 Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Born Jun 28, 1491 at Greenwich Palace, England, died Jan 28, 1546/47 at Whitehall Palace, London, Middlesex, England, approximately 54 years Acceded 1509-1547. Henry VIII Henry VIII (reigned 1509-47) was 17 when he became king. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, provided him with a daughter, Mary, but no male heir. In order to divorce her, he broke with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Five subsequent marriages produced two children, Elizabeth and Edward. The break with Rome led to the Dissolution of the Monasteries (in which monastic lands and buildings were sold or disposed of, and the monks disbanded or imprisoned) and the beginnings of the English Reformation. Henry's involvement in European politics brought him into conflict with the Scots who were defeated at Solway Moss in 1542 (the Scots had been defeated before at the Battle of Flodden in 1513). Control of Wales was strengthened by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542 which united England and Wales administratively and legally, and gave Wales representation in Parliament. Henry died in 1547, leaving his sickly 10-year-old son to inherit the throne as Edward VI. Married/ Related to:  Elizabeth StaffordBorn 1479, died before 11 BEF., May, at most 53 years | |||
| 2nd marriage/ relation Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married/ Related to: Elizabeth BlountBorn ± ABT. 1502 at England, died 1539, approximately 37 years Child: 1. Henry Fitzroy Duke of RichmondBorn 1519 at England | |||
| 3rd marriage/ relation Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married/ Related to: Catherine ParrDied 1548 | |||
| 4th marriage Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married Jun 11, 1509 at Grey Friars Church, Greenwich, England (approximately 25 years married) to: Katherine de Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand V Spain King of Spain and N.N..Born Dec 15, 1485 at Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain, died Jan 7, 1535/36 at Kimbolton Castle, Hunts, England, approximately 49 years, 1st marriage to: Arthur Tudor Prince of Wales, 2nd marriage to: Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII Children: 1. Henry Tudor, 1Born 1511 at England, died 1511, under 1 year old 2. Henry TudorBorn 1513 at England, died 1513, under 1 year old 3. Mary I Tudor Queen of England, IBorn Feb 18, 1515/16 at Greenwich Palace, London, England, died Nov 17, 1558 at St James Palace, London, England, approximately 43 years Acceded 1553-1558 Mary I (reigned 1553-58) was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and stubborn, her character was moulded by her earlier years: an Act of Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death), whilst she was pressurised to give up the mass and acknowledge the English Protestant Church. Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary also revived the old heresy laws to secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). As a result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics were mostly poor and self-taught people. Apart from making Mary deeply unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of Mary's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these possessions voluntarily as Mary invited them to do. Aged 37 at her accession, Mary wished to marry and have children, thus leaving a Catholic heir to consolidate her religious reforms, and removing her half-sister Elizabeth (a focus for Protestant opposition) from direct succession. Mary's decision to marry Philip, King of Spain from 1556, in 1554 was very unpopular; the protest from the Commons prompted Mary's reply that Parliament was 'not accustomed to use such language to the Kings of England' and that in her marriage 'she would choose as God inspired her'. The marriage was childless, Philip spent most of it on the continent, England obtained no share in the Spanish monopolies in New World trade and the alliance with Spain dragged England into a war with France. Popular discontent grew when Calais, the last vestige of England's possessions in France dating from William the Conqueror's time, was captured by the French in 1558. Dogged by ill health, Mary died later that year possibly from cancer, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth. | |||
