Ambition in its Greatest Form

May 20, 2013

Rocky Hill School Jessilyn Ring

[AMBITION IN ITS GREATEST FORM] Modern European History Honors Poskitt

Jessilyn Ring MEH Honors Poskitt 20 May 2013

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Ambition in its Greatest Form:

King Henry VIII of Tudor

Introduction

“Behind every great man, there is a great woman.” Or, in King Henry VIII of Tudor’s

case, there would be six great women. King Henry is infamously known throughout the world as

the man who had six wives, but he is also famously known as “Defender of the Faith” due to his

struggle with the Church of England1. Granted, his motives about declaring himself the Head of

the Church were for the reason of allowing a divorce with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so

he could marry the infamous Anne Boleyn, whom he ended up beheading for treason and

witchcraft when she did not serve his purposes. Still, Henry revolutionized the church as one of

the most charismatic rulers in his younger years to sit upon the throne of England. His

transformation to a self-obsessed, paranoid dictator is one of the most interesting cases in history,

a case which may be linked to rare medical conditions. A ruthless and controlling womanizer,

King Henry VIII is credited with being the most self-centered monarch to rule England, yet his

innovation and creative ideals paired with a hungry—though sometimes unhealthy—ambition

were prominent in his prime years of ruling, though sometimes not for the right reasons.

Background Information: The Tudor Dynasty

The first monarch of the Tudor dynasty was Henry VIII’s father, King Henry VII, who

won the crown from Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Though he was the first of the

dynasty, he was also the last British king to win the crown on a battlefield. He married the niece

of Richard III, Elizabeth of York. He was succeeded by his son, King Henry VIII, perhaps one of

the most influential rulers of the English throne. Henry, or Prince Hal as he was known to his

people, was a true Renaissance man: he composed music, jousted, and wrote in English, French


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and Latin2. When Henry was ten, his older brother and successor to the throne, Arthur, died after

being married for twenty weeks to Catherine of Aragon. Thus, Henry received all responsibilities

his brother had carried before, including, much to the scandal of many of the English people, a

marriage to his widow. There was much debate to the claim of the marriage between Arthur and

Catherine not having been consummated, which would have made her marriage to Henry illegal,

as well as a sin in the eyes of the church. Still, he was much loved by the country of England,

known as a golden king, a charismatic young leader who was the epitome of leadership in his

prime. He was accessible to the public, young and attractive, and very much in love with his

beautiful Spanish wife. A glow was cast over the whole of England when Prince Hal took the

throne.

Marriage to Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen

That glow was short lived, however. As per usual, the king was eager to secure the

succession of the throne with an heir, specifically a male. Catherine and Henry struggled to

produce a live child, for they had a stillborn daughter and three sons, some of who were stillborn

and some lived for merely a few weeks. Henry was disappointed when his first healthy child by

Catherine was a girl, Mary Tudor. Still, the couple was determined and both set on the goal of

producing at least one male heir to the throne. However, Mary was the only child to survive;

there were many miscarriages and still-births, which dashed the royal couple’s hopes of any

more children. Henry became paranoid that he would never have a son, a fact which he wholly

blamed on Catherine. As Catherine had previously been meant to marry Henry’s brother Arthur,

she was a few years older than him, which was extremely important for a woman. Catherine aged

and advanced out of her child-rearing years, making the possibility of producing any more

children even less likely. As their efforts became futile, Henry became disinterested in the wife


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and queen whom he had loved so much. He had many affairs with ladies in his court, including

Mary Boleyn, the sister of his future second wife, whom is thought to have had at least one but

perhaps two of his illegitimate children. He also had a child, a bastard son, with mistress Bessie

Blount, who was named Henry Fitzroy. After his second marriage produced no viable heir,

Henry considered naming Henry Fitzroy his heir, but this caused much upset in the royal court.

His most famous affair was with Anne Boleyn, a lovely dark-haired lady-in-waiting to the queen.

This affair was extremely public, known to even to Catherine, and was the reason Henry sought

to divorce his aging Spanish queen, in hopes he would produce an heir with the young Anne

Boleyn. In Henry’s time, divorce was a sin in the eyes of the church, which caused quite a

scandal for the royal court.

