Henry VIII 介绍

Henry VIII

(28 June 1491

–

28 January 1547) was

King of England

from 21 April 1509 until his death. He

was also

Lord of Ireland

(later

King of Ireland

) and claimant to the

Kingdom of France

. Henry was the

second monarch of the

House of Tudor

, succeeding his father,

Henry VII

.

Besides his six marriages, Henry

VIII is known for his role in the separation of the

Church of England

from the

Roman Catholic Church

. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of

England

from

papal

authority

,

the

Dissolution

of

the

Monasteries

,

and

establishing

himself

as

the

Supreme Head of the Church of England

. He changed religious ceremonies and rituals and suppressed

the

monasteries,

while

remaining

a

believer

in

core

Catholic

theological

teachings,

even

after

his

excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.

[1]

Henry also oversaw the legal union of England and

Wales

with the

Laws in Wales Acts 1535

–

1542

.

Henry was an attractive and charismatic man in his prime, educated and accomplished.

[2]

He ruled with

absolute power. His desire to provide England with a male heir

—

which stemmed partly from personal

vanity and partly because he believed a daughter would be unable to consolidate the

Tudor Dynasty

and

the

fragile

peace

that

existed

following

the

Wars

of

the

Roses

—

led

to

the

two

things

that

Henry

is

remembered for today:

his wives

, and the

English Reformation

that made England a Protestant nation. In

later life he became morbidly obese and his health suffered; his public image is frequently depicted as

one of a lustful, egotistical, harsh and insecure king.

[3]

Henry is famously remembered for having six wives

—

two of whom he had beheaded

—

which helped to

make him a

cultural icon

, with many books, films, plays, and television series based around him and his

wives.

--------------------- -------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

Early Life

The larger than life King Henry VIII, England's bluebeard, was born on 28th June, 1491 at

Greenwich Palace and was christened at the church of the Observant Friars. As only the

second son of

Henry VII

and

Elizabeth of York

he had originally been intended for a career

in the church.

He was provided with an excellent education, becoming fluent in French, Latin, and

Spanish. The earliest glimpse we have of Henry comes from the pen of Erasmus, the

great humanist scholar, who visited the nine year old Prince at the Palace of Eltham with

Thomas More ;-

' When we came into the hall, the attendants....were all assembled. In the midst stood

Prince Henry, now nine years old and having already something of royalty in his

demeanour, in which there was a certain dignity combined with singular courtesy.'

On 14th November 1501, at ten years old, the young Henry played a major role at the

wedding of his elder brother, Arthur, when he escorted the bride, Catherine of Aragon,

down the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral. Arthur's sudden death during an epidemic of

the

sweating sickness a few months later resulted in his unexpectedly becoming heir to the

throne. Henry was betrothed, in turn, to his brother's widow

.

The death of his mother shortly after was said to have greatly affected the young

Henry. His father grew more avaricious and suspicious in his later years and Henry's

wedding was increasingly delayed as the two fathers haggled over money. Catherine

herself was reduced to penury and at the instigation of his father, Henry was made to

repudiate the marriage agreement.

Concerns were raised at his father's treatment of his only remaining son.

boy

reached only through the king's. He was allowed only the company of his tutors and

guards.

Reign

King Henry VIII came to the throne on the death of his father in April, 1509, inheriting a

kingdom that was stable and a full treasury

. All objections to his marriage with

Catherine of

Aragon

were slung aside. Claiming that he was fullfilling his father's dying wish, he

married Catherine on 11th June 1509 and they were crowned together at Westminster

Abbey.

Henry's appearance

Referred to by Winston Churchill as

English history

Edward IV. Like Edward, in later years muscle was to turn to fat. He possessed his

Plantagenet mother's reddish auburn hair, with fair skin and was considered very

good-looking by the standards of his day.

Henry was intelligent, extrovert and confident, like most of the Tudors, he was well

seen in theology. In common with the ruthless Yorkist strain, he could also be cruel and

extremely self-willed. In his youth, Henry excelled at sports, and particularly enjoyed

jousting, hunting and real tennis. He was also quite an accomplished musician, his best

known piece of music is Pastime with Good Company, otherwise known as The Kynges

Ballade.

Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, the son of an Ipswich butcher, rose rapidly in Henry's

service. Able, ambitious and hard working, Wolsey managed the day-to-day running of the

kingdom. In 1520 Henry met the French king, Francis I and displayed his wealth and

magnificence at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The sentiments of

discussed at this costly spectacle evaporated with unseemly haste two years later when

Henry invaded France in quest of glory

.

In the early years, the marriage of Henry and Catherine was a happy and stable one.

Queen Catherine gave birth to a son, named Henry, on 1st January 151

1. In tournaments

celebrating the event the extrovert king competed as 'Sir Loyal Heart', tragically, the child

died just a few weeks later.

