Henry VIII

Henry was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and was born at Greenwich Palace on 28th June 1491. His elder brother Arthur died so he succeeded his father as King in April 1509. 

Henry was very well educated and a talented musician and an author. His book refuting the heresies of Luther, which he presented to the Pope, gained him the new title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith), which has been borne by all his successors. A far reaching consequence of the lengthy negotiations for his divorce from Katherine of Aragon led to his break with the Pope and Rome, leading to the establishment of the Church of England.

The Dissolution of the monasteries took place during his reign, that at Westminster being dissolved in January 1540. He then gave a patent to the new cathedral church he set up, with a bishop at its head, and the illuminated initial shown here shows him presenting it. The bishopric only lasted until 1550. Henry also endowed Westminster School in 1541.

His children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I are all buried in Westminster Abbey, as well as his first born infant son by Katherine, Henry, duke of Cornwall.

Who did Henry VIII marry

On 11th June 1509 he married his widowed sister in law Katherine of Aragon (she had been married to Prince Arthur). In the east window of St Margaret's church Westminster, dated about 1526, there are kneeling figures of Henry and Katherine (her head has been replaced by a modern one in the window but the original can be seen in the Jubilee Galleries at the Abbey).

After their famous divorce he married Anne Boleyn (beheaded), Jane Seymour (died), Anne of Cleves, who is buried in Westminster Abbey (divorced), Catherine Howard (beheaded), and Catherine Parr, who survived her husband.

Coronations

The coronation of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon took place on Sunday 24th June 1509. The ceremony is illustrated in the mortuary roll of Abbot Islip dated 1532 in the Abbey's archives. The day before, the king and queen had processed from the Tower of London through the City to Whitehall. On the morning of the coronation they made their way to the Palace of Westminster and walked from there to the Abbey in procession. The ceremony was performed by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. The queen sat on a lower chair than the king.

Afterwards there was a magnificent banquet in Westminster Hall 'greater than any Caesar had known'. More days of feasting and jousting followed. Henry would later amend the Oath that he took at his coronation to reflect his views about the relationship of crown and church.

Only one other of his queens received a coronation – Anne Boleyn on 1st June 1533. Jane Seymour would probably also have had a coronation but the plague was raging at that time and it was not possible.

Burial

Henry died, after suffering from several ailments, on 28th January 1547. His coffin, covered with a cloth of gold, was laid at Whitehall where ceremonies took place, until it was conveyed on 14th February to Windsor. He was then buried in a vault in St George's chapel on 16th, with his favourite wife Jane Seymour, as he had requested. The funeral effigy, used on the gilded funeral chariot, has not survived. Earlier a monument had been designed for him and was being constructed by Nicholas Bellin from Modena in the "tomb house" in Dean's Yard Westminster, but this was still unfinished when it was later removed to Windsor in 1567.

Katherine of Aragon is buried in Peterborough Cathedral. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard are buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. Catherine Parr married Thomas Seymour (brother of Queen Jane) and was buried at her residence at Sudeley Castle.

Further reading

Henry VIII by J.J. Scarisbrick, 1968

Man and Monarch Henry VIII, British Library exhibition catalogue edited by Susan Doran, 2009

Westminster Abbey Reformed 1540-1640 edited by C.S. Knighton and Richard Mortimer, 2003

Henry VIII. A European court in England, edited by D. Starkey, 1991

The drama of coronation... by Alice Hunt, 2008

The function of ceremonial in the reign of Henry VIII [on coronation and funeral] by Jennifer Loach in "Past and Present" no.142

Henry VIII's burial vault and tomb [at Windsor] by Tim Tatton-Brown in Friends of St George's..Windsor Castle, Annual Review 2011/12 

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004

Many illuminated portraits of Henry appear in initials in the Plea Rolls of the Court of the King's Bench in the National Archives at Kew.

For the transcript of the 1544 Denizens Roll (list of foreign citizens in England), held in the Abbey archives, go to www.archive.org and choose texts, then search denization. Vol.8 of the Huguenot Society publication by William Page will then show on screen, with options to search for names inside, with all details as given on the original roll.

An account of his funeral is kept at the College of Arms in London

The dissolution of the monasteries - a new history by James C.Clark, 2021

The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the remaking of the English Church by G.W.Barnard, 2007

Prince Arthur, the Tudor king who never was. The untold story of Henry VIII's elder brother by S. Cunningham, 2016

The east window of St Margaret's Westminster by Hilary Wayment in Antiquaries Journal Vol. LXI part II, 1981.

www.englishmonarchs.co.uk