Elizabeth's emotional attachment to her husband has been much-debated. In truth, she had known all hersketch of Henry VII as a toddler life that she would never marry a man of her own choice. In the end, her mother, Elizabeth Woodville, conspired with Margaret Beaufort for Elizabeth to marry Henry Tudor, exiled son of Henry VI's half-brother. Henry was, by all accounts, grateful for the match. He appreciated its political implications. He also respected his new queen and was faithful to his marriage vows, an unusual trait in a king. Upon her marriage, Elizabeth entered a semi-retirement - she was queen and her duty was to produce as many heirs as possible. Nine months after her marriage, she gave birth to her first child at St Swithin's Priory in Winchester, a prince named Arthur. Henry and Elizabeth had wed on 18 January 1486 at Westminster Abbey in London; Prince Arthur was born 20 September 1486. Henry VII could rest assured that his dynasty was becoming secure. But it was only on 28 June 1491, when another healthy prince was born, this time at Greenwich Palace, that Henry VII could breathe a sigh of relief. This second son was a necessary insurance policy for the new Tudor dynasty. Childhood mortality was high and diseases such as small pox, the sweating sickness, and the plague were rife throughout England. A king needed as many healthy heirs as possible, and the birth of a second son was an occasion for celebration.

On 27 February 1490, Prince Arthur was titled prince of Wales at Westminster Palace in London; this was the real beginning of a tradition that continues to this day. And in 1494, Arthur's baby brother was titled Duke of York, the traditional title of the king's brother. At this early age, all we know of Prince Henry was that he was considered a handsome and precocious toddler, but one would expect such descriptions of the king's son. He did not share his brother's fair coloring or slight build. Prince Henry was a sturdy, athletic dark haired boy noted for his energy and temper. Just one year after his birth, his mother bore another daughter; this child was called Elizabeth and she died two years later. It was that following year she would be pregnant with another daughter, Isabella Elizabeth. She and Henry VII were considered good and affectionate parents, but they never lost sight of the political importance of their children. Together they decided that Prince Henry, like most second sons, was destined for the church, and his early schooling was planned accordingly. This strong emphasis upon theology and its esoteric debates remained with Henry for the rest of his life and made him feel uniquely qualified to interpret religious law during the 1520s.

In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15, after only 20 weeks of marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry, who then became Prince of Wales. Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Prince Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon, youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. For the new Prince of Wales to marry his brother's widow, a dispensation from the Pope was normally required to overrule the impediment of affinity because, as told in the Book of Leviticus, "If a brother is to marry the wife of a brother they will remain childless." Catherine swore that her marriage to Prince Arthur had not been consummated. Still, both the English and Spanish parties agreed that an additional papal dispensation of affinity would be prudent to remove all doubt regarding the legitimacy of the marriage.

Arthur's death was was a political tragedy as well. The young prince had been married to Princess Catherine of Aragon on 14 November 1501 at St.Paul's Cathedral, London. The daughter of the 'Catholic Kings' of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, Catherine's marriage to the Tudor heir had marked the high point of Henry VII's foreign diplomacy. His grip on the English throne had long been considered both illegitimate and untenable by most European powers, except in cases where it suited their interests to pretend otherwise. But a bond of marriage between the house of Tudor and the ruling dynasty of Spain gave Henry's rule a stamp of approval. He was now allied with one of the most powerful ruling families in Europe. Prince Henry met his sister-in-law and future wife on this momentous occasion, heading the procession that led her to the cathedral.

When Arthur died Henry's life at age 10 changed dramatically. Instead of just being the duke of York, he was now the Prince of Whales. Despite the changes that would be made for his future, the next thirty years of his life, he would remain a dutiful son of the church. This would prove to be ironic. since his most significant historical achievement was the destruction of the Roman Catholic faith in England. The impact of the Henrician reformation would forever the course of English history. Henry VIII, who would grow up to indulge in endless diplomatic squabbles and foreign wars, and would leave no grand achievement beyond his own borders. Vast amounts of money that would be spent on these foreign entanglements - and many lives lost - but, in the end, nothing would change in the European balance of power. England, would constantly pull between the two great continental powers of France and the Holy Roman Empire, nearly bankrupted itself in an attempt to become respected and feared.

