Henry VIII
Henry VIII | |
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more...) | |
Reign | 22 April 1509 – 28 January 1547 |
Coronation | 24 June 1509 |
Predecessor | Henry VII |
Successor | Edward VI |
Born | 28 June 1491 Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England |
Died | 28 January 1547 (aged 55) Palace of Whitehall, Westminster, England |
Burial | 16 February 1547 , Berkshire |
Spouses | |
Issue more... | |
House | Tudor |
Father | Henry VII of England |
Mother | Elizabeth of York |
Religion |
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Signature |
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was
Henry brought radical changes to the
Henry was an extravagant spender, using proceeds from the dissolution of the monasteries and acts of the
Henry's contemporaries considered him an attractive, educated, and accomplished king. He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne" and his reign described as the "most important" in English history.[1][2] He was an author and composer. As he aged, he became severely overweight and his health suffered. He is frequently characterised in his later life as a lustful, egotistical, paranoid, and tyrannical monarch.[3] He was succeeded by his son Edward VI.
Early years
Born on 28 June 1491 at the
In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding his brother Arthur's marriage to
In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine.[11] Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother. The 10-year-old Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall, and the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1504.[12] Henry VII gave his second son few responsibilities even after the death of Arthur. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public. As a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship".[13]
Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his son Henry in marriage to the widowed Catherine.
Early reign
On 23 June 1509, Henry led the now 23-year-old Catherine from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey for their coronation, which took place the following day.[21] It was a grand affair: the King's passage was lined with tapestries and laid with fine cloth.[21] Following the ceremony, there was a grand banquet in Westminster Hall.[22] As Catherine wrote to her father, "our time is spent in continuous festival".[18]
Two days after his coronation, Henry arrested his father's two most unpopular ministers,
Soon after marrying Henry, Catherine conceived. She gave birth to a
Although Henry's marriage to Catherine has since been described as "unusually good",
Blount gave birth in June 1519 to Henry's illegitimate son,
France and the Habsburgs
In 1510,
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. Soon after, the English took Thérouanne and handed it over to Maximillian; Tournai, a more significant settlement, followed.[43] Henry had led the army personally, complete with a large entourage.[44] His absence from the country, however, had prompted his brother-in-law James IV of Scotland to invade England at the behest of Louis.[45] Nevertheless, the English army, overseen by Queen Catherine, decisively defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513.[46] Among the dead was the Scottish King, thus ending Scotland's brief involvement in the war.[46] These campaigns had given Henry a taste of the military success he so desired. However, despite initial indications, he decided not to pursue a 1514 campaign. He had been supporting Ferdinand and Maximilian financially during the campaign but had received little in return; England's coffers were now empty.[47] With the replacement of Julius by Pope Leo X, who was inclined to negotiate for peace with France, Henry signed his own treaty with Louis: his sister Mary would become Louis's wife, having previously been pledged to the younger Charles, and peace was secured for eight years, a remarkably long time.[48]
Marriages
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King Henry VIII and all six of his wives were related through a common ancestor, King Edward I of England.[53]
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Annulment from Catherine
During his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry conducted an affair with
Henry's precise motivations and intentions over the coming years are not widely agreed on.
Other missions concentrated on arranging an ecclesiastical court to meet in England, with a representative from Clement VII. Although Clement agreed to the creation of such a court, he never had any intention of empowering his legate,
A year later, Catherine was banished from court, and her rooms were given to Anne Boleyn. Anne was an unusually educated and intellectual woman for her time and was keenly absorbed and engaged with the ideas of the Protestant Reformers, but the extent to which she herself was a committed Protestant is much debated.[61] When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, Anne's influence and the need to find a trustworthy supporter of the annulment had Thomas Cranmer appointed to the vacant position.[73] This was approved by the Pope, unaware of the King's nascent plans for the Church.[75]
Henry was married to Catherine for 24 years. Their divorce has been described as a "deeply wounding and isolating" experience for Henry.[2]
Marriage to Anne Boleyn
In the winter of 1532, Henry met with Francis I at Calais and enlisted Francis's support for his new marriage.
