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He was married to Katharine of Aragon for over twenty years and had just a handful of mistresses. He waited years to physically consummate his relationship with Anne Boleynand despite being in the prime of his life, remained faithful to her until marriage. Was this sexual prudery a result of his early church training? Whatever the case, it was a hallmark of his life.

Henry VIII was always an incurable romantic.

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His personal and political decisions were always grandiose, melodramatic, and played for great effect. He loved pomp and pageantry, even as he loathed to deal with the consequences of his actions. Like his father, he was caught in the transition from medieval England to renaissance England. And like his father, he was well-versed in English history and desperate to continue the Tudor dynasty, to secure his claims to Ireland, Scotland, and France, to raise England to the status of its continental neighbors, and to expand his God-given right to rule all Englishmen.

His political ambitions failed and he bequeathed a woeful mess to his nine-year-old heir, Edward VI. His greatest achievement was a dubious one, and one for which he was often eager to distance himself — the Henrician reformation, the end of Roman Catholicism in England and the birth of the Anglican church. The king, for all his contradictions and failures, helped destroy the greatest institution in medieval Europe.

Once Germany and England fell to the new heresy, its spread across Europe was inevitable and invincible. If nothing else, it makes for entertaining reading. Those six years had been difficult ones. Elizabeth was popular with the common people; her young life had all the romance and tragedy necessary for sympathetic gossip and she was a classical fair beauty, possessing all the female virtues necessary for a queen.

She was quiet, demure, and charming; she was also content to allow her formidable mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, assume a position of unprecedented influence over the king. In truth, she had known all her life that she would never marry a man of her own choice. Henry was, by all accounts, grateful for the match. He appreciated its political implications.

He also respected his new queen and was faithful to his marriage vows, an unusual trait in a king. Upon her marriage, Elizabeth entered a semi-retirement — she was queen and her duty was to produce as many heirs as possible. She was born on 28 November at Westminster Palace in London. But it was only on 28 Junewhen another healthy prince was born, this time at Greenwich Palace, that Henry VII could breathe a sigh of relief.

This second son was a necessary insurance policy for the new Tudor dynasty. Childhood mortality was high and diseases such as small pox, the sweating sickness, and the plague were rife throughout England. A king needed as many healthy heirs as possible, and the birth of a second son was an occasion for celebration. On 27 FebruaryPrince Arthur was titled prince of Wales at Westminster Palace in London; this was the real beginning of a tradition that continues to this day.

Prince Henry was a sturdy, strawberry-blond boy noted for his energy and temper.

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Just a year after his birth, his mother bore another daughter; this child was called Elizabeth and she died three years later. It was the first in a series of tragedies for the young queen. She and Henry VII were considered good and affectionate parents, but they never lost sight of the political importance of their children. Together they decided that Prince Henry, like most second sons, was destined for the church, and his early schooling was planned accordingly.

This strong emphasis upon theology and its esoteric debates remained with Henry for the rest of his life and made him feel uniquely qualified to interpret religious law during the s. It was on that day that his brother Arthur died at Ludlow Castle, the government seat of the prince of Wales. The insecurity of the Tudor succession was suddenly unavoidable.

The child, called Katherine, was born and died on 2 February Elizabeth contracted an infection and died a few days later, on 11 February, her thirty-seventh birthday. So in the short space of a year, Henry lost both his older brother and mother. But the effects of these losses was felt even more keenly by Henry VII. His reign had proved to be neither peaceful or happy.

He was beset by worries — constant diplomatic maneuvering, subjects who mocked him as a cold-hearted, tax-hungry miser, and now he had lost his son and wife. His grip on the English throne had long been considered both illegitimate and untenable by most European powers, except in cases where it suited their interests to pretend otherwise.

He was now allied with one of the most powerful ruling families in Europe. Prince Henry met his sister-in-law and future wife on this momentous occasion, heading the procession that led her to the cathedral. Later, he officially introduced her to the citizens of London. Henry VII was perhaps even then mulling over the idea of not letting the all-important Spanish alliance go to waste.

