemunire in October 1529 and fell from grace. Thomas and Henry briefly reconciled, but Henry being the nice and stable young man he was, charged Wolsey with treason in 1530. He died while awaiting trial. Enter Sir Thomas More as Lord Chancellor and chief minister. More was intelligent and able, but also a devout Catholic, so he opposed the annulment (but he did cooperate with Henry initially).
In 1531, Catherine was banished from court and her rooms were given to Anne. Anne was an unusually educated and intellectual woman and was keenly engaged with the ideas of the Protestant Reformers. When the Archbishop of Canterbury died, Anne’s influence had Thomas Cranmer appointed to the position. This was all approved by the Pope (little did he know…).
In the winter of 1532, Henry met with Francis I at Calais to seek support for his new marriage. When he returned to Dover, Henry and Anne married in secret. She soon became pregnant, and there was a second wedding service in London on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void; five days later, he declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid. Anne was crowned Queen consort on 1 June 1533. She gave birth to a daughter (oops) on 7 September 1533; she was christened Elizabeth.
Following the marriage, there was a period of consolidation taking the form of a series of statutes of the Reformation Parliament, aimed at finding solutions to any remaining issues, convincing the public of their legitimacy, and exposing and dealing with opponents. With this process complete, in May 1532, Thomas More resigned and Thomas Cromwell became Henry’s chief minister. In 1533, the Act of Succession declared Catherine’s daughter, Mary, illegitimate and Anne’s issue would be next in the line of succession. With the Acts of Supremacy in 1534, the Parliament recognised the King’s status as head of the church in England. It was only then that Pope Clement took the step of excommunicating Henry and Thomas Cranmer.
Henry and Anne didn’t have a happy married life. There were periods of calm and affection, but Anne refused to play the submissive role expected of her. The vivacity and intellect that made her so attractive before made her too independent for the role of wife and it made her many enemies. After a miscarriage in 1534, Henry saw Anne’s failure to give him a son as a betrayal. He started discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine (such a nice guy).
Opposition to Henry’s religious policies were quickly suppressed – several dissenting monks were executed and many more pilloried. The most prominent resisters included John Fisher and Thomas More, both of whom refused to take the oath to the King. Fisher openly rejected Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church, but More was careful to avoid openly breaking the treason act, which did not forbid mere silence. Both men were convicted of high treason (More on the evidence of a single conversation) and were duly executed in the summer of 1535.
These suppressions, coupled with the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act of 1536, contributed to more general resistance to Henry’s reforms, most notably the Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising (20.000 to 40.000 rebels, led by Robert Aske) in northern England in October 1536. Henry promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues. Aske told the rebels they were successful, and they could go home. However, Henry (being the nice and kind man he was) saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep his promises. When further violence occurred, Henry broke his promise of clemency: in total, about 200 rebels (including Aske), were executed.
On 8 January 1536, news reached Henry and Anne that Catherine of Aragon had died. Henry called for public displays of joy (being the nice guy he was). Anne was pregnant again and she was aware of the consequences if she failed to give birth to a son. Later that month, Henry was unhorsed in a tournament and was badly injured – for a while his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached Anne, she went into shock and miscarried a male child.
The Boleyn family still held important positions on the Privy Council, but Anne had many enemies, including the Duke of Suffolk. Even her own uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had come to resent her. Also opposed to Anne were supporters of reconciliation with Princess Mary (among them were the former supporters of Catherine). A second annulment was now a real possibility.
Anne’s downfall came shortly after she recovered from her miscarriage. Early signs of a fall from grace included the King’s new mistress, Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters, and Anne’s brother George being refused the Order of the Garter. Between 30 April and 2 May, five men (including George) were arrested on charges of adultery and accused of having sexual relationships with the Queen. Anne was also arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. George Boleyn and the other men were executed on 17 May 1536; Anne was executed on 19 May 1536, on Tower Green.
The day after his wife’s execution, Henry became engaged to Jane Seymour; they married ten days later. Finally, on 12 October 1537, Henry’s desire was fulfilled – Jane gave birth to a son, Edward. The birth was difficult, and Jane died on 24 October 1537 from an infection. The euphoria that had accompanied Edward’s birth soon became sorrow. Measures were put in place to find Henry’s fourth wife, which, at the insistence of Cromwell, were focused on the European continent.
With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic issues had been Henry’s priority in the first half of the 1530s. The Second Succession Act of 1536 declared Henry’s children by Jane to be next in the line of succession, and made Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate. Charles V and Francis made peace in January 1539 and Henry became paranoid – enriched by the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry used his financial reserves to build a series of coastal defences and set some aside for use in case of a Franco-German invasion.
