Generally known for his taste for women, Henry VIII was nevertheless a monarch whose reign was marked by religious and political conflicts, like his contemporaries Charles V and François I st . Apart from the interview at the Cloth of Gold camp in 1520, England was little involved in their quarrel, Henry VIII being more concerned with the maintenance of his dynasty. However, he led various military campaigns against France and Scotland to protect the integrity of his kingdom and secure new territories.
Inside the kingdom, he had to fight against the religious crises, caused by the establishment of Protestantism, financial, due to the drying up of the coffers by sumptuous social events, and political, faced with the shenanigans of the great families of his court. .
Although attached to Catholicism, he was forced to separate from Rome for the survival of his house, in power since 1845 only. Indeed, not having given him a male heir, Henry VIII repudiated his wife, Catherine of Aragon, mother of Mary Tudor, after the refusal of the annulment of her marriage by Pope Clement VII. This disagreement causes the creation of the Church of England of which he becomes the official protector in 1531. He then marries Anne Boleyn, who will not give him the long-awaited heir, but will give England one of its most Great Sovereigns, Elizabeth I re . She was beheaded in 1536, then replaced the same year by Jeanne Seymour, mother of the sovereign's only son, the future Edward IV. However, her death shortly after childbirth forced Henry VIII to remarry; he successively married Anne of Cleves in 1540, - repudiated shortly after the marriage -, Catherine Howard - married in 1540 and executed in 1542 - and finally, Catherine Parr in 1543.
1491 - 1547
Status
King