Following the marriage, there was a period of consolidation, taking the form of a series of statutes of the
The King and Queen were not pleased with married life. The royal couple enjoyed periods of calm and affection, but Anne refused to play the submissive role expected of her. The vivacity and opinionated intellect that had made her so attractive as an illicit lover made her too independent for the largely ceremonial role of a royal wife and it made her many enemies. For his part, Henry disliked Anne's constant irritability and violent temper. After a false pregnancy or miscarriage in 1534, he saw her failure to give him a son as a betrayal. As early as Christmas 1534, Henry was discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine.[92] Henry is traditionally believed to have had an affair with Madge Shelton in 1535, although historian Antonia Fraser argues that Henry in fact had an affair with her sister Mary Shelton.[31]
Opposition to Henry's religious policies was at first quickly suppressed in England. A number of dissenting monks, including the first
These suppressions, as well as the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, in turn, contributed to a more general resistance to Henry's reforms, most notably in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a large uprising in northern England in October 1536.[94] Some 20,000 to 40,000 rebels were led by Robert Aske, together with parts of the northern nobility.[95] Henry VIII promised the rebels he would pardon them and thanked them for raising the issues. Aske told the rebels they had been successful and they could disperse and go home.[96] Henry saw the rebels as traitors and did not feel obliged to keep his promises to them, so when further violence occurred after Henry's offer of a pardon he was quick to break his promise of clemency.[97] The leaders, including Aske, were arrested and executed for treason. In total, about 200 rebels were executed, and the disturbances ended.[98]
Execution of Anne Boleyn
On 8 January 1536, news reached the King and Queen that Catherine of Aragon had died. The following day, Henry dressed all in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet.[99] Queen Anne was pregnant again, and she was aware of the consequences if she failed to give birth to a son. Later that month, the King was thrown from his horse in a tournament and was badly injured; it seemed for a time that his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached the Queen, she was sent into shock and miscarried a male child at about 15 weeks' gestation, on the day of Catherine's funeral, 29 January 1536.[100] For most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of this royal marriage.[101]
Although the Boleyn family still held important positions on the Privy Council, Anne had many enemies, including the Duke of Suffolk. Even her own uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had come to resent her attitude to her power. The Boleyns preferred France over the Emperor as a potential ally, but the King's favour had swung towards the latter (partly because of Cromwell), damaging the family's influence.[102] Also opposed to Anne were supporters of reconciliation with Princess Mary (among them the former supporters of Catherine), who had reached maturity. A second annulment was now a real possibility, although it is commonly believed that it was Cromwell's anti-Boleyn influence that led opponents to look for a way of having her executed.[103][104]
Anne's downfall came shortly after she had recovered from her final miscarriage. Whether it was primarily the result of allegations of conspiracy, adultery, or witchcraft remains a matter of debate among historians.[61] Early signs of a fall from grace included the King's new mistress, the 28-year-old Jane Seymour, being moved into new quarters,[105] and Anne's brother, George Boleyn, being refused the Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Nicholas Carew.[106] Between 30 April and 2 May, five men, including George Boleyn, were arrested on charges of treasonable adultery and accused of having sexual relationships with the Queen. Anne was arrested, accused of treasonous adultery and incest. Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. The accused men were executed on 17 May 1536.[107] Henry and Anne's marriage was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer at Lambeth on the same day.[108] Cranmer appears to have had difficulty finding grounds for an annulment and probably based it on the prior liaison between Henry and Anne's sister Mary, which in canon law meant that Henry's marriage to Anne was, like his first marriage, within a forbidden degree of affinity and therefore void.[109] At 8 am on 19 May 1536, Anne was executed on Tower Green.[110]
Marriage to Jane Seymour; domestic and foreign affairs
The day after Anne's execution the 45-year-old Henry became engaged to Seymour, who had been one of the Queen's
With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic and not foreign policy issues had been Henry's priority in the first half of the 1530s. In 1536, for example, Henry granted his assent to the
In 1538, as part of the negotiation of a secret treaty by Cromwell with Charles V, a series of dynastic marriages were proposed: Mary would marry a son of
Marriage to Anne of Cleves
Having considered the matter, Cromwell suggested
When Henry met Anne, however, he was much displeased with her appearance. The King was reportedly taken aback and told his courtiers "I promise you, I see no such thing as hath been shown me of her, by pictures and report. I am ashamed that men have praised her as they have done, and I love her not!"[33] Despite his protests, Henry knew that the situation was too far gone and he would have to wed his bride.
The marriage took place in January 1540, but it was never consummated. The morning after their wedding night, Henry complained about his new wife to Cromwell, stating:[125]
"Surely, my lord, I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse! She is nothing fair, and have very evil smells about her. I took her to be no maid by reason of the closeness of her breasts and other tokens, which, when I felt them, strake me so to the heart, that I had neither will nor courage to prove the rest. I can have none appetite for displeasant airs. I have left her as good a maid and I found her."
Henry wished to annul the marriage as soon as possible so he could marry another.[126][127] Anne did not argue, and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated.[128] Anne's previous betrothal to Francis of Lorraine provided further grounds for the annulment.[129] The marriage was subsequently dissolved in July 1540, and Anne received the title of "The King's Sister", two houses, and a generous allowance.[128] It was soon clear that Henry had fallen for the 17-year-old Catherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece. This worried Cromwell, for Norfolk was his political opponent.[130]
Shortly after, the religious reformers (and protégés of Cromwell)
Marriage to Catherine Howard
On 28 July 1540 (the same day Cromwell was executed), Henry married the young Catherine Howard, a first cousin and lady-in-waiting of Anne Boleyn.[134] He was delighted with his new queen and awarded her the lands of Cromwell and a vast array of jewellery.[135] Soon after the marriage, however, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who had previously been informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. The Privy Council was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; Thomas Cranmer was dispatched to investigate, and he brought evidence of Queen Catherine's previous affair with Dereham to the King's notice.[136] Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, Dereham confessed. It took another meeting of the council, however, before Henry believed the accusations against Dereham and went into a rage, blaming the council before consoling himself in hunting.[137] When questioned, the Queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Catherine's relationship with Culpeper. Culpeper and Dereham were both executed, and Catherine too was beheaded on 13 February 1542.[138]
Marriage to Catherine Parr
Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in July 1543.[139] A reformer at heart, she argued with Henry over religion. Henry remained committed to an idiosyncratic mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism; the reactionary mood that had gained ground after Cromwell's fall had neither eliminated his Protestant streak nor been overcome by it.[140] Parr helped reconcile Henry with his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.[141] In 1543, the Third Succession Act put them back in the line of succession after Edward. The same act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will.[142]
Shrines destroyed and monasteries dissolved
In 1538, the chief minister Thomas Cromwell pursued an extensive campaign against what the government termed "idolatry" practised under the old religion, culminating in September with the dismantling of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. As a consequence, the King was excommunicated by Pope Paul III on 17 December of the same year.[90] In 1540, Henry sanctioned the complete destruction of shrines to saints. In 1542, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. Abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords; only archbishops and bishops remained. Consequently, the Lords Spiritual – as members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were known – were for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal.[citation needed]
Second invasion of France and the "Rough Wooing" of Scotland
The 1539 alliance between Francis and Charles had soured, eventually degenerating into renewed war. With Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn dead, relations between Charles and Henry improved considerably, and Henry concluded a secret alliance with the Emperor and decided to enter the Italian War in favour of his new ally. An invasion of France was planned for 1543.[143] In preparation for it, Henry moved to eliminate the potential threat of Scotland under his young nephew, James V. The Scots were defeated at Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November 1542,[144] and James died on 15 December. Henry now hoped to unite the crowns of England and Scotland by marrying his son Edward to James's successor, Mary. The Scottish regent Lord Arran agreed to the marriage in the Treaty of Greenwich on 1 July 1543, but it was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland on 11 December. The result was eight years of war between England and Scotland, a campaign later dubbed "the Rough Wooing". Despite several peace treaties, unrest continued in Scotland until Henry's death.[145][146][147]
Despite the early success with Scotland, Henry hesitated to invade France, annoying Charles. Henry finally went to France in June 1544 with a two-pronged attack. One force under Norfolk ineffectively besieged
Physical decline and death
Late in life, Henry became
The theory that Henry had syphilis has been dismissed by most historians.[152][153] Historian Susan Maclean Kybett ascribes his demise to scurvy, which is caused by insufficient vitamin C most often due to a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in one's diet.[154] A newer study suggests that the king may have been of Kell-positive blood type to explain both his physical and mental deterioration, being consistent with some symptoms of the McLeod syndrome, and the high mortality in the pregnancies attributed to him.[155][156]
Henry's obesity hastened his death at the age of 55, on 28 January 1547 in the Palace of Whitehall, on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. The tomb he had planned (with components taken from the tomb intended for Cardinal Wolsey) was only partly constructed and was never completed (the sarcophagus and its base were later removed and used for
Wives, mistresses, and children
English historian and House of Tudor expert David Starkey describes Henry VIII as follows:
What is extraordinary is that Henry was usually a very good husband. And he liked women – that's why he married so many of them! He was very tender to them, we know that he addressed them as "sweetheart". He was a good lover, he was very generous: the wives were given huge settlements of land and jewels – they were loaded with jewels. He was immensely considerate when they were pregnant. But, once he had fallen out of love... he just cut them off. He just withdrew. He abandoned them. They didn't even know he'd left them.[2]
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
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By Catherine of Aragon (married Palace of Placentia 11 June 1509; annulled 23 May 1533) | |||
Unnamed daughter | 31 January 1510 | stillborn | |
Henry, Duke of Cornwall | 1 January 1511 | 22 February 1511 | died aged almost two months |
Unnamed son | 17 September 1513 | died shortly after birth | |
Unnamed son | November 1514[160] | died shortly after birth | |
Queen Mary I | 18 February 1516 | 17 November 1558 | married Philip II of Spain in 1554; no issue |
Unnamed daughter | 10 November 1518 | stillborn in the 8th month of pregnancy[161] or lived at least one week | |
By Elizabeth Blount (mistress; bore the only illegitimate child Henry VIII acknowledged as his son) | |||
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset
|
15 June 1519 | 23 July 1536 | illegitimate; acknowledged by Henry VIII in 1525; no issue |
By Anne Boleyn (married Westminster Abbey 25 January 1533; annulled 17 May 1536) beheaded 19 May 1536 | |||
Queen Elizabeth I
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7 September 1533 | 24 March 1603 | never married; no issue |
Unnamed son | Christmas, 1534[162] | miscarriage or false pregnancy[d] | |
Unnamed son | 1535 | miscarried son[e] | |
Unnamed son | 29 January 1536 | miscarriage of a child, believed male,[f] in the fourth month of pregnancy[163] | |
By Jane Seymour (married Palace of Whitehall 30 May 1536) died 24 October 1537 | |||
King Edward VI | 12 October 1537 | 6 July 1553 | died unmarried, age 15; no issue |
By Anne of Cleves (married Palace of Placentia 6 January 1540) annulled 9 July 1540 | |||
no issue | |||
By Catherine Howard (married Oatlands Palace 28 July 1540; annulled 23 November 1541) beheaded 13 February 1542 | |||
no issue | |||
By Catherine Parr (married Hampton Court Palace 12 July 1543) Henry VIII died 28 January 1547 | |||
no issue |
Succession
Upon Henry's death, he was succeeded by his only surviving son, Edward VI. Since Edward was then only nine years old, he could not rule directly. Instead, Henry's will designated 16 executors to serve on a regency council until Edward reached 18. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, elder brother to Jane Seymour (Edward's mother), to be Lord Protector of the Realm. Under provisions of the will, if Edward died childless, the throne was to pass to Mary, Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, and her heirs.
If Mary's issue failed, the crown was to go to Elizabeth, Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn, and her heirs. Finally, if Elizabeth's line became extinct, the crown was to be inherited by the descendants of Henry VIII's deceased younger sister, Mary, the
The descendants of Henry's sister Margaret Tudor – the Stuarts, rulers of Scotland – were thereby excluded from the succession.[164]
This provision ultimately failed when
Edward VI himself would disregard the will and name
Public image
Henry cultivated the image of a
Henry was an avid gambler and dice player, and excelled at sports, especially jousting, hunting, and real tennis. He was also known for his strong defence of conventional Christian piety.[5] He was involved in the construction and improvement of several significant buildings, including Nonsuch Palace, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and Westminster Abbey in London. Many of the existing buildings which he improved were properties confiscated from Wolsey, such as Christ Church, Oxford, Hampton Court Palace, the Palace of Whitehall, and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Henry was an intellectual, the first English king with a modern humanist education. He read and wrote English, French, and Latin, and owned a large library. He annotated many books and published one of his own, and he had numerous pamphlets and lectures prepared to support the reformation of the church. Richard Sampson's Oratio (1534), for example, was an argument for absolute obedience to the monarchy and claimed that the English church had always been independent of Rome.[167] At the popular level, theatre and minstrel troupes funded by the crown travelled around the land to promote the new religious practices; the Pope and Catholic priests and monks were mocked as foreign devils, while Henry was hailed as the glorious King of England and as a brave and heroic defender of the true faith.[168] Henry worked hard to present an image of unchallengeable authority and irresistible power.[169]
Henry was a large, well-built athlete, over 6 feet [1.8 m] tall, strong, and broad in proportion. His athletic activities were more than pastimes; they were political devices that served multiple goals, enhancing his image, impressing foreign emissaries and rulers, and conveying his ability to suppress any rebellion. He arranged a jousting tournament at Greenwich in 1517 where he wore gilded armour and gilded horse trappings, and outfits of velvet, satin, and cloth of gold with pearls and jewels. It suitably impressed foreign ambassadors, one of whom wrote home that "the wealth and civilisation of the world are here, and those who call the English barbarians appear to me to render themselves such".[170] Henry finally retired from jousting in 1536 after a heavy fall from his horse left him unconscious for two hours, but he continued to sponsor two lavish tournaments a year. He then started gaining weight and lost the trim, athletic figure that had made him so handsome, and his courtiers began dressing in heavily padded clothes to emulate and flatter him. His health rapidly declined near the end of his reign.[171][172][173]
Government
The power of Tudor monarchs, including Henry, was 'whole' and 'entire', ruling, as they claimed, by the grace of God alone.[174] The crown could also rely on the exclusive use of those functions that constituted the royal prerogative. These included acts of diplomacy (including royal marriages), declarations of war, management of the coinage, the issue of royal pardons and the power to summon and dissolve Parliament as and when required.[175] Nevertheless, as evident during Henry's break with Rome, the monarch stayed within established limits, whether legal or financial, that forced him to work closely with both the nobility and Parliament (representing the gentry).[175]
In practice, Tudor monarchs used
From 1514 to 1529, Thomas Wolsey, a cardinal of the established Church, oversaw domestic and foreign policy for the King from his position as Lord Chancellor.[180] Wolsey centralised the national government and extended the jurisdiction of the conciliar courts, particularly the Star Chamber. The Star Chamber's overall structure remained unchanged, but Wolsey used it to provide much-needed reform of the criminal law. The power of the court itself did not outlive Wolsey, however, since no serious administrative reform was undertaken and its role eventually devolved to the localities.[181] Wolsey helped fill the gap left by Henry's declining participation in government (particularly in comparison to his father) but did so mostly by imposing himself in the King's place.[182] His use of these courts to pursue personal grievances, and particularly to treat delinquents as mere examples of a whole class worthy of punishment, angered the rich, who were annoyed as well by his enormous wealth and ostentatious living.[183] Following Wolsey's downfall, Henry took full control of his government, although at court numerous complex factions continued to try to ruin and destroy each other.[184]
Thomas Cromwell also came to define Henry's government. Returning to England from the continent in 1514 or 1515, Cromwell soon entered Wolsey's service. He turned to law, also picking up a good knowledge of the Bible, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1524. He became Wolsey's "man of all work".[185] Driven in part by his religious beliefs, Cromwell attempted to reform the body politic of the English government through discussion and consent, and through the vehicle of continuity, not outward change.[186] Many saw him as the man they wanted to bring about their shared aims, including Thomas Audley. By 1531, Cromwell and his associates were already responsible for the drafting of much legislation.[186] Cromwell's first office was that of the master of the King's jewels in 1532, from which he began to invigorate the government finances.[187] By that point, Cromwell's power as an efficient administrator, in a Council full of politicians, exceeded what Wolsey had achieved.[188]
Cromwell did much work through his many offices to remove the tasks of government from the Royal Household (and ideologically from the personal body of the King) and into a public state.
Finances
Henry inherited a vast fortune and a prosperous economy from his father, who had been frugal. This fortune is estimated at £1,250,000 (the equivalent of £375 million today).[195] By comparison, Henry VIII's reign was a near disaster financially. He augmented the royal treasury by seizing church lands, but his heavy spending and long periods of mismanagement damaged the economy.[196]
Henry spent much of his wealth on maintaining his court and household, including many of the building works he undertook on royal palaces. He hung 2,000 tapestries in his palaces; by comparison, James V of Scotland hung just 200.[197] Henry took pride in showing off his collection of weapons, which included exotic archery equipment, 2,250 pieces of land ordnance and 6,500 handguns.[198] Tudor monarchs had to fund all government expenses out of their own income. This income came from the crown lands that Henry owned as well as from customs duties like tonnage and poundage, granted by Parliament to the king for life. During Henry's reign the revenues of the Crown remained constant (around £100,000),[199] but were eroded by inflation and rising prices brought about by war. Indeed, war and Henry's dynastic ambitions in Europe exhausted the surplus he had inherited from his father by the mid-1520s.
