As a child, Henry was extensively tutored in a variety of subjects. He was an adept student, and he became fluent in several languages including Latin, French, and Spanish. Since Henry was the second son in the family, it was assumed that his elder brother Arthur would become the next King of England. Henry assumed that he would enter the Church. When Arthur was fifteen, he died. Thus, in , Henry became next in line for the throne. Henry gained the title of the Prince of Wales. He suggested that Henry marry Catherine of Aargon.
Catherine of Aargon was the widow of Arthur. However, the marriage to Catherine of Aargon was difficult, because it required a dispensation from the Pope. Catherine had to swear that their marriage had not been consummated for the Pope to allow Henry to marry her.
After less than four months of marriage, Arthur died at the age of 15, leaving his year-old brother, Henry, the next in line to the throne. Henry was good-natured, but his court soon learned to bow to his every wish.
Two days after his coronation, he arrested two of his father's ministers and promptly executed them. He began his rule seeking advisers on most matters and would end it with absolute control. Wolsey enjoyed a lavish existence under Henry, but when Wolsey failed to deliver Henry's quick annulment from Catherine, the cardinal quickly fell out of favor. After 16 years of power, Wolsey was arrested and falsely charged with treason.
He subsequently died in custody. Henry's actions upon Wolsey gave a strong signal to the pope that he would not honor the wishes of even the highest clergy and would instead exercise full power in every realm of his court. After Henry declared his supremacy, the Christian church separated, forming the Church of England.
Henry instituted several statutes that outlined the relationship between the king and the pope and the structure of the Church of England: the Act of Appeals, the Acts of Succession and the first Act of Supremacy, declaring the king was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England. These macro reforms trickled down to minute details of worship. Henry ordered the clergy to preach against superstitious images, relics, miracles and pilgrimages, and to remove almost all candles from religious settings.
His catechism, called the King's Primer , left out the saints. Fully separated now from the pope, the Church of England was under England's rule, not Rome's.
From to , a great northern uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace took hold, during which 30, people rebelled against the king's changes. It was the only major threat to Henry's authority as monarch. The rebellion's leader, Robert Aske, and others were executed. The pope conceded, but the official marriage of Henry and Catherine was postponed until the death of Henry VII in His philandering ways were tame by the standards of his contemporaries, but they nonetheless resulted in his first divorce in Because Catherine was now 42 and unable to conceive another child, Henry set on a mission to obtain a male heir by configuring a way to officially abandon his marriage with Catherine.
The Book of Leviticus stated that a man who takes his brother's wife shall remain childless. Though Catherine had borne him a child, that child was a girl, which, in Henry's logic, did not count. He petitioned the pope for an annulment but was refused due to pressure from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Catherine's nephew. The debate, during which Catherine fought mightily to maintain both her own and her daughter's titles, lasted for six years.
In , Anne Boleyn, who was still Henry's mistress, became pregnant. Henry decided he didn't need the pope's permission on matters of the Church of England. Thomas Cranmer, the new archbishop of Canterbury, presided over the trial that declared his first marriage annulled.
Inside the court, however, Queen Anne suffered greatly from her failure to produce a living male heir. After she miscarried twice, Henry became interested in one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. In an all-out effort to leave his unfruitful marriage, Henry contrived an elaborate story that Anne had committed adultery, had incestuous relations and was plotting to murder him. Months later, Arthur died of a sudden illness.
Over the next 15 years, while Henry fought three wars with France, Catherine bore him three sons and three daughters, all but one of whom died in infancy. The sole survivor was Mary later Mary I , born in Henry was an active king in those years, keeping a festive court, hunting, jousting, writing and playing music.
But the lack of a male heir—especially after he fathered a healthy illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in —gnawed at the king. The king decided to seek a papal annulment that would free him to remarry. Wolsey was forced from power for his failure and died in awaiting trial for treason.
In Henry and Anne Boleyn were married, and their daughter Elizabeth was born. Mary was declared illegitimate and Elizabeth named his heir. In January of Henry was unhorsed and injured during a jousting tournament. When news of his accident reached the pregnant Anne, she miscarried, delivering a stillborn son.
Henry then spurned her, turning his affections to another woman of his court, Jane Seymour. Within six months he had executed Anne for treason and incest and married Jane, who quickly gave him a son the future Edward VI but died two weeks later. Anne of Cleves was a political bride, chosen to cement an alliance with her brother, the ruler of a Protestant duchy in Germany. The marriage only lasted a few days before Henry had it annulled.
He then married Catherine Howard, but two years later she too was beheaded for treason and adultery.
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