What Caused Henry VIII's Reign To Descend Into Tyranny? | History Makers | Real Royalty

[Music] King Henry VII is probably the most fabled and famous of the Kings of England during his long eventful Reign he demolished the administrative and religious structures of the Middle Ages and molded for himself a Thoroughly Modern Nation state but of course the colorful and charismatic King is most remembered for his endless m matrimonial difficulties for Henry's failed marriages were to bring about the downfall of no fewer than five of his queens and two of his most gifted ministers this then is the story of Henry the king of Six [Music] Wives [Music] Henry was the youngest son of Henry iith who with his wife Elizabeth of York was the the founder of the chuda dynasty Henry had won the crown of England on the bloody field of Bosworth in 1485 where he had finally defeated the yorkist Richard III his son Henry was born at Greenwich Palace in 1491 and it was in these Pleasant surroundings that the child spent most of his youth he became Prince of Wales upon the unfortunate death of his elder brother Arthur in 1502 and by the time he finally succeeded to the crown in 1509 England was groaning under the burden of the high taxes imposed by his father the Royal Court after years of rule by a prudent but miserly Widow was in deep depression and without doubt the whole country was hungry for a change from the austerity of Henry VII's 24-year Reign the new King's succession was the therefore greeted with universal optimism and enthusiasm the entire country seemed to catch the positive upbeat mood which accompanied the succession of their handsome athletic new Prince one of the new King's courtiers Lord mountjoy summed up these joyous feelings in a glowing description of the new monarch if you could see how everyone here rejoices in having so great a prince how his life is all their desire you would not contain yourself for sheer Joy extortion is put down liberality scatters riches with a bountiful hand yet our King does not set his heart on gold or Jewels but on virtue glory and immortality the other day he told me I wish I were more learned but learning is not what we expect of a king I answered merely that he should encourage Scholars most certainly he rejoined as without them we would scarcely live at all now what more splended remark could a prince make Sir Thomas Moore who was later to serve as Henry's Lord Chancellor was also filled with enthusiasm for the king he has a way of making every man feel that he is enjoying his special favor just as the London wives pray before the image of our Lady by The Tower to till each of them believes it is smiling upon her in later years Sir Thomas would come to feel very differently a man of the deepest convictions he would be ordered by Henry to abandon his beliefs as the king pursued his own personal political Ambitions Mo's refusal to do so would cost him his life yet even in these happy optimistic early years of his Reign Henry was dis playing worrying signs of the ruthless all powerful autocrat he would later become I am content with what I have I wish only to govern my own subjects nevertheless I will not allow anyone to have it in his power to govern me nor will I ever suffer it the country's Delight was further increased by the news that Henry's intended Queen was C Catherine of Aragon the popular Spanish princess who had been married to Henry's elder brother Arthur when Arthur tragically died in the following year she was immediately betrothed to Henry the new Prince of Wales as a means of maintaining an important alliance with Spain the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella Catherine was an attractive proud and Lively girl who had adjusted easily to the ways of the English Court now he was King Henry was Keen to consolidate the betral to her with a swift marriage indeed the match was not entirely one of convenience for the love and affection between the young couple was very genuine if I were still free I would choose her for my wife before all others the king's happiness was completed when on New Year's Day 1511 his new wife bore him a seemingly healthy son to be called Henry the Overjoyed King made a pilgrimage of Thanksgiving to the shrine of Our Lady of walshingham and embarked upon a series of extravagant celebrations which culminated in a two-day tournament at Westminster but the joy of the king and queen was to be short lived for only 10 days later the infant Prince became ill and died for Henry it was a shattering heartbreaking blow but after a period of deep and very public mourning he forced himself to confront Affairs of State once more and there were pressing matters to be considered for in November 1511 Henry had been invited by King Charles ith of Spain and Pope Julius II to form the holy League against Francis I first King of France this new alliance would wage war on France and the profits from the Enterprise would be split evenly always Keen to find ways