by Carrie Eckles

Created on: June 18, 2009   Last Updated: July 21, 2009

History remembers Henry VIII as a complex figure who wasn't born to be king. As a leader, he wrestled control of the English Church from the grip of Rome; as a husband, he had six wives, two of whom were beheaded for treason.

Henry VIII was born at Greenwich Palace on June 28, 1491, to King Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York. Out of the king and queen's six children, only three others besides young Henry survived infancy: Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary.

Young Henry was given a first rate education, as was valued among the royals and nobility of the day. He spoke fluent Latin and French; being the second son, he was destined for a life in the Church. But fate had a different mind. On April 2, 1502, the fifteen-year-old Prince of Wales was killed by sweating sickness. The disease also struck his widow, the Spanish Infanta, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine survived, however, and when it was determined that she wasn't carrying her late husband's son, his younger brother Henry was given the title of Prince of Wales.

Henry VII was keen to maintain a Spanish alliance. He proposed that his son Henry be betrothed to Arthur's widow. However, that was potentially problematic due the fact that any sexual relationship between Catherine and the late Arthur would mean that she and Henry shared an affinity. Once Catherine swore that she never consummated her marriage to her late husband, her parents, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I, thought it would be prudent to seek a papal dispensation from Rome to make the betrothal valid. The dispensation was granted by Pope Julius II just over a year after Arthur's death.

King Henry VII lost interest in his alliance with Spain; however, upon his death, his son thought it was necessary to cement it. Thus, on June 11, 1509, Henry and Catherine were married; two weeks later they were crowned in Westminster Abbey.

The Renaissance aesthetic flourished in the court of Henry VIII. The king himself was an accomplished poet, having published ballads. An avid sportsman, he excelled at jousting and hunting. Despite his romantic lifestyle, his faith in Catholic Christian doctrines remained strong. In his early years, he had the famed Protestant Dr. William Tyndale burnt at the stake, making him a martyr for the Protestant Cause.

Henry VIII showed his cruelty early on when he had his father's advisors, Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, arrested on trumped up charges of treason. The two were beheaded in due course;

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