Henry VII had not involved Parliament in his affairs very much, but Henry VIII had to turn to Parliament during his reign for money, in particular for grants of subsidies to fund his wars. The dissolution of the monasteries provided a means to replenish the treasury, and as a result, the Crown took possession of monastic lands worth £120,000 (£36 million) a year.[200] The Crown had profited by a small amount in 1526 when Wolsey put England onto a gold, rather than silver, standard, and had debased the currency slightly. Cromwell debased the currency more significantly, starting in Ireland in 1540. The English pound halved in value against the Flemish pound between 1540 and 1551 as a result. The nominal profit made was significant, helping to bring income and expenditure together, but it had a catastrophic effect on the country's economy. In part, it helped to bring about a period of very high inflation from 1544 onwards.[201]
Reformation
Henry is generally credited with initiating the English Reformation – the process of transforming England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one – though his progress at the elite and mass levels is disputed,
In any case, between 1532 and 1537, Henry instituted a number of statutes that dealt with the relationship between king and pope and hence the structure of the nascent
To Cromwell's annoyance, Henry insisted on parliamentary time to discuss questions of faith, which he achieved through the Duke of Norfolk. This led to the passing of the
When taxes once payable to Rome were transferred to the Crown, Cromwell saw the need to assess the taxable value of the Church's extensive holdings as they stood in 1535. The result was an extensive compendium, the Valor Ecclesiasticus.[216] In September 1535, Cromwell commissioned a more general visitation of religious institutions, to be undertaken by four appointee visitors. The visitation focused almost exclusively on the country's religious houses, with largely negative conclusions.[217] In addition to reporting back to Cromwell, the visitors made the lives of the monks more difficult by enforcing strict behavioural standards. The result was to encourage self-dissolution.[218] In any case, the evidence Cromwell gathered led swiftly to the beginning of the state-enforced dissolution of the monasteries, with all religious houses worth less than £200 vested by statute in the crown in January 1536.[219] After a short pause, surviving religious houses were transferred one by one to the Crown and new owners, and the dissolution confirmed by a further statute in 1539. By January 1540 no such houses remained; 800 had been dissolved. The process had been efficient, with minimal resistance, and brought the crown some £90,000 a year.[220] The extent to which the dissolution of all houses was planned from the start is debated by historians; there is some evidence that major houses were originally intended only to be reformed.[221] Cromwell's actions transferred a fifth of England's landed wealth to new hands. The programme was designed primarily to create a landed gentry beholden to the crown, which would use the lands much more efficiently.[222] Although little opposition to the supremacy could be found in England's religious houses, they had links to the international church and were an obstacle to further religious reform.[223]
Response to the reforms was mixed. The religious houses had been the only support of the impoverished,[224] and the reforms alienated much of the populace outside London, helping to provoke the great northern rising of 1536–37, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.[225] Elsewhere the changes were accepted and welcomed, and those who clung to Catholic rites kept quiet or moved in secrecy. They reemerged during the reign of Henry's daughter Mary (1553–58).
Military
Apart from permanent garrisons at
Henry's break with Rome incurred the threat of a large-scale French or Spanish invasion.
Henry is traditionally cited as one of the founders of the
Ireland
At the beginning of Henry's reign, Ireland was effectively divided into three zones:
The Desmond situation was resolved on his death in 1529, which was followed by a period of uncertainty. This was effectively ended with the appointment of Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and the King's son, as lord lieutenant. Richmond had never before visited Ireland, his appointment a break with past policy.[242][243] For a time it looked as if peace might be restored with the return of Kildare to Ireland to manage the tribes, but the effect was limited and the Irish Parliament soon rendered ineffective.[244] Ireland began to receive the attention of Cromwell, who had supporters of Ormond and Desmond promoted. Kildare, on the other hand, was summoned to London; after some hesitation, he departed for London in 1534, where he would face charges of treason.[244] His son, Thomas, Lord Offaly, was more forthright, denouncing the King and leading a "Catholic crusade" against Henry, who was by this time mired in marital problems. Offaly had the Archbishop of Dublin murdered and besieged Dublin. Offaly led a mixture of Pale gentry and Irish tribes, although he failed to secure the support of Lord Darcy, a sympathiser, or Charles V. What was effectively a civil war was ended with the intervention of 2,000 English troops – a large army by Irish standards – and the execution of Offaly (his father was already dead) and his uncles.[245][246]
Although the Offaly revolt was followed by a determination to rule Ireland more closely, Henry was wary of drawn-out conflict with the tribes, and a royal commission recommended that the only relationship with the tribes was to be promises of peace, their land protected from English expansion. The man to lead this effort was
Historiography
The complexities and sheer scale of Henry's legacy ensured that, in the words of Betteridge and Freeman, "throughout the centuries, Henry has been praised and reviled, but he has never been ignored".
The respect, nay even the popularity, which he had from his people was not unmerited.... He kept the development of England in line with some of the most vigorous, though not the noblest forces of the day. His high courage – highest when things went ill – his commanding intellect, his appreciation of fact, and his instinct for rule carried his country through a perilous time of change, and his very arrogance saved his people from the wars which afflicted other lands. Dimly remembering the wars of the Roses, vaguely informed as to the slaughters and sufferings in Europe, the people of England knew that in Henry they had a great king.[250]
A particular focus of modern historiography has been the extent to which the events of Henry's life (including his marriages, foreign policy and religious changes) were the result of his own initiative and, if they were, whether they were the result of opportunism or of a principled undertaking by Henry.
