Henry also wanted more power because he wanted Europe to know that England is a powerful country and he wanted a son because he thought that men were more powerful than women. He got more power buy being famous for marrying six wives and spiting from the church. Edward VI Edward born in 1537 was a very smart educated boy and was interested in politics and things like that (I personally don’t know why). So he decides to change the church to his liking. The first thing he did was change the prayers books into English, the he abolished the Catholic Mass and was replaced with the Holy Communion, he turned Church interiors plain and simple, he told priests to wear plain clothing, he said priests couldn’t get married, he said you couldn’t buy your way to heaven and finally traditions were banned such as Christmas.
Wolsey changed areas of government such as the justice system and revised areas such as finances and parliament structure. His relationship with the King was significant, as he would be the higher power and would need to negotiate with the King and yet still get the correct decision. Wolsey managed his relationship with henry well, he tried to get the right outcome for the country but never forced it upon Henry, not damaging their relationship and keeping Wolsey in power. Wolsey had a poor approach with justice; in court he gained a poor reputation for taking bribes and his relationship with England’s nobility was poor to say the least. The financial approach was a tough period in finance; with a King that wanted to spend and go to war, and Wolsey had no choice but to bow to his majesty’s request.
The Success of ‘The Edict of Nantes’ in 1598. The Edict of Nantes in 1598 was only a temporary solution to the religious wars in France from 1562-1598. There were several attempts to bring peace and unity to France during this time but each attempt was met with hostility by both sides and a common ground was not found until the reign of Henry IV. The problems with the Edict of Nantes’ predecessors were that they heavily favoured the Catholics and never met the demands of the Huguenots. The likes of the Edict of Saint-Germaine and Ambroise both gave small successions to the Huguenots but not what they desired.
Henry had to bring stability back to England. The king needed to win over the nobles if he was to remain secure as king, he needed a positive relationship with them. There were some nobles who did support Henry because of their Lancastrian backgrounds, then there were some that supported him due to them seeing him as mean to social and political advancement, then there were the nobles that opposed him; the Lambert and Warbeck rebellions show this. Getting the nobles to support him was a huge challenge that would take years for the king to accomplish as there were more nobles than the king. Over the course of the fifteenth century the English nobility had grown in power, however Henry VII was quite fortunate that 25% of leading noble lines had died out.
Although Henry did eventually get his Heir to crown it didn’t happen till’ Edward VI in 1537. This means that Henry’s biggest and most important aim was technically a failure during the early years of his reign. Another important goal that Henry VIII wanted to achieve in the early years of his Reign was to bring Honour and Glory to England and for him to be known as a true English warrior to the rest of Europe. Henry did somewhat achieve this goal with his wars with France and Scotland. The battle of the Spurs (1513) and the Battle of Flodden (1513), although to some considered small skirmishes, did make the countries of Europe start to notice England as a possible threat and certainly now knew about Henry VIII.
Some may say that Henry was largely successful in achieving his aims with his biggest success being the battle of the spurs in 1513. Henry VIII want to be seen as a different king to his father who had a bad reputation for being aware of his money and not engaging in many wars which the nobilities did not like. He started by giving away the crowns land and gave many titles to the nobilities to prove that he would be different to his father. Catherine of Aragon, who had married Henry’s brother Arthur was still kept in England after Arthur had died. Henry had immediately married her after all the delays that his father had caused.
However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country. Henry's father, Henry VII, left the country in quite a stable state economically, but Henry devoted most of England's money into his campaigns to take over France, because he believed had a right to the Throne. To some extent source 4 supports the idea that the foreign policy did fail due to the lack of resources, because it states that “the young warrior family accepted the fact that royal finances could not support a repetition of the campaign of 1513”. This quote implies that the lack of resources seems to be the dominant reason for stopping Henry from invading France and therefore source 4 supports the statement to some extent. In source 4 we also learn that much must have depended on diplomatic relations with Maximilian and Ferdinand, however Henry’s allies proved unfaithful and unreliable.
Henry was exposed to the pull of the factions but a new aristocratic approach to the government strengthened the conservative faction however with the arrest of Duke of Norfolk (1547) and the dismissal of Gardiner from the Privy Chamber the reformists gained the much needed advantage . This shows that there was a threat to the stability of the government as Henrys most trusted councillors seemed to become more radically involved in the faction rivalry during the last 8 years of Henrys reign. This may have added pressure on Henry and his deteriorating health thus he may have not been able
They claimed the ‘precedent of Richard II’s minority to support their actions.’ Though the council did rule fairly on the whole, it created a big problem. Henry VI became king at the age of 11 months after Henry V died in August 31, 1422. However before Henry V died, he had made many plans for his sons minority on his death bed. John, Duke of Bedford, was appointed senior regent of the realm and was in charge of the ongoing war in France. During Bedford’s absence, the government of England was headed by Henry V’s other brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, who was appointed Protector and Defender of the Realm.
Hank is not a fan of Catholicism to say the least: “There you see the hand of that awful power, the Roman Catholic Church. In two or three little centuries it had converted a nation of men to a nation of worms” (43). Hank experiences that without title and heritage people are nothing in King Arthur’s time and he feels this is because of the church. He says that the church “invented the divine right of kings” (44). He is also proud that his knights who carry advertisements will influence people in a way that the Church cannot control: “This would undermine the Church.