| 5th marriage Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married Jan 25, 1532/33 at Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England (approximately 4 years married) to: Anne Boleyn, daughter of Thomas Boleyn, KT and Elizabeth Howard.Born 1501 at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England, died May 19, 1536 at Tower Green, Tower of London, London, Middlesex, England, 34 or 35 years Child: 1. Elizabeth I Tudor Queen of England, IBorn Sep 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace, London, Middlesex, England, died Mar 23, 1602/03 at London, Middlesex, England, approximately 68 years Acceded 1558-1603. Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, returned England to Protestantism while still managing to secure order. She refused to marry or name her successor as marriage could have created foreign alliance difficulties or encouraged factionalism at home. Her rightful heir was her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who, threatened by rebellion in Scotland, fled to England. Imprisoned by Elizabeth in 1567, Mary plotted with English Roman Catholics and with Spain, France and the Pope. The threat to the English throne which this posed resulted in Mary's execution in 1587 and led to outright war with Spain. In 1588 Philip of Spain's invasion fleet, the 'Armada', was defeated. There were two further Armadas in the 1590s, and an Irish revolt in 1595, assisted by Spain, which was eventually put down in 1601. The financial strains caused by the war against Spain (made worse by poor harvests) meant that Elizabeth did not try to put the Crown on a permanently solvent basis. In addition to sharp debates over revenue-raising measures such as monopolies, Parliament continued its pressure on the Queen to deal with the question of the succession. However, Elizabeth died in 1603 still refusing to name her successor. | |||
| 6th marriage Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married May 20, 1536 at Westminster Abbey, London, England (1 years married) to: Jane Seymour, daughter of John Seymour and Margery Wentworth.Born ± ABT. 1505 at Wolf Hall, Savernake, Wiltshsire, England, died Oct 24, 1537 at Hampton Court Palace, London, England, approximately 32 years Child: 1. Edward VI Tudor King of England, VIBorn Oct 12, 1537 at Hampton Court Palace, England, died Jul 6, 1553 at Greenwich Palace, London, England, 15 years Acceded 1547-1553. Edward VI, Jane Grey Edward VI (reigned 1547-53) was intellectually precocious (fluent in Greek and Latin, he kept a full journal of his reign) but not physically robust. His short reign was dominated by nobles using the Regency to strengthen their own positions. The King's Council, previously dominated by Henry, succumbed to existing factionalism. On Henry's death, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and soon to be Duke of Somerset, the new King's eldest uncle, became Protector. Seymour was an able soldier; he led a punitive expedition against the Scots, for their failure to fulfil their promise to betroth Mary, Queen of Scots to Edward, which led to Seymour's victory at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547 - although he failed to follow this up with satisfactory peace terms. During Edward's reign, the Church of England became more explicitly Protestant - Edward himself was fiercely Protestant. The Book of Common Prayer was introduced in 1549, aspects of Roman Catholic practices (including statues and stained glass) were eradicated and the marriage of clergy allowed. The imposition of the Prayer Book (which replaced Latin services with English) led to rebellions in Cornwall and Devon. Despite his military ability, Seymour was too liberal to deal effectively with Kett's rebellion against land enclosures in Norfolk. Seymour was left isolated in the Council and the Duke of Northumberland subsequently overthrew him in 1551. Seymour was executed in 1552, an event which was briefly mentioned by Edward in his diary: 'Today, the Duke of Somerset had his head cut off on Tower Hill.' Northumberland took greater trouble to charm and influence Edward; his powerful position as Lord President of the Council was based on his personal ascendancy over the King. However, the young King was ailing. Northumberland hurriedly married his son Lord Guilford Dudley to Lady Jane Grey, one of Henry VIII's great-nieces and a claimant to the throne. Edward accepted Jane as his heir and, on his death from tuberculosis in 1553, Jane assumed the throne. Despite the Council recognising her claim, the country rallied to Mary, Catherine of Aragon's daughter and a devout Roman Catholic. Jane reigned for only nine days and was later executed (as was her husband) in 1554. | |||
| 7th marriage Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married Jan 6, 1539/40 at Greenwich, England (approximately 18 years married) to: Anne von KlevesBorn Sep 22, 1515 at Dusseldorf, Cleves, Germany, died Jul 17, 1557 at Chelsea Old Palace, England, 41 years | |||
| 8th marriage Henry VIII Tudor King of England, VIII, son of Henry VII Tudor KIng of England, VII and Elizabeth Plantagenet of York.Married Jul 28, 1540 at Hampton Court Palace, London, England (approximately 0 years married) to: Katherine HowardBorn ± ABT. 1520 at Lambeth, died Feb 13, 1541/42 at Tower of London, London, England, approximately 21 years | |||