Elton's book on The Tudor Revolution in Government maintained Pollard's positive interpretation of the Henrician period as a whole, but reinterpreted Henry himself as a follower rather than a leader. For Elton, it was Cromwell and not Henry who undertook the changes in government – Henry was shrewd but lacked the vision to follow a complex plan through.[177] Henry was little more, in other words, than an "ego-centric monstrosity" whose reign "owed its successes and virtues to better and greater men about him; most of its horrors and failures sprang more directly from [the King]".[251]
Although the central tenets of Elton's thesis have since been questioned, it has consistently provided the starting point for much later work, including that of
This lack of clarity about Henry's control over events has contributed to the variation in the qualities ascribed to him: religious conservative or dangerous radical; lover of beauty or brutal destroyer of priceless artefacts; friend and patron or betrayer of those around him; chivalry incarnate or ruthless chauvinist.[177] One traditional approach, favoured by Starkey and others, is to divide Henry's reign into two halves, the first Henry being dominated by positive qualities (politically inclusive, pious, athletic but also intellectual) who presided over a period of stability and calm, and the latter a "hulking tyrant" who presided over a period of dramatic, sometimes whimsical, change.[176][253] Other writers have tried to merge Henry's disparate personality into a single whole; Lacey Baldwin Smith, for example, considered him an egotistical borderline neurotic given to great fits of temper and deep and dangerous suspicions, with a mechanical and conventional, but deeply held piety, and having at best a mediocre intellect.[254]
Style and arms
Many changes were made to the royal style during his reign. Henry originally used the style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God,
In 1535, Henry added the "supremacy phrase" to the royal style, which became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland and of the Church of England in Earth Supreme Head". In 1536, the phrase "of the Church of England" changed to "of the Church of England and also of
Genealogical table
See also
- Cestui que
- Cultural depictions of Henry VIII
- Family tree of English monarchs
- History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom
- Inventory of Henry VIII
- List of English monarchs
- Tudor period
- Mouldwarp
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-3001-6245-5..[61]
- ^ "And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless."
- Both bulls are printed by Bishop Burnet, History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 1865 edition, Volume 4, pp. 318ff and in Bullarum, diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanorum pontificum Taurinensis (1857) Volume VI, p. 195
- ^ Eustace Chapuys wrote to Charles V on 28 January reporting that Anne was pregnant. A letter from George Taylor to Lady Lisle dated 27 April 1534 says "The queen hath a goodly belly, praying our Lord to send us a prince". In July, Anne's brother, Lord Rochford, was sent on a diplomatic mission to France to ask for the postponement of a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I because of Anne's condition: "being so far gone with child she could not cross the sea with the king". Chapuys backs this up in a letter dated 27 July, where he refers to Anne's pregnancy. We do not know what happened with this pregnancy as there is no evidence of the outcome. Dewhurst writes of how the pregnancy could have resulted in a miscarriage or stillbirth, but there is no evidence to support this, he therefore wonders if it was a case of pseudocyesis, a false pregnancy, caused by the stress that Anne was under – the pressure to provide a son. Chapuys wrote on 27 September 1534 "Since the king began to doubt whether his lady was enceinte or not, he has renewed and increased the love he formerly had for a beautiful damsel of the court". Muriel St Clair Byrne, editor of the Lisle Letters, believes that this was a false pregnancy too.
- ^ The only evidence for a miscarriage in 1535 is a sentence from a letter from William Kingston to Lord Lisle on 24 June 1535 when Kingston says "Her Grace has as fair a belly as I have ever seen". However, Dewhurst thinks that there is an error in the dating of this letter as the editor of the Lisle Letters states that this letter is actually from 1533 or 1534 because it also refers to Christopher Garneys, a man who died in October 1534.
- ^ Chapuys reported to Charles V on 10 February 1536 that Anne Boleyn had miscarried on the day of Catherine of Aragon's funeral: "On the day of the interment [of Catherine of Aragon] the concubine [Anne] had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3 1/2 months".
References
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- ^ a b c Starkey, David. "The Six Wives of Henry VIII. About the Series. Behind the Scenes". Thirteen.org. PBS. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ^ Ives 2006, pp. 28–36; Montefiore 2008, p. 129
- ^ a b Crofton 2006, p. 128
- ^ a b Crofton 2006, p. 129
- ^ a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 3
- ^ Churchill 1966, p. 24
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 14–15
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 4
- ^ Gibbs, Vicary, ed. (1912). The Complete Peerage, Volume III. St Catherine's Press. p. 443. Under Duke of Cornwall, which was his title when he succeeded his brother as Prince of Wales.
- ^ a b Crofton 2006, p. 126
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 4–5
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 6
- ^ a b Loades 2009, p. 22
- ^ a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 8
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- ^ a b c Loades 2009, p. 24
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- ^ Hall 1904, p. 17
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- ^ a b Loades 2009, p. 26
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 18
- ^ a b c d Loades 2009, pp. 48–49
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 103
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- ^ a b Fraser 1994, p. 220
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- ^ a b Weir 1991, pp. 122–123
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- ^ Fraser, Antonia (1993). "genealogical tables". The Wives of Henry VIII. Vintage Books.
- ^ Anselme. Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France. Vol. 2, p. 741.
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- ^ Weir 2002, p. 160
- ^ a b c Gunn, Steven (September 2010). "Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions (review)". Reviews in History. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
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- ^ Brigden 2000, p. 114
- ^ a b c d Elton 1977, pp. 103–107
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- ^ ISBN 978-1-3173-5977-7.
- ^ Loades 2009, pp. 91–92
- ^ a b c d e Elton 1977, pp. 109–111
- act of attaindershould be passed against the cardinal. The act was not needed, however, for Wolsey had also been commanded to appear before the common-law judges and answer the charge that by publishing his bulls of appointment as papal legate he had infringed the Statute of Praemunire.