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Soon enough he was openly proposing that Katharine marry young Prince Henry, now the heir apparent and five years her junior. What did young Prince Henry know of these plans? Probably very little. Such strict rules may have irked the heir but they did not interfere with his continuing education. While his older brother was in Wales learning the intricacies of government, Henry received a primarily classical education, mastering Latin and French and becoming an excellent and exuberant athlete.

Contemporary sources make it clear that he was a happy child, fond of sports and spectacle, and equally proud of his intellectual accomplishments. In short, he possessed all the personality and charm his father noticeably lacked. Both his physical appearance and character were similar to those of his Plantagenet grandfather Edward IV. This fact was much remarked upon by those Englishmen who had lived through the last years of the Wars of the Roses.

Luckily for Prince Henry, his father spent the last years of his reign establishing good relationships with other monarchs and avoiding expensive war; also, his fondness for extorting money from an unwilling populace never wavered. He kept the young princess in England for seven years while he toyed with the idea. Her living conditions steadily deteriorated; she was miserably unhappy, many of her Spanish attendants were sent home, she lacked money for even basic necessities.

Food and adequate clothing were constant concerns. She struggled to bear her hardships with the serene and regal dignity that was ingrained in her character as a princess of Spain, and such calm in the face of deprivation impressed young Prince Henry.

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It is certainly true that even years later, in the midst of an acrimonious separation, he never lost his respect for Katharine. This respect was always tinged with a bit of fear. He was keenly aware of her great ancestry and extensive education, her self-deprecating wit and complete mastery of all feminine tasks. Henry was formally promised in marriage to Katharine on 23 June ; the treaty stated that he would marry Katharine on his fifteenth birthday, 28 Juneand that her parents send overcrowns worth of plate and jewels in addition to the dowry she had given when married to Prince Arthur.

Henry VII was a stickler on the dowry issue, refusing to allow the marriage to be solemnized, much less celebrated and consummated, until the money arrived. But the Spaniards were as loathe to part with money as Henry. But his father was still king, and his father refused to allow the marriage. To strengthen his bargaining power with the Spaniards, he had Prince Henry make a formal protest to Richard Fox, the bishop of Winchester, disowning the marriage contract.

To the surprise of all, including the Spaniards, he promptly announced he would marry Katharine and crown her queen of England. After years of being shut away from the world, he was now king. This is like having fun with tamed lions — often it is harmless, but just as often there is fear of harm. Often he roars in rage for no known reason, and suddenly the fun becomes fatal.

He was aged The day before his death Henry saw his confessor and received Holy Communion. It was revealed in that Henry had been conducting an affair with one of the sisters of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckinghameither Elizabeth or Anne Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. Inshe fell pregnant again with another girl, who was also stillborn.

Certainly, war with the combined might of the two powers would have been exceedingly difficult. An initial joint Anglo-Spanish attack was planned for the spring to recover Aquitaine for England, the start of making Henry's dreams of ruling France a reality. Nevertheless, the French were pushed out of Italy soon after, and the alliance survived, with both parties keen to win further victories over the French.

However, despite initial indications, he decided not to pursue a campaign. He had been supporting Ferdinand and Maximilian financially during the campaign but had received little in return; England's coffers were now empty. The careful diplomacy of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had resulted in the Treaty of Londonaimed at uniting the kingdoms of western Europe in the wake of a new Ottoman threat, and it seemed that peace might be secured.

Both hoped for friendly relations in place of the wars of the previous decade. The strong air of competition laid to rest any hopes of a renewal of the Treaty of London, however, and conflict was inevitable. Professor David Loades has spent most of his life investigating the remains, literary, archival and archaeological, of Henry VIII, and this monumental new biography book is the result.

His portrait of Henry is distinctive, he was neither a genius nor a tyrant, but a man' like any other', except for the extraordinary circumstances in which he found himself.