Henry Viii Research Paper

Henry VIII is born in June of 1491 to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Being the second born son of this time he is considered to be the spare, while his older brother Arthur will be the heir to the throne. Since Henry is the not as important second born son there are very poor records of his upbringing and education. With this is mind it might be safe to assume a very common practice for this period of time would have taken place. This practice would be that of forcing the spare into the church with the hopes that they would become a high-ranking church official. Ultimately, this does not come to fruition with the death of Arthur in April of 1502. Since his brother had passed Henry VIII now takes his place in the succession making him next
Henry felt that he should have gotten the annulment, because Catherine was the widow of his older brother, and the bible states that if a man takes his brother’s wife it is impure and they would be childless. Henry views Catherine not being able to bear a male heir as a fulfillment of this scripture, and proof that he was living a life of sin being married to her. Henry believes that as Fidei Defensor he should be allowed to fix this problem, but is ultimately turned down. Henry does not let this deter him though, and with the help of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer he is able to break away from the Catholic Church. He does this by passing The Act of Supremacy which installed him as the head of the Church in England, and then closing all the monasteries throughout England. The dissolution of the monasteries filled Henry’s coffers and granted him vast amounts of new land in which could sell off. It also stopped various clergy members from opposing him since they had no place of power to operate out of anymore. Henry also used his new position as a means to divorce and remarry a few times in an attempt to attain a male heir to secure his