How Did King Henry Viii Influence Society

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King Henry VIII of England’s Life and Role in the Rise of the Church of England
Introduction
King Henry VIII of England remains one of the most memorable Kings in English history. He was born on 28th June 1491 to King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in the Greenwich Palace, which was the royal residence of England and died on 28 January 1547 in London. His brother, who was the first Tudor monarch, succumbed to a virus that was common at the time on 2 April 1502 (Weir 15). As a result, young Henry effectively became the second Tudor monarch as the only surviving son of King Henry VII (Fraser 2). Arthur’s widow- Catherine of Aragon was betrothed to young Henry in order to sustain the Anglo-Spanish

He was fond of gambling, dancing, horse riding, hunting and jousting, which he made a weekly tournament in his early years at the helms of the English throne (Weir 25). Furthermore, his dedication was on warfare with notable wars with France and Scotland in 1513 although both were at a substantial cost (Scarisbrick 620). In most of the times, he delegated his duties of overseeing the running of the government in the hands of Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas More, close associates and confidants whom he would later subject to politically instigated executions (Weir 27). As Scarisbrick notes, King Henry VIII’s reign was characterized by a sense of insecurity, due to the fact that England was always prone to rebellions between its great lords as well as between religious factions (619). During his reign, King Henry VIII has been acclaimed for some notable successes including the strengthening of the English Crown and Monarch with the subsequent enhanced control of the country (Scarisbrick 623). Other notable historical events include the exclusion of the Roman papacy control of England with the clergy being subdued under the influence of Anne of Boleyn (Elton and Bartlett 60). With the exclusion of the Roman control of England, the country effectively became a sovereign state with the vast wealth and possessions of the Roman Catholic Church falling under the royal control (Scarisbrick 623). On the contrary, it is during the reign of King David VIII that maritime expansion suffered, with substantially detrimental debasement of the English currency that resulted in runaway inflationary pressures (Scarisbrick 624). It has also been documented that his recurrent wars with the French and Scottish Empires were more detrimental than beneficial with great debts being incurred to finance the wars at the detriment of the