both Henry and his children until his death in 1547.
The court life initiated by his father evolved into a cornerstone of
Tudor government in the reign of Henry VIII. After his father's staunch,
stolid rule, the energetic, youthful and handsome king avoided governing in
person, much preferring to journey the countryside hunting and reviewing
his subjects. Matters of state were left in the hands of others, most
notably Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Cardinal Wolsey virtually ruled
England until his failure to secure the papal annulment that Henry needed
to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533. Wolsey was quite capable as Lord Chancellor,
but his own interests were served more than that of the king: as powerful
as he was, he still was subject to Henry's favor - losing Henry's
confidence proved to be his downfall. The early part of Henry's reign,
however, saw the young king invade France, defeat Scottish forces at the
Battle of Foldden Field (in which James IV of Scotland was slain), and
write a treatise denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the
pope awarded Henry the title "Defender of the Faith".
The 1530's witnessed Henry's growing involvement in government, and a
series of events which greatly altered England, as well as the whole of
Western Christendom: the separation of the Church of England from Roman
Catholicism. The separation was actually a by-product of Henry's obsession
with producing a male heir; Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male
and the need to maintain dynastic legitimacy forced Henry to seek an
annulment from the pope in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey tried
repeatedly to secure a legal annulment from Pope Clement VII, but Clement
was beholden to the Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and nephew of Catherine.
Henry summoned the Reformation Parliament in 1529, which passed 137
statutes in seven years and exercised an influence in political and
ecclesiastic affairs which was unknown to feudal parliaments. Religious
reform movements had already taken hold in England, but on a small scale:
the Lollards had been in existence since the mid-fourteenth century and the
ideas of Luther and Zwingli circulated within intellectual groups, but
continental Protestantism had yet to find favor with the English people.
The break from Rome was accomplished through law, not social outcry; Henry,
as Supreme Head of the Church of England, acknowledged this by slight
alterations in worship ritual instead of a wholesale reworking of religious
dogma. England moved into an era of "conformity of mind" with the new royal
supremacy (much akin to the absolutism of France's Louis XIV): by 1536, all
ecclesiastical and government officials were required to publicly approve
of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty. The king moved away
from the medieval idea of ruler as chief lawmaker and overseer of civil
behavior, to the modern idea of ruler as the ideological icon of the state.
The remainder of Henry's reign was anticlimactic. Anne Boleyn lasted only
three years before her execution; she was replaced by Jane Seymour, who
laid Henry's dynastic problems to rest with the birth of Edward VI.
Fragmented noble factions involved in the Wars of the Roses found
themselves reduced to vying for the king's favor in court. Reformist
factions won the king's confidence and vastly benefiting from Henry's
dissolution of the monasteries, as monastic lands and revenues went either
to the crown or the nobility. The royal staff continued the rise in status
that began under Henry VII, eventually to rival the power of the nobility.
Two men, in particular, were prominent figures through the latter stages of
Henry's reign: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Cromwell, an efficient
administrator, succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, creating new
governmental departments for the varying types of revenue and establishing
parish priest's duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths.
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, dealt with and guided changes in
ecclesiastical policy and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries.
Henry VIII built upon the innovations instituted by his father. The break
with Rome, coupled with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to the
royal supremacy that would last until the execution of Charles I and the
establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred years after Henry's death.
Henry was beloved by his subjects, facing only one major insurrection, the
Pilgrimage of Grace, enacted by the northernmost counties in retaliation to
the break with Rome and the poor economic state of the region. History
remembers Henry in much the same way as Piero Pasqualigo, a Venetian
ambassador: "... he is in every respect a most accomplished prince."
EDWARD VI (1547-1553 AD)
Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was born in 1537. He
ascended the throne at age nine, upon the death of his father. He was
betrothed to his cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, but deteriorating English-
Scot relations prohibited their marriage. The frail, Protestant boy died of
consumption at age sixteen having never married. Edward's reign was beset
by problems from the onset. Ascending the throne while stillin his minority
presented a backdrop for factional in fighting and power plays. Henry VIII,
in his last days, sought to eliminate this potential problem by decreeing
that a Council of Regency would govern until the child came of age, but
Edward Seymour (Edward VI's uncle) gained the upper hand. The Council
offered Seymour the Protectorship of the realm and the Dukedom of Somerset;
he genuinely cared for both the boy and the realm, but used the
Protectorship, as well as Edward's religious radicalism, to further his
Protestant interests. The Book of Common Prayer, the eloquent work of
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, was instituted in 1549 as a handbook to the new
style of worship that skated controversial issues in an effort to pacify
Catholics. Henrician treason and heresy laws were repealed, transforming
England into a haven for continental heretics. Catholics were pleased with
the softer version of Protestantism, but radical Protestants clamored for
further reforms, adding to the ever-present factional discord. Economic
hardship plagued England during Edward's rule and foreign relations were in
a state of disarray. The new faith and the dissolution of the monasteries
left a considerable amount of ecclesiastical officials out of work, at a
time when unemployment soared; enclosure of monastic lands deprived many
peasants of their means of subsistence. The coinage lost value as new coins
were minted from inferior metals, as specie from the New World flooded
English markets. A French/Scottish alliance threatened England, prompting
Somerset to invade Scotland, where Scottish forces were trounced at Pinkie.
Then general unrest and factional maneuvering proved Somerset's undoing; he
was executed in September 1552. Thus began one of the most corrupt eras of
English political history. The author of this corruption was the Earl of
Warwick, John Dudley. Dudley was an ambitious political survivor driven by
the desire to become the largest landowner in England. Dudley coerced
Edward by claiming that the boy had reached manhood on his 12th birthday
and was now ready to rule; Dudley also held Edward's purse strings. Dudley
was created Duke of Northumberland and virtually ruled England, although he
had no official title. The Council, under his leadership, systematically
confiscated church territories, as the recent wave of radical Protestantism
seemed a logical, and justifiable, continuation of Henrician reform.
Northumberland's ambitions grew in proportion to his gains of power: he
desperately sought to connect himself to the royal family. Northumberland
was given the opportunity to indulge in king making - the practice by which
an influential noble named the next successor, such as Richard Neville
during the Wars of the Roses - when Edward was diagnosed with consumption
in January 1553. Henry VIII named the line of succession in his will;next
in line after Edward were his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, followed by the
descendants of Henry's sister, Mary: Frances Grey and her children.
Northumberland convinced Edward that his Catholic sister, Mary, would ruin
the Protestant reforms enacted throughout the reign; in actuality, he knew
Mary would restore Catholicism and return the confiscated Church
territories which were making the Council very rich. Northumberland's
appeal to Edward's radicalism worked as intended: the dying lad declared
his sisters to be bastards and passed the succession to Frances Grey's
daughter, Lady Jane Grey, one of the boy's only true friends.
Northumberland impelled the Greys to consent to a marriage between his son,
Guildford and Lady Jane. Edward died on July 6, 1553, leaving a disputed
succession. Jane, against her wishes, was declared queen by the Council.
Mary retreated to Framlingham in Suffolk and claimed the throne.
Northumberland took an army to capture Mary, but bungled the escapade. The
Council abandoned Northumberland as Mary collected popular support and rode
triumphantly into London. Jane after a reign of only nine days, was
imprisoned in the Tower of London until her 1554 execution at the hands of
her cousin Mary. Edward was a highly intellectual and pious lad who fell
prey to the machinations of his powerful Council of Regency. His frailty
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