Having considered the matter of Henry’s fourth marriage, Cromwell suggested Anne, the sister of the Duke of Cleves, who was an important ally in case of a Catholic attack on England. Hans Holbein was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne. Despite the speculation that Holbein had favoured her, it is more likely that the portrait was accurate. After seeing the portrait and urged on by the complimentary description of Anne, the King agreed to marry Anne. However, it was not long before Henry (being Henry) wished to annul the marriage so he could marry another. Anne did not argue and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated. The marriage was dissolved, and Anne received the title of “The King’s Sister”. Henry was now in love with the 17-year-old Catherine Howard, which worried Thomas Cromwell.
Shortly after, some religious reformers and protégés of Cromwell were burned as heretics. Meanwhile, Cromwell fell out of favour although it is unclear why. He was charged with treason, selling export licences, granting passports, and drawing up commissions without permission. He was beheaded on 28 July 1540.
On that same day, Henry married the young Catherine Howard. He was absolutely delighted with her and showered her with presents. However, soon after he marriage, Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who had been informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. The court was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; Thomas Cranmer investigated and brought evidence of Catherine’s affair to the King’s notice. Initially, Henry didn’t believe in the accusations, but eventually Dereham confessed. When questioned, Catherine could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would make her marriage to the King invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter an adulterous relationship. Meanwhile, Dereham exposed Catherine and Culpeper’s relationship (what a mess). Dereham and Culpeper were both executed. On 13 February 1542, Catherine Howard was beheaded at the Tower of London.
Henry married his sixth and last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in July 1543. A reformer at heart, Catherine argued with Henry over religion. Ultimately, Henry remained committed to an idiosyncratic mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. Catherine helped reconcile Henry with his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. In 1543, an Act of Parliament put them back in the line of succession after Edward.
Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 140 cm (oh wow!) and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout (lovely…). His obesity and other medical problems can be traced to the jousting accident in 1536 in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier. The chronic wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.
Henry’s obesity hastened his death: he died on 28 January 1547, at the age of 55. He was interred in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, next to his third wife, Jane.
In early 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, probably of sweating sickness. Arthur’s death thrust his duties upon the 10-year old Henry. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks; Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, he later ascended the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship (in other words: spoiled).
Henry VII still wanted to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, so he offered Henry in marriage to Arthur’s widow, Catherine. Both Isabella I of Castile and Henry VII were keen on the idea. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage and they were betrothed two days later. However, Isabella’s death in 1504 complicated matters. Henry VII’s relations with Catherine’s father, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, had deteriorated, therefore poor Catherine was left in limbo for some time, culminating in young Henry’s rejection of the marriage.
Henry VII died on 21 April 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as King Henry VIII. Soon after his father’s burial, he declared that he would indeed marry Catherine. Their wedding was kept low key and was held in Greenwich on 11 June 1509. On 23 June, Henry led Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation.
Soon after, Catherine conceived, but the child (a girl) was stillborn. About 4 months later, Catherine was pregnant again. On New Year’s Day 1511, a boy – Henry – was born. The couple were pleased, and festivities were held, including a 2-day joust. However, the child died seven weeks later. Catherine had two stillborn sons in 1514 and 1515; in 1516, she gave birth to a girl, Mary. Although Henry and Catherine’s marriage was described as unusually good, it is known that Henry took mistresses. The most significant mistress for about 3 years, starting in 1516, was Elizabeth Blount. There is no evidence that Catherine protested. Blount gave birth to Henry’s illegitimate child, Henry FitzRoy, in June 1519.
In 1510, France was winning a war against Venice. Henry decided to become friends with King Louis XII of France; however, shortly thereafter Henry also signed a pact with Ferdinand II. After Pope Julius II created the anti-French Holy League in 1511, Henry followed Ferdinand’s lead and brought England into the new League (never mind that he was friends with Louis). An initial Anglo-Spanish attack was planned to recover Aquitaine for England, the start of making Henry’s dreams of ruling France a reality. However, this attack was a considerable failure; Ferdinand used it to further his own ends (surprise!) and it strained the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Henry then pulled off a diplomatic coup by convincing the Emperor to join the Holy League; he also secured the title of Most Christian King of France from the Pope and coronation by the Pope himself if only Louis could be defeated.
On 30 June 1513, Henry invaded France and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs – a relatively minor result, but one which was seized on by the English for propaganda purposes. However, his absence from England had prompted his brother-in-law, James IV of Scotland, to invade England. Nevertheless, an English army overseen by Catherine of Aragon, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden; the King was among the dead. These campaigns gave Henry a taste of the military success he wanted so much. With the replacement of Julius by Pope Leo X, Henry signed a peace treaty with France: his sister Mary would become Louis’ wife and peace was secured for 8 years!
