Henry VIII Flashcards
1
Q
Wolsey & Wars
A
- Adviser and minister and had mission to establish European Peace
- Was seen as Alter Rex (Other king)
- Henry wanted a peaceful reign like Henry V but also wanted to war with France and bring glory to England. He wanted to be a figure head people applauded, not like his corrupt father
- Henry wasn’t interested in process of governing and left most details to ministers, was not as hands on as father but maintained regular contact
- Wolsey most trusted minister for Henry VIII, had been a priest and royal Chaplin before being made the King’s royal almoner in charge of charitable funds from the crown and other positions as he rose up.
1515 - Wolsey becomes a Cardinal and then Lord Chancellor (Rapid rise) - Diplomacy (communicating with other countries) was Wolsey’s most important role (However, diplomats was becoming outdated, with info being out of date by the time would reach Wolsey -> change happening faster than letters could travel)
1512 - Holy League: - W and H big international issue with Pope Julius II who called for a holy league against France which Henry was up for unlike his father would have been
- Idea -> protect Italy and Vatican territories from French domination
- England, Spain, Venice, Swiss and Holy Roman Empire went against French King Louis XII and drove French out of Milan
- Henry announces war with France but Holy Roman Empire and Spain etc begin to make peace with France so England was beginning to be left in the lurch. Was an embarrassment to come back to a 100 year Anti-French sentiment and settle with France -> Henry marries Mary Tudor to Louis instead (dies three days after marriage)
- Wolsey spends lots of time and money to keep peace w/ France, marriage important for England
1513 - Battle of Flodden (Scotland taken up alliance with France and when H was away, when they attacked England. Decisive victory for James IV with Scotland and France as allies, but James IV is killed in battle and son, James V takes over -> H not involved -> nobles and Catherine)
1518 - Universal Peace (Treaty of London): - Mary Tudor & Louis XII marriage ends in three days so peace in Europe is put into question.
- Wolsey finds agreeable peace terms of non-aggression and mutual aid between English and French and involved: Pope, Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Scotland, Venice, Florence and the Swiss. Signed 1518 -> Wolsey’s masterpiece.
- Wolsey begins to represent Pope and attempts to become one
- Mary I betrothed to heir to France Dauphine and France agreed not to support Anti-England Scottish party
- European peace does not last long
- Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian dies and son Charles V takes over and inherits land of Spain, burgundy, Germany and Eastern Europe and changes balance of power in Europe
- 1521 - H and Charles V sign treaty ‘Great Enterprise’ against France
- Wolsey makes secret treaties with the French but financially supports Charles V
- Charles V beats the French Battle of Pravia, between France and Spain, Francis I taken prisoner but does not thank England for the support
- Wolsey allies publicly with the French during the League of Cognac
- 1527 Habsburgs take Rome, mucks up the works for H as Pope is controlled
1520 - Field of the Cloth of Gold (Several days of celebrations outside of Calais, competition England vs France to outdo each other with silk and gold woven tents and both Henry VIII and Francis I brought 6,000 men -> Was done to cement peace treaty but some saw it as fake. Francis I won the boxing match between the two -> embarrassment for Henry)
2
Q
British Isles
A
- English kings maintained weak control over wales and north -> rebellions & unrest in Ireland
- Ireland was difficult to manage, English settlers who went over there often felt abandoned by the crown, and the native Irish resisted efforts to bring them in line with English customs -> Institutionalised segregation between English settlers and Native
- Ireland was not considered a realm but a lordship, h styled himself as king of England and France, and lord of Ireland. Full conquest of Ireland would not begin until the 30s when H was declared king of Ireland. -> A lot didn’t like the monarchy and didn’t want it apart of the English customs
3
Q
Ottoman Empire
A
- 1518 Universal Peace was a crusade (medieval military expeditions made by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims) against the Ottoman empire -> the west had been crusading against the Turks for 100 years. Crusade idea was expensive and had a lot of resistance, especially with Reformation occurring
- 1520 Ottoman Sultan died and succeeded by his son who was seen peaceful and no longer a threat to Christendom -> Wrong -> new sultan, he begins to assault Christian powers and takes Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522-23), 1526 Hungry, 1529 lays siege to Vienna and occasionally allies with French
4
Q
Navy
A
- Greater interest in building Navy compared to father and begins a programme of building warships right after he comes to the throne. -> By the time Henry VII died there were 5 war ships compared to the end of H there is over 40 -> father of the English Navy
- The Navy saw action several times on H reign, such as war with France (1512-13), invade the coast in 1522 and 1523
5
Q
Exploration
A
- Behind Spain and Portugal in progress
- John Cabot had sailed for Henry VII in 1497
- Columbus tries to sail around the world to get into India avoiding the Ottoman Empire but ends up going East and ends up in a place that isn’t India but calls it India cos he thought he was there
- 5 years later, Cabot thinks maybe its just an island and if we go north of where Columbus goes we will be able to get around it and end up in Canada, again not India. He tried to go to places Columbus didn’t go to.
