King+Henry+VIII

= =

__The king that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church__
This is the only king that dared to brake away from the Roman Catholic Church. []

__Back to the past__

 * Emily Spits:** Hello, this is Emily Spits here. LIVE! In Pits Burg P.A. Yes it’s true, the day EVERYONE has been waiting for. I will be taking a time machine back to the day January 15, 1547. You may ask. What will I be doing there?? I will interview the one and only HENRY THE 8th! Before I go, you people listening to this should know that Henry is not that nice of a man, he had 6 wives and killed 2 of them by chopping off their heads. One of them he did not care at all for so the only way to get rid of her without breaking religion rules is to kill. The second one he killed because he believes that she used witchcraft to get married to him. Well I guess I will just find out myself…hhooppeeffuulllyy this will not happen to me. 5 4 3 2 1POOF. Wow I’m here in London on January 15, 1547 in a palace in the Renaissance!! Hey look there he is!! So Henry, what are you doing in this grand palace?
 * Henry VIII:** I actually live here because I am the king of England!
 * E:** Wow! How did you become king?
 * H:** When my father, Henry VII, came to the power by defeating Richard III in the War of the Roses. When my father died, my older brother became king but he died after a few months, so then I became king.
 * E:** When exactly did you become king?
 * H:** Oh, I remember. It felt like it was yesterday. It was on April 21, 1509.
 * E:** And how old were you then?
 * H:** I was 14 years old.
 * E:** Wow, you were young. I was just wandering, who is this beautiful lady sitting next to you?
 * H:** She is Catherine Parr, my 6th wife.
 * E:** What happened to the other 5 wives?
 * H:** Let me go back to the beginning! The first woman I married was Catherine of Aragon. She was a beautiful woman and gave me a wonderful child named Mary, but since she was too old to produce more babies, I decided to divorce her.
 * E:** Why did you want more babies?
 * H:** Catherine and I only got female babies and most of them died except for Mary. I wanted to have a male take my place as king when I die, so I wanted to divorce my first wife. Divorcing wasn’t just a simple thing you know. In fact, it was very complicated. The Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognize, let alone support, divorce. As husbands, we could not simply decide that our marriage wasn’t working and just re-marry. If I went ahead and announced that as king of England I was allowing myself a divorce, I would have been excommunicated. I didn’t want that so I told the pope that I could get divorced because I was the king of England. The pope refused and I got so mad, that I ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant me a divorce so that I could marry Anne Boleyn. I was the only one that dared to break away from the Catholic Church.
 * E:** What did this do to England?
 * H:** Well, this was the start from England breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome. The English were mad at the Roman Church because the church just took away money from them. They also thought that the monks were lazy and didn’t do anything anymore. So what I did is I took all the monasteries most precious things and I told the rest of England that they could take whatever they wanted. I call this the Reformation.
 * E:** Why do you call this the Reformation?
 * H:** Because the religion in England was changing and the monasteries were also changing.
 * E:** So what happened after your divorce?
 * H:** I married Anne Boleyn. Oh, she truly was a witch.
 * E:** Why do you call her a witch?
 * H:** Do you want to know why? Well I will tell you why? She used witchcraft to arrange that I will marry her. I had enough of her after three years; she couldn’t even produce a male to take the power after I die! Instead I got a girl named Elizabeth. And to top that, she had failed 2 pregnancies! Then I decided to behead her in the Tower of London.
 * E:** And when did this exactly happen?
 * H:** On May 19th 1536. And eleven days later, I married my 3rd wife, Jane Seymour.
 * E:** What happened to her?
 * H:** On October 1537, Jane gave birth to the son I always wanted. He is called Edward, but 12 days after the birth of Edward, she died of septicemia. After that, I didn’t marry anyone for 3 years. I loved her so much that I want to be married next to her when I die, no offence honey.
 * E:** Who did you marry after her?
 * H:** I married Anne of Cleves next, a woman I never loved. She couldn’t speak English, and I couldn’t speak German which was the language she only knew, making it hard for us to communicate
 * E:** Did you pick more wisely for your next marriage?
 * H:** Yes, I did. This time I married Catherine Howard. She was beautiful, lively and kind. She was young though. I was 49 at that time while she was 15 or 16, I can’t remember. But when I heard that Catherine had an affair with Thomas Culpeper, I showed no mercy to them both. I executed Culpepper on December 1541 and executed Catherine on February 1542. I buried her body next to her cousin which was Anne Boleyn.
 * E:** And now your wife is this beautiful lady.
 * H:** Yes, that is correct.
 * E:** Did you know that in the future, you are named in every history class. Also, the time period where you live in now had a lot of impact to the world in the future.
 * H:** Really! : Really! I would have never expected that! Why exactly?
 * E:** Well, the Renaissance was a time period where huge chances occurred. Some examples are the inventions, such as the flush toilet which we still use today. All the people during your time came up with a ton of other inventions too. Some were developing more education, better medication, foods, and even clothing!! And there were also a lot of famous people, including you.
 * H:** And why was I so famous? Is it because I executed 2 of my wives?
 * E:** Partly. Another reason is because of the changes that you made in the Roman Catholic Church when you wanted to divorce your first wife, which you already gave the inside scoop of. Well thank you for having me here today and talking to you.
 * H:** It was my pleasure.
 * E:** I am now ready to go back to the present. I’m now stepping in the time machine and… POOF! I’m back to the present. While I was in the past, there were a few things I learned about Henry VIII. First of all, he was very a bloody king because he killed two of his wives. But most importantly, he changed the world we know today because he was the only one brave enough to step away from the Catholic church and tell the Pope that in his country, the people still practice Christianity, but in a different way. If Henry didn’t do this, you would have to learn Latin to read the Bible which is now in many languages. Also, you would have to pay the church to get married. Also, you can get divorced when you want to. Henry VIII truly was an important person.

__Citations:__
Trueman, Chris. "Anne Boleyn." 17 May 2009 <[]>. Trueman, Chris. "Catherine Howard." 17 May 2009 <[|http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ catherine_howard.htm]>. Trueman, Chris. "Henry VIII." 17 May 2009 <[|http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ henry8.htm]>. Trueman, Chris. "The Reformation." 17 May 2009 <[|http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ reformation.htm]>. "The Renaissance." 15 May 2009 < []>. "The civilization of the Renaissance in Italy." 15 May 2009 <[]>.