HENRY 



2771 



HENRY 



HENRY VIII 



Henry VIII (1491-1547), the king who sev- 

 ered the ties that bound the Church of Eng- 

 land to the Church of Rome, succeeded his 

 father, Henry VII, in 1509, and was crowned 

 two weeks after his marriage to Catharine of 

 Aragon. During 

 the first part of 

 his reign he gave 

 his attention 

 chiefly to foreign 

 affairs. After the 

 election of 

 Charles V as 

 Holy Roman 

 Emperor, Henry's 

 aid was sought 

 both by the em- 

 peror and by his rival for the imperial dignity, 

 Francis I of France, and a friendly meeting 

 took place in 1520 between the English and 

 French kings on the famous Field of the Cloth 

 of Gold. Henry gave his support to Charles, 

 but withdrew from the struggle in 1525. 



In the meantime he had come to a mo- 

 mentous decision in regard to his domestic 

 affairs, and one that was destined to have per- 

 manent influence in English history. Having 

 grow r n tired of his wife Catharine, who had 

 failed to bear him a male heir, and infatuated 

 by the charm and beauty of Anne Boleyn, one 

 of the queen's maids of honor, he determined 

 to secure a divorce. He pretended to believe 

 that Heaven had failed to send him a son 

 because he had married his brother's widow, 

 and in 1527 he asked Pope Clement VII to 

 declare the marriage illegal and to grant him 

 a divorce. Not being able to obtain the Papal 

 consent to this scheme, he acted on the sug- 

 gestion of one of his trusted advisers, Thomas 

 Cromwell, and proceeded to get a decree from 

 his own courts. In 1533 he secretly married 

 Anne Boleyn, and in the same year Thomas 

 Cranmer, who had been made archibishop of 

 Canterbury, formed a court and tried the case, 

 as a result of which the first marriage was 

 declared null and void, and the second one 

 lawful. 



A submissive Parliament completed the 

 breach with Rome by passing two acts. One, 

 enacted in 1534, set aside the authority of the 

 Pope in England; the other, the celebrated 

 Act of Supremacy (1535), declared Henry the 

 supreme head of the Church of England. The 

 king used his authority to suppress the 

 monasteries of the kingdom, and in 1539 all 

 monastic property was given to the Crown. 



Anne Boleyn did not long retain the affec- 

 tion of her royal master, and in 1536 she was 

 beheaded on the charge of unfaithfulness. Her 

 daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, became in 

 time Queen Elizabeth, or "Good Queen Bess," 

 one of the most illustrious rulers of history. 

 Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, was the 

 mother of a prince who later ruled as Edward 

 VI. On the death of Jane, the king married 

 a German princess, Anne of Cleves, the ar- 

 rangements for this union being made by 

 Cromwell. Henry's dislike for his wife resulted 

 in another divorce and in the disgrace and 

 death of the minister who had brought about 

 the marriage. The fifth wife, Catharine How- 

 ard, was soon sent to the block, because it 

 was proved that she had been guilty of mis- 

 conduct before marriage. In 1543 Henry mar- 

 ried his sixth and last wife, Catharine Parr, 

 who succeeded in outliving her husband. 



The outstanding feature of Henry's reign is 

 the separation of the Church of England from 



TOMB OF HENRY VIII 



the Church of Rome, an event which some- 

 times overshadows his constructive work as 

 a creator of the English navy. While other 

 monarchs were creating standing armies, he 

 was bringing the sailing warship to perfection, 

 laying the foundation for England's mastery of 

 the seas. The most important literary event of 

 his reign was the publication of Sir Thomas 

 More's Utopia (which see), a romance of an 

 imaginary ideal kingdom. B.M.W. 



Consult Adams's History of England from the 

 Norman Conquest to the Death of John; Temper- 

 ley's Henry VII; Hume's The Wives of Henry 

 VIII and the Parts They Played in History; 

 Hall's Henry VIII. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will throw light on the periods of 

 English history covered by the reigns of these 

 eight kings : 



