Henry VIII

King Henry VIII is probably one of the most important personalities in English history and literature. Without him North America would not speak English, it would rather be similar to Latin America.

He had a strong influence on authors like Shakespeare and Chaucer and of course he influenced today's religion and the relationship between France and Spain. King Henry VIII was a very hedonistic person who loved celebrating feasts which could have lasted several days. These feasts and his habit to drink and eat too much led to an enormous overweight of about 160 kg.

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Henry was born as the second son of King Henry VII of England and his wife Elizabeth of York in 1491. He had an older brother called Arthur, who was meant to be heir to the throne and to marry the young and beautiful lady Catherine of Aragon. 1502 Arthur died completely surprisingly and Henry suddenly became the ninth Prince of Wales and of course, heir to the throne.

However, the last years of his life were also shaped by many illnesses like articular gout, oedema and syphilis. His mental condition was getting worse and worse and from the once shiny, bright and young king remained an ill and domineering old man. King Henry VIII led England in various senseless wars with Scotland and France, he was responsible for a schism  and he emptied all the treasuries. And not to forget he was responsible for 70,000 hangings and executions. King Henry VIII died in 1547 and was buried in Windsor, where you can still find his tomb.

Within a decade after his death, all three of his heirs sat on the English throne and unfortunately no one left descendants. Edward inherited the Crown and became Edward VI. Since Edward was only nine at that time he couldn’t exercise actual power. As Edward had no heirs the crown was passed to Mary who became Princess Mary. She also had no children and so the crown was again passed to Princess Elizabeth. The house of the Tudors extinct and the Crown was passed to James of Scotland who became James I of England.

Henry and his six wives

Achievements

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