SOME NOTES ON HENRY THE EIGHTH
Darwin Swift, F. Henry Vlll, L.Wilding, Shrewsbury, 1901.
In the reign of Henry Vll the population was 2.5 million by the end of Henry Vlll’s reign it
was 4 million.
Strengths of Henry’s position:
A full treasury
Disorder under control
No rival claimants
Popular and able
Foreign relations:
Peace from Henry Vll policies
Marriage alliances –Scotland: Henry’s sister Margaret married James lV of Scotland
- Spain: betrothal of Henry Vlll and Catherine of Aragon
England was now an important neutral power and was courted by France and Spain.
First Alliance with Spain 1509-1514
Henry continued his father’s Spanish policy and married Catherine of Aragon.
He renewed only the marriage contract between his sister Mary and Charles – grandson
of Ferdinand and the Emperor Maximilian and heir to Spain and Austria.
In 1511 Henry joined the ‘Holy League’ to get France out of northern Italy. He landed in
Calais in June 1513 and won the Battle of the Spurs. While he was away his wife
Catherine defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on the 9th of September 1513,
where James lV of Scotland was killed.
First Alliance with France 1514-1520
Wolsey arranged the marriage of Henry’s sister to Louis Xll of France, she was 17 and
he was 52. They married in October 1514 but in January 1515 Louis died and she
quickly married Charles Brandon – the Duke of Suffolk.
Francis l was now the king of France but:
He refused to return the bulk of Mary’s dowry
Francis allied with Ferdinand and his successor Charles
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Francis invaded Italy and took Milan
Better relation ensued when Henry promised his daughter Mary to the Dauphin.
Wolsley asked the Pope, the Emperor, Spain and Scotland to join an alliance – now
England was the focus of European politics.
Second Spanish Alliance 1520-1525
In 1519 Charles became the Holy Roman Emperor, chosen over Henry and Francis.
Francis and Henry hated each other so Charles looked to Henry for an alliance and
offered to marry Mary. In May 1522 Charles went to London for his betrothal ceremony.
Second French Alliance 1525-1543
Henry made a new treaty with France in August 1525. Mary was now betrothed to
Francis the second son of the Duke of Orleans. France and England were again close
which was always Wolsey’s preference.
Wolsey
1471 Born Ipswich
1482 attended Oxford
1486 gained his BA aged 15
1506 became chaplain to Henry Vll
1509 became Dean of Lincoln
1512-13 Organised campaigns for Henry Vlll
1514 became Bishop of Lincoln then York and then Cardinal
1515 became Lord Chancellor
1518 became a Legate
1514-1529 essentially the ‘Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary’
1521 and 1523 tried to become Pope
1524 was given authority by the Pope to suppress the monasteries
1529 October 9th he was arrested mainly for failing to procure a divorce for Henry
1530 he was pardoned then arrested again in November
1530 died November 29th
He had always wanted his foreign policy to focus on “peaceful exultation of his
country’s prestige” and to achieve this he wanted the “maintenance of the Balance
of Power” – meaning England was to arbitrate between France and the Empire. The
French called him the “peace-making Cardinal”. His high point was the Universal Peace
of 1518 which included all the great powers. He always considered that an
understanding with France was essential.
He was:
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“probably the greatest political genius whom England has ever produced; for at a
great crisis of Europe he impressed England with a sense of her own importance
and secured for her a leading position in European affairs.” –Bishop Creighton
He supported learning and founded a college at Oxford.
He did support a quiet, discrete Reformation. His ambition as Secretary of State was to
keep the peace of Europe. As head of the church was to get the church to self reform
and as head of Public Justice was to keep justice free and pure.
He enhanced the Crown and taught Henry about his real power. His prestige helped
England to Reform as she saw fit and his early suppression of the monasteries set a
precedent for later.
However he was also unpopular:
He took power and thereby upset the nobles
He was haughty and magnificent, vain and loved display
As Legate he represented a foreign power and suppressed English monasteries
He was pro-French: the English hated the French
He wanted heretics to recant but was too refined to want them burned
The Divorce
1501 November 14th Prince Arthur aged 15 married Catherine of Aragon aged 17
1502 April Arthur died
1503 June 25th Catherine and Henry are betrothed – to keep Spain onside and so
England doesn’t have to return the dowry
1503 December a Papal Bull is issued giving permission for the marriage
1509 April Henry ascended the throne
1509 June Henry and Catherine are married
1516 February Mary born
1527 the first suggestion of a divorce
Why divorce?