- English kings had a right to large parts of France and may be kings of France, was a long-held idea in England which played a part in the 100 years war. Henry inspired by figures such as Henry V is very interested in claiming those rights and gain territory in France
- Charles V, heir to a number of positions in Europe, is Holy Roman Emperor but is also the grandson and heir of Ferdinand and Isabella, (Nephew of Catherine), duke of Burgundy and ruler of Netherlands. Hence why he makes a big impact after the death of Maximilien
6
Q
Reasons (English Reformation)
A
1) Theological -> Leviticus Book
2) Succession -> Concern over lack of heir, Catherine not producing anymore children, only had Mary
3) Wondering Eye -> Anne Boleyn
Issue: Charles V had captured the pope and was the nephew of Catherine of Aragon
7
Q
Pre-1517 (English Reformation)
A
- John Wycliff founded the Lollard movement, attacks various aspects of the Catholic Church such as the doctrine of transubstantiation the idea of coming up with church doctrine beyond scripture and also believed in pre-destination. Wanted vernacular bible, Huss also wanted this
- Humanists arguments for reform within church such as Erasmus with his friend Thomas More and Erasmus agreed the bible should be translated into the vernacular
8
Q
Martin Luther (English Reformation)
A
1517 - 95 Thesis (sustained attack on the catholic church due to its church practices of confession, sale of indulgences, worship saints, justification by works, transubstantiation. Authority to grant salvation and authority to interpret God’s word.)
9
Q
Lutheranism in England (English Reformation)
A
1518 - H was aware of Lutheran ideas and began to compose a response to Luther’s 95 Theses
1521 - 7 Sacraments (response) published (gives him the title the Defender of the faith from the Pope for going against Luther)
- Was a crisis, not a new idea for Church with existing Lollards collectivising
- Wolsey Lord Chancellor was disinclined to do anything about this, as long as there was no official condemnation of Lutheran works from the pope
1521 - when Luther was banned from England and all his works burned and outlawed their publication and circulation. Wolsey held a grand burning of these books in St Paul’s church yard holding a book up in the air of 7 sacraments.
- Idea hard to erase
- William Tyndale was a English oxford education theologian and reformer, was determined that the bible should be translated into English and does publish his English bible in 1526 in Vermes after finding no support in England. There wasn’t so much of a problem having an English bible in England but the choices he made of how he translated it which were extremely Lutheran.
1528 - Tyndale published a book on the obedience of a Christian man, subtitled and how Christian rulers ought to govern. This supported the idea that the head of the country was the head of the church in that country and not the pope. Legend has it that this influenced H and it was put into his hands and recommended by Anne Boleyn.
- Burning of heretics was put in place to sort this problem
10
Q
The King’s Great Matter (English Reformation)
A
- Desire to get annulment from C -> technically related to her as she married his dead brother Arthur -> H then marries her after being given a papal dispensation from Pope -> this comes back to taunt them
- Theological worries -> H worried about certain line in book Leviticus, ‘If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an impurity. He hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness, they shall be childless’. -> worry Arthur and C had consummated marriage and so God would have been against them and the Pope’s allowance of the dispensation wasn’t strong enough to override the bible -> reason for no male heir (had 1 that only lived for 2 months)
- Concern for succession -> No heir to replace H and Catherine had stopped bearing children and H became desperate as H had had a son with one of his mistresses called Henry Fitzroy (means Henry’s bastard son of the king), and so he was promoted to Duke of Richmond which was traditional for the second son of the king, so became a potential heir.
- Wondering Eye? -> 1522 Anne was introduced to court and 1526 H pursued Anne and not long after they had agreed to marry, thinking it would be a very simple task of annulling his marriage to C.