Mary Tudor: Princess to Nothing

As the marriage between her parents dissolved, Mary Tudor was sent to Wales at age

nine to preside as the Princess of Wales. This title was never formally bestowed upon her, though

it was how she was addressed by her court. She visited the royal court of England and her father

regularly for three years, before returning to her home and the crumbling marriage of the king

and queen. As the relationship deteriorated even more, Catherine was sent to live away from

court while Henry attempted to annul their marriage. Eventually, she was stripped of her title of

Queen and instead was regarded as the Dowager Princess of Wales. Mary was declared an

illegitimate child, stripped of her title of Princess and called only Lady. She was replaced by

Henry’s second daughter, Elizabeth; her household was disbanded and she was sent to work in

the house of her infant half-sister. Mary became bitter and refused to believe that Anne was

rightful queen and did not regard Elizabeth as the princess. Her relationship with her father was

strained and never officially repaired before he died, due to their religious differences. Henry


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alienated his daughter due to his ambitious and controlling ways, sending her and her mother

away because the marriage had produced a male heir. His paranoia caused Mary to become

solemn and bitter in later life.

Split from the Catholic Church

Henry’s initiation of the English reformation was predominately due to his eagerness to

remarry after he was unsuccessful in producing an heir with Catherine of Aragon. In the

sixteenth century, divorce was a sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and it caused much of a

scandal when Henry pleaded to the pope for him to annul his marriage. When the pope refused,

Henry decided he would take it upon himself to perform the annulment the only way he could:

by splitting from Catholic Church and declaring himself the supreme head of the Church of

England. He performed his own annulment based on the grounds that Catherine’s previous

marriage to his brother Arthur had been consummated, making her marriage to Henry void and

Mary an illegitimate child. Catherine claimed this to be false, for the only reason she married

Henry in the first place was because her marriage to his brother was never consummated. The

divorce was successful and Catherine took the title that she would be called if she had never

married King Henry in the first place: the Dowager Princess of Wales. The king was then free to

marry his already pregnant mistress, Anne Boleyn, hoping that this second marriage would

produce an heir to the throne of England.

Marriage to the Infamous Anne Boleyn

King Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn enraged the people of England; they were loyal

to Queen Catherine and appalled at the actions of the ambitious king. This was perhaps his most

famous marriage, as it showed Henry in a new—and not good—light. Anne seemed to bring out


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the worst, most greedy part of Henry, and it was easily conveyed to the public. Therefore when

Catherine died mysteriously, it was thought that either Henry or Anne had ordered someone to

poison her, which would make Anne the rightful queen of England. It is also rumored that

celebration was in order at the royal court, Henry and Anne ordering everyone to dress in yellow

for the joyous occasion. By then, Anne’s pregnancy had produced yet another daughter like

Henry’s first marriage. This girl they named Elizabeth; little did Henry know that this daughter

would be one of the greatest queens England would ever see. Because Elizabeth was a girl,

Henry had no interest in her, as he had already gone through the same process of having his

hopes dashed when Mary was born. Like Catherine, Anne had many miscarriages and stillbirths,

one of them resulting in a mangled fetus that, in medieval times, was regarded as witchcraft.

Henry was paranoid at the thought of not gaining an heir to the throne, and used this stillbirth

and many other accusations made by the people of England to end his marriage with Anne. But

this time, he did not annul the marriage. He accused Anne of treason, witchcraft and even incest,

believing that she had been unfaithful to him with other men, including her own brother, and

believing that she tried to use witchcraft to become and stay pregnant. Anne was executed after

being imprisoned for a number of months. Her daughter Elizabeth, like Mary, was stripped of her

Princess title and declared illegitimate. Meanwhile, before his wife was beheaded, Henry had

turned to his usual ways and began conducting an affair with a lady-in-waiting of Anne’s named

Jane Seymour.

