A New Era: The Early Years of Henry VIII's Reign (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

A New Era: The Early Years of Henry VIII's Reign

The accession of Henry VIII

When Henry VIII succeeded to the throne in April 1509 at nearly eighteen years old, the contrast with his father could not have been sharper. Henry VII had spent decades consolidating power through financial oppression and distrust of the nobility. His son arrived as a young and charismatic figure who appeared destined for greatness since his brother Arthur's death in 1502. Where Henry VII had endured years of poverty and uncertainty before gaining the throne through luck and military success, Henry VIII had known only wealth and expectation, though these came tinged with insecurity about his position.

Henry's accession proved immediately popular. He represented the union of York and Lancaster, symbolising domestic peace and harmony. His reign promised a fresh start after years of mistrust and financial oppression under his father. Sir Thomas More captured the public mood:

"This day is the end of our slavery, the fount of our liberty; the end of our sadness and the beginning of joy."

Early life and education of Prince Henry

Prince Henry had not initially been raised as heir to the throne. This changed in 1502 when his elder brother Arthur died and Henry was nearly eleven. By then he had already received an excellent education from tutors including the poet John Skelton. His studies encompassed languages, history, astronomy and arithmetic. He learnt several musical instruments, including the lute, and could sing well. Outdoors he learnt horse riding and archery, later playing tennis and becoming skilled in jousting. This education prepared him thoroughly for the role of a Renaissance prince.

His education reflected the belief that a monarch should follow the code of chivalry developed in the Burgundian court in the Netherlands during the fifteenth century. Chivalric code refers to the set of values emphasising the need to perform valiant deeds, either through jousting (often staged as elaborate court spectacles) or in warfare. This code influenced not only life at court but also Henry's approach to foreign policy throughout his reign.

After Arthur's death in 1502 and his mother's death in 1503, Henry lived at court in Richmond with his father, maintaining his own suite of rooms and 100 servants. However, he does not appear to have been particularly well-prepared by his father for the day-to-day responsibilities of kingship. Despite this, he demonstrated intellectual ability. He possessed a sharp memory for factual details and could analyse information and argue effectively on subjects including religion. His education reinforced the principle that the monarch should rule in the interests of the country and the Tudor line.

First decisions as king

Henry VIII inherited from his father a group of experienced and trusted councillors:

• Sir Thomas Lovell, who was reappointed Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Bishop Fox, who served as Lord Privy Seal and remained a trusted adviser until the rise of Wolsey
• Archbishop Warham, who also held the position of Lord Chancellor
• Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who as Earl Marshall played a prominent role in Henry VIII's coronation

However, the differences between Henry VIII's approach and his father's became immediately apparent when he became king in April 1509. Within days of his accession he ordered the arrest of his father's chief financial enforcers, Empson and Dudley of the Council Learned in Law, and abolished this hated court. His second announcement declared that he would honour his promise to marry Catherine of Aragon.

Since the death of her husband Arthur in 1502, Catherine had been kept at court by Henry VII while he conducted apparently complicated negotiations needed to secure approval from both her parents and the Pope for the remarriage. In reality, Henry VII had deliberately delayed permitting the marriage until he could be certain it would bring diplomatic advantage to England. Henry VIII's decision to enact the marriage demonstrated his commitment to honourable and chivalrous conduct. The early years of his reign provide abundant evidence that he took the concepts of knightly valour and honour seriously. Catherine, however, would later witness an entirely different side to his character as Henry passed from youth to middle age.

Henry's character and skills

Much debate exists about Henry's character, especially as events unfolded during his long 37-year reign. Contemporary propaganda presented him in glowing terms, but written descriptions and portraits can mislead if they reflected a particular purpose. Nevertheless, the information available about Henry VIII in the first ten years or so of his reign focuses on his attractive appearance, his flamboyant manner, his learning and his skills.

