Henry VIII and his reign in English history

Henry VIII -- Architect of Renaissance England

King Henry VIII was one of the most formative influences upon England during the early Renaissance. He created the modern conceptual model for English governance, an England that depended upon human, monarchal authority, rather than Church influence. The relationship between Parliament and King developed under Henry was unique for its day, and later enabled England to engage in electoral reforms, rather than undergo violent rebellions to enfranchise the populace like the European Continent in the 19th century. Although Henry's daughter, Elizabeth, is usually called the quintessential Renaissance monarch, it was only because of his influence that the flowering of English poetry and drama, in the guise of Spencer and Shakespeare, was possible under her authority.

It is said that "Henry was the first English monarch to be educated under the influence of the Renaissance," because he was learned in the sciences and the humanities as well as in theology (Jokinen, 2006). Henry was a scholar, a devoted student of classic and modern languages, a musician and even an athlete Despite the fact that the most popular image of Henry is that of an overweight and dissolute man who placed his own pleasures before the interests of his country in his youth he was described as thus: "he speaks good French, Latin and Spanish; is very religious... He is extremely fond of hunting, and never takes that diversion without tiring eight or ten horses... He is also fond of tennis"("Henry VIII." History of the Monarchy: The Tudors, 2007).

What also may be forgotten about Henry is that he was not originally designated for the throne. It was only after his eldest brother Arthur died that he was allowed to succeed to power. To cement the relationship between England and Spain, he married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon. The question of whether marrying one's brother's wife was incest would later be a point of contention with the pope, as Henry attempted to annul his marriage with Catherine as on those grounds, arguing that their marriage had produced no heir because it was cursed. Henry inherited, as well as a queen, a financially stable land with trouble brewing on the horizon: "Henry's interest in foreign policy was focused on Western Europe, which was a shifting pattern of alliances centered round the kings of Spain and France, and the Holy Roman Emperor" ("Henry VIII." History of the Monarchy: The Tudors, 2007).

Henry began his career as king as a callow young man, easily influenced by his advisors, but gradually be began to assert his authority over the increasingly unpopular Cardinal Wolsey. "He began to adopt a more critical attitude towards Wolsey's policy, foreign and domestic; and to give ear to the murmurs against the cardinal and his ecclesiastical rule. Parliament had been kept at arm's length since 1515 lest it should attack the church; but Wolsey's expensive foreign policy rendered recourse to parliamentary subsidies indispensable. When it met in 1523 it refused Wolsey's demands, and forced loans were the result which increased the cardinal's unpopularity" (Jokinen, 2006).

This assertion of a healthily democratic Parliament that was not willing to bow to the authority of an unelected churchman spelled the death knell for the feudal hierarchy of authority, where political leaders and the common populace were in thrall to the political powers of the church. The widespread belief was that Wolsey was overstepping his bounds, and Henry began to agree. Henry's growing distaste for what he saw as church meddling in state politics rose exponentially when he was unable to annul his marriage to Catherine, because she had not produced a male heir.

Originally, Pope Julius II had raised the allegations of incest, now Henry demanded that Wolsey do the same in his appeal to the new Pope Clemens VIII, so Henry could free himself of the alliance and marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's eventual fate of banishment from the comforts of the court was sealed by his failure to obtain a divorce for Henry VIII from the papal court. Henry felt that the security of England depended upon his procurement of a male heir, but the pope refused. Henry, justifiably did not see the new Pope Clement VIII's objection as a religious one, rather it was politically motivated: "The prospect of French success in Italy which had encouraged the pope proved delusive, and in 1529 he had to submit to the yoke" of Charles, the King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor (Jokinen, 2006).

To capitulate necessitated a rejection of Henry's demand for a divorce "because a divorce would mean disinheriting Charles's cousin Mary," Henry and Catherine's daughter (Jokinen, 2006). Henry, of course, saw through these political machinations and was enraged. Still, Henry was no Protestant; in fact, he had always supported the church before. But he felt his integrity as a monarch depended upon his securing secular authority and a male heir. To gain such authority, however, he had to rely upon Parliament, further sowing the seeds for England's later, more democratic attitudes towards power-sharing in government.

Disgusted by Wolsey's excesses, Parliament eagerly complied. "The result was a series of Acts cutting back papal power and influence in England and bringing about the English Reformation" ("Henry VIII." History of the Monarchy: The Tudors, 2007).

The Pope realized ecclesiastical revenues were under threat, and his authority. The Pope excommunicated Henry when Henry married Anne Boleyn and made her queen, Undaunted, with the aid of Parliament under Thomas Cromwell Henry secured Parliament's support for the Church of England's total severance from Rome and Parliament's "usefulness led him to extend parliamentary representation to Wales and Calais," ((Jokinen, 2006).

England thus both expanded as a nation (becoming what is today the United Kingdom) and established its independence. The dissolution of the monasteries also meant that England grew wealthy almost instantaneously, "transferring enormous wealth from the church to the crown" (Jokinen, 2006). Thus Henry's reformation was not the same as Martin Luther's, it should be stressed, it was on institutional and political, rather than doctrinal grounds and created the modern nation-state, independent of religious authority, as well as a new faith, the Church of England or Anglicanism.

Throughout his reign Henry's move was to centralization -- of religion and of political control. "Central to the idea of the new Tudor court, as it had been to the earlier notion of a 'New Monarchy' in the sixteenth century, is the claim that the powerful, 'over mighty' barons of the fifteenth century were transformed in the sixteenth into court politicians and so denied the advantages of their local influence and power. This 'taming' of the great magnates and creation of courtier nobility formed both the basis of Henry's power and the foundation stone of the newly politicized court" (Walker, 1997).

The court, rather than disparate barons and feudal lords, now dominated England and English culture. Moreover, the court was meant to perpetuate a national culture, just as Henry had essentially created a nationalized faith: "idea of the court as a centre of a particular set of non-militaristic values and codes of behavior" (Walker, 1997). Loyalty to the king rather than feudal status was the determinant of placement -- even Henry's intimate attendance in his 'privy chamber' were not menial laborers, but trusted and loyal friends. The closer an individual was to the king, the closer the individual was to power and influence.