King Henry VIII

Monarchs and literary periods of England
During the Tudor period of 1485-1558, Henry VII died in 1509 leaving his second son Henry VIII as the heir to the English thrown. In addition, as Henry VII was not ready for the thrown at the time since he was only eighteen years of age, he assigned Thomas Wolsey as ruler at the time until Henry felt ready to rule. Long after his brother Arthur died, Henry decided to marry his brother’s wife, Catherin of Aragon now a widow. Afterwards, Henry grew tired of his current wife and wished to marry Anne Boleyn, the one he intended to marry first. In addition, the church would not allow Henry to divorce Catherin, so Henry sought no other option than to break away from the Catholic Church in 1533. During Henry’s

Anne Boleyn had a daughter with Henry named Elisabeth, Anne was executed for adultery. Henry’s third wife was Jane Seymour; she died two weeks after her son was born. Henry’s fourth wife was Anne of Cleves and divorced a few months later. Henry’s fifth wife was Kathryn Howard; she was executed for being with many other partners. Finally, Henry married his last and final wife Katherine, which outlived him. One major event during the Tudor period was the war against France, which started when Henry VIII agreed to join the Holy League with the Pope in 1511. In 1518, the Pope and Henry agreed to peace in Europe with the kings of Spain and France. Another major event during Henry VIII reign was after his marriage to Anne Boleyn in 1533. Henry passed an Act that established him as the Head of his new church, The Church of England; the act was called The Act of Supremacy (Barrow). Many during the time had to choose between the Pope’s beliefs or those of their king Henry, but those that agreed with the Pope were seen as traitors. The church of Henry was called the Anglicana Ecclesia; this new church caused a new reform called the English Protestant Reform. With the change in church came the change in literature and creation of a new

In addition, Henry created his own book called Defense of the Seven Sacraments in 1521, the book describe the Catholic Church. One major author during Henry VIII reign was Sir Thomas Wyatt; he was well known among Henry’s council, but “Although Wyatt’s poems circulated among many of the members of Henry’s court, they did not appear in print until after his death” (Thomas). Wyatt during his time with Henry, started to become more familiar with Anne Boleyn and was stated to me her lover and accomplice in the act of adultery. In the end Henry died from a jousting event in which he was wounded badly, his last words were, “All is lost, monks, monks, monks” (Dying). His