HENRY VIII. king of England, was the second son of Henry VII. by Elizabeth the eldest daughter of Edward IV. He was born at Greenwich, on the 28th of June 1491. On the death of his brother Arthur, in 1502, he was created prince of Wales;
and the following year betrothed to Catharine of Aragon, prince Arthur's widow, the Pope having granted a dispensation for that purpose. Henry VIII. acceded to the throne, on the death of his father, the 22d of April 1509, and his marriage with Catharine was solemnized about two months after. In the beginning of his reign he left the government of his kingdom entirely to his ministers; and spent his time chiefly in tournaments, balls, concerts, and other expensive amusements. We are told that he was so extravagant in his pleasures, that, in a very short time, he entirely dissipated 1,800,000 l. which his father had hoarded. This will seem less wonderful, when the reader is informed, that gaming was one of his favourite diversions. Nevertheless he was not so totally absorbed in pleasure, but he found leisure to sacrifice, to the resentment of the people, two of his father's ministers, Empson and Dudley. A house in London, which had belonged to the former of these, was in 1510 given to Thomas Wolsey, who was now the king's almoner, and who from this period began to insinuate himself into Henry's favour. In 1513, he became prime minister, and from that moment governed the king and kingdom with absolute power. In this year Henry declared war against France, gained the battle of Spurs, and took the towns of Terouenne and Tournay; but before he embarked his troops, he beheaded the earl of Suffolk, who had been long confined in the tower. In 1521, he sacrificed the duke of Buckingham to the resentment of his prime minister Wolsey, and the same year obtained from the Pope the title of Defender of the Faith.
Henry, having been 18 years married, grew tired of his wife, and in the year 1527 resolved to obtain a divorce; but after many fruitless solicitations, finding it impossible to persuade the Pope to annul his marriage with Catharine, he espoused Ann Bullen in the year 1531. During this interval his favourite Wolsey was disgraced, and died; Henry threw off the Papal yoke, and burnt three Protestants for heresy. In 1535, he put to death Sir Thomas More, Fisher, and others, for denying his supremacy, and suppressed all the lesser monasteries.
His most sacred majesty, having now possessed his second queen about five years, fell violently in love with lady Jane Seymour. Ann Bullen was accused of adultery with her own brother, and with three other persons: she was beheaded the 19th of May, 1536. He married Jane Seymour the day following. In 1537, he put to death five of the noble family of Kildare, as a terror to the Irish, of whose disloyalty he had some apprehensions; and in the year following he executed the marquis of Exeter, with four other persons of distinction, for the sole crime of corresponding with cardinal Pole. In 1538 and 1539, he suppressed all the monasteries in England, and seized their revenues for his own use. The queen having died in childbirth, he this year married the princess Ann of Cleves: but disliking her person, immediately determined to be divorced; and his obsequious parliament and convocation unanimously pronounced the marriage void, for reasons too ridiculous to be recited: but this was not all; Henry was so incensed with his minister and quondam favourite, Cromwell, for negotiating this match, that he revenged himself by
Henry. by the hand of the executioner. Yet this was not the only public murder of the year 1540. A few days after Cromwell's death, several persons were burnt for denying the king's supremacy, and other articles of heresy.
His majesty being once more at liberty to indulge himself with another wife, fixed upon Catharine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk. She was declared queen in August 1540; but they had been privately married some time before. Henry, it seems, was so entirely satisfied with this lady, that he daily blessed God for his present felicity; but that felicity was of short duration: he had not been married above a year, before the queen was accused of frequent prostitution, both before and since her marriage: she confessed her guilt, and was beheaded in February 1542. In July 1543, he married his sixth wife, the Lady Catharine Parr, the widow of John Nevil lord Latimer, and lived to the year 1547, without committing any more flagrant enormities: but finding himself now approach towards dissolution, he made his will; and, that the last scene of his life might resemble the rest, he determined to end the tragedy with the murder of two of his best friends and most faithful subjects, the duke of Norfolk, and his son the earl of Surrey. The earl was beheaded on the 19th of January; and the duke was ordered for execution on the 29th, but fortunately escaped by the king's death on the 28th. They were condemned without the shadow of a crime; but Henry's political reason for putting them to death, was his apprehension, that, if they were suffered to survive him, they would counteract some of his regulations in religion, and might be troublesome to his son. Henry died on the 28th of January 1547, in the 56th year of his age, and was buried at Windsor.
As to his character, it is pretty obvious from the facts above related. Lord Herbert palliates his crimes, and exaggerates what he calls his virtues. Bishop Burnet says, "he was rather to be reckoned among the great than the good princes." He afterwards acknowledges, that "he is to be numbered among the ill princes;" but adds, "I cannot rank him with the worst." Sir Walter Raleigh, with infinitely more justice, says, "If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost to the world, they might again be painted to the life out of the history of this king." He was indeed a merciless tyrant, a scurvy politician, a foolish bigot, a horrible assassin. See ENGLAND, n° 212—230.
HENRY of Huntingdon, an English historian, of the 12th century, was canon of Lincoln, and afterwards archdeacon of Huntingdon. He wrote, 1. A history of England, which ends with the year 1154. 2. A continuation of that of Bede. 3. Chronological tables of the kings of England. 4. A small treatise on the contempt of the world. 5. Several books of epigrams and love-verses. 6. A poem on herbs; all which are written in Latin.—His invocation of Apollo and the goddesses of Tempe, in the exordium of his poem on herbs, may not be unacceptable as a specimen of his poetry.
Vatum magne parens, herborum Phœbe rector.
Vosque, quibus resonant Tempe joco Dea!
Si mihi ferta prius hedera florente paratilis,
Ecce meos flos, ferta parat fero.
HENRY of Susa, in Latin, de Segusio, a famous civilian and canonist of the 13th century, acquired such reputation by his learning, that he was called the source and splendor of the law. He was archbishop of Embrun about the year 1258, and cardinal bishop of Oslia in 1262. He wrote A summary of the canon and civil law; and A commentary on the book of the decrees, composed by order of Alexander IV.