British Civilisation 4: The Reign of Henry VIII
© A. SCHOOLING, Collège Vendôme, Lyon (2008)
King Henry VIII’s early reign
Henry in 1509
During his early reign, King Henry VIII’s court was a centre of scholarly1 and artistic innovation.
He was a happy, future-looking man, with a clever2 wife in Catherine of Aragon. Personally, he
was an accomplished musician, author and poet. Henry also loved fun, gambling3 and games,
excelling at all the sports played in those days, including jousting4, hunting, and real tennis5.
5 Despite this fun-loving6 atmosphere, Henry had very strong personal Christian beliefs7. Indeed,
in 1519, the Pope honoured him with the title “Defender of the Faith” when he wrote a
pamphlet against the new Protestant ideas of Martin Luther. Today, on one side8 of British
coins9 we can see the letters “FD” from the Latin “Fidei Defensor” because this is still10 part of
the Queen’s official title.
“FD”: Defender of the Faith
King Henry VIII’s foreign ambitions
Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520
11
10 Unlike his father, Henry VIII wanted foreign conquests. So in
1511, he joined Pope Julius II and Spain in a Holy League against
France as an excuse to expand12 his holdings13 in northern
France. In 1513, Henry invaded France and his troops defeated
a French army at the Battle of the Spurs. Despite this, Henry
Francis I
15 gained very little. Later tensions with France were relaxed when Henry met the new French
14
King, Francis I, like him a Renaissance man interested in sport and the arts. They met at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold (le Camp du Drap d’Or) in 1520 outside Calais, England’s remaining15 French territory. At this meeting both
monarchs tried to impress each other16. But they both had huge17 egos!
Henry and what his family ambitions made him do
Thomas More Princess Mary
20 Henry’s ambition was not just for himself but for his family. In the
Renaissance period, for a king to have a son – or better still18, several19 sons
– was of vital importance. It meant that the succession would not be
disputed, and if one son, like his brother Arthur, should20 die, then there was
another to take his place. We mustn’t forget that people often died young
25 and of mysterious causes. Anyway21, Henry desire to have a son became an
obsession. Although22 he loved his wife Catherine, she had a long series of
miscarriages23. The only surviving child she had was Princess Mary, of whom we will hear more
later. As we have seen, Henry was a fun-loving man and each time Catherine became pregnant24
Henry amused himself with other women. As king, he could choose almost25 any woman in the
30 kingdom, and one of the pretty girls, Elizabeth Blount, gave birth to a son, whom he named
Henry Fitzroy. Unlike his daughter, his son was illegitimate and could not succeed him. By the
1520s Henry began to wonder26 if God was punishing him by not giving him a legitimate son. It Henry Fitzroy
was at this time that somebody suggested to him that perhaps he should not have married his dead brother’s wife
after all, since the Bible (the Book of Leviticus) forbade it. Now normally it would have been simple for a friend of
35 the Pope’s to gain an annulment27 of his marriage so that he could marry someone else more likely28 to bear29 a
son, but there were two problems. Firstly, the Pope was in a weak position against the powerful Charles V, Holy
Roman Emperor, and Catherine of Aragon’s nephew30. Charles V did not want Henry to repudiate his aunt and put
pressure on the Pope not to agree to Henry’s request. Secondly, Catherine refused to agree to the idea of being
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given a pension or being put in a nunnery31, and she certainly did not want her daughter to be called a bastard.
Although Catherine and Arthur had been married nearly a year, she always claimed32 that they had never
consummated the marriage – something that Henry must have known, because he never contradicted her about
that. At first the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Thomas More, promised he would sort out the problem33 with the
Pope. But when he failed34, Henry’s most powerful minister Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, forced him to resign.
Cromwell passed the Act of Supremacy, which made Henry VIII head of the Church of England; the Pope was no
longer in charge of the church in Henry’s country, so Henry could do what he wanted! Henry
saw this as just a temporary measure in the European political game, but Sir Thomas More
refused to agree to it and was beheaded35 because of his defiance. (The boys will see the school
opposite36 Westcliff High School is called Sir Thomas More High School – it is a Catholic, not
Protestant, school.) Meanwhile37, the difficulty with the Pope was suddenly forgotten when his
latest mistress38, Anne Boleyn, announced she was pregnant. Henry – and everyone else – was
certain it must be a boy this time. Henry and Anne were secretly married after the new
Anne Boleyn
Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, had declared that the marriage with Catherine
was annulled. Anne gave birth39 on September 7th, 1533 to a healthy baby... girl! She was
named Elizabeth after Henry’s mother, but Henry hoped40 that there would be many more
children. Unfortunately41 for Anne Boleyn, she had miscarriages like Catherine of Aragon, so
that Henry grew tired of42 her and found other mistresses. What he could do once43, he did
again. When his master44 showed he wanted to marry someone else to have a male heir,
Thomas Cromwell accused Queen Anne of treason45, and she was beheaded in the Tower of
London – and you will see the exact place next year. Her ghost46 is supposed to haunt the
Thomas Cromwell
Tower today...