Charles V ascended the thrones of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, in 1516 and 1519 respectively; and Francis I became King of France in 1515. This left three relatively young rulers and an opportunity for a clean slate. Enter Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and his careful diplomacy! In 1518, the Treaty of London was signed, uniting the kingdoms of western Europe against the new threat: the Ottoman Empire. Henry and Francis met on 7 June 1520 at the Field of Cloth of Gold, a mini tent golden city built just for that meeting. However, the competition between the two young kings laid to rest any hopes of a renewal of the Treaty of London and conflict was inevitable. Charles entered a war with France in 1521; good guy Henry offered to mediate, but by the end of the year, he was siding with Charles. Charles defeated and captured Francis at Pavia and could dictate peace, but he believed he owed Henry nothing, so Henry took England out of the war.
During his marriage to Catherine, Henry conducted an affair with Mary Boleyn, and there was speculation that Mary’s two children, Henry and Catherine, were fathered by Henry; however, he never acknowledged them. In 1525, Henry was growing more impatient with Catherine’s inability to produce a son (it takes two to tango, you know?), so he fell in love with his former mistress’ sister, Anne Boleyn. Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and refused to become his mistress. It soon became Henry’s obsession to annul his marriage to Catherine and to marry the younger Anne. This decision would lead Henry to reject papal authority and initiate the English Reformation.
By 1527, Henry had convinced himself that in marrying Catherine he had acted contrary to Leviticus 20:21. It was this argument that Henry presented to Pope Clement VII in the hope of having his marriage annulled. His excitement was so big he forgot that going public would mean that all hope of tempting Catherine to retire to a nunnery or otherwise stay quiet was lost – she was going to fight back. An ecclesiastical court was to meet in England with a representative of the Pope. Though Clement agreed to the creation of this court, he never intended to empower his legate to decide in Henry’s favour. After less than two months of hearing evidence, Clement called the case back to Rome and it was clear that it would never re-emerge. Who bore the fault for this failure? Thomas Wolsey. He was charged with praemunire in October 1529 and fell from grace. Thomas and Henry briefly reconciled, but Henry being the nice and stable young man he was, charged Wolsey with treason in 1530. He died while awaiting trial. Enter Sir Thomas More as Lord Chancellor and chief minister. More was intelligent and able, but also a devout Catholic, so he opposed the annulment (but he did cooperate with Henry initially).
In 1531, Catherine was banished from court and her rooms were given to Anne. Anne was an unusually educated and intellectual woman and was keenly engaged with the ideas of the Protestant Reformers. When the Archbishop of Canterbury died, Anne’s influence had Thomas Cranmer appointed to the position. This was all approved by the Pope (little did he know…).
In the winter of 1532, Henry met with Francis I at Calais to seek support for his new marriage. When he returned to Dover, Henry and Anne married in secret. She soon became pregnant, and there was a second wedding service in London on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void; five days later, he declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid. Anne was crowned Queen consort on 1 June 1533. She gave birth to a daughter (oops) on 7 September 1533; she was christened Elizabeth.
Following the marriage, there was a period of consolidation taking the form of a series of statutes of the Reformation Parliament, aimed at finding solutions to any remaining issues, convincing the public of their legitimacy, and exposing and dealing with opponents. With this process complete, in May 1532, Thomas More resigned and Thomas Cromwell became Henry’s chief minister. In 1533, the Act of Succession declared Catherine’s daughter, Mary, illegitimate and Anne’s issue would be next in the line of succession. With the Acts of Supremacy in 1534, the Parliament recognised the King’s status as head of the church in England. It was only then that Pope Clement took the step of excommunicating Henry and Thomas Cranmer.
Henry and Anne didn’t have a happy married life. There were periods of calm and affection, but Anne refused to play the submissive role expected of her. The vivacity and intellect that made her so attractive before made her too independent for the role of wife and it made her many enemies. After a miscarriage in 1534, Henry saw Anne’s failure to give him a son as a betrayal. He started discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine (such a nice guy).
Opposition to Henry’s religious policies were quickly suppressed – several dissenting monks were executed and many more pilloried. The most prominent resisters included John Fisher and Thomas More, both of whom refused to take the oath to the King. Fisher openly rejected Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church, but More was careful to avoid openly breaking the treason act, which did not forbid mere silence. Both men were convicted of high treason (More on the evidence of a single conversation) and were duly executed in the summer of 1535.