of filling the Royal coffers Henry enthusiastically agreed to join and before long he was leading his country into what could legitimately be described as a holy war preparation had been placed in the capable hands of an ambitious cleric named Thomas woy so successful was he in this work that when Henry returned from the wars he immediately promoted woy from the almana to Chief Minister an unprecedented and meteoric rise to Fame by October 1515 the King was so taken by the brilliant butcher's son from ipswitch that he wrote to the pope asking to make Woolsey a cardinal and within 2 years woy had been in stalled in the greatest office in the land that of Lord High Chancellor for 15 years thereafter Henry and woy formed a formidable partnership ruling England in a ruthlessly efficient manner it has been noted that the two shared a certain physical resemblance and they certainly possessed similar personality traits both were unscrupulous and avaricious and completely single-minded in their pursuit of pleasures of the flesh although wisey was unpopular he was a gifted highly intelligent hardworking and loyal man unswerving in his Devotion to Henry Cardinal Wy Thomas waly was first and foremost a very able minister of State um very very able U Diplomat and an extremely astute politician there's absolutely no doubt about that I would say on the whole he was also a dedicated man dedicated to what he saw as the good of England as a nation and he saw the future of England um as being great and wanted to steer the country in that direction he was often accused of being Vain and he was accused of liking Pomp and Circumstance which is undoubtedly true but I think that those um aspects of his character are very minor compared to this enormous ability he had um his the way in which he was able to to negotiate with h sometimes hostile foreign powers and smooth Over Troubled Waters very much a man who wanted to see a peaceful future and a peaceful transition to that future the one thing that cost Wy his career was the one thing that he failed at and that was the failure to secure the divorce that Henry so desperately wanted I think it's fair to say in this context that he was yet another victim to Henry's vanity in this sense and um and and Henry's desperate desire to get a male Heir had he not died at leester when he was on his way to London it's very clear that he would have been executed when he reached London had however he been able to secure the divorce that Henry wanted it is equally clear that he would have lived his life out in some honor and respect during this time Henry and Katherine's attempts to produce a male heir to the throne had met with bitter disappointments the death of the infant Prince Henry had been followed in 1513 by the birth of a stillborn son and by the delivery of a premature boy in the November of the following year however the fortunes of the unhappy couple seem to revive when in February 1516 the queen was safely delivered of a girl called Mary but by now Henry was having serious doubts about Katherine's ability to Bear him a prince what was more her numerous pregnancies had inevitably taken their toll on Katherine's looks and figure and Henry's Amorous eyes soon began to wander in 1518 he became embroiled in a passionate affair with a lady called Elizabeth Blount who with irony that was bittersweet bore him a son whom he called Henry Fitzroy in 1520 came spect spacular respite from Henry's domestic worries when peace with France was celebrated in characteristic style at an event that became known as the field of the cloth of gold Francis I and Henry VII met to cement their new friendship amid lavish displays on the plain in northern France thereby entering into an onon cordial that had seemed impossible only a few years earlier gilded palaces were erected and there followed rry feasting and jousting which lasted for several days the peace was sealed with the betral of the 2-year-old Princess Mary to the young Doan of France in Continental Europe however religious uncertainty and dissatisfaction smoldered embodied by the emergence of the German priest Martin Luther who finally lit the burning fires of protestantism King Henry a good and devout Catholic was utterly outraged by the new doctrines and ideas which were arousing such heated debate and set himself up as a champion of the old religion in 1521 he wrote a famous treaties in Latin proudly calling it the defense of the seven sacraments it was certainly a powerful document in which the king passionately defended the the pope and the embattled Catholic faith the words contained in the treaties are a testimony to the strength of Henry's feelings what serpent so venomously crept in as he who calls the most holy sea of Rome Babylon and the Pope's Authority tyranny and turns the name of the most holy Bishop of Rome into that of antichrist treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History hit there are topics for all history lovers from Pompei