To What Extent Was Responsible For Henry Viii's Failure

Improved Essays
I agree with this view that Henry VIII was responsible for the English foreign policy failures in the years 1509-1529, and this is because he was too keen to establish his presence in international affairs and believed that he had to demonstrate his strengths to his subjects. This way of thought was due to his peaceful rise to the throne and because of his confident personality; Henry wanted to win victories on the battlefield and wanted to establish his image of a Renaissance warrior.

Henry’s first failure was in France, 1512. Henry persuaded his advisers that a foreign campaign would benefit England’s reputation, so he led an army to France in hope to revive the hostilities there, but achieved little as the expenditure was rapidly increasing and the soldiers, whom were ill or suffering from disease, then proceeded to quickly return back to England. Apart
…show more content…
Henry did not self-indulge in financial or any matters, he stated what he wanted and relied on other people; Henry VIII was practically the opposite of his father, Henry VII. Henry also spent his wealth, he enjoyed grand feasts and owning luxurious items; he had the true image of a King. This could have led to his and England’s weakness, as the French and Habsburgs monarchies were great in size and wealth, and England couldn’t even compete with them, it was too weak.

Another aspect was that Henry didn’t and couldn’t have a lot of victories, this was due to England being poor. Instead, the 20 year old French successor, Francis I invaded northern Italy and recaptured Milan from the Habsburgs. Francis, like Henry, wanted to be the centre of attention and he could afford to. Another person who made Henry look weaker, was Charles V who became the King of Spain, The Holy Roman Emperor and the Duke in the Netherlands, he was the ultimate ruler, whereas Henry lacked great titles so couldn't compete and couldn't improve his ‘warrior

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Shakespeare's King Henry V is a play set in the early fifteenth century about the King of England conquering France and taking the throne. This play shows King Henry’s leadership qualities throughout the story such as wisdom, integrity, determination, and graciousness. My career in the health informatics field relates closely to the leadership qualities represented by King Henry. King Henry V shows wisdom throughout the play in many scenes. For example, King Henry thoroughly thinks about his plan to conquer France, before he actually does it.…

    • 131 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Henry VIII was, during the younger part of his life, active and reportedly handsome, extremely vain, and a symbol for all things manly. He enjoyed accenting with doublets stuffed at the shoulders, duckbill shoes, and codpieces. He was also never lacking in an abundance of fur and jewels to showcase his wealth. He was also described as being the best-dressed sovereign in the world. Subsequently, his methods, such as slashing and puffing and stuffing sleeves and…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A similar problem is seen in the reformation of the justice system, although his ideas looked great on paper he did not take into consideration that moving all the courses to the great court houses and making courts available for the less fortunate would flood those institutions with cases and soon overload them. He might have been able to make his system more successful if he had been able to adjust the capacity of the court houses accordingly, but did no such thing condeming his idea to fail. The attempt to stop enclosures, although a great idea, was shortlived due to him not seeing how beneficial it might have become in the future and abandoned it too quickly for a problem that was more short lived. The only real success he had was in the hinderence of people abusing the benefit of the clergy and it was not his idea but something that had been initiated by Henry VII. In conclusion although he had great ideas and did lead England through some revolutionary changes, he was ultimately not very successful in his service to Henry VIII as most of his changes were…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although Wolsey was able to celebrate success at the beginning of this juridical reformation and served his King successfully by making the system more efficient, meaning that his subjects were subjected to less waiting time and the system had less chance of being corrupted, it was eventually corrupted and abused. This turned a success into a failure and his own goals of removing threats to him from Henry, so that they would have no further influence, brought about another failure. He not only failed to serve his King, as his duties suffered when his timetable was overcome by too many court cases, but also failed to serve himself or the country. As a direct result of the Amicable Grant and the threatening poverty lead the problem of enclosure…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Henry Viii Personality

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The injuries may have contributed to the change in Henry’s personality that later led to the well-known tyrant today; the English…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you agree with the view expressed in source three that the diplomatic situation was the main reason for Henry’s failure to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine by 1529? It is obvious that there is more than one reason behind Henry’s failure to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine by 1529. It is however possible to identify that the diplomatic situation did not help his case in getting an annulment and was most certainly a hindrance. The diplomatic status was of great concern to Henry because at this time the Pope was under the influence of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Henry would require the Pope to allow his marriage to be annulled but due to the circumstances Charles would have a large input into the decision. Henry was greatly in love with Anne Boleyn by this time and desperately wanted to get married to her to produce a male heir to the throne.…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this period it became apparent that Wolsey impeccably gifted when dealing with foreign quarrels and consequently peace conferences. After the war with France was over and Henry’s alliance with Spain eventually shattered, Wolsey turned his skills towards peace with France. The Anglo-French treaty of 1514 saw Mary Tudor and King Louis XII of France. Wolsey was becoming a real power from behind the throne, and everybody knew this, apart from the King himself. Wolsey, never letting Henry guess who was really running parliament and the country, was firmly holding the position of Henry VIII’s right hand man.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Prior to Henry VII’s success at the Battle of Bosworth Britain was a fundamentally broken country split between two powerful royal families who benefitted from the broken feudal system. Henry VII made extensive changes to the feudal system in response to this to effectively reduce the power of the opposing house and make his house unopposed. Firstly, he banned all private armies with a punishment of treason which reduced his opposition immensely and damaged the ability of opposing claimants to raise successful armies. Secondly, he heavily taxed Barons and imposed bonds and recognizances to secure their loyalty through underhanded tactics. His heavy taxation severely inhibited the ability of Barons to raise armies and fund Henry VII’s opposition.…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While he was immature in some areas of life, Henry V fit the…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    King Henry Viii Influence

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    English life during the fifteenth century was in a way a mess. During this time the church has been separated from the throne and multiple reform movements have taken place. Amidst the mess-free thought has spurred the development of art and of exploration. Life in England hasn't particularly been hindered by all the religious turmoil, but rather it had given people the ability to think and develop what they have believed in. During the Renaissance, he was noted as a humanist philosopher.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    (Argument by example) Both Henry 8 and Elizabeth kept England unified during their reigns and loved their country more than their personal desires, the people saw this and strongly supported and loved them throughout their reign. If we talk about Henry 8, that despite the fact that he was quite ill, he did suppress every rebellion during his reign. It helped him to establish his authority in England. Another obvious example - 1.…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Economics also played a role in England's withdrawal from the Roman Catholic Church. Major debt incurred for elaborate parties, art and entertainment at Court put the monarchy in financial difficulty. King Henry also spent large sums of money on military campaigns. One example, his campaign to conquer the town of Tournai France which cost him £ 2.5 million the equivalent of £ 6.5 billion today and forced him into bankruptcy (Oloffson). Facing bankruptcy, Henry started to have affairs with other women who would willingly give him money to help build his royal reserves (“Henry”).…

    • 192 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Henry’s was a harsh rule with little structure or coherence in the empire; his primary goal was victorious conquest.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Heroism In A Farewell To Arms

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    Henry’s actions whether he believed so or not, were very honorable. What Henry experienced during this particular time significantly impacted him and helped him break away from the blueprint of the “average…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What ended up mattering most was Catherine. The goal of this paper is to elucidate these changes within Henry and those with whom he had relationships with. Concerning the war, Henry’s casual, careless attitude deteriorated throughout. In Book I, it’s apparent that he doesn’t care much about the war.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays