Henry VIII †Success or Failure? Essay

atomic number 1 the eighth was born in 1491. His fathers good reign meant that Henry succeeded the sess without any problem. He became king in 1509. He was courageous and skilled, also ruthless and savage virtuoso of his first actions was to behead two hated task collectors. This made him popular. He married Catherine of Aragorn his brothers widow. This was against church rules, but the Pope gave special permission.Henry spent whole of the money his father had apt(p) him on battle against France. This was the battle of Spurs, 1513 the French spurred their horses and ran away straight away. Meanwhile, Scotland attacked England. Catherine of Aragorn and Henrys nobles quickly built up an army. A tactical error on the side of the Scots meant that Scotland lost and suffered a political disaster.He also had many friends one famous one was Thomas Wolsey. Wolseys intelligence had meant that he hade gone from rags to riches. Henry made him rich and powerful many spate said that Wo lsey was more powerful than Henry. However, when Wolsey asked the Pope not to grant Henrys divorce, Henry told him to attend a court trial which meant that he would go back to rags. Wolsey died just before the trial.Henrys divorce is one of the roughly important religious changes in History. To acquire it, he changed Englands church so that it was separate (but still Catholic) from the Pope who wouldnt grant him a divorce. He thusly simply asked his archbishop to grant him a divorce. This created the Church of England and later meant that England would become Protestant.In order to get a son, he married three times. He then married another three times. He married Catherine of Aragorn, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. Of these, 2 were beheaded.He decided to shut down the monasteries, possibly due to the fact that they possess 1/4 of Englands land and were very rich his excuse was that some did a deplorable job. The 1535 Black Book of the Monasteries was a biased invoice on how well the monasteries functioned. By 1536, many smaller monasteries had been shut.In Yorkshire, where the monasteries were very good, there was an uprising of 30,000 men. Henry crushed this by lying to the rebels, waiting until they disbanded and then breaking his promise. This meant that by 1540, nearly 400 monasteries and their lands were owned by the king. Henry spent his last years fighting with Spain and France.To determine whether Henry was successful of not, we mustiness first think, what is a successful king? What makes an unsuccessful king? Kings and Queens such as Mary Tudor and King John have frequently been called distresss because they were not popular. At times, Henry was not popular at all he had a great uprising. Does this mean that he was definitely a failure?Henry did many good and bad things during his reign. He was very ruthless he executed many people without proper reason. He spent all of his money on wars. He lied and was arrogant and greedy. He also protected England from attacking countries. He changed the church and destroyed the monasteries. His son succeeded the throne without any problem.Henry himself had a bad personality. He did, however, improve the country a lot, keep it safe from opposing countries and keep his Barons and rebels under control. If you look at it one way, Henry had a bad personality, married 6 times and would not have been a very nice person to be with (he executed people without thinking). He was however a very successful king and England did gain a lot from him. He went to a lot of trouble to prevent political disaster and acquire a male heir. If creation a successful king requires a good personality, then Henry was a failure. But if being a good king depends on how many good things he did for his country, he would have been a successful king.Henry did however, do many bad things that some other failure monarchs would probably not have done, such as ignore a nd mistreat his children/wives and fall out with the Catholic Church. In conclusion, Henry VI was a dictator and a failure, but his motives were not all bad and he, although using ruthless measures did succeed in his main aim to take into custody the throne of England with a male heir. Therefore overall, if the historian studies what he achieved, then he achieved a great deal more than many other monarchs and is thence a success.