Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII (1491-1547) was a Tudor king of England, the son of that dynasty's founder, Henry VII.

In 1521, Henry wrote a scathing Counterblaste against Martin Luther in defense of the Catholic Church. This led the Pope to award Henry the title "Defender of the Faith."

However, he did not defend the faith for long. Henry was unsatisfied with his wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had not produced a male heir for Henry in nearly twenty years of marriage; their only child was a daughter, Mary Tudor. He petitioned the Pope for anullment, but the Pope, beholden to Catherine's uncle who had become a military threat to the Papal States, refused. Henry began the English Reformation. In 1530 England officially became a Protestant kingdom, with the King as the highest religious authority, and Henry granted himself a divorce.

Henry's second wife (he would ultimately have six) produced only one child who survived infancy, and she too was a girl, Elizabeth. Henry had only one legitimate son, Edward VI. (He had at least one and possibly as many as four bastard sons who could not inherit his throne.) Edward succeeded Henry upon his death in 1547 but died young without marrying or having children. Edward was succeeded by Mary, who restored Catholicism as England's official state religion, and bore no children in her brief marriage to Spain's King Philip II. His third legitimate child, Elizabeth, became Queen of England in 1558 and continued to reign until being deposed in 1588 following the invasion and conquest of England by the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth was restored by a popular uprising in 1598. Reputed to be the "Virgin Queen," Elizabeth also gave Henry no grandchildren, and the Tudor dynasty would die with her.