Henry VII would begin to prepare Henry VIII for life as a king. He would learn to be come skilled in things such as marksmanship, horseback riding, swordsmanship hunting, and jousting. This part of Henry's life was probably his favorite only in this sense. Everything else was miserable. Once he went back to court, he was happily reunited with his beloved younger sister Isabella, and his soon best friend, Charles Brandon. By the command of King Henry VII, Prince Henry VIII was not allowed to play amongst the many children in court and was shut away with his tutors to learn everything he needed to know politically to become king. Another reason for his being shut away was his health. He could not get sick. His life was much too important for the Tudor dynasty. If he were to die, it would have been a catastrophe.

On the off chance he was allowed to have some free time three would play on in the court yards, getting into trouble, playing chase games. He was limited to playing with his sister and Charles. Charles's father had served Henry VII and was loved by him. Henry VII had taken Charles under his wing and Prince Henry grew attached to him. Eventually Henry's sister Isabella would have to leave court to further her studies, which left him much more time to spend with Charles alone. Because Arthur was dead, Henry had no real older brother to show him the ropes to manhood. His father, although he tried, was always much too busy with greater matters. Though Henry will never admit it, he owes much of his athleticism and skill in sports to Charles. At a young age he had already decided he would take good care of his friend, mostly out of pity for Charles's unfortunate up bringing.

Luckily for Prince Henry, his father spent the last years of his reign establishing good relationships with other monarchs and avoiding expensive war; also, his fondness for extorting money from an unwilling populace never wavered. He left his son a king's greatest gift - a healthy treasury. Ironically, one of Henry VIII's first acts as king was to execute his father's most productive, and hence most notorious, tax collectors. But Henry VII never really decided whether he wanted to marry Prince Henry to Catherine of Aragon. He kept the young princess in England for seven years while he toyed with the idea. Her living conditions steadily deteriorated; she was miserably unhappy, many of her Spanish attendants were sent home, she lacked money for even basic necessities. Food and adequate clothing were constant concerns. She struggled to bear her hardships with the serene and regal dignity that was ingrained in her character as a princess of Spain, and such calm in the face of deprivation impressed young Prince Henry. It is certainly true that even years later, in the midst of an acrimonious separation, he never lost his respect for Catherine . This respect was always tinged with a bit of fear. He was keenly aware of her great ancestry and extensive education, her self-deprecating wit and complete mastery of all feminine tasks. Even as queen of England, she took particular pride in sewing and mending Henry's shirts.

They had little contact during the later years of Henry VII's reign, only meeting occasionally at formal portrait of Henry VIII, c1509 events. Henry was formally promised in marriage to Katharine on 23 June 1503; the treaty stated that he would marry Catherine on his fifteenth birthday, 28 June 1505, and that her parents send over 100,000 crowns worth of plate and jewels in addition to the dowry she had given when married to Prince Arthur. Henry VII was a stickler on the dowry issue, refusing to allow the marriage to be solemnized, much less celebrated and consummated, until the money arrived. But the Spaniards were as loathe to part with money as Henry. So 1505 came and went with no marriage though Prince Henry referred in letters to Katharine as his 'most dear and well-beloved consort, the princess my wife'. But his father was still king, and his father refused to allow the marriage. To strengthen his bargaining power with the Spaniards, he had Prince Henry make a formal protest to Richard Fox, the bishop of Winchester, disowning the marriage contract. Both parties prevaricated - until 1509, when Henry VII suddenly died at the age of 52, and his headstrong son, chafing at his father's authority, was free to make his own decisions.

To the surprise of all, including the Spaniards, he promptly announced he would marry Catherine and crown her queen of England.

Henry was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey on June 23, 1509. He had married Katharine on June, 11 at Grey Friars Church in Greenwich and she shared his coronation. It was a splendid event and continued throughout midsummer with much celebration and spectacle. There is an account of the coronation at the Primary Sources section. It was soon clear that the young king, who turned 18 just a few days after his coronation, had little interest in the day-to-day business of government. While it is true that Henry was a vocal participant at council meetings, the early years of his reign were devoted more to enjoyment than the drudgery of administration. He was content to allow trusted nobles and ecclesiastics to rule in his name - William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey and later 2d duke of Norfolk, Bishop Richard Foxe, and, beginning around 1514, Thomas Wolsey.

