I was hoping to have finsihed this chapter a bit sooner, but I had a busy weekend...
Chapter II: And who said women didn’t have any power back then?
Henry VII (note the creativity in the choice of names) skillfully arranged a marriage between his son and Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the Spanish king and aunt of the future Holy Roman Emperor. When his father died, Henry was rather young, only 17, and he quickly consummated this marriage to establish his position as an adult. He also quickly launched a war with the Scots, in an attempt to secure England’s northern borders, and also to prove his worth as a leader of armies.
On May 8, 1514 the Royal Army, 30000 men under General Norfolk crossed the border and advanced towards Edinburgh. On the road to Edinburgh, outside of Lauder, they met a force of 35 thousands Scots. The Scots attacked, and nearly defeat Norfolk’s forces. But as the day drew to a close the English Home Army, 12 thousand strong, appeared on the field of battle and turned the Scottish left flank, carrying the day. In honor of this victory, Colonel Sheffield, commander of the Home Army, was knighted and rewarded with a stately manor in Lancaster.
While the English armies lay siege to the cities of Scotland the navy hunted down the ships of the Scottish fleet. The Scots launched several raids on Ulster and Meath, but the local garrison forces defeated those, and an English squadron in the Irish Sea destroyed the Scottish vessels. The English forces on the mainland hunted the Scottish leaders deep into the Highlands, capturing them in September of 1516, and forcing them to sign the Treaty of Newcastle, in which Scotland agreed to become an English vassal as well as pay heavy indemnities to the Crown.
This victory allowed Henry to rest upon his laurels, secure in his power. However this peace was broken in 1519 when the Ambassador from France presented to Henry a formal declaration of war. A French force of 70 thousand attacked the small garrison at Calais, no more then 5 thousand men. These brave men put up a stiff resistance, but were annihilated by the overwhelming French forces. A string of naval victories gave England control of the Channel, but all attempts to relieve the siege of Calais were defeated by the French. After a 6 month siege the fortress at Calais fell, and the English crown sued for peace. This ignominious defeat marked the end of the English presence in France, isolating her further from continental affairs.
The next decade was one of relative peace for England. Henry continued the reforms instituted by his father, but otherwise did very little. After an attempt to unite Scotland and England failed, Scottish nobles broke their vassal-ship agreement, further isolating England from the diplomatic affairs of the rest of Europe. While reports of French expansion into the New World surfaced, Henry ignored them, unconcerned with what he though were rather unprofitable lands. “Let the French take them” he said to his Privy Council “The more money they throw into that bottomless pit, the less they can spend on their armies.”
By 1530, it seems, Henry had decided to make up for lost time. His marriage with Catherine of Aragon had lost its passion years ago, and Henry had taken many mistresses. However when his fancies turned to a certain French-educated young woman, disaster loomed. Henry demonstrated exactly what happens when a nation’s leader begins to think with his lower torso.
Anne Boyeln wasn’t considered beautiful by the standards of the time, but she had great sex appeal. She was witty, polite, and flirtatous and she had, as Henry once remarked “ such pretty little breasts.”(For those of you who were wondering, yes this is an actual quote.) Unfortunately for Henry, Anne was also reform-minded when it came to religion, and she was as manipulative as any of Machiavelli’s ideal rulers. She drove Henry mad with lust, and then presented him with an ultimatum. She would only submit to his passions, if he divorced his wife and married her.
As in all other such instances in the history of mankind, the victor in this struggle between the King’s brain and the King’s genitals, the genitals won out. Henry attempted to get his marriage with Catherine annulled, claiming that she was not a virgin when they married. When he was unable to do so, he took some of Ann’s advice, and broke from the Catholic Church. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 made Henry the head of a new religion, the Church of England. With the passing of the Act came a new wave of revolts that swept the land, and before Henry managed to put them down, threatened to sweep the King from his throne.
Anne and Henry married, and they had a daughter together. The relationship went downhill and resulted in Anne being executed on false charges of adultery and incest. Henry’s next relationship went a bit better, producing a male heir, but most of his wives fared little better the Anne. You think the later wives would have sensed the pattern…
Henry also put quite a bit of effort into consolidating English holdings. The Act of Union in 1536, brought Wales under the direct jurisdiction of the English gov’t, making the system much more efficient. He also funded efforts to convert the English people into loyal Anglicans, and even managed to turn Munster into a staunchly Anglican region.
In 1547 Henry died, of natural causes, unlike most of his wives, and his son assumed the throne. Edward was only 10 years old at the time and his advisors ruled for him. His reign was short, and is only distinguished by the resumption in the colonization of Isle Royale and the settlement of Nova Scotia. Edward died at the age of 15, and what followed proved to be one of the more tragic episodes in English history.