The Venetian ambassador Guistiniani wrote in 1521:

"His Majesty is twenty-nine years old and extremely handsome. Nature could not have done more for him. He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Christendom; a great deal handsomer than the King of France; very fair and his whole frame admirably proportioned. He is very accomplished, a good musician, composes well, is a most capital horseman, a fine jouster, speaks good French, Latin and Spanish, is very religious, hears masses three times a day when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days. He is very fond of hunting, and never takes his diversion without tiring eight or ten horses. He is extremely fond of tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture."

In addition to being chivalrous and a warrior-king, Henry also wanted to be an imperial king. Imperial kingship refers to the idea that came from the Roman Empire whose government was being studied by Renaissance men of letters. Henry remained keen to promote his monarchy as one that recreated the glories of Henry V's victory at Agincourt in 1415, and to establish the belief in everyone's mind that he ruled on behalf of God. The language of imperial kingship became especially important in the 1530s when the English Church separated from Rome and England was referred to as 'an Empire governed by one supreme head and king'.

Henry's court

The image and reality of the new king were also reflected in the court that he created around himself. The royal court served not only as the centre of politics and government, but also as a projection of the King's personality and the aura of majesty that he sought to create. Henry VII had maintained a lavish court, with generous hospitality and patronage of scholars and explorers. The court of Henry VIII was dedicated to pleasure and refinement.

While the King's favourite activities were hunting, tennis and jousting, at which he excelled, he was also intelligent enough to enjoy the company of scholars steeped in the new learning of the Renaissance. Henry also enjoyed music and composed some creditable pieces of his own (albeit with some expert help which he kept quiet about). He also increased the number and quality of royal residences. The palace at Nonsuch in Surrey, depicted in an engraving from 1582, was designed to display the glory and power of Henry VIII through its impressive size and architectural style.

Treatment of the nobility

Henry VII had controlled the ambitions of the nobility more by threatening their status and wealth than by making concessions to them. Some historians have suggested that he intended to undermine the power of the nobility to the point where he could replace them in government with talented administrators. Henry VIII's attitude towards them seemed different from the outset.

Early gestures of goodwill included disbanding the Council Learned in Law and cancelling 175 bonds and recognisances that were still owing. The young king clearly regarded the nobility as his friends and associates, with whom he could share his sporting and artistic pleasures. By gathering important men around him, Henry also enhanced the prestige of his court.

However, Henry shared his father's suspicion of possible rivals among the ranks of the nobility. Although the Yorkist threat was substantially weaker by 1509, there were still members of the greater nobility who carried royal blood in their veins, and who might be tempted to challenge the claims of the Tudors. The main candidate of the 'White Rose' party, as the Yorkists had come to be known, was Edmund de la Pole, the Earl of Suffolk. When Henry came to the throne, Suffolk was already imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1513, Henry had him executed for treason, but his younger brother, Richard, remained free and in French service until his death at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. Although the French exploited his claims during negotiations with Henry, and even recognised him as 'King Richard IV', there was no serious attempt to replace Henry from abroad.

Style of government

Henry VII's style of government had been personal and extremely conscientious. He took major decisions himself, without the aid of a powerful chief minister. He moved the administration of finances into his private rooms at court, out of the Treasury and Exchequer. He largely ignored Parliament and showed time and again that he was not prepared to trust members of the nobility until he was certain that they could be forced to obey him.

Henry VIII adopted some of his father's tactics. He continued to use Justices of the Peace to carry out his wishes in local government rather than rely on the nobility. He also followed his father's practice of encouraging talented advisers and administrators from outside the nobility.

During Henry VIII's reign the Privy Chamber became even more important. Privy Chamber refers to the part of the King's household that had its own separate existence. When Henry dined in his Privy Chamber, only the most intimate advisers and courtiers were allowed to attend him there – a sure sign of who was in favour and who was out of favour in the politics of court life. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber had access to the King and were, by definition, members of the Court who travelled around when Henry moved from house to house. Henry had over 30 residences of his own in and near London, but he also travelled further afield, especially in July and August.

