How long was henry v111 king for

He was also a musician; he played the flute, the lute and the organ. He wrote poetry. An avid reader, he owned a library of almost a thousand books. In , Henry founded Trinity College, Cambridge. It can be argued that Henry founded the modern English nation. The unification of Ireland was also achieved during his reign. Henry increased the role of the Parliament, particularly regarding taxation. Field of the Cloth of Gold.

It was important for a 16th century king to appear all-powerful but this was costly. The event was meant to show a united front between the kingdoms of England and France in the face of the Holy Roman Emperor. Each king tried to outdo the other in tournaments, feasting, clothes and jewels during a celebration that lasted for weeks and cost a fortune.

Wolsey was the son of an Ipswich butcher, a highly intelligent man who became rich and powerful, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor and Cardinal in Henry had therefore received little tutoring in politics and government, and was happy to rely on his friend Wolsey to advise him. Constantly changing alliances between nations dominated Europe in the 16th century. His wars against France were on the whole unsuccessful and costly. Victory against the Scots at the Battle of Flodden served only to strengthen the alliance between the Scots and the French.

Catherine of Aragon Anne Boleyn. Henry was infatuated with Anne Bolelyn, one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Queen, and marriage to Anne would hopefully give Henry the male heir he so desperately wanted. Anne returned to England in and became a popular figure at court.

By Henry was deeply in love with her. Henry was desperate for an heir to continue the Tudor dynasty and to avoid any future civil war. Twenty years of marriage to Catherine had resulted in just one surviving child, Mary , and now at the age of 40, Catherine was unlikely to bear any more children. She had married Arthur in , but was widowed aged just It took a further seven years before Henry and Catherine were married in The balance of power in early 16th-century Europe revolved around Henry, Francis and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V , three dashing young rulers who dominated the continent for decades by forming and breaking alliances with each other at will.

The English king, however, was eager to negotiate with both men; days before the summit, in fact, he met with Charles on his home turf. At the same time, the amount of resources expended on the Field of Cloth of Gold reflected the fraught personal relationship between Henry and Francis, who shared a love of Renaissance culture, a weakness for lasciviousness and a fiercely competitive streak. They were desperate to prove their superiority over each other, no matter the cost.

Henry and Francis both wanted to upstage the other, but diplomatic considerations ensured that they maintained a surface appearance of equality. The two also competed on the same side in tournaments, facing off with courtiers from both parties in events such as jousting, archery, and combat on horseback or foot.

In terms of pure material splendor, the year-old Henry held the edge over year-old Francis. But he soon found himself outmatched in a one-on-on showdown. As recorded by a French chronicler, a drunken Henry defied protocol by challenging his rival to a wrestling match. After a brief tussle, Francis easily claimed victory.

Henry handled the defeat with grace, quickly recovering and suggesting a follow-up archery bout. While his older brother Arthur was being prepared for the throne, Henry was steered toward a church career, with a broad education in theology, music, languages, poetry and sports. Arthur had been betrothed since age 2 to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, and in November of the teenage couple were married.

Months later, Arthur died of a sudden illness. Over the next 15 years, while Henry fought three wars with France, Catherine bore him three sons and three daughters, all but one of whom died in infancy. The sole survivor was Mary later Mary I , born in Henry was an active king in those years, keeping a festive court, hunting, jousting, writing and playing music. But the lack of a male heir—especially after he fathered a healthy illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in —gnawed at the king.

The king decided to seek a papal annulment that would free him to remarry. Wolsey was forced from power for his failure and died in awaiting trial for treason. In Henry and Anne Boleyn were married, and their daughter Elizabeth was born. Mary was declared illegitimate and Elizabeth named his heir.

In January of Henry was unhorsed and injured during a jousting tournament. Henry was so committed to self-preservation that when his paramour Anne Boleyn caught the sweating sickness in , he stayed away until the illness had passed though he did send a physician to check on her. As he grew older, particularly once he entered middle age, Henry put on a massive amount of weight. Suits of armor showed that his waistline, which had measured 32 inches in , grew to 54 inches; Henry weighed nearly pounds when he died in In his later years, the king also suffered from painful ulcers on his legs and had trouble standing and walking.

In , bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer shared their theory that Henry was a member of the rare blood group that is positive for the Kell antigen. This means that if the king impregnated a woman, and the baby inherited Kell-positive status, the mother would build up Kell antibodies. Though that first pregnancy would likely not be affected, future Kell-positive fetuses would be attacked by those antibodies. While Anne Boleyn had a healthy firstborn, Elizabeth I , her subsequent pregnancies ended in miscarriage.

Among the theories:. Check out these seven surprising facts about one of the longest-serving monarchs in European history.