Henry VIII
King of England from 1509 to 1547 (1491–1547)
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Ireland from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547.
Henry was born in Greenwich as the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, was heir apparent and married Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. Arthur died in 1502, and Henry was created Prince of Wales in 1504 and acceded to the throne upon his father's death in 1509, marrying Catherine with a papal dispensation. He was described as an attractive, educated, and accomplished king during the early years of his reign.
Henry grew dissatisfied with the marriage to Catherine, appealing to Pope Clement VII for an annulment. Clement refused, and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared the marriage void in the eyes of the Church of England in 1533. Clement objected to Cranmer's verdict and excommunicated Henry from the Catholic Church. Henry then passed the Acts of Supremacy, establishing himself as Supreme Head of the Church of England and thereby relieving his realms from obedience to the pope. He dissolved Catholic monasteries and seized their wealth, contributing to the English Reformation.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Henry VIII” as king of England from 1509 to 1547 (1491–1547). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of England from 1509 to 1547 (1491–1547). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q38370. VIAF identifies the subject as 172419710. The Library of Congress control number is n79113093. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1491, 1547, 1509 and 1502.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry VIII”, its source revision and the description used here.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry VIII” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.