- Catholicism did not allow divorce but did allow annulment if there was a reason to make marriage and children illegitimate and with lack of heir H thought it would be easy
- Issues = Henry’s passage Leviticus was contradicted by another Deuteronomy that it said the brother was obliged to marry his brother’s widow; Charles V had just captured Rome and the Pope and was not going to go against his aunt C; H involvement with Anne weakened his case, suggested it wasn’t just about his theological worries or succession but to get with someone else.
- Lasted 10 years
11
Q
The Royal Supremacy (English Reformation)
A
- Drawn out negotiations with the pope and his representatives. H decided the Pope did not have the authority to decide this case.
- King in charge of the church for the country was an idea, dangerous and controversial as the Pope could both depose and excommunicate monarchs. Causing war and invasion and public opinion was already against Henry with the break of Rome and the marriage of Anne.
- 1531- clergy charged with Praemunire -> charged them with loyalty to a foreign power, they are loyal to the Pope but the idea that H would charge them with this is an interesting loophole he found. He brings motions against the clergy to parliament, who he uses parliament to legitimise his break from Rome
- May 1532- Submission of the clergy -> Demands that they recognise him as Head of the Church in England
- A lot of this has been orchestrated by evangelicals in his court, including Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell and most likely Anne. Cromwell had taken the lead of solving the King’s great matter as Wolsey had failed to get the annulment through in 1529 and dropped in status -> died shortly after so Cromwell took over.
- 1532 Anne is introduced to French king by H
- 1533, Anne and H secretly marry
- Nov 1534 - Act of Supremacy, the supremacy was complete, and H was king of the church in England which apparently even shocked Luther
- The act of supremacy was enforced by a new Treason act, treason to call H an heretic, to deny his supremacy or to deny his legitimacy to the marriage of Queen Anne, the act required all subjects take an oath, denial could mean death
12
Q
The English Church (English Reformation)
A
- H was still a catholic, primarily in terms of doctrine and belief but Lutheranism and evangelism was present in the church as well.
- Catholic: Opposed to sola fides (opposed to the protestant view of justification through faith alone) , importance of mass, traditional church hierarchy but with king at top rather than Pope and H was still dedicated to the doctrine of clerical celibacy, which meant the priests could not marry which disappointed Thomas Cranmer who was married.
- Evangelical: Suppression and dissolution of the monasteries, 1536-40 the crown got rid of 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries etc, the home to 10,000 religious people and centres of many communities. Many were sold off, some became churches and some were left to ruin. Some monks were executed due to their resistance, others were paid or pensioned off, a lot of art, literature and architecture is lost at this time and the rural landscape was forever changed. Pruning the culture of the saints, icons of the saints were removed and destroyed in churches across the country, and pilgrimage was supressed, there was a lot of scepticism and criticism of pilgrimages to holy relic that were found to be not the bones or blood of saints these relics were faint.
13
Q
Coverdale Bible (English Reformation)
A
- First complete English bible in 1539 published in England approved by the King
- Back and forth between Catholicism and Evangelicalism -> Ten articles published in 1536 further enforce evangelicalism, they state that purgatory should not be named, there should be no reverence to the saints and only names 3 sacraments. However, 3 years later, the six articles are published by the parliament that denial of transubstantiation will be punished by act of parliament which state clearly that denial of transubstantiation results in death as a heretic by burning. The ten articles are very Lutheran, the six articles are very catholic
14
Q
Historians (English Reformation)
A
- G.W. Bernard suggests that H was an Eraspian and follows Erasmus views about the church
- Richard Rex, suggested we can’t look at his reign as a whole and instead there is change throughout his reign and he is influenced heavily by the evangelicals around him.
- Eric Ives, suggests it’s the factions within the court that pull policy back and forth between Catholicism and evangelicalism.
15
Q
Wives (English Reformation)
A
- Next wife J Seymore, her family who show no sign of being evangelical but later on will. She dies of childbirth
- H takes a break and the six articles come about
- Anne of Kleve’s is a protestant bride, his disinterest in her is a triumph for court who don’t like Cromwell who set up the marriage and so he falls in power.
- Catherine Howard was next wife but was infidelity meant she was executed
- Catherine Parr, was most evangelical, orchestrated the education of Edward and Elizabeth (H kids)
