Henry never thought that he would be king – that would be the privilege (or burden) of his elder brother Arthur. But when he was 10, Arthur died and Henry's world changed for ever. Only eight years later, his father Henry VII breathed his last and Prince Hal became king.
One of his first acts was to marry his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon, who was six years his senior. They undoubtedly loved each other, but he was also sending a clear message that he was cementing an alliance with Spain against France.
In 1513, the 22-year-old monarch led the largest and best-organised English army since Agincourt into battle against the French. However, his campaign achieved few concrete gains – in Aquitaine, the army contracted dysentery, got drunk and mutinied – and often seemed to have been conducted for his allies' benefit rather than his own. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the English, the young king generally covered himself in glory. Unfortunately the campaign used up 15 years of revenue, and he had to curb his desire for more military adventures.
He was helped by Thomas Wolsey who, persuading the king to transform himself from warrior into apostle for peace, organised the 1520 summit known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold between Henry and François I of France. However, relations between the two turned sour, supposedly when Henry lost a wrestling match to the Gallic ruler.
In any event, Henry soon signed a treaty with the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, his wife Catherine's nephew. When, in 1525, the latter defeated and captured François, Henry was sure that France was there for the taking. To raise an army, Wolsey suggested imposing a forced levy – the Amicable Grant. When this inappropriately named tax caused riots, Henry had to abandon both it and his invasion of France.
Catherine had so far failed to provide a son to be Henry's heir, although she had produced a daughter Mary in 1516. Now she was probably beyond child-bearing age and in trouble. When Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, not only did he see her as a delightful sexual partner (although she refused him her body unless they were married), he saw her as a likely mother of sons. He began to look for a way to have his marriage to Catherine annulled.
Henry had been proclaimed 'defender of the faith' by Pope Leo X for having written Assertio Septum Sacramentorum, a reply to Martin Luther's heresies. Now Henry decided that, by having married his brother's widow, he had offended God, and he looked to Cardinal Wolsey to rule that this marriage was invalid and that he was free to wed Anne. Sealing his fate, Wolsey refused to pronounce on the matter, saying that it was too difficult. Going direct to Clement VII for a ruling was also out of the question as this pope was now being besieged by Charles V, who would obviously favour his aunt over Anne.
Then, in 1529, Thomas Cranmer, a Cambridge theology don, convinced Henry that university theologians should rule on this moral dilemma. Cambridge was the first scholarly conclave to fall in behind the English king, and it was soon followed by others all over Europe. Catherine herself was not without supporters: her chaplain Thomas Abell wrote Invicta Veritas, a spirited attack against the universities' verdicts.
But it was all to no avail. Henry decided that, as king of England, he should also be head of its Church. In 1531, he ordered the Convocation, the Church's parliament, to approve his new status. Through a face-saving compromise – and a great deal of psychological pressure from the king's tough new minister Thomas Cromwell – it did.
In January 1533, Henry and Anne – who had finally slept with the king and was now pregnant – were married, even though he was still legally Catherine's husband. As head of the Church, he now made Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury. After a rigged trial, Cranmer declared Henry's union with Catherine unlawful; in July, the pope excommunicated Henry; and in August, Anne was crowned queen. The king's old friend and counsellor Sir Thomas More refused to swear an oath accepting Henry's marriage to Anne and his supremacy within the Church, and for this, he was executed.
Now that Henry had enormous power, he needed the resources to exercise it. Cromwell had the answer: take all the Church's vast wealth by dissolving the more than 500 monasteries scattered across the country. He began in 1536, and within four years, they were all gone.
The dissolution angered the God-fearing folk of the north, who rose in rebellion: the Pilgrimage of Grace. Although strong militarily, the rebels preferred to negotiate with the king. Within weeks, it was all over: Henry reneged on his promises, arrested the ringleaders and exacted a savage retribution.
Anne was not there to see this treachery – she had already experienced it first-hand. In May 1536, Henry had had her tried and executed on a trumped-up charge of adultery. Her real crime? Like Catherine, she had produced only a daughter: Elizabeth.
Henry didn't wait long before replacing Anne. Within days he had married Jane Seymour, and the submissive young woman did exactly as he wanted. In October 1537, she gave birth to a son – Edward – and then promptly died.
In 1540, Henry married the German princess Anne of Cleves, whom he had never met – then, finding her physically repellent, rejected her. The marriage was annulled on grounds of non-consummation. The next year, Henry married the nubile Catherine Howard, apparently aiming to recapture his lost youth. She was executed in 1542, on similar charges to Anne Boleyn, but with greater justification.
Henry married his sixth – and last – wife Katherine Parr in 1543. She brought a degree of harmony into his life, and established good, even loving relations with all his children. He devoted his last years – and his accumulated wealth – to building up a navy and conducting a futile war with France.
Henry decided that all his children, including the two daughters he had bastardised, should have their place in the succession. He gave this arrangement the double sanction of an Act of Parliament and his own personal will before dying on 28 January 1547. Charles Dickens later called him 'a spot of blood and grease on the history of England'.
Castel St Angelo in Rome: Besieged here by Charles V, Pope Clement VII was not prepared to rule in favour of Henry and Catherine's annulment. Show larger image (opens in a new window).
Henry VIII Revealed www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/ exhibitions/henry/default.asp The website of the 2003 exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, which brought together four of the finest portraits of this ruler, including Holbein's Whitehall mural.
Henry VIII: Intrigue in the Tudor court www.archsoc.com/games/Henry.html
Free downloadable family game in which you scheme and connive to win influence with the king so that your faction will control his chosen heir and rule all England when Henry dies. The game contains all the important characters of the time and is historically accurate.
The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities and politics by David Starkey (Vintage, 2002)
Henry VIII was surrounded, 24 hours a day, by the small group of intimates and personal attendants who made up the staff of his Privy Chamber. Starkey' examines the great game of politics over which Henry presided. Get this book
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Edward II bought the moated manor house here in 1305 and gave it to his wife Isabella. It then became – with additions such as the impressive Great Hall with its hammerbeam roof, built for Edward IV in the 1470s – one of England's largest palaces, used by a succession of royals including Henry VIII, who grew up here. After the Civil War, the palace fell into decline – the Great Hall was even used as a barn. In 1933, the palace was bought by the Courtaulds, who restored the Great Hall and built their adjoining Art Deco home. Surrounding all this are the remains of Henry's hunting park.
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