On the day after the execution of Anne Boleyn, in May, 1536, Henry VIII became engaged to Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour had been one of Anne Boleyn’s ladies in waiting. Henry and Jane were married approximately ten days later. Around the same time Henry gave royal assent to the Laws in Wales Act, which legally annexed Wales, officially merging Wales and England into a unified kingdom. This was quickly followed by the Act of Succession 1536, which declared that Henry’s children by Jane Seymour were to be next in the line of succession.
It also declared Mary and Elizabeth, Henry’s daughters by Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn to be illegitimate and therefore barred from the succession. At the same time, Henry was granted the power to determine the line of succession in his will. In 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Edward, who would eventually rule as Edward VI. However, Edward’s birth proved to be too much for Jane and she died on October 24, 1537, at Hampton Court after contracting an infection. The entire court mourned with Henry for an extended period. The primary sources indicate that Henry considered Jane Seymour to be his true wife, as she was the only one of his six wives to give him the son he had long desired.
The Destruction of Religious Shrines by Henry VIII
In 1540, Henry approved the destruction of England’s religious shrines. Henry also desired to marry again in order to ensure the succession. Thomas Cromwell, who was now the Earl of Essex, suggested Anne of Cleves. Her brother, the Duke of Cleves, was seen as an important ally in a potential Catholic invasion of England. Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry’s court painter was sent to Cleves to paint Anne’s portrait for the King.
It has been argued that Holbein painted Anne in a more flattering light. However, modern historians have found this to be unlikely, as Holbein the Younger was still in favour at court after Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves ended. After seeing Anne’s portrait and hearing the complimentary descriptions from his courtiers, Henry decided to marry Anne of Cleves. However, upon her arrival in England, the primary sources claim that Henry found Anne to be completely unattractive, saying "I like her not." In private Henry was known to call Anne "a Flanders mare."
Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves
Once again, Henry wanted an annulment so he could remarry. At the same time, the Duke of Cleves, Anne’s brother had become embroiled in a conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor, which Henry was keen to avoid being drawn into. Meanwhile, at court Anne chose not to impede Henry’s desire for an annulment. When the investigation came to the question of marital sex, Anne testified that her marriage had never been consummated.
In the wake of this testimony, all obstacles to Henry’s annulment were removed. Not long afterward, Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves was formally dissolved and Anne was given the title of the King’s Sister and Hever Castle, which had belonged to Anne Boleyn. Meanwhile, Thomas Cromwell found himself out of favour as a result of his role in arranging Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves. Cromwell was eventually beheaded and the office created for him, Viceregent in Spirituals, was left vacant.
Henry VIII and Catherine Howard
On July 28, 1540, the day of Cromwell’s execution, Henry married Catherine Howard. Catherine Howard had been one of Anne Boleyn’s Ladies-in-Waiting, as well as her first cousin. Not long after Henry and Catherine’s wedding, rumours began to circulate that Catherine had had an affair with one of Henry’s courtiers, Thomas Culpeper. Catherine also employed Francis Dereham, with whom she had been previously engaged, as her personal secretary. Not long afterward, Thomas Cranmer, who opposed the Howard family, who were staunch Catholics, brought evidence of Catherine’s activities to Henry’s attention.
Henry was initially unwilling to believe Cranmer’s allegations, but was eventually persuaded to allow Cranmer to conduct an investigation. When questioned by Cranmner, Catherine could have admitted that she had had a marriage contract with Dereham, however, this would have rendered her marriage to Henry invalid. Instead, Catherine claimed to have been forced into an adulterous relationship by Dereham. In response to this, Dereham exposed Catherine’s relationship with Thomas Culpeper. Like Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard was technically not guilty of adultery, but as with Anne Boleyn, this fact was ignored and Catherine Howard was put to death on February 13, 1542.
Later that same year, the last of England’s monasteries were dissolved and the property they had controlled was transferred to the Crown. At the same time, the abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords. The ecclesiastical element of the House of Lords was now made up only of bishops and archbishops. As a result, the Anglican clergy, represented by the Lords Spiritual, were now outnumbered in the House of Lords by the nobility, represented by the Lords Temporal.
Henry VIII and Catherine Parr
In 1543, Henry married for the sixth and final time, this time to Catherine Parr. Catherine Parr was a religious reformer and quarrelled with Henry, who was a religious conservative. This nearly proved to be Catherine’s undoing, but she saved herself with a show of submission and eventually helped Henry to reconcile with Mary and Elizabeth, his two daughters by Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. In 1544, an act of Parliament restored Mary and Elizabeth to the succession, however, they were still officially considered illegitimate.
The tyrannical cruelty of Henry VIII became more and more apparent as Henry’s health began to fail. One of the results of Henry’s declining health was a string of political executions that began with the Duke of Suffolk in 1513 and ended with the Earl of Surrey in 1547. The exact number of people killed by Henry VIII is not known, but estimates range as high as 72,000. What is known is that there were more political executions during the reign of Henry VIII than during the reign of any other English monarch before or since.
The Death of Henry VIII
Late in his life, as Henry’s health continued to decline, Henry became obese and needed assistance walking. The primary sources report that Henry was covered in painful boils and that he may have suffered from gout. Henry’s medical problems are known to have stemmed from a leg injury he suffered as a result of a serious jousting accident in 1536. In actuality, the injury Henry suffered in 1536 reopened and aggravated a leg wound he had suffered several years earlier.
The royal physicians found Henry’s wound almost impossible to treat and it was allowed to fester for the rest of Henry’s life, eventually becoming ulcerated. At the same time, Henry suffered wild mood swings, which had a dramatic effect on his personality. Henry developed a habit of binge-eating, binging on large quantities of red meat. Modern historians and psychologists believe that Henry developed this habit as a coping mechanism for stress. In any case, it contributed to his obesity and hastened his death at the age of 55, on January 28, 1547, at Whitehall Palace in London.
Henry’s death was clearly the result of a combination of factors, but exactly what he died of is unknown. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment Henry was commonly thought to have died of syphilis. Syphilis was a well known disease in 16th Century Europe, having been brought back from the New World by French and Spanish explorers. However, the medical notes left by Henry’s court doctors give no indication that Henry suffered any of the symptoms commonly associated with syphilis. More recent interpretations of Henry’s symptoms suggest that he may have suffered from type II diabetes.
Following his death, Henry VIII was buried in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, next to Jane Seymour, his third wife.
Sources
Ashley, Mike. British Kings and Queens. Robinson:London.1998
Scarisbrick, JJ. Henry VIII. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1997
Terry Long - I hold degrees in history and journalism. In addition to my contributions to Suite 101, I have also written for the Brampton Bulletin, the ...
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