Henry VIII Father's Legacy

• Issue of Empson and Dudley:

  - Empson and Dudley

  o H VII used Council Learned in Law to control people

  o H VIII saw this as unjust

  o Abolished CLIL and imprisoned key enforcers Empson and Dudley
• Issue of Marriage:

  o Needed to marry to secure heirs

  o Catherine of Aragon – previously married to Arthur

  o H VII kept her in England – to maintain connection, she was a Spanish ambassador

  1509 – married CoA,
• Issue with France:

  o 1510 – peace treaty with France (H VII’s old officers)

  o H VIII wants war and imperialism, but H VII was peaceful (econ reasons)

  o Apr 1512 – war declared
• What did Henry VII "leave" for his son?

  Money - £300,000 upon his death

  (Unpopular mechanisms for extracting money)

  Peaceful foreign policy

  Councillor form of government
• What happened to the money and the foreign policy?

  The money vanished as a result of Henry's aggressive foreign policy with France.
• What happened to the councillor form of government?

  The councillor form of government disappeared with the emergence of Wolsey and executions of Empson and Dudley

  Act of Parliament disbands the council learned in 1510
• How did this equate to Henry's popularity?

  Ensured popularity by distancing himself from his father's regime - popularity with nobles who felt like victims of Henry VII's taxation
• Henry's initial aims?

  • establish his status as a European monarch with the use of marriage
  • He wanted to be a warrior king.
  • He wanted to re-establish the nobility.
• What was achieved in Henry's first 5 years as king?

  Marriage, victory over the scots, coronation