to D-Day sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with history hit however contained in the document were some very important passages the irony of which would be brought into ever sharper Focus did the king ever regret writing these words the insipid water of concupisent is turned by the hidden grace of God into wine of the finest flavor whom God hath joined together let no man put aund in Rome the pope naturally received Henry's work with unfettered enthusiasm and was suitably flattered by its verses dedicated to him in gratitude he bestowed upon Henry the grand title of defender of the faith a title still carried by the ruling monarch of England to this very day despite this surge in the king's fortunes abroad the Royal marriage was now in very serious difficulty Queen Catherine had been delivered of yet another still born girl and now it seemed the entire nation was becoming increasingly concerned about the succession Henry was by now absolutely desperate to provide the country with the male heir to the throne it so badly needed and his frustration with Catherine for her failure to give him what he wanted had now turned into bitter contempt he had probably already made up his mind to try and divorce Catherine when in 1527 he met and fell in love with Anne Bolin Anne was the daughter of Sir Thomas berin and had been brought up at the French Court where she had acquired a very comely Elegance a contemporary account of her reported mistress Anne is not one of the handsomest women in the world she's a midlin stature sthy complexion long neck wide mouth bosom not much raised and in fact as was nothing but the English King's appetite and her eyes which are black and beautiful in fact the lecherous King was first attracted to her elder sister Mary who was for a time his mistress but the younger Anne was not so easily won the Ambitious Girl had set her sights firmly on the crown she determined not to yield to Henry's Amorous advances unless there was a promise that he would marry her and make her his Queen over a six-year period She tantalized and teased the king until he became utterly obsessed with her all feelings for Catherine were by now completely forgotten all the king wanted was an not that she was without other admirers the poet Thomas Wyatt for instance wrote this lovelorn verse to her who list her hunt I put him out of Doubt as well as I may spend his time in vain and Graven in diamonds and letters plain there is written her Fair neck round about nol May taner for Caesars I am and wild for to hold though I seem T Henry 2o was completely hopelessly in love his ardor sharpened by an's failure to yield to his advances I have been now above one whole year stricken with the dart of love it shall please you to do me the office of a true and loyal mistress and friend to give yourself up body and heart to me who will be and have been your very loyal servor I promise you not only the name that will be owed to you but also that I will take you for my soul mistress thrusting all others save you from thought or affection and to serve you alone it is reputed that the king wrote the song Green sleeves in honor of Anne [Music] Bolin The Love Struck Henry even turned to verse to try and win her love now unto my lady promise to her I make from all other only to her I may betake and so Henry turned to Cardinal woy to resolve what was to become known as his great matter in in fact the king had become increasingly disenchanted with Woolsey a feeling fueled by Envy and resentment of the enormous riches Woolsey had accured over the years now came wo's chance to win his master's love and affection once more he was required to secure a divorce from Katherine of aragan on the spurious grounds that because she had been married to the king's brother the union was incestuous and illegal this could not be achieved without papal Authority Henry's request was anti-catholic completely unprecedented and highly unlikely to be granted wo's onerous task was made considerably more difficult for him when the shifting alliances in Europe changed once more as Charles I of Spain nephew of Queen Catherine sacked Rome and took the pope prisoner in this delicate situation the pontiff was even more unlikely to anull Katherine's marriage and risk offending his captor and so to forall a decision a commission was set up to examine the whole issue of the divorce the men placed in charge of the commission were Cardinal woy and Cardinal campeggio naturally woy was eager to obey Henry's bidding and win the divorce but camp pedio dragged his heels and in July 1523 just when a judgment was expected he announced that the decision would be postponed until the end of October not surprisingly the King was filled with anger and frustration and it was the unfortunate Thomas woy Who Bore the brunt of his terrible temper for his failure to win Henry his divorce woy was summarily dismissed as Chancellor and was ordered to retire in disgrace race to his Archbishop