70 Fun Facts About Henry VIII

Where was Henry born in June 1491?

He was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, and never expected to be king.

Which elder brother of Henry died in 1502, only 20 weeks after marrying his Spanish bride?

Ten-year-old Henry inherited his duties, his title and eventually his widow.

At the age of two, Henry was appointed to which post?

His father collected lucrative offices for the infant so as not to share them with great families.

How old was Henry when he succeeded his father in April 1509?

Within weeks he declared he would marry his brother's widow after all, calling it his father's dying wish.

Which two unpopular ministers of his father did Henry arrest after his coronation and execute in 1510?

Politically motivated executions became one of his primary tactics.

Who was Henry's first wife?

She was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and the widow of Henry's brother.

Which mistress bore Henry an acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, in 1519?

The boy was made Duke of Richmond and died in 1536, just as Parliament weighed a bill that might have let him inherit.

At which 1513 battle, fought while Henry was campaigning in France, was King James IV of Scotland killed?

Queen Catherine oversaw the English army in his absence.

Which minor 1513 victory over the French did Henry seize on for propaganda?

He then took Tournai and kept it for five years.

To seal peace in 1514, Henry married his sister Mary to which elderly king?

She had previously been pledged to the young Charles, future emperor.

At what lavish 1520 meeting near Calais did Henry spend a fortnight with Francis I of France?

The air of competition killed any hope of renewing the Treaty of London.

Which title did Pope Leo X give Henry in 1521 for his book defending the seven sacraments?

British monarchs still use it, though a later pope rescinded the grant after Henry's excommunication.

Which churchman ran Henry's domestic and foreign policy as Lord Chancellor from 1514 to 1529?

He fell when he failed to secure the annulment, was charged with praemunire, and died awaiting a treason trial.

Which Old Testament book did Henry cite to argue his marriage to his brother's widow Catherine was cursed?

Martin Luther argued the Bible allowed polygamy but not divorce, so Henry should just take a second wife.

Which papal legate was sent to England in 1529 to hear the annulment case, with no power to decide?

After less than two months the pope recalled the case to Rome, where it was clear it would never re-emerge.

Which pope refused Henry's annulment and later excommunicated him?

The papacy was effectively controlled by Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V.

Which archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry's first marriage void in 1533?

He sat in judgment at a special court at Dunstable Priory and five days later validated the Boleyn marriage.

Which act of 1534 declared Henry the only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England?

Refusing the accompanying oath became high treason punishable by death.

Which chancellor was executed in 1535 on the evidence of one conversation with Richard Rich?

He had carefully avoided breaking the Treasons Act, which did not forbid mere silence.

Which bishop of Rochester was executed with More for denying the king was head of the Church?

He is counted among Henry's victims as the one cardinal the king had killed.

What was the great northern uprising of October 1536 against Henry's religious changes called?

Henry promised the 20,000–40,000 rebels a pardon, then executed their leader Robert Aske and about 200 others.

Who led the northern rebels of 1536?

He told the rebels they had won and could go home; Henry then had him arrested and executed for treason.

How did Henry dress the day after learning that his first wife had died in January 1536?

Anne Boleyn miscarried a son on the day of Catherine's funeral, three weeks later.

On what grounds did Cranmer probably annul the marriage to Anne Boleyn two days before her execution?

In canon law that placed the marriage within a forbidden degree of affinity, just like the first.

Where was Anne Boleyn executed at 8 am on 19 May 1536?

Five men, including her brother George, had been executed two days earlier on charges of adultery with her.

How soon after Anne Boleyn's execution did Henry become engaged to his third wife?

They married ten days after that, in Anne's own closet at Whitehall, with Bishop Stephen Gardiner officiating.

Which wife gave Henry his longed-for son in October 1537 and died twelve days later?

She was buried at Windsor, and Henry was eventually interred beside her.

Which act of 1535–36 united England with its western neighbour as a single nation?

It was followed by a Second Succession Act declaring both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate.

Which painter was sent to Cleves to portray Henry's prospective fourth bride?

Henry declared he loved her not, but the portrait was probably accurate and the painter stayed in favour.

How long did Henry's fourth marriage last before it was annulled in July 1540?

It was never consummated; the bride's prior betrothal to Francis of Lorraine gave extra grounds.

What title did Henry's fourth wife receive after the annulment, along with two houses and an allowance?

Catherine of Aragon, by contrast, had been demoted to Princess Dowager as Arthur's widow.

Henry married the 17-year-old Catherine Howard on 28 July 1540, the same day as what other event?

He gave his new queen Cromwell's lands and a vast array of jewels.

With which courtier did Catherine Howard have an affair after her marriage to Henry?

Her secretary Dereham, an earlier lover, exposed the affair under questioning; all three died.

Which wealthy widow became Henry's sixth and final wife in July 1543?

A reformer at heart, she argued with him over religion and reconciled him with his daughters.

Which 1543 act restored Mary and Elizabeth to the order of inheritance after their brother?

It also let Henry settle the further succession in his will, which excluded the Scottish Stuarts.