An alliance was formed with his father- in-law Ferdinand of Aragon to launch a joint

attack on France, but Ferdinand, true to character, deserted his ally as soon as his own

ends had been reached. Humiliated but undeterred, Henry invaded France again in 1513,

he besieged Therouanne and Tournai, both of which fell to him. At a skirmish with the

French known as the Battle of the Spurs, so named for the speed of the French retreat

and fought at Guinegate on 16 August, 1513, Henry finally won the glory that he had spent

so much money to attain.

In the King's absence, his brother-in- law

,

James IV, King of Scots

, allied to the French,

invaded England, where Catherine of Aragon remained as regent but was defeated and

killed at the Battle of Flodden by a force lead by the Earl of Surrey. Henry's elder sister

Margaret

, the widowed Scots Queen, became regent for her young son, now King James

V. In poor taste, Catherine sent James bloodied coat to her husband in France as a victory

token.

In 1521, Henry defended the Catholic religion from Martin Luther's protests in a book

entitled 'The Defence of the Seven Sacraments', a grateful pope awarded him with the title

Defender of the Faith, which has been borne by every subsequent English monarch since

then .

Catherine was to experience many still-births and miscarriages before producing the

only surviving child of the marriage, a daughter, Mary, born in 1516. Henry doted on the

child and loved to show her off to courtiers but desperately wanted a male heir, without

which, he felt, England would fall back into the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses.

Catherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

The King's Great Matter

In 1527 Henry became hopelessly infatuated with

Anne Boleyn

, a young woman of

the court. Anne had large, lustrous brown eyes and raven hair, combined with a stylish

way of dressing and enchanting French ways acquired during her stay at the court of

Francis I. Her sister,

Mary Boleyn

, had previously been the king's mistress but he had now

grown tired of her and cast her off. The ambitious Anne refused to become his mistress

and held out for marriage. Henry's conscience, always a very pliable instrument,

conveniently came into play. He claimed to be troubled by a verse in Leviticus stating it

was sinful for a man to take his brother's wife and as punishment, any such transgressor

would be childless. He persuaded himself that this was why God had denied him a male

heir by his marriage to Catherine.

Lead on by the resolute Anne, now determined to become Queen, Henry resolved

that he would divorce Catherine. Catherine, however, refused to comply and acquired the

considerable support of her powerful nephew

, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King

of Spain. The Pope, caught in Charles' power, could not gratify Henry's desire for an

annulment. Despite the strenuous efforts of Wolsey, the Kings Great Matter, as it came to

be referred to, dragged on for many years. Henry, characteristically furious and frustrated

at not obtaining his own way, defied the Pope, setting himself up as head of the Church of

England, a church that was Catholic in doctrine but divorced from the 'Bishop of Rome'.

Wolsey, the great Cardinal, having failed to satisfy the King's requirements, was cast

down from power despite many years of faithful service.

The king's matrimonial matters had now to proceed swiftly, as Anne had announced

herself pregnant and Henry was determind that the child, whom he ardently convinced

himself would be the longed for son, should be born in lawful matrimony. Thomas

Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

, a man of decidedly Protestant leanings, performed

the marriage service.

Henry's marriage to Catherine was declared null and void. Catherine's daughter, the

Lady Mary, suffered deprivations and the humiliation of being publicly declared a bastard,

she was denied access to her mother, although they continued to correspond in secret.

Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More were among many who suffered execution because

they could not, in good conscience, subscribe to the Act of Supremacy. More commented

that Anne Boleyn might

her head

September 1533, to Henry's fury, was not the promised son and heir, but a daughter,

named Elizabeth, after the king's mother. The king ungallantly made no efforts to conceal

his displeasure. When Anne later miscarried of a son in 1536 her fate was sealed.

The Act of Supremecy

The Act of Supremecy, passed in 1534,

established King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the English Reformation

Parliament of 1529-1536 approved the king's break with the see of Rome, as well as

Henry's divorce and remarriage. In 1539 it was ordered that an English translation of the

Bible be placed in every parish church in England. The aged Bishop Fisher refused to

subscribe to the Act of Supremecy, and hailed as a Catholic martytr, he received the

support of the Pope, who promised to make him a Cardinal in reward for his heroic stand

for the rights of the Church against the formidable monarch's wishes. Enraged and

ruthless when opposed, Henry vowed that if a hat arrived to make him a cardinal, the

Pope would find Fisher had no head on which to wear it. The Bishop stood bravely by his

principles. On 17th June, 1535, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.

Sir Thomas More, Henry's Lord Chancellor and the author of Utopia, also refused to

acknowledge the Act of Supremecy. Despite the pleadings of his family, he could not bring

himself, in good conscience to subscribe to the Act. After a harsh term of imprisonment in

the Tower, he was informed on the morning of 1st July, 1535, that he was to die later that