These suppressions, coupled with the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act of 1536, contributed to more general resistance to Henry’s reforms, most notably the Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising (20.000 to 40.000 rebels, led by Robert Aske) in northern England in October 1536. Henry promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues. Aske told the rebels they were successful, and they could go home. However, Henry (being the nice and kind man he was) saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep his promises. When further violence occurred, Henry broke his promise of clemency: in total, about 200 rebels (including Aske), were executed.
On 8 January 1536, news reached Henry and Anne that Catherine of Aragon had died. Henry called for public displays of joy (being the nice guy he was). Anne was pregnant again and she was aware of the consequences if she failed to give birth to a son. Later that month, Henry was unhorsed in a tournament and was badly injured – for a while his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached Anne, she went into shock and miscarried a male child.
The Boleyn family still held important positions on the Privy Council, but Anne had many enemies, including the Duke of Suffolk. Even her own uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had come to resent her. Also opposed to Anne were supporters of reconciliation with Princess Mary (among them were the former supporters of Catherine). A second annulment was now a real possibility.
Anne’s downfall came shortly after she recovered from her miscarriage. Early signs of a fall from grace included the King’s new mistress, Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters, and Anne’s brother George being refused the Order of the Garter. Between 30 April and 2 May, five men (including George) were arrested on charges of adultery and accused of having sexual relationships with the Queen. Anne was also arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. George Boleyn and the other men were executed on 17 May 1536; Anne was executed on 19 May 1536, on Tower Green.
The day after his wife’s execution, Henry became engaged to Jane Seymour; they married ten days later. Finally, on 12 October 1537, Henry’s desire was fulfilled – Jane gave birth to a son, Edward. The birth was difficult, and Jane died on 24 October 1537 from an infection. The euphoria that had accompanied Edward’s birth soon became sorrow. Measures were put in place to find Henry’s fourth wife, which, at the insistence of Cromwell, were focused on the European continent.
With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic issues had been Henry’s priority in the first half of the 1530s. The Second Succession Act of 1536 declared Henry’s children by Jane to be next in the line of succession, and made Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate. Charles V and Francis made peace in January 1539 and Henry became paranoid – enriched by the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry used his financial reserves to build a series of coastal defences and set some aside for use in case of a Franco-German invasion.
Having considered the matter of Henry’s fourth marriage, Cromwell suggested Anne, the sister of the Duke of Cleves, who was an important ally in case of a Catholic attack on England. Hans Holbein was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne. Despite the speculation that Holbein had favoured her, it is more likely that the portrait was accurate. After seeing the portrait and urged on by the complimentary description of Anne, the King agreed to marry Anne. However, it was not long before Henry (being Henry) wished to annul the marriage so he could marry another. Anne did not argue and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated. The marriage was dissolved, and Anne received the title of “The King’s Sister”. Henry was now in love with the 17-year-old Catherine Howard, which worried Thomas Cromwell.
Shortly after, some religious reformers and protégés of Cromwell were burned as heretics. Meanwhile, Cromwell fell out of favour although it is unclear why. He was charged with treason, selling export licences, granting passports, and drawing up commissions without permission. He was beheaded on 28 July 1540.
On that same day, Henry married the young Catherine Howard. He was absolutely delighted with her and showered her with presents. However, soon after he marriage, Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who had been informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. The court was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; Thomas Cranmer investigated and brought evidence of Catherine’s affair to the King’s notice. Initially, Henry didn’t believe in the accusations, but eventually Dereham confessed. When questioned, Catherine could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would make her marriage to the King invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter an adulterous relationship. Meanwhile, Dereham exposed Catherine and Culpeper’s relationship (what a mess). Dereham and Culpeper were both executed. On 13 February 1542, Catherine Howard was beheaded at the Tower of London.
Henry married his sixth and last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in July 1543. A reformer at heart, Catherine argued with Henry over religion. Ultimately, Henry remained committed to an idiosyncratic mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. Catherine helped reconcile Henry with his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. In 1543, an Act of Parliament put them back in the line of succession after Edward.
Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 140 cm (oh wow!) and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout (lovely…). His obesity and other medical problems can be traced to the jousting accident in 1536 in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier. The chronic wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.
Henry’s obesity hastened his death: he died on 28 January 1547, at the age of 55. He was interred in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, next to his third wife, Jane.
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Henry VIII of England
Hans Holbein the Younger
1537-1547
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It's astonoshing how so many kings could afford to have affairs, when their wives would be executed if they had one of their own... Not to mention the fact that a miscarriage was a sign of women "failing"... Wtf. Henry VIII really was a "very nice guy"... Anyways, there's so much information in this post! You did an amazing job gathering all of it, and writting it in such an interesting and compelling way! And the drawing, i mean... You are such a talented artist, i hope you truly know that! :)
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