The Reformation and later wives
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By the early 1530s Henry, who had once been a fit sportsman, had become a stout if not fat
man through the excesses of overeating47. But his desire for enjoying himself was not
diminished. Yet48 to live in extravagance demanded money. The other feature49 of his
character50 we have already noted – a desire not to be contradicted – became even51 stronger
in later life. Now when Henry saw that the Roman Catholic Church in England was extremely
wealthy and that it refused to acknowledge52 him as the head of their church, Henry decided to
kill two birds with one stone53. Henry let the Protestant Thomas Cromwell pull down54 all the
monasteries55 in England and confiscate their lands. The king had no desire to become a real King Henry VIII
Protestant (he was the Defender of the Faith!), but he had become greedy for56 more power and wealth. At the
same time, as he was planning the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry married his third wife, Jane Seymour (no,
not Dr Quinn!). She almost immediately fell pregnant and then gave birth to a boy, Edward. Unfortunately for
Henry, she died two weeks later. So Henry was free to marry once again. Although he was fat and in pain from
gout57, he was very choosy58 about his next wife. To solidify the Protestant countries against Spain and France, a
German Protestant country was chosen for an alliance. To make sure of his bride’s59 beauty, he sent the court
painter Hans Holbein to paint Anne of Cleves, and he was so excited about the marriage that he rode from out from
London to meet her... only to be disgusted60 at what he saw! After less than a year, the marriage
was annulled since Henry had never consummated it. Instead, he married a young pretty
teenager, Katherine Howard. She was a flirt and was soon in trouble61 after a younger man was
seen to be having an affair with her. So like62 Anne Boleyn, she was accused of treason and
executed. Henry was again available63 to be married, and his sixth wife was Catherine Parr.
Although people still liked to think that Henry might64 have another son, everybody realised65
that she was only a nurse66 to him. When he finally died in much pain in 1546, Henry left the
throne of England to his only son who became Edward VI. England had become a Protestant
Edward VI
country and Henry had assured a male inheritance... or had he? (Find out next week!)
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The Reign of Henry VIII: Vocabulary Help
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scholarly = érudit
clever = intelligente
gambling = le jeu (d’argent)
jousting = la joute (à cheval)
real tennis = le jeu de paume
fun-loving = joviale
beliefs = croyances, (la foi)
side = côté
still = toujours
coins = pièces
unlike = contrairement à
to expand = étendre
holdings = (ici) terres
field = champ
remaining = qui restait, dernier
each other = se (pronom réciproque)
huge = énorme
better still = mieux encore
several = plusieurs
should = (ici) subjonctif modal : renforcement de
l’idée d’hypothèse avec « if »
anyway = (ici) quoi qu’il en soit
although = bien que
miscarriages = fausses couches
to become pregnant = tomber en enceinte
almost = presque
to wonder = se demander
annulment = annulation
so that = pour que
more likely = plus probable, avec plus de
chances
to bear (bore, born(e)) = porter, supporter
nunnery = couvent
to claim = prétendre
to sort out a problem = régler un problème
to fail = échouer
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to be beheaded = se faire décapiter
opposite = en face de
meanwhile = pendant ce temps-là
mistress = maîtresse
to give birth = accoucher
to hope = espérer
unfortunately = malheureusement
to grow tired of = se lasser de
once = une fois
master = maître
treason = la trahison
ghost = fantôme
overeating = les excès de table
yet = cependant
feature = caractéristique
character = (ici) caractère ; mais souvent
« personnage »
even = même
to acknowledge = admettre, reconnaître
to kill two birds with one stone = faire d’une
pierre deux coups
to pull down = démolir
monasteries = monastères
greedy for = avide de
gout = la goutte (maladie)
choosy = difficile
bride = mariée, épouse
disgusted = dégoûté
in trouble = en difficulté
like = comme
available = disponible
might = opérateur modal de l’éventualité : il se
pourrait que…
to realise = se rendre compte
nurse = infirmière
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