- ^ Haigh 1993, pp. 92f
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 116
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- ^ Elton 1977, p. 123
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 175–176
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 123
- ^ Starkey 2003, pp. 462–464
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 124
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 178
- ^ Williams 1971, pp. 128–131
- ^ Bernard 2005, pp. 68–71
- ^ Bernard 2005, p. 68
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 136
- ^ Bernard 2005, p. 69
- ^ Bernard 2005, pp. 69–71
- ^ Gairdner, James, ed. (1882). "Henry VIII: Appendix". Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 6: 1533. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
- ^ Churchill 1966, p. 51
- ^ Gairdner, James, ed. (1886). "Henry VIII: August 1535, 26–31". Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 9: August–December 1535. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
- ^ a b c d Elton 1977, p. 282
- ^ a b Scarisbrick 1997, p. 361
- ^ Gairdner, James, ed. (1893). "Henry VIII: December 1538 16–20". Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2: August–December 1538. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 138
- ^ a b Elton 1977, pp. 192–194
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 262–263
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 260
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 261
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 261–262
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 262
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- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 348
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 141
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 250–251
- ISBN 978-1-8490-1825-8. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
Cromwell, with his usual single-minded (and ruthless) efficiency, organised the interrogation of the accused, their trials and their executions. Cranmer was absolutely shattered by the 'revelation' of the queen's misdeeds. He wrote to the King expressing his difficulty in believing her guilt. But he fell into line and pronounced the annulment of Henry's second marriage on the grounds of Anne's pre-contract to another.
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 252–253
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 142
- ^ Ives 2005, p. 306
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 253
- ^ Weir 1991, p. 332.
- ^ Weir 1991, p. 330.
- ^ Hibbert et al. 2010, p. 60
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 350
- ^ Weir 2002, p. 344.
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 353
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 355
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 275
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 355–256
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 350–351
- ^ "Henry VIII: February 1538, 11–15 Pages 88–100 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 1, January–July 1538". British History Online. HMSO 1892. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
- ^ Loades 2009, pp. 72–73
- ^ Loades 2009, pp. 74–75
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 368–369
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 369–370
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 373–374
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 373–375
- ^ Weir 1991, pp. 406
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 370
- ^ a b Elton 1977, p. 289
- ^ a b c Scarisbrick 1997, p. 373
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 372–373
- ^ a b Elton 1977, pp. 289–291
- ^ a b Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 376–377
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 378–379
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 290
- ^ Farquhar 2001, p. 75
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 430
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 430–431
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 431–432
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 432–433
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 456
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 301
- ^ Scarisbrick 1997, p. 457
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 331, 373
- ^ Loades 2009, p. 75
- ^ Loades 2009, pp. 75–76
- ^ a b c Elton 1977, pp. 306–307
- ^ a b c Loades 2009, pp. 79–80
- ^ Murphy 2016, pp. 13–51
- ^ Loades 2009, pp. 76–77
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- ^ According to John Dewhurst in The alleged miscarriages of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn: 1984, p. 52, the Venetian ambassador wrote to his senate in November that "The queen has been delivered of a stillborn male child of eight months to the very great grief of the whole court", Holinshed, the chronicler, reported that "in November the queen was delivered of a prince which lived not long after", and John Stow wrote "in the meantime, to Whit, the month of November, the queen was delivered of a prince which lived not long after".
- ^ Starkey 2003, p. 160
- ^ Williams 1971, p. 138.
- ^ Starkey 2003, p. 553
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 332–333
- ^ a b c Scarisbrick 1997, pp. 15–16
- ^ Weir 2002, p. 131.
- ^ Chibi 1997, pp. 543–560
- ^ Betteridge 2005, pp. 91–109
- ^ a b Hibbert et al. 2010, p. 928
- ^ Hutchinson 2012, p. 202
- ^ Gunn 1991, pp. 543–560
- ^ Williams 2005, pp. 41–59
- ^ Lipscomb 2009
- ^ Guy 1997, p. 78
- ^ a b Morris 1999, p. 2
- ^ a b c Morris 1999, pp. 19–21
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Betteridge & Freeman 2012, pp. 1–19
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 323
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 407
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 48–49
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 60–63
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 212
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 64
- ISBN 978-0-3123-0277-1.
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 168–170
- ^ a b Elton 1977, p. 172
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 174
- ^ a b Elton 1977, p. 213
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 214
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 214–215
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 216–217
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 215–216
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 284–286
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 289–292
- ^ Weir 2002, p. 13
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 215–216, 355–356
- ^ Thomas 2005, pp. 79–80 citing Thurley 1993, pp. 222–224
- ^ Davies 2005, pp. 11–29
- ^ Weir 2002, p. 64
- ^ Weir 2002, p. 393
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 312–314
- ^ "Competing Narratives: Recent Historiography of the English Reformation under Henry VIII". 1997. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ Elton 1977, pp. 110–112
- ^ Woodward, Llewellyn (1965). A History Of England. London: Methuen & Co Ltd. p. 73.
- ^ Pollard 1905, pp. 230–238
- ^ Bernard 2005, p. missing
- ^ Bernard 2005, p. 71
- ^ Elton 1977, p. 185
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- ^ Lehmberg 1970, p. missing
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- —— (2008). Henry: Virtuous Prince. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-0072-8783-3.
- Stöber, Karen (2007). Late Medieval Monasteries and Their Patrons: England and Wales, c. 1300–1540. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-8438-3284-3.
- Thomas, Andrea (2005). Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland 1528–1542. John Donald Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-8597-6611-1.
- ISBN 978-0-3000-5420-0.
- ISBN 0-8021-3683-4.
- —— (2002). Henry VIII: The King and His Court. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 0-3454-3708-X.
- Williams, James (2005). "Hunting and the Royal Image of Henry VIII". Sport in History. 25 (1): 41–59. S2CID 161663183.
- Williams, Neville (1971). Henry VIII and his Court. Macmillan Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-0262-9100-2.
