King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII was born on the 28th of June, succeeding his father Henry VII. He was never expected to become a king because he had an older brother- Arthur, who surprisingly died at a young age. This event forced Henry, who was only ten years old at the time, to marry Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow, and to take on a huge task for just a child. On the 21st of April, 1509, at the young age of 17, he was officially crowned as king of England. Henry VIII is renowned for multiple reasons, although people mainly know him because of his six wives. Henry was the king who separated the Church of England from the Catholic Church, and was the father of Queen Elizabeth I. Because of his personality and ego, he managed to get in a lot of arguments with the papal authority and Rome itself. When he broke off from the pope, that led to the English Reformation. Henry VIII was a good king overall, he consulted the Parliament, created a new sense of national identity, introduced efficient taxing schemes, was the founder of the English Navy, restored and built many palaces, as well as, monasteries, and he also translated the bible to English. Henry's number of wives was ridiculous and ironically, in his new set of laws, he legalized divorcing. The king had 6 wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Katherine Parr. He divorced the first and fourth, decapitated the second and fifth, the third one was he love of his life but died as well, and the final one continued to live after the sorrowful date of January 28th, 1547, when Henry VIII officially died.