Rick in York unfortunately Woolsey made the Grievous mistake of asking Francis the first and Charles I to intercede with the King on his behalf Henry was livid and he decided that wo's desperate Act was treason he therefore ordered his Ur while servant to be arrested and brought to London to face the charge woy was on his way back to London to stand trial when he died at leester thereby avoiding certain execution wo's Fall From Grace had been as spectacular as his rise to power in July 1531 Henry left Windsor Castle in secret to go hunting with Anne he would never see his wife Katherine again she was ordered to move into wo's Old House at the mo in Chelsea and was forbidden to write to the king or see her daughter Princess Mary for the heartbroken Queen a helpless porn in the high-powered game The Strain was almost too much to bear she confided to a lady in waiting what I suffer is enough to kill 10 men much more a shattered woman who has done no harm I am the king's lawful wife and while I live I will say no other at the Moore separated from my husband without having offended him in any way Catherine the unhappy Queen completely frustrated by the lack of progress with his divorce but still determined to get his own way the king's patience with the Pope and the Catholic church was now wearing paper thin indeed there was a general mood of dissatisfaction with the church throughout the the country as the people tired of cynical ecclesiastical abuses and injustices the opportunistic Henry now tapped into the popular mood after all had not the Protestant Luther demonstrated there was an alternative to papal Authority for a man who had recently written so passionately in defense of the Catholic doctrines who had so lavishly praised and lorded the pope it was an incredible about face but now Henry would stop at nothing to achieve his aims although there is no evidence that he intended to break with Rome before 1532 the discovery that Anne berin was pregnant brought matters to aead the new baby surely the longed for boy must be born within wedlock and so on the 25th of January 1533 Henry and an were secretly married The Dread news was broken to the disbelieving Catherine of aragan who was informed by letter that she was no longer Queen and that she would revert to her former position of Princess of Wales it was a final heartless unfeeling humiliation for the queen who had maintained throughout her Oreal the greatest [Music] dignity in the May of that year a special ecclesiastical Court was convened at dunable under the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas cranmer a fellow opportunist and the marriage of the king to Catherine of aragan was declared null and void before very long parliament had passed an act restraining appeals to Rome in order to prevent the former Queen enlisting the help of the Catholic Church to fight her cause and almost in one Fell Swoop the power of the Pope and in England was effectively brought to an end at last Henry was free to marry on May the 29th 1533 Anne bin was given a splendid coronation and four months later the new Royal child was born but it was not the Bonnie Prince of King Henry's dreams for Anne was delivered of a girl the princess Elizabeth Henry could hardly conceal his disappointment perhaps he stopped loving Anne the moment Elizabeth was born still determined to confirm the break with Rome and to validate his new marriage the king decided that all his key subjects should take an oath of Supremacy in support of his new position Sir Thomas Moore a hugely Gifted Man and respected figure had already resigned the chancellorship over the breach with Rome Moore's Faith would not allow him to compromise his deep Catholic beliefs when Henry insisted that he take the oath Moore steadfastly refused there now followed one of the most ill-considered and terrible actions of the king's Reign he had mo one of the most learned and Brilliant men of the age brutally put to death the life of one of England's Great Men was therefore needlessly sacrificed to the selfish whims of King Henry an berin already held responsible by the people for the downfall of the popular Catherine of aragan was also blamed for Thomas Moore's death making her even more unpopular throughout the country and of course the new Queen's position was made even more insecure by her continued failure to bear Henry a prince she had a phantom pregnancy and often gave way to the most furious fits of temper she was simply not fulfilling Henry's high expectations of her for Anne the writing was clearly on the wall 1536 saw the death of the unhappy Katherine of aragan who since her fall from grace had been kept a prisoner by her former husband her sad words reflected the poignancy of her situation my Lord and dear husband I commend me unto you the hour of my death draweth fast on and my case being such The Tender Love I owe you force me to put you in remembrance of the health and Safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters and before the care and tender ing of your body for which you have cast me into so many miseries and yourself into many cares for my part I do pardon you all yay I do wish and devoutly pray God that he will also pardon you for the rest I commend you unto Mary our daughter beseeching you to be a good father unto her as I here to for desired lastly I do vow that my eyes desire you Above All Things although by the Autumn of 1536 an berin was pregnant again time was already running out for her for Henry had met and fallen in love with Jane Seymour one of the Queen's ladies in Waiting the court quickly became aware of the king's feelings for Jane and the rumors and gossip could hardly failed to reach Anne Henry had long since fallen out of love with his Queen and he no longer cared to conceal his feelings from her in 1536 Henry was seriously injured at a jousting tournament on hearing the news Queen Anne who was pregnant went into shock and subsequently miscarried the loss of the baby effectively sealed her fate Henry immediately commissioned her uncle the Duke of norford and his most trusted Minister Thomas Cromwell to engineer the Queen's downfall so that he might marry Jane his new love meanwhile Jane Seymour was putting pressure on her royal sutor withholding her favors until she was certain of obtaining the crown on one occasion Henry sent Lord mountjoy with a gift of money but she merely kissed the accompanying letter and then handed it back unopen to him falling to her knees she asked him to assure the King on her behalf that she was a prudent gentle woman of good and honorable family a woman without reproach who had no greater treasure in this world than her honor which she would not harm for a thousand deaths she ended by saying that if the king wanted to send her money I pray him to do so when God might find me a husb husband to marry the dukee of Norfolk and the new chief minister Thomas Cromwell were ruthless and thorough in their work they accused Anne of having had affairs with no less than five of her courtiers amongst them her brother Lord Rochford in due course a confession was obtained by torture from Mark smon a musician confirming the suspicions of norfol and Cromwell and 3 days after her supposed lovers had been convicted of adultery with her the queen was brought to trial accused of plotting the King's death by promising to marry one of her paramor she was virtually condemned before the trial began however Anne accepted her fate in a manner befitting a queen I do not say I have always shown him that humility which his goodness to me merited I confess I have had jealous fancies and sus ions of him which I had not discretion enough and wisdom to conceal but God knows and is my witness that I have not sinned against him in any other way think not I say this in the hope to prolong my life God hath taught me how to die and he will strengthen my faith as for my brother and those others who are unjustly condemned I would willingly suffer many deaths to deliver them but since I see it pleases is the king I shall willingly accompany them in death with this assurance that I shall live an endless life with them in peace Queen an berin was executed at the Tower of London in May 1536 although Anne was dead the Reformation of the Church of England which she had indirectly set in o was continuing a pace a survey of the wealth of the church known as Valor ecclesiasticus was carried out between 1534 and 1535 it revealed what Rich pickings there were to be had the following year Parliament abolished all small religious foundations whose net income was less than2 200s annually all their lands and treasures were to revert to the king the dissolution of the monasteries began a revolution that affected ecclesiastic life the structure of society and even the appearance of the landscape as abies and nunneries monasteries and priories were pillaged their inhabitants were thrown onto the streets and the buildings themselves left in Ruins well the dissolution of the monasteries has a fairly straightforward rationale behind it the most obvious reason that Henry wanted to dissolve the monasteries was to gain money despite his income of something around £100,000 a year he needed money in order to uh Finance adventures in Europe and so Wars um and that's the reason that is always quoted it was simply a grab for land but the there is a more political reason for the dissolution of the monasteries and that was a long-standing rivalry between the papacy and the monarchy both not only in this country but throughout Europe as to who it was that ran the country and this this rival R um was continuous and very keenly felt by Henry not withstanding his other problems um around marriage so um by dissolving the monasteries he killed two birds with one stone as it were he got extra income extra lands which he could either keep for himself or give to his favorites but he also weakened the church and that was a very important consideration