什麼是亨利八世

Henry VIII

英格蘭國王（1509～1547）。亨利七世之子，1509年踐祚，不久與寡嫂亞拉岡的凱瑟琳結婚。其第一任首相是沃爾西，1515～1527年間的政策幾乎完全由他掌控。1527年亨利想與凱瑟琳離婚，再娶安妮.布林，但教宗克雷芒七世拒不批准他的婚姻無效。由於沃爾西未能幫他解決這件事，因而被一腳踢開。新任首相剋倫威爾決定英國教會應脫離羅馬獨立，因而在1532年開始了一場革命，允許亨利在1533年迎娶安妮。新任主教克蘭麥則宣佈第一次婚姻無效。不久，安妮爲亨利產下一女，即後來的伊莉莎白一世。亨利因而成爲英國教會的首腦，代表了他最大的成就，但也帶來很大的後遺症。因爲亨利之前曾對教宗十分地忠實，還被冠上「信仰的扞衛者」的頭銜，結果現在被開除教籍，他因此不得不平撫各新興獨立教派的改革情緒。1530年代他的權力大增，特別是把修道院的財產收歸王室所有和徵收新的教士稅後，但他早期溫文的學者形象已被血腥的殺戮者惡名永久掩蓋。許多人因拒絕這種新秩序而被殺，如摩爾。亨利後來對安妮逐漸厭倦，1536年以通姦罪將她處死。他很快地又和簡.西摩結婚，她爲他產下一子（愛德華六世），但因分娩而死。三年後，在克倫威爾的唆使下，他與克利夫斯的安妮結了婚，但他很討厭安妮，很快就離了婚，1540年把克倫威爾送上斷頭臺。此時的亨利已變得十分偏執，還變得很胖，身體情況很糟。1540年他與凱瑟琳結婚，她在1542年因通姦罪被斬首。1542年英格蘭與蘇格蘭開戰，在財政上耗費巨大。1543年他娶了凱瑟琳.帕爾，她存活了下來。亨利死後由他的兒子愛德華繼承。

1491～1547年

Henry VIII

King of England (1509-47). Son of Henry VII, Henry married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon (the mother of Mary I), soon after his accession in 1509. His first chief minister, Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, exercised nearly complete control over policy 1515-27. In 1527 Henry pursued a divorce from Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn, but Pope Clement VII denied him an annulment. Wolsey, unable to help Henry, was ousted. The new minister, Thomas Cromwell, in 1532 initiated a revolution when he decided that the English Church should separate from Rome, allowing Henry to marry Anne in 1533. A new archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, declared the first marriage annulled. A daughter, Elizabeth I, was born soon after. Becoming head of the Church of England represented Henry's major achievement, but had wide-ranging consequences. Henry, once profoundly devoted to the papacy and rewarded with the title Defender of the Faith, was excommunicated, and he was obliged to settle the nature of the newly independent church. In the 1530s his power was greatly enlarged, especially by transferring to the crown the wealth of the monasteries and by new clerical taxes, but his earlier reputation as a man of learning became buried under his enduring fame as a man of blood. Many, including St. Thomas More, were killed because they refused to accept the new order. The king grew tired of Anne, and in 1536 she was executed for adultery. He immediately married Jane Seymour, who bore him a son, Edward VI, but died in childbirth. Three years later, at Cromwell's instigation, he married Anne of Cleves, but he hated her and demanded a quick divorce, and he had Cromwell beheaded in 1540. By now Henry was becoming paranoid, as well as enormously fat and unhealthy. In 1540 he married Catherine Howard, but had her beheaded for adultery in 1542. In 1542 he waged a financially ruinous war against Scotland. In 1543 he married Catherine Parr, who survived him. He was succeeded on his death by his son Edward.