As mentioned earlier, one of the first acts of Henry's reign was a particularly brutal one, especially designed to benefit his popularity. He ordered the executions of his father's most productive and hated tax collectors, Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson. It was a bloody beginning for his reign and a taste of things to come. Certainly it pleased the English people for most tax collectors were hated, and Dudley and Empson had been particularly ruthless. But their efficiency had the complete support of King Henry VII, whose orders they followed. A problem had emerged for the new king - how could he execute the tax collectors when their only crime was to obey their king? He resorted, for the first but not the last time, to judicial murder, charging the men with 'constructive treason'. It was a wholly fictitious charge which no one fully understood, even those at the trial. This cold-blooded act pleased the people and demonstrated Henry's desire for popular approval. But it also revealed a ruthlessness to his character that grew more pronounced as the years passed. Many historians argue that Henry grew tyrannical only after Catherine of Aragon failed to provide an heir but the evidence proves otherwise. If someone could not be legally executed, the king simply invented a new charge. Before leaving for war in France in 1509, he executed Edmund de la Pole, his Plantagenet cousin held prisoner in the Tower since Henry VII's reign. A benign spirit, locked away for most of his life, Edmund was no threat to anyone. But Henry executed him to remind his subjects that, though he would be in France, any challenge to his authority would be met with grave displeasure.

His marriage to Catherine was very happy, at least during these early years. She had a more reserved character than her husband and blushed at his ribald jests, but she entered into the spirit of frivolity which pervaded their court. There was dancing and music, for Henry was a splendid dancer and musician; he composed songs and wrote poetry. He also enjoys hunting, sometimes tiring ten horses during a single hunt, and jousting; by all accounts, he was the greatest athlete at the court. And he was a dedicated and affectionate husband. Everything he built was decorated with an intertwined H and C, and Catherine 's pomegranates were carved next to Tudor roses. He called himself the 'Knight of the Loyal Heart' and bowed before his queen after each grueling tournament. He also involved Catherine in the seemingly endless visits of foreign dignitaries, inviting the ambassadors to her apartments and openly seeking her advice and opinion. It was clear that they loved and respected one another, and those early years made his eventual disinterest all the more painful for the queen to bear.

Catherine bore their first child on 31 January 1508, It was a girl, born too early to survive. The next birth, on 1 January 1509, was a far happier occasion. It was a boy, just six months after their coronation, called Henry after his father and titled duke of Cornwall. The delighted father planned celebrations. The boy was apparently healthy yet died about two months later. The cause was unknown, but it was an age of high infant mortality. The young parents were devastated. Henry consoled himself by waging war against France, courtesy of his father-in-law Ferdinand of Aragon, and Catherine's fierce piety led her to kneel for hours on cold stone floors in prayer. But Henry's attempts to gain glory on the battlefield were misplaced. In June 1513, the marquess of Dorset sailed out of Southampton, bound for Gascony with 12,000 troops. They reached the port of Fuentarrabia, where they were to join the Spanish and attack Bayonne. But the Spanish troops never arrived. Ferdinand, without consulting his son-in-law, attacked and seized Navarre instead and then declared the 'Holy War' over. He had essentially used Henry's troops as bait; when the French went off to fight the English, Ferdinand seized his chance and attacked Navarre. To top off his treachery, he also openly criticized the English soldiers who, without receiving his permission, had sailed home after waiting four months at Fuentarrabia. Henry was too embarrassed by his soldiers' mutiny to call his father-in-law's bluff.

