Henry VIII Henry 8 Author Rachel Armstrong Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Rachel Armstrong, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Adultery Marriage Published file. Updated metadata proofed Review of article finished. updated author respStmt. Created File. Rachel Armstrong Rachel Armstrong

Rachel Armstrong was a student at Utah Valley University.

 Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
Early years

Henry Tudor was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, born on June 28, 1491. He was one of six siblings. As early as age two, Henry began to acquire a series of titles that indicated his high status, including Constable of Dover Castle, Earl Marshal of England, Lord Warden, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Duke of York, Duke of Cromwell, and eventually Prince of Wales. When his brother, Arthur, died in 1502 at the age of fifteen, Henry became heir to the throne; he was just eleven years old. Upon his father’s death in 1509, Henry became king at age 17.

First Marriage and Reformation

Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had briefly been the wife of his older brother, Arthur. His father, King Henry VII, had wanted to keep alliances with Spain after his eldest son’s death in 1502. Arrangements were made, special permission received from the Pope, and Henry VIII and Catherine were married several years later in the summer of 1509. Catherine soon gave birth to their first child, a boy, in 1510, but he was stillborn. Of the three girls and four boys she delivered, only Mary (born in 1516) survived infancy.

In 1525, Henry VIII became frustrated that Catherine had not produced a suitable heir to the throne. He was unable to obtain an annulment or divorce due to the disapproval from the church. After a lengthy, unsuccessful legal debate with the Catholic Church that became called the King’s Great Matter, the King and his government decided to separate England from the Church of Rome. This led to creation of the Church of England, with the King as Supreme Head. As a primary result of this new power, Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled in 1533.

Henry and Anne Boleyn

While still married to Catherine, Henry had for several years been infatuated with Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting. He pursued her for several years, but she refused his physical advances. Eventually, as the King and his ministers initiated the separation from the Catholic Church, Anne and Henry likely become lovers. They were married in January 1533. Anne was apparently pregnant when they married, with the child being born only 8 months later. To their disappointment, the child was female, a girl who would eventually become Elizabeth I.

However, Anne’s headstrong demeanor, which had originally attracted Henry to her, did not win her friends once she became Queen. Anne made many enemies, who soon sought her downfall. After subsequent miscarriages over the next two years, Henry determined that Anne was not able to produce a suitable heir. During this time, Henry also began to experience episodes of impotence, which of course interfered in his quest for heirs. Henry rejected her, and Anne was found guilty of adultery and incest. She was executed at the Tower of London on May 18, 1536.

Henry and Jane Seymour

Within a day of Anne Boleyn’s execution, Henry VIII became engaged to Jane Seymour, the obedient daughter of Sir John Seymour. They were married shortly thereafter. In 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Edward, who became heir to the throne and Henry’s successor. The King and the nation rejoiced, with Henry’s quest for a suitable heir complete. Sadly, Jane died on October 24, 1537, due to complications of childbirth; Edward was two weeks old. She received a Queen’s funeral, unlike Henry’s first two wives.

Henry and Anne of Cleves

In an effort to ensure England’s political and religious stability, the king’s ministers arranged the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves, a German Protestant. They were married January 6, 1540, over Henry’s objections and as a result of diplomatic pressures. Due to the short duration of their marriage, Anne of Cleves was never crowned Queen. On July 9, 1540, Henry VIII intended to annul their marriage by using her previous engagement to a French nobleman, the son of the Duke of Lorraine. The King offered her an honorary title: she was declared King’s sister. However, this badly managed alliance led to Henry ordering the execution of his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. Later, Anne became friends with Henry’s first daughter, Mary Tudor, and converted to Catholicism. She died during Mary Tudor’s reign.

Henry and Katherine Howard

Within one month of the annulment, Henry wed the 19-year-old Katherine Howard on July 28, 1540. Katherine was a cousin of Anne Boleyn and had served as a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves. Unfortunately, Henry soon learned that Katherine had not been a virgin as she claimed when they married and that she was involved in an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpepper. Henry VIII convicted her of treason and expunged her titles in December 1541. She was imprisoned until her execution on February 13, 1542.

Henry and Catherine Parr

Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife was Catherine Parr. During her two previous marriages, she gained experience with nursing and caring for stepchildren. Catherine Parr was what the aging and ill Henry desired: a wife, a nurse, and a stepmother to his three children. They were married on July 12, 1542. An educated and apparently caring woman as well as a devout Protestant, she established trust with Lady Mary, Henry’s daughter with his first wife. Parr also brought Lady Elizabeth, Henry and Anne Boleyn’s daughter, back to the court and even convinced Henry to restore her title as Princess Elizabeth. Parr outlived Henry VIII and retired from court after his death. She did remarry, but died from complications following childbirth in 1548. Catherine’s husband Thomas Seymour outlived her, only to be convicted of treason later that year due to both improper behavior with Princess Elizabeth, including seeking her hand in marriage, and after a series of failed power grabs.

The once-athletic Henry VIII, praised for his skills as a dancer and warrior, became obese in his later years and needed assistance to move. He had many physical ailments such as pus-filled boils, possible gout, and a lingering, ulcerated wound on his leg from a jousting accident in 1536. In his final years, he also suffered from mood swings and contracted scurvy. Although some rumours of his suffering from syphilis have circulated, no proof exists of him having a sexually transmitted infection. After suffering several strokes and several days of unconsciousness, he died on January 28, 1547, at the age of 56. He was laid to rest next to his third wife, Jane Seymour, at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI.

Key Print Sources The Six Queens of Henry VIII. BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2017. Fletcher, Catherine. The Divorce of Henry VIII: The Untold Story From Inside the Vatican. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Freeman, Thomas S. and Thomas Betteridge. Henry VIII and History. Routledge, 2012. Guy, J.A. The Children of Henry VIII. OUP Oxford, 2013. Hart, Kelly. Mistresses of Henry VIII. The History Press Ltd, 2012. Ives, E. W. Henry VIII (1491–1547), king of England and Ireland. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 21. Oxford University Press. 23 Sep. 2004. Loades, David M. Henry VIII: Court, Church, and Conflict. National Archives, 2007.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Henry VIII. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/henry%20VIII/henryviii.html. Accessed 10 Oct. 2018. Carelli, Francesco. Henry VIII; man and monarch. London Journal of Primary care, vol. 2, no. 2, 2009, pp. 182-183. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4222148/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025. Morrill, John S., and Geoffrey R. Elton. Henry VIII: King of England. Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England. Accessed 9 Jun. 2023.