Vast Selection of Royalty Free Images and Historical Information

Title: Henry VIII

Description: Henry VIII (1491-1547), shown in middle age in a portrait by Joos van Cleve (1480-1541). Henry was King of England, Lord of Ireland or (later) King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France, the second monarch to the House of Tudor; he spent much of his reign in brutally suppressing the influence of the Protestant Reformation, but is best known for his confrontations with the Vatican in Rome, where he rebelled and finally quite the Roman Catholic Church and all Papal Authority over his first marriage (none of his wives were divorced, but four of his marriages ended in annulment); his wives were, in order, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), a marriage of twenty-four years that produced one surviving child, Mary I (1516-1558), Queen of England and Queen of Ireland (1553-1558), but one that produced no male heirs, their sons dying in infancy, which led Henry VIII to have his marriage to Catherine annulled and brought about his confrontation with Pope Clement VII (1478-1534), who refused to sanction that annulment, causing Henry to break with the Roman Catholic Church and establish the (Anglican) Church of England, where he became the supreme spiritual authority; his second wife was Anne Boleyn (1501 or 1507-1536), a marriage that produced one child, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England and Queen of Ireland (1558-1603), with Henry discarding Anne after she failed to produce any male heirs and, while secretly courting Jane Seymour (1508-1537), had Anne charged and convicted of treason (adultery), ordering her beheaded on May 19, 1536 at the Tower of London; Jane Seymour died of childbirth fever two weeks after delivering Edward VI (1537-1553), King of England and Ireland, who died of illness at age fifteen; Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves (1515-1557), a German noblewoman, was never crowned Queen consort nor was the marriage consummated, that marriage annulled; Henry's fifth wife was Catherine Howard (1521 or 1524-1542), who was convicted of treason (adultery) and beheaded; Henry's sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr (1512-1548), Queen consort, was the most married English queen, having married two husbands who died before Henry proposed to her, and marrying a youthful sweetheart, Thomas Seymour (1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley; 1508-1549) following Henry's death;

Category: England

Keywords: crowned heads, heads of state, kingdoms, kings, monarchs, queens, realms, reigns, royalty, rulers, sovereigns, tyrants