Marriage to the Plain Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour was very different from Henry’s first two wives. Catherine was a Spanish

beauty, with an exotic charisma that was endearing to the people of England, making her their

beloved queen. Anne was a passionate and darkly mysterious; though hated for pushing out


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Catherine, she was still an interesting queen. Jane was not nearly as remarkable as Anne or

Catherine. She was a simple, fair maid who happened to strike the king’s fancy. Though she was

nothing much to look at, Jane’s accomplishments in Henry’s eyes were the most important of

any of his queens. She was never crowned formally as queen, because of a plague that had

gripped London, but she was greatly loved by the English people, due to her sympathy for Queen

Catherine. Though she tried, she was not able to restore Mary’s status in the line of succession to

the throne but she did manage to repair her relationship for a short while with Henry. She was

the first to produce a male heir for the throne of England, Edward VI, though she did die from

complications after labor. This, in some ways, makes her the most important wife of Henry’s,

though she may not have been the most ambitious or beautiful. She was the only one of his wives

to receive a funeral, and it is rumored that she was his favorite wife because she gave him a son,

and he requested to be buried beside her.

Short-lived Marriage to Anne of Cleves

After Jane’s death, Henry was in the market for a queen and fourth wife. During this

time, he was considering one of the German daughters of the Duke John of La Marck, Anne and

Amalia. He ordered for portraits of each of the young women to be sent to him, so he could

appraise their features and make a decision. This shows how concerned Henry was that his wives

be beautiful and young, a trophy for the beloved golden king; although, as he progressed in age,

Henry was not the dashing young king of the past. During his marriage to Anne Boleyn, Henry

had aged quite quickly, gaining weight and greying hair; the public could see how this marriage

took an emotional and physical toll on him. Though the English people were not quite pleased

with Henry after his dismissal of their beloved Catherine, they still wished to see Anne go,

believing she was a poison to their beloved king. After Jane’s death, Henry was more drawn than


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ever, but he was in dire need of a new wife. Because of diseases, children’s lives were constantly

in danger, and only having one male child was a danger to the throne of England in Henry’s

eyes. Henry decided he would court Anne of Cleves, but when he saw her portrait was nothing

like how she actually looked, he immediately regretted the decision. He annulled the never

consummated marriage about six months into it, and granted Anne much land and properties,

calling her “The King’s Beloved Sister”.

Marriage to the Frisky Catherine Howard

Now that Henry was newly single and still in search of a second son to secure the throne

of England, he married Catherine Howard almost immediately after he divorced Anne of Cleves.

She was by far the youngest of his wives, known dearly to him as his, “rose without a thorn”.

She was a young, beautiful lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves and quickly caught the eye of the

king, who was nearly fifty, very large, and had a terrible infected ulcer on his thigh. Catherine

Howard was an extremely promiscuous young lady, having had relations with her music teacher

at age 13 and a suspicious relationship with Francis Dereham. As Henry’s ill-health and age

progressed, Catherine became disinterested in her husband, and was arrested for adultery and

therefore high treason. Henry was unwilling to believe the evidence, but it was conclusive.3 She

was executed at the age of twenty.

Marriage to the Steady Catherine Parr

With having had his heart broken by the death of his favorite wife, an unsuccessful

marriage to Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard having committed adultery, Henry was

presumably ready to settle down with one woman without the pressure of producing a child. He

was tired and Catherine was no stranger to marriage, having been married three times prior. She


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was a Protestant reformer; she and Henry argued about religion often, one time resulting in a

warrant for her arrest which was eventually revoked. There were no children with Catherine, but

she was successful in restoring Elizabeth and Mary to the line of succession for the throne of

England after Edward. Catherine was more than just a wife to Henry, but she was his friend and

advisor, a true queen. Catherine was one of the few women who was not after Henry for his

status, it seemed that she was truly there for him. Henry, having been paranoid and ambitious for

all of his life, was finally able to settle with a viable male heir to the throne of England and two

lovely daughters. Catherine was his last wife, Henry having died from complications of his

obesity and ulcerated leg wound at age 55.

Medical Mysteries: The Cause of Henry’s Downfall?