now the dissolution actually took place in two phases there was the dissolution of the smaller monasteries and then a later dissolution of the larger monasteries in the earlier phases the uh the members of the convents and the naries and the monasteries and so on were given choices they they could pursue their vocation elsewhere they could retire with pensions and so on the later dissolution tended to be um somewhat more brutal and people or members of the the church were ejected without a lot of choice as to where they went at the end of May 1536 less than one month after the execution of an Bolin Henry took Jane Seymour as his new wife and queen her place in Henry's heart was secured when on the 12th of October 1537 she was delivered of a healthy son after a severe labor that lasted more than 3 days and nights however she was well enough at first to write proudly to Thomas Cromwell we be delivered and brought in childbed of a prince conceived in most lawful matrimony between the Lord the king's majesty and us but within a few days she was showing signs of illness probably pural fever and less than a fortnight after the birth of Prince Edward Jane Seymour died [Music] Henry is reputed to have loved Jane above all his wives and he was genuinely heartbroken by her death in later years he asked that his own coffin should be laid next to hers upon his own death proving his affection for the mother of his only son however with plague and pox Rife throughout the country the king did not feel he could rest easy with only one son and so he decided to look for another bride in view of his recent history it was hardly surprising that many eligible young women were less than eager to put themselves forward in any case the king's policy at home was the main determining Factor upon his choice of any future wife the success of the dissolution of the monasteries had paved the way for the breakup of larger and larger establishments it was not surprising that c Catholic monarchs abroad were incensed by Henry's actions and on the 18th of June 1538 Charles I of Spain and Francis I of France signed a truce committing themselves jointly to the repression of protestant heresies at the same time Pope Paul III issued a bull excommunicating Henry and absolving his subjects of their allegiance to him as a result of these new exterior pressures the king found himself in urgent need of strong reliable Protestant allies and so a marriage with a German princess was deemed the most favorable option to help the king make his choice the artist Hans haline was commissioned to paint likenesses of various German Noble women this was certainly not a task Henry found difficult and as he sifted through the various possibilities he fell in love with aline's miniature portrait of an of cleaves sadly the artists had almost certainly exaggerated the tonic charms of the German princess already in love with her image Henry set his heart upon the match and in September 1539 a marriage treaty was signed however when Henry was finally introduced to Anne he could not conceal his bitter disappointment or his intense anger for he felt that he had been misled and [Music] humiliated I see nothing in this woman as men report of her and I Marvel that wise men should make such reports of her as they have done if I had known as much as I know now she should never have come into this realm the king is said to have refer to his new bride as the Flanders mayor and it is famously rumored that after their wedding the king played cards with her all night to avoid any intimacy this story may be apocryphal but it accurately sums up the king's feelings towards his new Queen Anne was needlessly humiliated for Henry simply could not be bothered to conceal his contempt by her breasts and belly she should be no maid which when I felt them struck me so to the heart that I have neither will nor courage to the rest the hapless Anne alone and unwanted in a foreign country quickly became an isolated unhappy figure she could hardly fail to be hurt by the coldness of her new husband despite the fact that the marriage was originally born of political necessity she confided to a lady in waiting when he comes to bed he kisses me and taketh me by the hand and bth me good night sweetheart and in the morning he kisses me and biddeth me farewell darling is not this enough the architect of the disastrous match between Henry and Anne had been Thomas Cromwell the chief minister who up until then had been the king's most trusted adviser born in 1485 at Putney Cromwell was the son of a Smith and Fuller and had risen through the ranks in the service of cardinal Woolsey while men such as S Thomas Moore were prevented by their conscience from helping the king to obtain his divorce from Catherine of Aragon it was Cromwell who had finally achieved it it was also Cromwell who had engineered the break with Rome and masterminded the dissolution of the monasteries he had taken the medieval system of government and had