The most notorious Tudor King to have ruled over England was Henry VIII, who throughout
his reign would execute his second wife Anne Boleyn and his fifth wife Catherine Howard.
His love life was tragic and horrific, and inside of his lands there was a great degree
of fear throughout the population, as 70,000 people were executed in the cities and towns
of his Kingdom.
But despite this, at the time many people loved their King and when he died they were
devastated despite his huge changes to life.
He was a King who had shut down monasteries, abbeys and religious houses making monks,
nuns and thousands homeless.
He would also steal their riches and wealth, but much is documented about his life and
brutal policies, but little is told about the King’s early life, and his birth.
What is the story of the birth of the tyrant Tudor king?
Henry VIII’s mother and father were Elizabeth of York and Henry VII.
Their marriage was a happy one, and the couple had united England and brought an end to the
wars of the Roses.
Henry would not be the oldest son of the couple, despite being the heir to his father, as he
had an older brother and sister.
His brother Arthur, the Prince of Wales was the heir to the King, and Henry VII would
spend a great deal of time on making sure that Arthur would be prepared to one day rule
England.
But this would never happen, as he was taken ill in Ludlow Castle shortly after his marriage
to Catherine of Aragon, and he would succumb to this illness.
Henry’s older sister was Margaret Tudor, who today would have been the heir to the
throne, but during the 15th century there was an acceptance that women did not take
the throne.
Queen’s were considered only to serve a purpose as a consort, a mere advisor and for
someone to birth the next heir who they hoped was a male.
Because of this, she was passed over in the line of succession following Arthur’s death.
But Henry VIII was born on the 28th June 1491 inside of the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich.
His parents had established two nurseries for the royal children, and it was where Elizabeth
of York spent much of her time when she wasn’t at court.
Also in preparation for their growing family they improved and expanded much of their properties.
During her pregnancy with the future Henry VIII, Elizabeth would have entered confinement
in the Palace of Placentia, and would have been attended on by only her closest ladies
in waiting and midwifes who would deliver the prince.
It’s believed that Henry VIII after his birth would have been considered the spare
to the heir, but he would later obviously become the heir and next King.
He was one of 7 siblings, but only three, Arthur, Margaret and Mary would survive infancy.
Following his birth he was baptised by Richard Foxe, the Bishop of Exeter after he was taken
to the Church of the Observant Fanciscans near to the palace.
His upbringing was very different to his brothers, as it was said ‘“Arthur is never brought
up with his mother at all.
From infancy, he has got his separate household at Farnham, then it goes somewhere else in
the Home Counties.
Then at the age of barely five, he’s packed off to Ludlow to become this little prince
in the making in a heavily male household.
Henry on the other hand is literally in the bosom of his family, with all of these adoring
girls and ladies and his mother’s ladies around him.
His mother probably taught him to read”.
Henry VIII enjoyed a very close relationship with his mother, but he was raised as a boy
who would not become the King.
It’s believed in a sense he may have also been spoiled, or that he was raised in the
shadow of Arthur, but that this shadow was beneficial to the child Henry.
He spent time with Arthur in 1497 when he was around 6, but Arthur would spend more
time with his father, and Henry more time with his mother.
But despite almost being overshadowed by his brother Arthur, his father did invest a lot
of titles upon him.
At the age of 2 he was appointed the Constable of Dover Castle, and the Lord Warden on the
Cinque Ports.
He was then also made the Earl Marshal of England, and Lord Leftenant of Ireland at
the age of three, and was then made a Knight of the Bath.
Further titles and investiture came, as he was made the Duke of York and then the Warden
of the Scottish Marches, all before the age of 5.
He was appointed to the Order of the Garter at the age of 3, and the reason for this was
to ensure that his father Henry VII in a sense held the power over these elusive and powerful
positions.
He did not want to share them with other dominant families at court, and Henry VIII obviously
as a young boy wouldn’t benefit from it as a child.
He was more interested in the affections of his mother and what the royal nursery could
provide him.
Despite this, very little is known about Henry VIII’s early life as he was considered a
man who would probably never become the King.
It was believed Arthur and his children would carry on the Tudor torch, but Henry did receive
a first class education from the best teachers and tutors that would visit the royal court.
He was fluent in French and Latin, and he would also at the age of 10 be involved in
the wedding of his brother to Catherine of Aragon.
Interestingly, the bride that day would later be Henry VIII’s first wife.
But following Arthur’s death, all of the deceased heir’s duties were thrust upon
Henry, and he then became the Duke of Cornwall and the new Prince of Wales.
But it’s considered that Henry VIII came onto the throne as if he had been ‘untrained
in the art of kingship,’ as Henry VII after Arthur’s death would shield him and would
not really show him in public.
Following Henry VII’s death on the 21st April 1509, the 17 year old Henry VIII succeeded
him as King.
He was declared King of England, and with this the most shocking and brutal reign of
the Tudor monarchs would begin.
Henry would stay inside the Tower of London for a short while before his coronation, and
this was the very place where later two of his wives would meet a bloody and brutal end
inside the notorious fortress.
His reign was one of great change in England, and no-one could have predicted what would
happen in the decades following, with the huge changes to the church and bloodshed that
occurred.
He was a man who would execute some of his closest friends, and was unpredictable, but
he wasn’t always like this.
As a child and a young man he was a mummy’s boy who would rarely be seen away from Elizabeth
of York’s side.
But it’s likely that her death also had a huge impact on him.
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