Henry VIII is best known for his six wives. Most British school children learn the following rhyme to help them remember the fate of each wife: “Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived”.
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Everyone recognizes his portrait: a fat, larger-than-life individual, wearing clothes set with jewels and sporting a neat red beard. This is Henry in later life: in his youth he was handsome and athletic, the most eligible prince in Europe.
Henry was also a complex man: intelligent, boisterous, flamboyant, extravagant. Athletic, musical, a poet. Ruthless, arrogant, passionate.
Henry’s driving desire for a male heir was to lead him to divorce two wives and have two wives beheaded: it led to religious revolution and the creation of the Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation. The decisions that Henry made during his reign were to shape modern Britain.
The second son of Henry VII, Henry was only 17 years of age when he became king in 1509. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, with a pale skin and auburn hair. He was athletic, a man of action and enjoyed all kinds of sport: hunting, jousting, real tennis, riding. He was also a musician; He played the flute, the lute and the organ. He wrote poetry. An avid reader, he owned a library of almost a thousand books. He wrote a treatise against the Protestant Martin Luther and was rewarded by Pope Leo X who gave him the title, “Defender of the Faith”, which the British monarch retains to this day, albeit a different faith! In 1546, Henry founded Trinity College, Cambridge.
It can be argued that Henry founded the modern English nation. In 1536, the Act of Union between England and Wales brought Wales into union with England. The unification of Ireland was also achieved during his reign. Henry increased the role of Parliament, particularly regarding taxation.
It was important for a 16th century king to appear all-powerful but this was costly. In 1520 with King Francis I of France, Henry co-hosted the legendary “Field of the Cloth of Gold”, an outrageously extravagant event in Calais. The event was meant to show a united front between the kingdoms of England and France in the face of the Holy Roman Emperor. Each king tried to outdo the other in tournaments, feasting, clothes and jewels during a celebration that lasted for weeks and cost a fortune.