HENRY VIII
By Maria, Arancha, Natalia, Antonio and Paz
Introduction
Henry VIII
Henry VII, Henry VIII's father
Arthur, prince of Wales, Henry VIII's brother
Henry's early life
Henry VIII was quite athletic and sporty when he was young. He enjoyed jousting, hunting, javelin, dressage, double-axe fighting and archery. He was also a champion at wrestling!
Henry's wives
His first wife was Catherine of Aragon. She was originally married to Henry's brother, Arthur, but because he died, Henry asked special permission from the Pope to allow Henry's marriage with Catherine. The Pope agreed because he said that the marriage was impure. They married on the 11th of June in 1509, but their marriage dissolved later in 1533, because Catherine had a child, but the child was not a boy, she was Mary. Henry felt like the only person adequate enough to rule England and be a strong leader had to be a male, so they divorced. Also, Henry wanted the divorce because he fell madly in love with Anne Boleyn.
Catherine of Aragon
Love letters to Anne Boleyn
Mary as a baby
The king's great matter
What happened?
Henry asked the pope if he could allow his divorce with Catherine, because at that time divorce was not allowed in the Catholic Church. The pope denied the request for 2 reasons:
1. Henry firstly asked the pope to let him marry his brother's wife, and now he wanted a divorce? No.
2. The Pope was Catherine's nephew, so he didn't want his aunt to lose her place as Queen of England.
Henry was so furious that he separated England from the Catholic church, made himself Head of the Church of Engand, allowed his own divorce, sent Catherine to a nunnery, married Anne Boleyn, tranformed England from Roman Catholic to protestant and destroyed all of the monasteries form England. This took place during the 16th century.
Dissolution of monasteries
Henry, Head of English Church
The Pope in the 16th century
Continuing with Henry's wives...
Next came Jane Seymour. They married on the 30th of May, 1536 but she died one year later, when giving birth to their son, Edward VI. She was probably Henry's favourite wife, because she was the only one that could give them a son.
Henry spent 2 years mourning over Jane's death, until a famous painter, Hans Holbein, painted a portrait of Anne of Cleves, and gave it to Henry VII. Henry was attracted to Anne, so he decided to mary her on the 6th of January, 1540. When they met eachother, face to face, Henry realized that she "looked like a horse" (as he described her) and decided to divorce from her. The marriage lasted 7 months.
Katherine Howard came after her, and married Henry on the 15th of July, 1540, just 2 weeks after Henry divorcing Anne. At this time, Henry was 49 and Katherine was 20. Katherine was afraid of Henry, him being much older, much powerful, having executed his wife and divorced two others... This marriage didn't last very long, because Katherine had many affairs with other men, behind Henry's back. Henry soon found out, and to Katherine's horror, she was executed on the 13th of February 2 years later, in 1542.
Katherine Parr was more like Henry's nurse rather than his wife. She took care of Henry during his last years. On the 28th of January in 1547, Katherine Parr was widowed, as King Henry VIII had died.