shaken it to its Roots thereby transforming it into an Administration far more suited to a modern national state although Cromwell gained a reputation as a heartless schemer he was certainly no more cruel than other powerful men of the chudder age but in spite of his undeniably great achievements ridding his master of the flanders's May was to prove too much for him Thomas Cromwell was to join the long list of brilliant men who went to the just to please the increasingly irrational Henry well Thomas Cromwell like his namesake Oliver Cromwell has I think been much maligned in history uh there is no doubt about it he could be ruthless and he was also ambitious but like his um employer Earth while employer um Cardinal woy he came from Fairly humble Origins he rose to great power and he was a very very able administrator indeed I think that in some ways Thomas Cromwell was one of the ablest ministers that this country has ever had he's an astute politician a clever lawyer um and again he was dedicated people have accused him somewhat of being um a cynic but I think he was dedicated like Wy to a great future for England as with Cardinal waly the one great failure in his career is the one thing that finished him off and that is the negotiation of for the marriage contract with an of cleaves Henry said to Cromwell I like her not and in a way that sealed cromwell's Doom he died on the Block and Hen Henry having turned his back on him no longer interested in his Fate The King's burning desire to be free of an of cleaves had been inflamed still further by the young and newbile Katherine Howard a niece of the Duke of noruk whose considerable physical charms had attracted his attention at court like her cousin Anne berin before her she was a lady in waiting to the queen and although Henry was now an aging obese Hulk sick with an ulcerous leg he soon determined to have her for his fifth wife perhaps Catherine awakened in Henry Fast fading memories of a long lost youth perhaps it was simply that Catherine was everything an of cleaves was not in July 154 40 Henry divorced an of cleaves and married Katherine Howard as usual by hook or by crook by fair means or foul he had got what he wanted he was rid of Anne and had wed an attractive vivacious young wife unfortunately for Henry and also for Katherine the King's latest marriage was not to work out in quite the way he had planned it was not long before the almost comical mismatch hit problems essentially Katherine Howard was just a young girl she was uh roughly 21 when she married Henry and he was 48 at that time probably as old as her her parents um she had the Outlook of a young girl she had the interests of a young girl there is a story that Henry border I don't know if that's true or not it might be apocryphal but certainly she had her eye open for the young men about her was very easily distracted by any young man that um showed her any interest whatsoever it's certainly true that she was Indiscreet in her earlier years by here we're talking about 18 or 19 and there is at least a suspicion that she had um had sex with one of her suitors earlier on this has never been proven but the suspicion was very clear certainly she had um a lot of earlier aasal with young men and the these were very well known after she became Queen unfortunately for her she continued to have Liaisons with other young men um notably um Co pepper is is one of the characters that came in a shadowy figure shadowy in the sense that it's thought that his intentions were not altogether honorable he was trying to further his own career but again she was very Indiscreet and people knew about hel Liaisons and inevitably Henry got to hear about them once he did hear about them of course um his vanity again intruded I think he was insulted by the idea that his wife was not a virgin when she married him that she could look upon other men and again her fate was ultimately sealed once the news was given to him and she died on the Block I think accused of illegal intercourse because of course um to have uh Rel leaon with the Queen of England was high treason and um and in in a sense she committed high treason herself by having those relations Katherine Howard finally went to the block on the 13th of February 1542 and the bloated sick disillusioned Henry submerged his grief and humiliation by burying himself in foreign affairs his armies roundly defeated the Scots under James I at sway Moss a victory which lifted Henry's spirits and he concluded a treaty against France with Charles the 5th of Spain all of which frantic activity left Henry feeling secure enough to contemplate seeking his sixth wife the woman upon whom Henry's eye lighted was the 31-year-old Katherine par who was married to an elderly invalid Lord Latimer in The Tudor age it was most unusual for married women to receive gifts from other men but there are records of Henry ordering gowns in the Italian style for her and sending her presents of pleats and sleeves