The major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign over England from 1509 to 1547 included the Field of the Cloth of Gold and the Reformation of the English Church. The sole reason for these actions is said to be love and seems to be related to the King’s obsession for a male heir but other factors were involved. Paramount among these is the influence of his family in the earlier years of his life. Other reasons such as general insecurities and competitiveness with other royal houses are also possible motives. To say that the major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign were motivated by his obsession with a male heir is not completely accurate as other, more viable, explanations are available. The influence of Henry VIII’s family on important actions during his reign is greatly disregarded in many instances. It is believed that the actions made by Henry VIII were due to his obsession with a male heir but this obsession also can be blamed on his family. Henry’s father Henry VII was known to use his children to “secure his position by negotiating a series of marriages with other royal houses” and so naturally Henry did so too. Henry VII’s lack of interest in his son’s activities may have created insecurities that would influence Henry VIII’s decisions later in life. Also Henry was kept quiet and contained in the early years of his life, as “the heir was now confined to his father’s court where he could be protected from disease, accident, and conspiracy” This may have caused his need for attention. After his father’s death Henry developed an Oedipus complex which remained until his dying days as Derek Wilson states “he insisted, he had proved himself a better king, even outdoing Henry VII in Christian piety.” Also, hi... ... middle of paper ... ...ign although in many circumstances, such as the reformation of the church, it was begun with the intention of creating a male heir. The need for a male heir itself stems from another deeper, psychological issue with his father and family which is, it seems, the true reason for all the major endeavours of Henry VIII’s reign. The need for a father’s approval and need to best him and his brother was the true motivation for the endeavours of Henry’s time, in certain circumstances it is combined with competitiveness with other royal houses, such as with France in the field of the cloth of gold, or insecurity, lust and need to create the family atmosphere he never had. But in each case the influence of his family reigns supreme and therefore to say the major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign were motivated by his obsession with a male heir is largely not true.
When we look at Henry as a king we have to look in the context of
Assessment of the View that Henry VIII’s Wish for a Male Heir Was the Main Reason for the Break with Rome
...olitical needs of the time, which was the divorce of Henry from Catherine of Aragon in 1533, in order for Cromwell to fulfil his king’s wish; he pragmatically detached the problematic Pope and his Holy Roman Empire from England to resolve the Great Matter by having to (not wanting to) reform the Parliament, consequentially morphing England into a sovereign state. The bureaucratic reformation which is argued by Elton to be a part of the revolution in Tudor government once again boils down to Cromwell’s loyal servitude to the king, addressing the financial problem of Henry’s with a series of solutions which would certainly benefit the King in the long term. The work of Cromwell was not revolutionary as it failed to survive the several changes of monarchy (excluding the work achieving sovereignty) and did occur in a swift manner how revolution realistically would occur.
The series of various reformations shows in the European Continental 1 whereby the monarch plays vital affair in formulating the law regarding personal life. The history meddles much into the life of Henry VIII bringing his marriage close to format. Nevertheless, the history holds the best for him allowing him to marry once again and bear an heir. The essay is going to explore the concepts
When Henry took the throne, he gave most of the responsibility to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He did this because as a 17 year old boy, he felt he wasn’t ready for all of that responsibility at once (Sommerville). Even though he was king, he had no desire to know the everyday problems of England. One of Henry’s biggest accomplishments as king was implementing a naval fleet. He tried to get England to fight with Scotland and France (Scarisbrick 738).
...tect his right to the throne. Ultimately, he stabilized the nation by settling the civil wars, the Wars of Roses, by marrying the apposing York family, to unite the two feuding families, the Yorks and the Lancasters. All together, King Henry VII is a new monarch for displaying all of the required traits.
As Henry continued his reign he realized he needed a son to carry on his name and rule. Henry was married to Catherine of Aragon for eighteen years; however, he still had no son to inherit the English throne. Although she had given birth to many children, including several boys, only one girl had survived infancy. Henry went to Pope Clement VII asking for an annulment. This would allow Henry to end his marriage to Catherine, so he could then remarry in hopes of having a son. An annulment is to consider a marriage invalid. In spite of his request, Pope Clement denied Henry’s request. The Pope dallying because Catherine was the aunt of mighty emperor Charles V. The Pope did not intend to offend Charles (Mullett, 2003). Henry would not accept this defeat. Henry built up
way for Henry to gain money and land, which is what he gained from the
Henry VIII wanted a male to take the throne when he passed away. He paved the way for his son Edward. After Edward died in 1553 Elizabeth found herself once again in political intrigue. [Elizabeth’s older sister, M...
King Henry VIII had huge political, military, and religious impacts on history and on England. Henry VIII’s reign was indeed, greatly important because of all the changes that he influenced on England mainly. This proficient king also produced three children who all became queens or a king. Henry VIII had such a huge impact on England, not just during the fifteenth century, but hundreds of years after his death.
For the simple fact that when Henry VI was younger and not allowed to take an active role in leading England, he did not really care about running the country. Henry was such a spiritually deep man that he lacked the worldly wisdom necessary to allow him to rule effectively (Wikipedia). Henry was more of an indecisive pushover.
Henry implemented many methods in order to control the nobility with varying success. Henry sought to limit the power of the nobles as he was acutely aware the dangers of over mighty subjects with too much power and little love for the crown or just wanted a change like Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick who deposed two kings to replace them. Also Henry’s own rise to the throne was helped by nobles dislike towards Richard III. By restricting the nobles Henry wanted to reduce the power of the nobles and possible threats against him and return the nobles from their quasi king status to leaders in their local areas but under the power of the crown.
He was a human that had emotions, he experienced grief with the multiple miscarriages and deaths of his sons and the betrayals of his wife’s, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Also the death of Jane Seymour, the only wife to give him a male heir, brought him into a depression. These events changed Henry’s perspective of his own self, that he was without a legal heir, his health was horrendous and he was being betrayed by those closest to him. Lipscomb describes the transformation of Henry from the popular prince to the tyrant king know today. As shown, “the last decade of his reign, Henry VIII had begun to act as a tyrant. The glittering, brilliant monarch of the accession, toppled into old age by betrayal, aggravated into irascibility and suspicion as a result of ill health and corrupted by absolute power, had become a despot”. Henry is not thought of as the good Christian, but Lipscomb writes throughout this book that Henry was very serious about his religious affiliations. Lipscomb portrays Henry VIII as, “a man of strong feeling but little emotional intelligence, willful and obstinate but also fiery and charismatic, intelligent but blinkered, attempting to rule and preserve his honor against his profound sense of duty and heavy responsibility to fulfil his divinely ordained role”. In other words he was an emotional mess that did not know what to do with his feelings, so he bottled them up and south to seek
Henry V is not a simple one as it has many aspects. By looking into
First, it is important to get a background on Prince Henry and his lifestyle. He is not what you would consider a typical prince. Instead of making appearances as the royalty that he was, he would frequently be seen at the local bar drinking with the common folk. Due to his unacceptable behavior, he has acquired a bad reputation throughout the land, and even with his father, King Henry IV. His character is even further discredited because of the low-life drunks that are his friends. As you can see, Prince Henry is not as proper and well behaved as you would expect with nobility.