Henry VIII and His 6 Wives: Brilliant Tactician, Intelligent

HENRY VIII AND HIS 6 WIVES
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Ethics
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History has always provided a platform or a mirror through which the present generation can learn and reflect on the events and deeds committed in the past, by the people who lived then. It makes us appreciate as well as wonder what might have been. England has been blessed with a rich history hinged on monarchies that have ruled the land since antiquity. Among the most crucial, was the reign of King Henry VIII. He came from the Tudor family of the sixteenth century England. Being the second son to King Henry VII, he became king at the tender age of ten, due to a cruel blow of fate, when his elder brother, Arthur, died. His legacy was marked by cruelty, selfishness and absolute tyranny.
Henry VIII was a blend of both good and bad. He was a brilliant tactician, intelligent and always wanted to learn more. Additionally, he had a charming personality. He was one of the classical types. He loved everything classical, from the music to the art. He also loved dancing and poems in equal measure. When it comes to administration, he loved armor. To some extent though, King Henry VIII seemed to be more into women than he was into the leadership he succeeded. When it came to exercising cruelty, the king beheaded two of his own wives. For three others, he divorced them, and for the final one, he turned her down in a very embarrassing and humiliating manner (Norton, 2015).
Having learnt from the experiences of his childhood about succession from the manner in which he took over the kingdom after the untimely death of his elder brother, King Henry VIII was extremely obsessed with having a son. This was mainly because he wanted his own heir to the throne. He remained one of the most powerful, not only in England, but also in the known world by then. Additionally, he is also one of the most controversial kings to run the English monarchy. Perhaps the most famous of everything surrounding king Henry VIII was the six wives he had married(Ford,2005).These wives were the embodiment of the king’s cruel and tyrannical nature, as they were either beheaded, divorced, died, survived, beheaded or divorced, respectively. The king had two needs from a woman, which mainly drove him in his search for a wife. The first was for companionship, and the second, was to get a son. It seems like the impact of his brother’s death very early in life, left a permanent scar in his mind, since even after getting a son, he still feared that the son wouldn’t live to see his adulthood. This kept him looking for more wives (Norton, 2015).
Coming from Spain, daughter to Ferdinand and Isabella was Henry’s first wife. She was called Catherine of Aragon. She was a proud princess. At the time, there was a growing political tensions in Spain ,and her parents saw it fit to look for a royal husband, so as to safeguard the country’s peaceful environment back home(Weir,n.d.).She was betrothed to Arthur, Henry VIII’s elder brother, while she was still the age of three. She however, waited till she was sixteen years old, to set off for England, where she met and wedded Arthur in London. The marriage however, was shortlived, lasting for only six mon...