Essay Was King Henry Viii A Good Or A Bad King?

1362 words - 5 pages

"His majesty is 29 years old and is very handsome." How the Venetian Ambassador described Henry between 1515-1519."A youngster who cares for nothing but girls and wasting the money his father left." How the French Ambassador described Henry between 1509-1511.The French Ambassador's answer is not surprising as he and Henry were enemies and later they went to war.Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He was born on June 28th 1491, was crowned king in 1509 and passed away in 1547. In Henry's lifetime he had many things wrong with him including: gangrene, syphilis and scurvy (when gums rot due to lack of vitamin C - he thought fruit was for peasants). Henry had a brother, Arthur who died before him of tuberculosis. Jousting, wrestling, tennis, music and women were among Henry's interests. He liked women so much he married six times.His wives were: Catherine of Aragon (divorced, after Henry making himself the head of a new church, I will come onto that later) mother of Mary, Anne Boleyn (beheaded, I found out that before she was beheaded she spoke the words "I pray God save the King, and send him long reign over you...for to me he was always a good, gentle and kind person"), mother of Elizabeth I, Jane Seymour (sadly she died giving birth, this is called maternal death), the mother of Edward, Anne of Cleves (divorced), Catherine Howard (beheaded, as Henry believed she was cheating on him, called adultery) who was still only a teenager (and Henry was 45! ) when they got married and finally Catherine Parr (survived) who was the only wife to outlive Henry. From only this paragraph you can see Henry was very interested in women, does this mean he was focusing mainly on his loves as opposed to his country?Many people believe Henry was a fantastic king, for many reasons. He, in his young age, was a fit, well built and slender man, however as his age grew, so did he. Just before his death he was so overweight he couldn't even climb the stairs himself. However, he was a very determined king, for if he wanted something, he would get it. Thomas Cranmer (who was soon made Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry) said in 1520: "The king...who is most wise and watchful in everything." This shows Henry was very observant as to what was going on around him. Following on from that part of a letter written by Henry to his chief minister in 1519 read: "I want you to keep a close eye on the Duke of Suffolk, the Duke of Buckingham, the Lord of Wiltshire and on anyone else you may suspect." Henry VIII clearly had a very kind heart. Part of a love letter Henry wrote to Anne Boleyn said "I can assure you I will do more than just devotion; I give you the loyalty of my heart, the desire to please you and you alone. I want no-one else in my heart and only you can help me." Obviously Henry was a very affectionate man, who completely devotes himself to his loved ones and will do anything to please them. As a secondary source L.E. Snellgrove wrote in 1972:...

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