Incredible Lifeway of King Henry VIII - Case Study Example

of the of the of the King Henry VIII Henry was born on the 28th of June, 1491 at Greenwich Palace in London. He was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Henry was an unruly and arrogant child. The great English poet and satirist John Skelton was his first tutor. Under his tutelage Henry learned languages, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, writing and speaking. Henry was good at sports and was an athlete. He excelled in hunting and wrestling, and loved music and dance (HENRY VIII (r. 1509-1547)). Henry VIII’s elder brother Arthur died when the former was eleven years old. This incident had a profound influence on his life as he became the legal heir to the throne. In 1503, Henry became the Prince of Wales and in that very year his mother and grandmother were gathered unto their forefathers. In the year 1509, his father passed away and he ascended the throne as Henry the VIII (HENRY VIII (r. 1509-1547)). At that time England was an isolated kingdom in Europe. It had limited natural resources. England was surrounded by the sea on three sides. Scotland was to its north. The Scots were inimical to the English they joined forces with France, which was also an enemy of England. His father Henry VII had strived hard to restore independence to England and to enrich it in all respects. In order to achieve these goals, Henry VII had executed his opponents and enemies and annexed their properties in England. He had increased the amount of taxes to enrich the crown. He was disinterested in wars as they depleted the wealth of the nation. His son had totally different ideas in this respect and after his coronation; he adopted novel means to expand the power of England and to make it the greatest power in Europe (Kishlansky). Henry VIII was inimical of France and in the year 1513, he mounted a successful campaign against the French. This infuriated the Scots who waged a war against England. This engagement was famous as the Battle of Flodden Field. In that battle, the armies of Henry established their supremacy over that of the Scots. James IV, the king of Scotland was killed in that battle (Kishlansky). Henry VIII played the role of an arbitrator between France and Spain. He provoked these countries to wage war against each other, in order to assume a superior position in Europe. His subsequent military operations were failures. In the year 1520, Henry met with the king of France, Francis I, in France. Their meeting was a spectacular event in Europe. Despite, the existence of diplomatic relations with each other, they were unable to stop the subsequent battles that took place among other European giants. These wars depleted the treasury and Henry VIII imposed several taxes on the people, which resulted in rebellion and civil protests against him (Kishlansky). Henry VIII appointed his close follower, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, as the leader of the government. Wolsey assumed the responsibility of running the government and freed Henry from that job. As such, Henry VIII was disinterested in performing that job. Cardinal Wolsey proved to be a great leader and administrator. He was also proclaimed as a social reformer, who had insisted upon the courts to take up cases involving criminal activities of the rich. Wolsey instructed the courts to prosecute such felonious rich people and led the parliament in ensuring the welfare of the poor. He reformed taxation methods and compelled the Parliament to subsidize the poor (Kishlansky). These new taxes made good the subsidy amounts. These taxes were based on the latest assessment of land, goods and wages. In this manner he brought about an increase in the royal revenue. Wolsey was said to be devoid of mercy against his opponents and enemies. However, he chose to work within the scope of the parliament and the royal council. Although Wolsey was very powerful and an able leader in achieving the king’s purposes, he failed to secure the divorce as demanded by Henry and was consequently impeached from his position (Kishlansky). Critics depicted him as the embodiment of a warrior king who had regained England’s honour. Some of his opponents referred to him as a dictator. His life was scrutinized by critics and scholars, with great interest. Catholic authors referred to him as the devil incarnate, whereas the protestant authors considered him to be the father of their religion. His desires were and love for music, wrestling, eating and drinking were legendary, and he married six women (Kishlansky). The earlier civil wars had destabilized the royal monarchy. However, Henry VIII had restored the power of the English crown. His close followers like Wolsey and Cromwell had been instrumental in helping him to reinstate the royal monarchy. These ministers had utilized the Privy Council, the former royal council, and the Parliament to achieve this stupendous task. With the inclusion of the Privy Council and Parliament in the government, these institutions lost their autonomy and were unable to directly defy the monarch. Henry VIII confiscated the wealth of the church, which enabled him to rule the country without any further revenues (Kishlansky). The victory over Scotland for in two wars enabled England to be safe from further invasions. Henry VIII had fortified the navy and this prevented any maritime attacks on England. However, the act of severing relations with Rome created a number of difficulties for England, and came in the way of her establishing her supremacy in Europe and gaining a national identity of its own. Henry VIII dreamed about an English empire and his vision encouraged the nation and his successors to create the mighty British Empire. Eventually his dream was realized and the British Empire was formed, over which the sun never set (Kishlansky). In the year 1509, Henry VIII married his brother’s widow Catherine of Aragon, who was the mother of Mary I. Henry VIII was primarily aided by his minister Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, who remained in power between 1515 and 1527. Henry VIII sought divorce from Catherine in 1527 in order to marry Anne. Wolsey failed to secure the divorce and was consequently, ousted from his ministerial post. The new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell suggested in 1532 that the English church should separate itself from Rome (Henry, VIII.In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia). Cromwell