The dismantling of whose shrine at Canterbury in 1538 led Pope Paul III to excommunicate Henry?

In 1540 Henry sanctioned the destruction of shrines to saints across the kingdom.

Roughly how many religious houses had been dissolved by January 1540?

A fifth of England's landed wealth changed hands, bringing the crown some £90,000 a year.

What was the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535?

Cromwell needed it once taxes formerly paid to Rome went to the Crown.

At which 1542 battle were the Scots of James V defeated, weeks before that king's death?

Henry then tried to marry his son to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, in the campaign called the Rough Wooing.

What name was later given to Henry's eight-year war to force a marriage between his son and the infant Mary of Scots?

The Scottish Parliament rejected the Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543.

Which French port did Henry personally capture in September 1544?

He kept it for eight years under the Treaty of Camp, then had to hand it back for two million crowns.

How far did Francis I's attempted invasion of England get in the summer of 1545?

His forces were repulsed in the Battle of the Solent.

What was Henry's waist measurement late in life?

He had to be moved with mechanical devices and was covered in painful boils.

What happened to Henry in a jousting accident on 24 January 1536?

The fall left him unconscious for two hours; the festering ulcer and his mood swings are traced to it.

A 2010 study proposed which blood type to explain Henry's decline and his wives' many failed pregnancies?

It would be consistent with McLeod syndrome; the old syphilis theory is dismissed by most historians.

How old was Henry when he died on 28 January 1547?

He died at Whitehall on what would have been his father's 90th birthday.

The sarcophagus Henry took from Wolsey for his own tomb was later used for whose tomb at St Paul's?

Henry's own grand tomb was never finished; he lies in a vault at St George's Chapel beside Jane Seymour.

How old was Henry's son when he succeeded him as king in 1547?

Sixteen executors named in Henry's will chose Edward Seymour, the boy's uncle, as Lord Protector.

Which folk song is often, and wrongly, said to have been written by Henry?

It uses an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.

What is Henry's best-known genuine musical composition?

Also called The Kynges Ballade; he played lute, organ, virginals and recorders and could sight-read.

Which palace, like Christ Church and Trinity College, did Henry take over from Wolsey?

Nonsuch, by contrast, he built from scratch.

How many tapestries did Henry hang in his palaces?

James V of Scotland managed just 200.

To roughly what size did Henry expand the Tudor navy from the seven ships he inherited?

He is traditionally counted a founder of the Royal Navy and set up the council for marine causes, ancestor of the Admiralty.

What were Henry VIII's coastal fortifications from Kent to Cornwall, built from 1538 with monastery stone, called?

They guarded against the French or Spanish invasion his break with Rome had invited.

In 1542 Henry changed his Irish title from Lord of Ireland to what?

Many Irish had regarded the pope as their true overlord, since Ireland was originally a papal grant.

What was Henry's personal motto, embroidered on his clothes with a heart symbol?

His emblems were the Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis.

How large was the fortune Henry inherited from his frugal father, in contemporary money?

His wars and dynastic ambitions had exhausted the surplus by the mid-1520s.

Which historian argued that Thomas Cromwell, not Henry, drove a 'Tudor revolution in government'?

He called Henry an ego-centric monstrosity who owed his reign's successes to better men around him.

How many peers did Henry have executed during his reign, according to the tally in his biography?

Plus two wives, four leading public servants, six close attendants, one cardinal and numerous abbots.

Which languages was the young Henry fluent in besides English?

He also learned some Italian and was the first English king with a modern humanist education.

Which English Bible translator was executed abroad and burned at Henry's behest?

Ironically, Henry's own political theology of obedience drew on Luther via Tyndale.

Which act, pushed by the Duke of Norfolk, reasserted orthodox answers to six doctrinal questions?

Cranmer nonetheless kept his post, and the drift away from orthodoxy resumed.

The princess born to Anne Boleyn in September 1533 was named in honour of whom?

She was born slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533, a bitter disappointment to a father who wanted a son.

Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, a date that would have been whose 90th birthday?

He died at the Palace of Whitehall aged 55.

Which later king was buried in the same vault as Henry VIII at St George's Chapel, Windsor?

Henry lies there next to Jane Seymour; Charles was placed in the vault over 100 years later.

How many executors did Henry's will name to form a regency council for the young Edward VI?

They chose Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and Jane Seymour's brother, as Lord Protector.

Which of these palaces did Henry build rather than confiscate from Wolsey?

He was also involved in improving King's College Chapel, Cambridge and Westminster Abbey.

Which body did Henry set up to oversee the navy, the basis of the later Admiralty?

His reign saw the navy begin to shift from boarding tactics towards gunnery.

Which Irish noble led a 'Catholic crusade' against Henry in 1534 and besieged Dublin?

The son of the Earl of Kildare, he had the Archbishop of Dublin, John Alen, murdered.

Which bishop married Henry and Jane Seymour at Whitehall, ten days after their engagement?

The wedding took place in Anne Boleyn's closet at the Palace of Whitehall.