which she could not but accept when latima eventually had the good Grace To Die Henry was obliged to wait for a decent period of mour to elapse before wooing Catherine again another sutor Sir Thomas Seymour whom Katherine genuinely loved was forced to stand aside in fact the King was so jealous of Seymour the brother of his third wife Jane that he sent him to the court of the Regent of the Netherlands in Brussels to get him out of the way by 1543 Henry was a sad and lonely old man he was attracted to Katherine par mainly because she was the antithesis of her predecessors virtuous intellectually able and a good conversationalist Katherine was also accomplished in Greek and Latin Henry obviously believed that she would make an agreeable nurse and companion in his old age and be a fine stepmother to his children a good thing it is when women become such clerks Henry ained and a thing much to my comfort to come in mine old days to be taught by my wife and so in July 1543 the couple celebrated their marriage at Hampton Court chapel and Katherine par became Henry's Sixth and last queen as Henry's health worsened and his death became a probability rather than a possibility jockeying for position at court increased the strongest Contender for power emerged in the form of Edward Seymour Lord Hartford the uncle of Prince Edward and he was named as one of four counselors of Regency for the Young Prince Edward in Henry VII's will Henry VII drew his last breath at St James's palace in London on January the 28th 1547 and the great chuder icon a king in the Grand Manor was finally gone at his bedside to comfort him in his final moments was Archbishop cranmer perhaps the only surviving friend and servant from the halian days of the early 1530s the Old King who had once seemed so indestructible had lived to be 55 years of age and his Monumental Reign had lasted for nearly 38 years it's very difficult to say what Henry's Legacy was he was a large character in in all senses of the word he's very colorful character but I think ultimately as a man he was he was superficial he was vain he was spoiled he was arrogant and he was ruthless the good that came out of his Reign I think um uh occurred almost despite him he had the two able ministers Wy and Cromwell both of whom achieved far more than Henry VII himself achieved they did it at his behest but really Henry's motives were purely selfish either for him fight either for his own interests or in pursuit of the uh the future of the Dynasty I don't believe that Henry was that committed to the future of the country as a whole whereas his ministers certainly were so the good that did come out of of Henry's Reign I think really can be attributed to other people the fact that this is a Protestant country is almost accidental in terms of Henry's Reign I mean it's often said that Henry um established a Protestant Church in this country he didn't he he established the Church of England with himself at the head and I think that was a form of vanity but also um it enabled him to pursue his own interests um again the fact that um ultimately this became a Protestant church was very much despite Henry um later on in his Reign he actively pursued Protestant Heretics and still saw himself as a Catholic so I'd say all of the things that have been attributed to Henry um really have been attributed unfairly uh I don't think as a man Henry himself contributed anything at all I think it was the people around him that contributed to this to the uh the the good of the country and it's the people around him who as it were engineered the path that the future was going to take and as I say again particularly Wy and Cromwell so ended the reign of England's most colorful and controversial Monarch Katherine par the queen who outlived him eventually married her former sutor Tom Seymour but died in childbirth the following year the tudah line was carried on by Edward v 6 Henry's son a weak sickly but determined child who would live to be only 16 years of age in the final analysis Henry had got his dearest wish a male Heir had succeeded to his throne it was for this that the country had seen the enormous changes and incredible upheaval of the early years of his Reign but to popular English History Henry VII will always be the king of Six Wives to this very day school children still recite the rhyme which tells of their fate divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived [Music] a a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 165,347

Keywords: Real Royalty, british history, descent into tyranny, elizabeth ii, english monarchy, influential families, kingdom history, kingdom ruling, monarchy downfall, monarchy history, regal authority, reign analysis, royal ancestors, royal lineage tracing, royal marriages, royal power struggles, royal scandals, sovereign power, throne succession, tudor era, tyrannical ruler

Id: KZiel2wCEPA

Length: 54min 35sec (3275 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2024