secured Henry VIII’s divorce and facilitated him to marry Anne in the year 1533. Thomas Cranmer, the new archbishop annulled Henry VIII’s first marriage and a delighted Henry VIII married Anne. They had a daughter; Elizabeth I. He became the head of the Church of England, which was one of his major achievements. In the beginning Henry VIII had been attached to the papacy and had been awarded the title of Defender of the Faith. However, his act of separating the church from Rome brought about his excommunication and expulsion by the Christian community. He had altered the nature and powers of the Church of England. His power and fame reached their zenith in the 1530s when he transferred the wealth of the monasteries to the crown (Henry, VIII.In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia). However, his imposition of new clerical taxes diminished his reputation as a man of learning. Later on he was termed as a sanguinary man. Henry executed all who opposed his new order. As a result many churchmen including St. Thomas More were sent to the executioner’s block. He lost interest in his wife Anne, and in the year 1536 she was burnt at the stake on charges of adultery. Subsequently, he married Jane Seymour, who gave birth to Edward VI who died in infancy. Three years after this event, Cromwell persuaded Henry VIII to marry Anne of Cleves. Their marriage ended in a quick divorce. In 1540 Henry executed Cromwell. As he grew older he became paranoid and unhealthy. In the same year he married Catherine Howard and in 1542, he had her decollated on charges of adultery. Subsequently, in 1543 he married Catherine Parr (Henry, VIII.In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia). Henry VIII combined forces with Emperor Charles V and fought against France in 1542. During the same period the Scots declared a war against England, but were defeated. In that war, the king of Scotland, James V was severely injured and died subsequently. After the death of James V, no other king of Scotland attempted to invade England. The frequent wars waged by Henry had emptied the treasury. Henry sold the monastic lands, raised taxes and undervalued the currency to pay for the costs of the war. As he became older and weak his fame also diminished. Henry VIII died on 28 January, 1547 and was succeeded by his ten year old son Edward VI (Kishlansky). Henry VIII married several women, and this exposed his marital affairs to the public, for the first time ever in the history of England. Prior to his, matrimonial escapades, the details of royal marriages had been shrouded in secrecy and the facts available were scanty. Two of his wives, namely Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr were very intelligent and given to expressing themselves freely. They were unable to accept continue in a subordinate and subservient role to the king. Indeed, Henry VIII’s wives were given very little personal freedom and power of expression. At all times they were required to depict unquestioning obedience to the monarch (Weir). There was no equality among men and women in those days. Ideas regarding the equality of the sexes were alien to royalty. Henry VIII detested disloyalty and considered infidelity to be tantamount to treason. Accordingly he inflicted capital punishment for infidelity, because of the fear of its succession among others. His queens were forced to lead a life that conformed to predefined rules and customs (Weir). The religious policy remained intact even after the death of Cromwell in 1540. Henry VIII maintained that there should be unity. He feared that there could be dissension with the royal religious policy. Henry established an alternative means of dealing with the problem by remaining neither Lutheran nor catholic. The Church served his ends and in 1540, Henry VIII issued orders that every bishop had to invariably urge the people to attend prayer and then participate in a procession in every parish. Accordingly, there was a procession in London on the 17th of September, 1540 which was followed by a sermon. There was a procession on every Friday and on the 22nd of May 1544; a prayer meeting was conducted in St. Paul’s church commending the god and the king with the song Te Deum. This was followed by a procession to commemorate the triumph of England over Scotland (Bernard). Henry resorted to a via media between Rome and Zurich. He searched for an alternative between Catholicism and its superstitions and the revolutionary radicalism of the reformers. He was successful in establishing a reformed religious institution in England through his tyranny and ruthlessness. Henry had opposed the supremacy of the Pope; all the same he did not favour the Protestants. Moreover, he enacted stringent laws against Protestants, in order to suppress their spiritual supremacy. Some of those laws were unreasonable and savage, and the Vatican excommunicated him as a consequence. Although he wanted to contest the authority of the Pope, he never changed his religion. He maintained the pace of his reforms and ruled with unlimited and unparalleled power.He had never accorded much importance to the proceedings of Parliament and the English constitution. Moreover, Henry VIII disregarded the Magna Charta (Mackinnon). After the execution of Cromwell, Henry VIII’s paranoia went from bad to worse. His attempts to formulate policy, after the departure of Cromwell, were fiascos to put it mildly. He was transformed into an obese and sick old man, who wallowed in self pity. The neighbouring kingdoms of France and Scotland resumed their hostility and these adverse developments finally brought his demise in the year 1547 (Henry VIII ). Works Cited Bernard, G. W. The Kings Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English. Yale University Press. ISBN: 0300122713, 2005. P. 579. "Henry VIII ." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago : Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008. HENRY VIII (r. 1509-1547). 16 February 2008 . Henry, VIII.In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2006. 16 February 2008 . King Henry VIII. 16 February 2008 . Kishlansky, Mark. "Henry VIII." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation , 2007. Mackinnon, William Alexander. History of Civilization. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1846. Pp. 130 – 131. Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Grove Press. ISBN: 0802136834, 2000. Pp. 1 – 4. Read More