King Henry VIII was much loved by his country, even with being obsessed with the

notion of having a male heir to the throne. His mood swings in later life were, and still are, a

mystery to historians and medical professionals. In 1536, Henry had a jousting accident which

resulted in a leg wound in a place where he had already been wounded in previous years. The

wound later ulcerated and bothered him for years, which caused him to be inactive, resulting in

his massive weight gain. Some believe his paranoia and mood swings to be caused by head

injury from the jousting accident, while others believe that is was due to a medical condition

called McLeod syndrome.4 Emily Sohn from the Discovery Channel write in an article, “Carried

on the X-chromosome, the disease generally affects only men and usually sets in around age 40

with symptoms including heart disease, movement disorders and major psychological symptoms,

including paranoia and mental decline. The disease could explain many of Henry's physical

ailments,…It could also explain why he may have become more despotic as he grew older and

why he shifted from supporting Anne to having her beheaded.”5

This medical condition could


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explain why Henry became so dramatically different from the king he was when he was younger.

Still, the paranoia cannot all be blamed on the possibility of McLeod syndrome, since Henry had

shown this to be a trait of his early personality. Henry’s early paranoia was warranted by his lack

of ability to produce children, never getting more than one child from a marriage. This can also

be medically explained. Henry, in addition to possibly having McLeod syndrome, could have

belonged to a rare blood type group called Kell positive. Emily Sohn writes in her article,

Madness Explained, “When a Kell positive man impregnates a Kell negative woman, there is a

50 percent chance of provoking an immune response in the woman's body that attacks her

developing fetus. The first baby of a Kell positive father and Kell negative mother is usually fine.

But some of the baby's blood will inevitably get into the mother's body -- either during

development or at birth, leading her to produce antibodies against the baby's Kell antigens.”6

Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon both only produced one healthy child, and suffered many

miscarriages and stillbirths. None of Henry’s other wives had the chance to carry his children,

besides Jane Seymour, who died in childbirth.

Conclusion

King Henry VIII was a cunning monarch, who was gracious and charismatic in his prime

years of ruling. Ronald Hutton writes in his article for the BBC (British Broadcasting Company),

“As a [young] man, he had notable virtues. He was genuinely charming, being boisterously

affectionate, having a desperate desire to please, and taking a real interest in other people.”7

Hutton also writes about his abusive side, where he could fly easily into jealous rages, later in his

life. His ambitions had no end, and were he not entirely obsessed with the prospect of creating a

male heir to the throne, he could have accomplished much more in his time as King of England.

His greatest accomplishment, precipitating the English Reformation, was even made possible


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because Henry desired to divorce his first wife. He was able to create a way to marry Anne

Boleyn by splitting from the Roman Catholic Church, which was headed under the pope, and

declared himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was a golden king in his

prime, loved by the people and spoke for them. His dramatic personality shift in later life is a

mystery to historians, with many medical explanations, including McLeod syndrome or head

injury from a jousting accident. Henry VIII will always be known infamously for his six wives,

but he will always be loved by the people of England.


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Bibliography

1. Hutton, Ronald, Professor. BBC News. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 07 Apr. 2013.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/majesty_menace_01.shtml>.

2. Jokinen, Anniina. "The Life of King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Biography of Henry

Tudor, King of England." The Life of King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Biography of Henry

Tudor, King of England. N.p., 11 Aug. 2006. Web. 07 Apr. 2013.

<http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbio.htm>.

3. "King Henry VIII: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources." King Henry VIII: Biography,

Portraits, Primary Sources. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2013.

<http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/henry8.html>.

4. Kramer, Kyra Cornelius. Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation for the Tyranny of

Henry VIII. Bloomington, Indiana: Ash Wood, 2012. Print.

5. Sohn, Emily. "Discovery News." DNews. N.p., 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 07 Apr.

2013.<http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/henry-viii-blood-disorder-

110311.htm>.

6. Tudor, Henry, VIII, Florence Swan, and J. O. Phillips. The Love Letters of Henry VIII to

Anne Boleyn: With Notes. [S.l.]: Merchant, 2010. Print.

7. Trueman, Chris. "The Reformation." The Reformation. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk, n.d.

Web. 21 May 2013. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/reformation.htm>.


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Footnotes

1. (Trueman)

2. (Hutton)

3. (Englishhistory.net)

4. (Sohn, p.1)

5. (Sohn, p.2)

6. (Sohn, p.1)

7. (Hutton)

Ambition in its Greatest Form

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