The Young Henry VIII

The seventeen-year-old who had everything

On 22 April 1509 a seventeen-year-old became king of England. His father, Henry VII, had spent twenty-four years making the crown safe and rich, and had made himself hated doing it: nobles were bound by written promises to pay ruinous sums if they stepped out of line, and two ministers collected the fines. The son could not have looked more different. He stood over six feet tall, won at the joust, spoke French and Latin, wrote music, argued theology with scholars, and within a fortnight of his accession had the two hated ministers in the Tower. This module covers three things the exam asks about: the England he inherited, the kind of man he was, and what he set out to do. It ends with the 12-mark question those three things are written for.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with where the word bites in 1509, because a bare definition earns nothing in a 12-mark answer.

The accession year, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Prince Arthur, the elder brother, dies at Ludlow, leaving Henry the heir
• Henry VII dies at Richmond and his son is proclaimed king
• Henry marries Catherine of Aragon at Greenwich
• Henry and Catherine are crowned together at Westminster Abbey on Midsummer Day
• Empson and Dudley are beheaded on Tower Hill
• Henry joins the Holy League against France

Why the first arrests?

Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley had run the bonds and fines for Henry VII. Within days of the accession they were arrested, and in August 1510 they were beheaded for treason on charges nobody believed. What does this tell you about the new king?

• He wanted to win popularity fast by breaking with the most hated policy of his father, while keeping the money it had raised.
• He genuinely believed the two men had plotted to seize the throne.
• He wanted to hand control of taxation to Parliament.
• His father had ordered the executions in his will.

Father and son, as the court saw them

The contrast was deliberate. Everything the new king did in 1509 was read against the reign that had just ended.

What the court expected

Lord Mountjoy wrote to the scholar Erasmus on 27 May 1509, five weeks into the reign. Tap the TWO phrases that contrast the new king with the old one.

• Heaven laughs, the earth rejoices;
• everything is full of milk, of honey and of nectar.
• Avarice has fled the country.
• Our king is not after gold, or gems, or precious metals,
• but virtue, glory, immortality.

England in 1509

Select the THREE statements that describe the England Henry inherited.

• The population was about two and a half million, and London, by far the largest town, held around fifty thousand people.
• The Church owned around a quarter of the land, ran its own courts, and supplied most of the men who staffed royal government.
• Parliament met only when the king summoned it, and he summoned it chiefly to grant taxes.
• The crown kept a standing army of twenty thousand men.
• Most people lived in towns and worked in trade.
• The nobility elected the members of the Royal Council.

Three aims, and the dates that prove them

An aim earns marks in this paper only when it is tied to something the king actually did. Three aims run through the whole depth study: 1. Glory in war against France. Henry claimed the title King of France, as every English king had since 1340, and wanted to earn it as Henry V had. In November 1511 he joined the Holy League of Pope Julius II against France; his first expedition, in 1512, achieved nothing, and in 1513 he crossed to France in person. 2. A son. The Tudors had held the throne since 1485, a single reign. Catherine gave birth to a boy, Prince Henry, on 1 January 1511; he was dead by the end of February. The search for a male heir drives everything after 1525. 3. To rule as a true sovereign. Henry saw his authority as given by God and answerable to nobody. In practice he left the daily business of government to ministers while he hunted and jousted, and the gap between the belief and the practice is what gave first Wolsey and then Cromwell their power.

Decisions of a new king

It is April 1509 and you are Henry. Four decisions face you in your first two years. Choose as the real Henry chose, and notice what each choice cost or won.

• Catherine of Aragon has lived in England since 1501, the widow of your brother Arthur. Spain is your natural ally against France, but marrying the widow of a brother needs the permission of the Church. What do you do?
• Empson and Dudley wait in the Tower. The bonds they enforced filled the treasury you have just inherited, but every noble family hates them. What do you do?
• Your father governed through a Council of churchmen and lawyers, above all Archbishop Warham and Bishop Fox. You would rather hunt and joust than read accounts. Who runs the government?
• Your father kept the peace with France for seventeen years and was paid a pension for it. You have read the chronicles of Agincourt. In 1511 the Pope invites you into a league against France. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

The Tudors had ruled for only _____ years, so a son mattered more to Henry than to most kings, and Catherine had been promised to England since _____. His father had been hated for the bonds and _____ his ministers collected, so the arrest of Empson and Dudley made the new king _____ at a stroke. Henry measured himself against Henry _____, so war with France was an aim from the start, not a whim.

How young was the new king?

Henry was born on 28 June 1491 and became king on 22 April 1509. How old was he when he came to the throne?

The 4-mark question

Question (a) on this paper reads: Describe two features of the government of England in 1509. It is marked feature plus supporting detail, twice. Which answer scores all four marks?

• One feature was the Royal Council, made up of churchmen and lawyers such as Archbishop Warham and Bishop Fox, who ran daily business for the king. Another was Parliament, which met only when summoned and was summoned chiefly to grant taxes.
• The Council. Parliament.
• England was governed well in 1509. The king was very powerful and everyone obeyed him.
• The government of England in 1509 was weak because the king was young, which meant that ministers gained power, which explains the rise of Wolsey, which in turn explains the Amicable Grant.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question (b): Explain why there were high hopes for the new king in 1509. One reason for the high hopes was the contrast between Henry and his father. Henry VII had been feared rather than loved: by 1509 most noble families were bound by recognisances that could ruin them, and two ministers, Empson and Dudley, had grown rich collecting the fines. The new king was seventeen, six feet tall, a jouster and a musician, and within a fortnight he had both ministers in the Tower. This meant that the reign opened with a general pardon and the cancelling of bonds, so the nobility, who had most to fear from the old policy, had most reason to welcome the new king. Lord Mountjoy wrote to Erasmus in May 1509 that avarice had fled the country, which shows how quickly the court read the change. What earned the marks: a cause stated in the first sentence; three pieces of specific support (the recognisances, the two names, the fortnight); a link phrase, this meant that, turning description into explanation; and a closing sentence that returns to the question. Two more paragraphs like it, on different causes, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why there were high hopes for Henry VIII when he became king in 1509. You may use the following in your answer: the execution of Empson and Dudley; the marriage to Catherine of Aragon. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, a name, a number or a document
• Causes of your own: the personality of a Renaissance prince, the contrast with Henry VII, or the alliance with Spain

The 16-mark judgement

Question (c) might read: "Henry VIII was well prepared to rule in 1509." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point AGAINST, to set beside it?

• He had never been trained to govern: until his brother died in 1502 he was the second son, and from 1509 he left the daily work to his councillors, which is the gap Wolsey filled within five years.
• He was too young to be crowned under English law.
• His father had left the crown deep in debt.
• The nobility opposed him from the first day of the reign.