Desperate to erase the memory of that military blunder, he planned a grand campaign for the spring of 1513. His ambassadors even secured the support of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian. He joined the 'Holy Alliance' of England and Spain to attack France. But once again Ferdinand's self-interest ruled the day. He went behind his allies' backs to make a secret truce with Louis XII of France, and so he kept Navarre peacefully. This suitably angered Henry. But the English king had learned a lesson from his previous blunder. His forces were launched from England's only possession on the continent, Calais in northern France. The Spanish would not be involved. On 1 August 1513, about a month after he left England, Henry besieged the town of Therouanne. Two centuries before, Edward III had seized that city after the great battle of Crecy. With Maximilian by his side (actually as his subordinate; he allowed Henry command of his troops in exchange for paying their salaries), Henry won a victory within a fortnight. The capture of a duke, marquis, and vice-admiral fleeing the scene helped raise substantial ransoms. He gave the town to Maximilian as a gift and the emperor ordered it razed to the ground. Their next battle was one month later at Tournai. It surrendered after eight days and Henry decided it would become another English stronghold within France.

While away, Henry appointed Catherine of Aragon, officially titled Governor of the Realm and Captain-General of the Armed Forces, an honor never allowed his other wives. She had been resoundingly successful. France and Scotland had an 'Auld Alliance' against England, and James IV of Scotland, married to Henry's sister Margaret Tudor, had responded to English aggression against his ally. He led his armies into northern England. Thomas Howard, the earl of Surrey, took the few English troops left in the nation to meet him. The armies clashed at Flodden Edge, between Berwick and the Cheviots. Three hours of fighting ended the Scottish threat. The evening of 9 September 1513 saw over 10,000 Scots dead, including most of their aristocracy. James IV himself was killed. Had Henry's attention been focused on his own country, he could have seized a golden opportunity - with James dead and the high nobility of Scotland destroyed, he could have marched into Edinburgh and seized his sister Margaret and her infant son, now King James V. But instead he remained enthralled with dreams of European conquest, perhaps comparing himself to his hero, Henry V. And these dreams were encouraged by news that the Pope had, in secret, promised to recognize Henry as king of France if he could physically seize possession of the country. This generous offer had been inspired by French meddling in papal affairs.

During this triumphant time, Catherine lost another child. In November 1513, another prince, also called Henry, duke of Cornwall, was born and soon died. It was the third miscarriage in as many years. Was Henry worried? He was still young, as was Catherine, and had been king for just five years. He was naturally optimistic, though undoubtedly disappointed. Once again, the queen was on her knees in prayer. Perhaps she felt the losses more keenly. In letters to her father, she blamed herself. She clearly saw the dead children as a reproof of some sort, a failure to fulfill the most basic feminine role. But she was able to send Henry the bloody coat of the Scottish king; it may have been some consolation.

As Cardinal Thomas Wolsey extended his control of government, Catherine had reason to become wary. The golden happiness of the first years with Henry was wearing thin. Her father had betrayed her husband openly and scornfully, treating them both as little more than foolish children. She had been her father's best ambassador, heedlessly pressing his claims upon Henry, using the natural affection between husband and wife to urge alliances with Spain. She felt the sting of her father's betrayals. He had lied to her, misled her, and tricked her into betraying her husband. It was clear that her primary loyalty must be to Henry and the English people; she would never trust Ferdinand again. In January 1514, the king returned home and his councilors told him that Henry VII's great treasury was fast running low. War with France was too costly to continue. Henry had seized Tournai and made the competent Thomas Wolsey its bishop, but more extensive campaigning was out of the question. In this, the king surprisingly agreed. He had won his share of glory - at least for now - and it would be enough. And Ferdinand's betrayal had been met with a suitable reply.

More recently, Henry has wanted to rebuild his alliance with France against the Emperor once again. This time HENRY wished to betroth his own daughter, Mary Tudor, to King Francis's son. Henry has also worked out an treaty with Portugal, in hopes of maybe catching the Emperor's attention. In agreement with this treaty he has decided to betroth his youngest, most pretty sister Isabella to the eighty year old king Manuel Aviz I. Henry knows it is cruel to force his sister to have to marry a man who is rumored to have gout, but it's for the sake of England. Nothing will get in the way of him trying to obtain power. Henry has been cultivating the image of a Renaissance Man and his court is a centre of scholarly and artistic innovation and glamorous excess, epitomizing by the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He is an accomplished musician, author, and poet. His best known musical composition is "Pastime with Good Company" or "The Kynges Ballade". He is an avid gambler and dice player, and excels at sports, especially jousting, hunting, and tennis. He is known for his strong defense of conventional Christian piety.