Possibly if we have to refer to a King with a successful bedroom life, the name of the second king of the Tudor House, Henry VIII. A king who has almost stood out more for his 6 marriages than for the very important reforms that he promulgated as king of england and ireland. The desire to perpetuate the dynasty with a male heir that led him to repudiate all his wives, added to a collection of incompetent advisers, have left a somewhat distorted image of the King Henry VIII. This article, the second dedicated to the Tudor dynasty, we have dedicated to King Henry VIII, a king who confronted Rome, unified England and Wales and declared himself supreme head of the Anglican Church, we will discover all this and much more in The Tudors (II): Henry VIII.
The Tudors (II): Henry VIII | Biography – Childhood
Henry was the third son of the king Henry VIIfirst king of the House of Tudor and Elizabeth of Yorkobviously belonging to the house of the same name.
The marriage had 7 children, Arthur – Prince of Wales, Daisy flower, Enrique – future King Henry VIII, Isabel – Died before the age of 3, Maria, Edmund – Died at 1 year of age and Katherine – Died a few days after his birth.
Enrique was born in Greenwich, at Placentia Palace on 28 June 1491. By birthright the heir to the throne and Prince of Wales was his elder brother Arthur.
The education that the young infant Enrique received was very extensive and detailed Always surrounded by the best and most important tutors of the time, he managed to speak with fluency in Latin, French and Spanish. Also, like wealthy young people of his age, he liked to play games, especially dice.
He participated in various jousting tournaments, hunting and a new sport for the nobility and forerunner of tennis called Royal Tennis. He liked music and came to play different instruments, he also excelled in the art of writing and poetry.
The Tudors (II): Henry VIII | England and the Alliance with Spain
Given the interests of England in establishing alliances with the most important royal houses, King Henry VII, prepared Arthur’s future agreeing on a wedding with the youngest daughter of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, the young woman was called Catherine of Aragon. The wedding took place in November 1501, a wedding attended by the young Henry as an infant.
A few months after his wedding with Catherine of Aragon, in the old Cathedral of San Pablo, ill arthur. It is believed that he could have contracted tuberculosis, and only Five months later of his marriage, the Prince of Wales and heir to the crown, dies. With the death of the heir to the throne, the next in the line of succession would be Henry.
The marriage between Catherine and Arthur had a great importance in the future of England, everything would depend on whether the marriage of Arthur and Catherine had been consummated or not.
The Tudors (II): Henry VIII | arrival to the throne
The situation for the Tudor house with the passing of Arthur it became somewhat complicatedKing Henry VII was not in good health, while the now heir apparent and newly appointed Prince of Wales Enrique was still a minor.
few years later in 1509 King Henry VII died ascending to the throne his only living son, Enrique, who would reign with the name of Henry VIII. The new king was only 17 years old when he acceded to the throne. Outside of the image of him as an adult king, Henry He was a handsome young man with a gift for politics.
The international situation demanded a new alliance with the Kingdom of Spain, in the face of an unstable situation like the one prevailing in Europe. If Enrique replaced his brother Arturo on the throne, he could also replace him before his wife, after all their marriage had not been consummated and if Catalina returned to Spain, England not only would she lose the large dowry that the Catholic Monarchs had granted to their daughter Catalina, but an extremely important alliance.
The Tudors (II): Henry VIII | The Marriage with Catherine
Katherine after being widowed there was stayed at Fort Ludlow, in Wales. She is dedicated to praying for the soul of her husband and in a phase of mourning, she will remain waiting to know what her immediate future would be.
Before the importance of your partnership with the Spanish crown and the recognition by Catalina before the ecclesiastical court, of her condition as a maiden, Given the impossibility of the prince to consummate the marriage, the union with Arturo was declared null. Now Enrique could marry Catalina, maintaining ties with the Spanish crown and after the Holy thirst did not see any inconvenience in granting the dispensation for marriage.
Ferdinand the Catholic, was in charge of organizing the wedding of his daughter Catalina de Aragón, with Enrique. The place of the link was Greenwich and it took place June 11, 1509. But not everyone would see this marriage as advisable, both Pope Julius II As the Archbishop of Canterburyopenly doubted the validity of this new link. On June 24 the young kings were crowned where English kings are crowned, in Westminster Abbey.
Soon Catherine got pregnantbut this first pregnancy did not reach term, failing in 1510. A year later Catalina would give birth to a boy on January 1, 1511, but this baby did not reach two months of life.
The Tudors (II): Henry VIII | The Politics of the New King
Politically, Enrique had to face the discontent of the nobles because of a tax that Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley had established. After Enrique’s coronation, one of the first provisions he issued was to imprison in the Tower of London to the two responsible for said taxes, without caring that they had been members of the cabinet of his father King Henry VII.
After their imprisonment and a somewhat dubious trial, both Richard as Edmund, were sentenced to death for high treason, being beheaded in 1510. This was simply a small sample of the type of policy that King Henry VIII carried out throughout his reign. Unlike his father, who had maintained a conciliatory policy.
in 1511 Henry Appoints Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as the person who would control the affairs of state, removing both Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester and William Warham, who had held that position since his coronation two years earlier.
The holy league proclaimed by Pope Julius II against France. Pope Julius II did not stand out precisely for being pious, but for his desire for power, being more comparable to a monarch of the time than to a pope. got that quickly formed an alliance made up of England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire. Through the Westminster Treaty, an alliance was established mutual aid between England and Spain in case of aggression.
in 1513 took place in France more specifically in Enguinegatte in the Pas de Calais, an eConfrontation between the English and French troops, resulting in victory by the English troops, this battle received the name of Battle of the Spurs.
Secondly James IV of Scotland remained as an ally of the French king and to help him invaded all of northern Englandbut this invasion was quickly repelled, with the death in Flodden of James IV of Scotland, the conflict was considered over.
Ferdinand the Catholic left this alliance in the year 1514while the rest of the countries achieved establish peace with France.
For your part in 1516at last Enrique gets to be a fathera precious girl child was born, to whom They called Maria. The king was once again optimistic about the possibility of obtaining a man who would perpetuate the Tudor dynasty.
In successive entries we will be expanding this article dedicated to Henry VIII, the second king belonging to the Tudor house. But in the meantime, and if you want to learn more about this house or dynasty, we have selected you from overstorythe two articles that make up this trilogy dedicated to The Tudors.
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