Essay on Henry Viii, Authority, Nation & Religion as Full Notes

Wars were also part of the crisis, notably the Hundred Years War between England and France. In 1328 the French Capetian line ended. England’s Edward III (d.1377) claimed the French throne, but a cousin to the Capets, Philip of Valois, became king (d.1350). War soon began. Armored knights on horseback were the backbone of medieval armies, but English peasants using the longbow had begun to change the face of war. When the French king was captured, a treaty was signed in 1360: France agreed to pay ransom, the English received land in France, and Edward renounced his claim to the throne. Using guerilla tactics, the French regained their lands, but in 1415 England’s Henry V (d.1422)

In addition Wolsey was becoming less successful as on the political front Charles V had taken Italy while Francis I had grown tired of the war and sought peace. In this he abandoned Italy to Charles, and they agreed on a Treaty at Cambrai which Henry effectively ignored. As a result Wolsey`s grand plan for conservative reform and England holding the balance of power in Europe fell.

Henry quickly tried to mend relations with Maximilian. A new treaty in January 1488 restored friendly relations with close trading ties between England and Burgundy. As soon as Henry found out about the Simnel conspiracy he

Many laypeople did see the clergy, as greedy and excessive, people were growing discontented with hypocritical clergy such as Wolsey. Wolsey was 10x richer than his nearest rival even though he was the son of a butcher; many people found this deceitful, after all when ordained he would have taken a pledge of poverty. He would also have taken a pledge of chastity, yet he had a mistress. Despite his great power within the church, he actually did very little for the religion.

His son, Henry VIII was a commanding figure who immediately set about wanting to gain respect and authority in Europe. Henry VIII’s foreign policy can be divided into two separate periods of time in which he went to war. The first period was at the beginning of his reign, in 1509-1515, Henry enforced a policy of aggressive and glorious warfare, this policy allowed invasions to occur within in France and Scotland. He was victorious within both invasions however it was an expensive policy to initiate. The second time period was during the years 1540-1547, this is when Henry, yet again, wanted more glory and domination over foreign affairs. This period of foreign policy was extremely expensive and came at a great financial cost. The gaining of Boulogne and loss of military personnel, costing £2,144,765, achieved nothing greater than personal glory for Henry showing his reign as one of dysfunction. The disastrous

Thesis: France was eager to get revenge against Britain, but was later persuaded to end the feud.

Henry V and Charles VI died within a few months of each other. Soon after, the baby Henry VI was announced to be the king of England and France

For more than a hundred years, the Kingdom of England and the House of Valois of France found themselves locked in war for the French throne. The hundred and sixteen year series of battles took place from 1337 to 1453, with historians often separating it into three phases: the Edwardian Era (1337- 1360), the Caroline War (1369- 1389), and the Lancastrian War (1415- 1453). Despite English success that lasted the majority of the conflict, and was revived by Henry V, the war resulted a French victory but high casualty losses on both sides. Beyond this, the war was not only limited to the two belligerents, but also involved Scotland, Spain, and the Low Countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (Villalon). The French victory and resurgence are mostly accredited to the arrival of Joan of Arc and, subsequently, the unity of the French after her execution by the English. Despite this, the question of the significance of Joan of Arc in the context of ending the Hundred

Henry VIII realized that he needed to expand his territory in France, so in 1513 Henry VIII and his troops invaded France. They defeated France, and this battle came to be known as the Battle of the Spurs. At the time of this battle the Scottish invaded England as an attempt to distract Henry VIII from invading France. The Scottish’s attempt failed to get Henry VIII’s attention. Not long after this event, the Scottish were defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field. The battle between England and Scotland went from 1513-1517.

King Henry V wanted to continue the negotiations with France and made some demands that the French thought was ridiculous. King Henry V was willing to give up some items in the Treaty but only if France paid 1.6 million crowns; part of the debt owed his ancestors for the capture of John II. In addition, he wanted the France to give up Aquitaine, Normandy, Touraine, Anjou, Brittany, Flanders and other territories. King Henry would marry the Princess of France, King Charles VI daughter and received pay of 600,000 crowns (Keegan 80).

A few years later, Henry V landed in France with ten thousand men and besieged Harfleur, a port town along the French coast. The siege lasted for a month, and Henry marched into the town, victorious, with very few men, because most of them died from disease. He then set course for Calais, but was stopped by French forces in Agincourt. Henry had only about six thousand men and the French force had twenty thousand. Henry used the woodland to give his forces a better chance. The French, on the other hand, set up three lines with knights in front. The knights were easily taken down by English longbowmen, the second line was slowed down by muddy swampland, and the third line retreated. This was a decisive victory for Henry and his outnumbered army. Henry continued advancing to Calais. Next, Scottish and French armies join forces and raid English holdings in Normandy. The English forces were decimated by the combined forces of France and Scotland. Soon after that battle, The French and Scottish tried once more to remove English control of Normandy, but their forces were easily cut down by longbowmen. Scotland stopped aiding France in the war, and England kept their hold in Normandy. The English started to take control of most of France again, started winning more battles. “The balance of power changed in 1429, with the appearance of Joan of Arc,

The years of fighting in Spain was a heavy burden on France 's Grande Armée. While the French were victorious in battle, their

France to the west and the Turks in Hungary to the east were problems for Charles throughout his reign (4). In 1525, during the Battle of Pavia, Charles V’s army took Francis I, the French ruler, hostage. While in captivity, Francis I was forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid. Charles V eventually released him, and when out of captivity, Francis immediately joined forces with Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII against Charles V. Four years after the Battle of Pavia, in 1529, Charles and Francis signed another treaty called the Peace of Cambria. In it, Francis I was to give Italy to Charles. In exchange, Charles V was to give Burgundy to Francis I (3).

With the major part of the war over, Claude's work wasn't done he still had to contest with a few more colonies in North America and needed to finish the British off in Scotland and Ireland to unify the Isle. Despite this the war has become a foregone conclusion in the eyes of the Crown. The King and Queen had already been re-crowned in Westminster. The idea here was to represent a unification of Europe's two great kingdom's. Never before in history had France seen such sweeping success. An Alliance with Austria and a growing amount of Colonies in the Americas France had established itself as the preeminent superpower in Europe.

In 1520 Charles left Spain to take possession of the German Empire to which he had been elected. The French king, Francis I, had been his rival for the dignity; Leo X thought that his interests in Italy were endangered by Charles' election. The Kingdom of Navarre was already a matter of contention between France and Spain, while France and the Netherlands wrangled over the original Dukedom of Burgundy as well as Tournai, Flanders, Artois, and some lesser territories. War had not broken out over these questions, and nothing indicated that Charles would be a warlike prince; but he had broken the alliance with France made under Chièvres. The Holy See opposed the election of Charles even more vigorously than France. As King of Aragon, Charles was heir to the Kingdom of Naples, a papal fief; the