When was Henry VIII and what's interesting about him?

Question:

When was Henry VIII and what's interesting about him?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Good Lord--what WASN"T interesting about him? When he was young, he was a superstar--good looking, "built", and a involved in many different sports, from tennis to hunting. When he married Katherine of Aragon, a member of the Spanish royalty, they were fawned on by the English people. But as he got older, he let himself go, and began to feel his own mortality. Katherine wasn't doing her "duty"--producing a male heir. They already had a daughter, Mary, but that wasn't enough--he needed a son to keep the dynasty going. Katherine had been married to his brother, who died soon afterward, but Katherine maintained (probably correctly) that the marriage had never been consummated.

Henry petitioned the Pope for an annulment of the marriage on these grounds, even though they'd been happily married for many years, claiming he had seen the error of his ways and was in fear for his very soul if the annulment weren't granted.

Unfortunately, the Pope at the time was under the thumb of the King of France at the time, who was a cousin of Katherine. His hands were tied, since there was no way the King would allow the annulment, despite many entreaties and even public hearings in which he tried to get Katherine to agree to the annulment, but she refused.

Henry had many affairs, producing many offspring, but except for Mary, the pregnancies Katherine had ended in either a miscarriage or a baby who died shortly after birth. He became convinced there was no way she could give birth to his heir, and he began looking again. Anne Boleyn was a member of Katherines entourage, and quickly became his favorite. But she was no roll in the hay--she absolutely refused him unless he made her his queen. She drove him mad with lust, and helped convince him that he, and not the Pope, should have the final say. He was the king, so his word should go. He then broke with the Catholic Church, and established the Church of England. Once he'd done that, he considered himself free to divorce Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn.

Needless to say, the British people were not amused. Katherine had been a saint in their eyes, and Anne Boleyn was one of the common people who was basically a gold-digger. She was power-hungry, and didn't care who she hurt. They came to believe that she was a witch. After Elizabeth I was born, she became pregnant again, but the baby was born prematurely. Rumors spread that the child was a demon. She was finally accused of having an orgy with several members of the court, one of which was her own brother. She was summarily found guilty and beheaded.

After Anne Boleyn, Henry found someone far less abrasive--Jane Seymour. She gave birth to a son, but she died in childbirth, and her son died soon afterward. He married three times more--one was beheaded after she was caught having an affair with an old lover. I don't remember the details of the next one, but the final wife was more of a nurse than a wife--over the years he had become extremely fat, and his health became much worse, in part because of a hunting accident in which a boar goared his leg, which never properly healed. He died never having gained the male heir he wanted, and his daughter Mary became queen. She was extremely unpopular, and was known as "Bloody Mary." She was deposed and Elizabeth I became queen instead. The Spanish were angered by this, since Mary was a Catholic of Spanish heritage, and this was one cause of the Spanish Armada.