Henry was tired of the age difference
Anne Boleyn was on the scene
Lack of a male heir could lead to a civil war
Doubts over validity of the marriage
Pope’s reaction
The Bull was issued by his predecessor
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Catherine, a dedicated Catholic, did not want it
The Emperor was Catherine’s nephew
Anne was regarded as insolent
1534 Princess Mary was declared illegitimate
Wolsey wanted the authority to make a decision about the divorce
He had a lot of communication with the Pope and the Cardinals
1529 June 18th At a Court of Legates the Queen refused to acknowledge their jurisdiction
and she appealed to the Pope.
1529 June 21st the Queen left court
1530-2 Henry pressured the Pope– he consulted the academics at many universities for
their opinions regarding divorce.
1531 October Henry effectively banished Catherine
1533 January 25th Henry secretly married Anne
1533 May 23rd Henry divorced Catherine
1533 June 1st Anne was crowned
1533 September Elizabeth was born
1534 March the Act of Succession was passed and ties to Rome cut
1536 May 17th five men associated with Anne were executed in the morning
In the afternoon Cranmer declared Henry and Anne’s marriage null and
void
1536 May 19th Anne was executed
1536 May 20th Henry was betrothed to Jane Seymour
New Learning
During this time there was a renewed interest in Classical literature which coincided with
the development of the printing press.
Turkey invaded Greece and many Greek Scholars fled to Italy. The new availability of
this literature led to critical thinking and criticisms including Christianity. In England the
new ideas and teaching were based at Oxford where Thomas More was a student. More
was charismatic and artists, philosophers and academics were drawn to him. More was
also a humanist and a mentor of Erasmus.
These men and their ideas were a precursor to today’s higher education. Henry’s
favourite study was theology and his favourite author was St Thomas Aquinus. They
endorsed free thinking about the Bible and wanted an end to dogma and rites,
pilgrimages, images and saints.
“Erasmus laid the egg and Luther hatched it” But Erasmus never wanted a schism in
the church he wanted reform.
Thomas More wrote ‘The Utopia’ which reflected Henry’s society and drew attention to
the evils that existed. The main points of The Utopia were:
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The duty of the governor is to rule the governed
The poor were being driven off the land by enclosures thus reducing labour and turning
arable land into pasture
Less jobs in livery if ill or if their master died
Wounded, disbanded soldiers were unemployed
Food and wool was too expensive to buy and turn into cloth
Youth dressed extravagantly and ate too much, got drunk and gambled
Royal extractions – coins were tampered with, the wars were often wrong, old laws
judges could be coerced
The was a conspiracy of the rich against the poor
‘Communism’ was a good idea
Kings should be elected for the common good
There should be no war
Everyone hated the Swiss
There should be no filth in the capital
Slaughter houses should be moved to the suburbs
Dining should be provided in public halls
Streets should be 20 feet wide
Each house should have a garden and a vineyard
Houses should never have to be locked
Hospitals should be roomy
All children should be educated in husbandry and one trade
Six hour working day
Higher education to include medicine, maths, geometry, music, moral philosophy and
logic
Gold and silver should be scorned except to pay mercenaries
Tolerance of religion but no public office unless a person believed in the immortality of
the soul
Worship to be in private and sects available for public worship
There should be very few priests who are incredibly holy
Priests should be allowed to marry
There should be priestesses but only old women and widows
Life should be good and honest
Ensure the pleasure of others especially of the mind
All of these ideas were a bold declaration made before he entered Henry’s
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Separation from Rome
There were many Acts of law which supported Rome financially and temporally which
were undone by Henry.
Clergy were often accused: of being venal and charging for funerals, tithes and offerings
and taking money for indulgencies, taking advantage of the benefit of clergy.
Church courts were often too far away and appearing in a church court was a long
procedure. There were high fees and people were often detained before a trial.
There was a monopoly of state offices by clergy.