Further reading
Biographical
- Ashley, Mike (2002). British Kings & Queens. Running Press. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3.
- ASIN B000OJX9RI.
- Erickson, Carolly (1984). Mistress Anne: The Exceptional Life of Anne Boleyn. Summit Books. ASIN B002RTJWA6.
- Cressy, David (1982). "Spectacle and Power: Apollo and Solomon at the Court of Henry VIII". History Today. 32 (Oct): 16–22. ISSN 0018-2753.
- Gardner, James (1903). "Henry VIII". Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 2.
- Graves, Michael (2003). Henry VIII. Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-5823-8110-0.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12955. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Pollard, Albert Frederick (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). pp. 287–290.
- Rex, Richard (1993). Henry VIII and the English Reformation. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-3492-2586-6.
- Ridley, Jasper (1985). Henry VIII. Viking. ISBN 978-0-6708-0699-7.
- ISBN 978-0-0994-4510-4.
- ——; Doran, Susan (2009). Henry VIII: Man and Monarch. British Library Publishing Division. ISBN 978-0-7123-5025-9.
- Tytler, Patrick Fraser (1837). Life of King Henry the Eighth. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
- Wilkinson, Josephine (2009). Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Favourite Mistress (2nd ed.). Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-0-3000-7158-0.
- Weir, Alison (1996). The Children of Henry VIII. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-3453-9118-6.
- Wooding, Lucy (2015). Henry VIII (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-1-1388-3141-4.
Scholarly studies
- Bernard, G. W. (1986). War, Taxation, and Rebellion in Early Tudor England: Henry VIII, Wolsey, and the Amicable Grant of 1525.
- —— (1998). "The Making of Religious Policy, 1533–1546: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way". Historical Journal. 41 (2): 321–349. S2CID 159952187.
- Bush, M. L. (2007). "The Tudor Polity and the Pilgrimage of Grace". Historical Research. 80 (207): 47–72. ISSN 0950-3471.
- Doran, Susan (2009). The Tudor Chronicles: 1485–1603. Sterling Publishing. pp. 78–203. ISBN 978-1-4351-0939-1.0
- Elton, G. R. (1962) [1953]. The Tudor Revolution in Government: Administrative Changes in the Reign of Henry VIII (Revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5210-9235-7.
- Guy, John (2013), The Children of Henry VIII, Oxford University Press
- Head, David M. (1982). "Henry VIII's Scottish Policy: a Reassessment". Scottish Historical Review. 61 (1): 1–24. ISSN 0036-9241.
- Hoak, Dale (2005). "Politics, Religion and the English Reformation, 1533–1547: Some Problems and Issues". History Compass (3). ISSN 1478-0542.
- Lindsey, Karen (1995). Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. ISBN 0-2016-0895-2.
- MacCulloch, Diarmaid, ed. (1995). The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy, and Piety.
- Mackie, J. D. (1952). The Earlier Tudors, 1485–1558.
- Moorhouse, Geoffrey (2003). The Pilgrimage of Grace: the Rebellion That Shook Henry VIII's Throne. Phoenix. ISBN 978-1-8421-2666-0.
- —— (2007). Great Harry's Navy: How Henry VIII Gave England Seapower.
- —— (2009). The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
- Slavin, Arthur J., ed. (1968). Henry VIII and the English Reformation.
- Smith, H. Maynard (1948). Henry VIII and the Reformation.
- Wikidata Q107248000.
- —— (1886). "Wikidata Q107248047.
- Thurley, Simon (1991). "Palaces for a Nouveau Riche King". History Today. 41 (6).
- Wagner, John A. (2003). Bosworth Field to Bloody Mary: An Encyclopedia of the Early Tudors. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 1-5735-6540-7.
- Walker, Greg (2005). Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation.
- Wernham, Richard Bruce (1966), Before the Armada: The Growth of English Foreign Policy, 1485–1588. History of foreign policy
Historiography
- Coleman, Christoper; Starkey, David, eds. (1986). Revolution Reassessed: Revision in the History of Tudor Government and Administration.
- Fox, Alistair; Guy, John, eds. (1986). Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics and Reform 1500–1550.
- Head, David M. (1997). "'If a Lion Knew His Own Strength': the Image of Henry VIII and His Historians". International Social Science Review. 72 (3–4): 94–109. ISSN 0278-2308.
- Marshall, Peter (2009). "(Re)defining the English Reformation" (PDF). Journal of British Studies. 48 (3): 564–585. doi:10.1086/600128.
- O'Day, Rosemary (2015), The debate on the English Reformation (2nd ed.)
- ——, ed. (2010), The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age
- Rankin, Mark; Highley, Christopher; King, John N., eds. (2009), Henry VIII and his afterlives: literature, politics, and art, Cambridge University Press
Primary sources
- Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII, (36 volumes, 1862–1908)
- OCLC 247046009
- ISBN 978-0-4862-8275-6.
- Luther, Martin (1918) [1 September 1525]. "1521–1530". In Smith, Preserved; Jacobs, Charles M. (eds.). Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters. Vol. 2. Lutheran Publication Society.
- Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, ed. (1827), The Privy Purse Expences of Henry VIII, 1529–1532, London: Pickering
External links
- Works related to Author:Henry VIII at Wikisource
- Works related to "Persecutions of Protestants by Henry VIII", in Foxe's Book of Martyrs at Wikisource
- Henry VIII at the official website of the British monarchy
- Henry VIII at the official website of the Royal Collection Trust
- Free scores by Henry VIII at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Free scores by Henry VIII in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Works by Henry VIII at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Henry VIII at Internet Archive
- Works by Henry VIII at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Portraits of King Henry VIII at the National Portrait Gallery, London