Understanding The Life of Henry VIII

When Arthur died unexpectedly, young heat content at eighteen categorys of age became the King of England a year later when heat content VII died. Tall, slim and skilled in athletics as swell as highly educated, the declaration of henry eight on April 22, 1509, held great promise for the English, galore(postnominal) of who considered his father a "miser and an extortionist." According to Alison Weir in Henry octonary: The King and His Court, "The rejoicings that greeted Henry's accession were ecstatic and unprecedented, for it was believed that he would user in a ?golden world'."

The youthful Henry VIII was optimistic, congenial, fantastic and liberal by all accounts. He was also edgy and emotional. He was educated in the finest schools and by the finest tutors England had to offer. Erasmus called him a " global genius," and Henry VIII was schooled in academics as well as theology, music, art, and the gentlemanly sports like wrestling, horse racing, hunting and others. Henry VIII loved music, even composing his own tune, Greensleeves, a call that is still popular with contemporary audiences. Henry's education and his well-rounded abilities and pursuits were singularity of the burgeoning spiritual rebirth. Henry VIII represented the ideal of all that the Renaissance embody.

As Weir maintains, "He embodied the Renaissance ideal of the man of many talents with the qualities of the chivalric heroes whom he so much admired." Such a combination of qualities big businessman easily lend itself to acting as a sign of the transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance periods in history. In Henry VIII's later years, the King would be plagued by ill-health, worn from battles that did pocketable to change the balance of power in Europe, and his battles with the Catholic church building and other woes turned him into a conflicted and doubting individual.

As Weir argues, Henry VIII changed in personality and temperament from his youthful days on the thr ace to those of the final two decades of his reign, "Only as he grew older did the suspicious and crafty streaks in his nature become more pronounced; nor were his willfulness, arrogance, ruthlessness, selfishness, and brutality yet apparent, for they were mask by an irresistible charm and affable manner." Henry's search for an successor and his conflict with the Roman Catholic church everywhere decouple caused him to have Thomas More beheaded as well as breaking from the Catholic church's authority. The reformation by Henry VIII that resulted in the origination of the Anglican church was one of the most tumultuous and significant, if dubious, triumphs of his reign. Weir maintains that Henry would often waffle over complex decisions like his break with the church, but his belief that he was ruling by Divine Right made him level once he arrived at a decision: "in one case his mind was made up he always judged himself, as the Lord's Anointed, to be in the right."

Weir, A. Henry VIII: The King and His Court. modern York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2001.

No discussion of Henry VIII's life would be have it away without mentioning his marriage woes. Henry's first wife was also his longest, Catherine of Aragon, a princess of Spain and little girl of
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