However, there were substantial differences between Henry VIII's attitude towards day-to-day government and the attitudes of his father. In the first place, Henry VIII never gave the affairs of government the personal attention that his father had exercised, tending instead to delegate far greater power to his chief advisers. The adult years of Henry VIII's reign were dominated by two men – Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, between 1515 and 1529, and Thomas Cromwell, between 1532 and 1540. This was a new development in government.

Henry VII's close personal control of the day-to-day running of the country did not suit his younger and more secure son. Although Henry VIII kept overall control, especially in the 1530s, he preferred to act out a combination of medieval and Renaissance images of kingship – the medieval 'good lord', who exhibited courage and honour, and the Renaissance 'universal man', as skilled in courtly etiquette and the arts as in warfare. He did not share his father's dedication to the unglamorous side of ruling, so left much of this to his chief ministers. However, as the careers of both Wolsey and Cromwell show, they depended heavily on maintaining the King's favour to survive. By allowing ministers to assume power, Henry also encouraged what his father had largely avoided – factionalism at court.

Foreign policy at the beginning of the reign

The accession of Henry VIII in 1509 opened a new phase in foreign policy. Henry VII's foreign policy had been that of an insecure adult; Henry VIII's began as the actions of a confident teenager. Unlike his father, Henry VIII came to the throne peacefully and with money in the royal treasury. His priorities were therefore different: he was keen to establish his presence in international affairs and to demonstrate his strengths to his subjects. He wanted to win glorious victories on the field of battle to establish his image as a Renaissance warrior.

Relations with France

The easiest way to accomplish these aims was to revive hostilities with France. As part of an international alliance against France in 1512 he led an army there, but achieved very little. With rapidly increasing expenditure and little real gain, the demoralised soldiers, many ill or suffering from disease, returned to England. Having persuaded his advisers that a foreign campaign would be good for England's reputation, the result was an embarrassment.

The English drove off the French in a cavalry encounter dubbed 'the Battle of the Spurs', and went on to capture the fortress of Thérouanne and the town of Tournai. In 1514 the achievement was sealed in the Treaty of Saint Germaine-en-Laye, negotiated by Wolsey, which left England in possession of Tournai and Thérouanne and Henry with a handsome annual payment for agreeing to give up his claims to the French throne. Henry had gained the reputation that he had sought as a young warrior king.

The historian Jez Ross, writing in 2001, argued:

"Henry VIII was indeed, unlike his father, a warlike monarch, seeking gloire [glory] and prestige and pursuing his dynastic rights, just like any other Renaissance prince. However, it would be wrong to argue that Henry was obsessed with warfare for its own sake, even though the cult of chivalry continued to make war appealing to contemporary monarchs. For example, as important as Henry VIII's claim to France was in justifying his cherished objective of occupying French territory, it also served a more practical purpose as a lever to extract concessions from the French."

Relations with Scotland

Henry also had to face the Scots who allied against the French in 1512. James IV of Scotland led an army to invade the north-east of England with the intention of diverting English troops from going to France. Cannons from Edinburgh Castle were dragged by oxen on to English soil. With Henry in France, Catherine, his wife, was acting as Regent. The Earl of Surrey was given the title of Lieutenant-General of the North with instructions to take an army north to repel the invasion.

Scotland was immeasurably weaker as a result of the defeat. A committee was set up to rule in the name of the wife of James IV, Margaret Tudor, and of her one-and-a-half-year-old son, James V. Scotland was not going to be an active threat to Henry VIII for some years to come.

Key dates: Henry VIII – the start of a new era

• 1509 Accession of Henry VIII, aged seventeen; arrest of Empson and Dudley
• 1511–12 Henry led expedition to France
• 1513 Second expedition to France; victory at Battle of the Spurs; Battle of Flodden against Scots; execution of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk
• 1514 Peace treaty with France