There was much unclerical behaviour such as banquets, hunting, going to plays, nonresident, pluralism of benefices, transferring to a monastery, nepotism (ie allocating a
benefice to a minor and taking the money), ‘first fruits’ (the fee that should have been
passed on to the church or king) kept.
Henry did not want the church to reform itself he wanted a reform to come from outside.
This all came to a head under the “Reformation Parliament” which lasted from November
1529 – April 1536. It was an assembly which “transformed old England-the England of
Chaucer – into modern England”
Their attack began on church money and it was redirected to the Crown. Acts were
passed to this effect:
There was to be no charge for funerals
Clergy to have more involvement in trade or farming
There was to be no more pluralism
These Acts were opposed by the clergy especially in the House of Lords but Henry had
stacked it with lay peers between 1523-29.
Bishops now compelled their priests to study, preach at every opportunity, pray, teach,
reside in one place.
This new Church of England was to perform spiritual duties independent of papal
sanctions. Bishops were forbidden to receive Papal Bulls from the Pope or to pay him
any money. Now only Archbishops could give out indulgencies, dispensations and pay
the Crown.
It was an attack on ecclesiastical privileges and property. (in 1404 and 1410 the Crown
had demanded the secularisation of Church property).
In effect priests were no more awful than anyone else. The best men in the country were
clerical who were also less corrupt than those elsewhere.
Henry had attacked the Church while they were contemplating reforming themselves.
Henry wanted to “purge the Church from the thorns and vices, as far as we are able
with God, and to sow it with seeds and plants of virtue”.
Henry appointed Thomas Cromwell as his Vicar General and sent him to inspect all the
cathedrals, churches, colleges, monasteries etc.
Three types of preachers were sent out to destabilise the monasteries:
‘railers’ who called the monks “hypocrites, sorcerers, idle drones and mumblers”
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Preachers who said monks made land unprofitable
Others who, “told the people if abbeys went the King would never want taxes
again”.
The visitations of the religious houses continued. A Bill passed in 1536:
All houses that earned less than 200 pounds sterling should go to the King
Monks were allowed to leave their house for the future
The Hours were to be read not sung
All priests and monks under 24 years and those who took vows under the age of 20 were
dismissed
Appeals to Cromwell were allowed
400 religious houses fell, including convents, fell.
In October 1536 there was a Pilgrimage of Grace where Henry had 12 abbots executed
and he took the cathedrals and money.
In 1537 the visitations were extended to larger establishments. Many houses
surrendered ‘voluntarily’. Superiors who surrendered were given a pension.
Shrines were pillaged:
Thomas Becket was now declared a traitor and his bones were burnt and dispersed in
1538
Richard the Third’s coffin was used as a trough
King Stephen’s body was flung into the sea
King Alfred’s dust was thrown into a refuse pit
By 1540 the abbeys were ruined. 8000 monks and friars were turned out. 60,000
monastic dependents lost their livelihood. The spoils were turned over to the Court of
Augmentation which now received an income of 1.5 million pounds sterling, the rest went
to the nobles. New bishoprics were appointed. By 1544 Henry had spent all this money
and he attacked again. Now it was charitable houses, hospitals etc. This dumped 15% of
the land onto the market thereby spreading enclosures. No help from the monasteries
made many people destitute. Poor and sick who were in the care of the monasteries
flocked to London but there was little charity there. The whole episode impacted upon
the sympathies and confidence of the English people.
Many monasteries had been running schools which were destroyed, many great libraries
ceased to exist, whole shiploads of books from the monasteries were sent overseas, old
documents were destroyed.
The dissolution of the monasteries was devastating – they had been centres of teaching
and nurture.
In 1535 there had been 300 grammar schools but by 1562 there were only 200. Henry
seemed disinterested in his impact upon education. Their removal was, however, an
advantage to the New Learning.
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By Henry’s death:
The word ‘purgatory’ was removed
Worshipping saints had stopped
Image worship involved kneeling ‘before’ an image not ‘to’ an image
Sacramental teaching remained the same
Ceremonies remained almost the same but were to be thought about – they had no
power
The Pope’s name was removed from the liturgy and it was mainly spoken in English
The Bible in English was mainly for the upper classes
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