Henry VIII
Subject Knowledge: A Strong Throne
Subject Knowledge: Power of the King
Subject Knowledge: Consequences of Henry VIII's reign
Subject Knowledge: Interpretations of Henry VIII's reign
- A strong throne: The Tudor Rose. Henry VII, Henry VIII's father, was a brilliant king. He ended the Wars of the Roses and established Tudor dynasty. This means a family of monarchs that ruled the nation.
- Henry VII built up the money in the Royal Treasury making the nation's Government wealthier and saved it from bankruptcy (having no money).
- Henry VIII was a glamorous and powerful Renaissance prince- a prince who had a broad education in such things as arts, maths and languages, beyond being a strong fighter and protector of his lands.
- Tudor musicians playing instruments. Henry VIII was handsome and vain. He was brilliant at all sport, wrote music, and spoke four languages.
- Henry and King Francis I of France held a meeting in France in 1520. Each king spent so much money that it was called 'the Field of the Cloth of Gold'.
- Execution of Sir Thomas More. Later in his life Henry grew bitter and vicious, and executed anyone who got in his way.
- Defence of the Seven Sacraments. Written by Henry as a defence of Papal authority, it earned him the title 'Defender of the Faith', bestowed by Pope Leo X.
- Henry and his wife Catherine of Aragon only had one surviving child, Mary, so Henry did not have a male heir. About 1525 Henry decided he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn.
- When the Pope refused to give Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry used Parliament to pass a number of laws allowing him to divorce Catherine. This caused a split with Rome.
Subject Knowledge: Power of the King
- Some historians think that Henry helped the growth of the gentry (small local landowners). Two of his Chancellors were 'low-born'; Thomas Wolsey (Chancellor, 1515-1525) was probably the son of a butcher, Thomas Cromwell (1532-1540) was said to be the song of a cloth worker, or possibly a brewer. Henry took power from the nobles, and used the gentry instead (eg as Justices of the Peace).
- Henry hugely increased the power and wealth of the king. The Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533) said there was no higher authority than the king.
- The Act of Supremacy (1534) declared that Henry (not the Pope) was the 'only supreme Head of the Church in England'.
- The Treasons Act (1534) made all priests and monks swear that Henry was head of the Church (those who didn't were executed).
- In 1535, Henry ordered a survey of the monasteries (the Valor Ecclesiasticus). The survery reported that the monks were immoral and rich. Henry dissolved all 825 monasteries over a period of four, and took their wealth. This gave the king an extra £120,000 a year (and more than doubled his income). The gentry bought land during the dissolution of the monasteries.
- The Statute of Proclamations (1539) gave King Henry VIII power to make any law he pleased.
- The split with the Pope was political, not religious. Henry VIII remained a Catholic all his life and in 1539 he passed the Six Articles, which sentenced anybody who denied the central beliefs of the Catholic faith to death by burning.
- Henry VIII always passed his laws through Parliament, eg he got Parliament to pass the three Acts of Succession of 1533, 1536 and 1544 (saying ho would be ruler when he died).
Subject Knowledge: Consequences of Henry VIII's reign
- Henry's reign was a time of tyranny and executions, but there were changes which can be seen as the start of modern England.
- The dissolution of the monasteries caused suffering for ordinary people as these had been places for the poor to seek relief. In the short term this caused the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536). In the long term it led to the Poor Laws which, 400 years later, led unintentionally to the welfare state- the modern system that helps citizens financially.
- Henry VII used Parliament to pass his laws, which helped to establish the authority of Parliament.
- The power of the gentry rose, and the power of the nobles declined.
- Although Henry VIII remained a Catholic, the break with Rome eventually turned England into a Protestant country.
- Henry built more warships. Some historians regard this as the start of the Royal Navy.
- The Act in Restraint of Appeals turned out to be the most important act in the history of England. It said that 'this realm of England is an Empire' ie that England was a sovereign state, subject only to its own government. It was therefore the legal beginning of the English nation.
- England remained completely legally independent until 1953, when the government signed up to the European Court of Human Rights.
Subject Knowledge: Interpretations of Henry VIII's reign
- Traditionalist Interpretations: The 'Whig' historians of the 1800s saw the Tudors as the beginning of a 'new monarchy'. According to A F Pollard (1902), Henry encouraged the gentry and the 'coming force of nationality'. This being the idea that England was a separate and independent country. In 1953 Geoffrey Elton developed this into the idea that there was a revolution in Tudor government', by which Henry transformed the government by creating an efficient civil service. These interpretations portrayed Henry's reign as the beginning of the English Protestant parliamentary nation-state.
- Modern Approaches: Modern historians doubt that Henry's reign was the foundation of modern England. Typical is David Starkey (1986), who says that Henry's England was 'a personal monarchy', dominated by the unstable personality of the king. Historians nowadays think that politics in Tudor times was dominated by 'factions'- quarrelling groups of nobles, all vying for the king's support.
- Modern film makers have made films like Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and the TV series The Tudors (2007) but the nature of Henry's government is the last thing they are interested in. They concentrate on the personality of the king and the relationship between Henry and his different wives.
- If these interpretations are true, Henry VIII was much more 'the last medieval king' running the country for himself than he was 'the first modern monarch' managing the country for the people too.