Henry VIII third marriage was to Jane Seymour in May 1536. The marriage ended in tragedy, when Jane died giving birth to his only sole male heir, Edward.

As the second son of HenryVII, Henry VIII was born in 1491 and was first married at the age of 18 to Catherine of Aragon in 1509 divorcing in 1533 after 24 years of matrimony. In that very same year Henry married Anne Boleyn.

Henrys third marriage was to Jane Seymour in May 1536. The marriage ended in tragedy, when Jane died giving birth to his only sole male heir, Edward.

His fourth marriage early in 1540 lasted only a short time with his fifth marriage to Catherine Howard in July of the same year. Catherine Parr became Henry’s sixth and final wife in 1543 and they remained married until Henrys death in 1547.

The young and energetic Henry VIII was not a natural born ruler. He preferred to spend his time hunting and enjoying the good things in life while entrusting matters of state to Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Wolsey single handily ruled England until his failure to secure the papal annulment that Henry needed to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533.

During the early years of Henry’s reign, the young king invade France, defeated Scottish forces at the Battle of Foldden Field (in which James IV of Scotland was slain), and he wrote a paper denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the pope awarded Henry the title "Defender of the Faith".

The 1530's saw Henry become more involved in government. It was also the time in which saw a chain of events that reverberated around the world and England; the splitting from Roman Catholicism and the founding of the Church of England. This split from Rome was due to Henry’s endeavour to have a male heir.

The break from Rome was accomplished through 137 acts of parliament which were introduced over a seven year period. Henry VIII, as the Head of the Church of England, acknowledged these changes by gentle changes in worship rituals instead of large scale alterations to the religious doctrine. Under his guidance, England moved into an era of "conformity of mind". By 1536, all religious and government officials were required to publicly approve of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty.

The remainder of Henry's rule was quite in comparison to what he had achieved to date. His marriage to Anne Boleyn lasted only three years before her execution; she was replaced by Jane Seymour, who bore him the much sought after son Henry so desperately wanted. Noble families involved in the Wars of the Roses found themselves reduced to vying for the king's favour in court. Reformists greatly benefited from Henry's dissolution of the monasteries, as their lands and revenues went either to the crown or the nobility.

Two men of note came to prominence during the latter stages of Henry's reign: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Cromwell, who was an experienced administrator, succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, creating new governmental departments and established the parish priest's duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, dealt with and guided changes in religious policy and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries.

Henry VIII built upon the ideas started by his father. The break from Rome, joined with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to a royal dominance that would last until the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred years after Henry's death.

During his short and event filled life, Henry VIII was much loved and revered by his subjects, who faced only one major rebellion, the Pilgrimage of Grace, instigated by the northernmost counties in retaliation to the break from Rome.

 

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