King Henry 8th is a bad king through the eyes of King Henry 7th

Essay by sambenoHigh School, 12th gradeA-, May 2006

download word file, 3 pages 1.0

Downloaded 21 times

King Henry VIII is one of the most famous and controversial kings in the history of England. Henry was well known for the English reformation and for the fact that he had 6 wives. I passed away when Henry was only 17 making him a very young king. When Henry took over my monarchy, he pulled a complete 180 on the way the country was run. The dynasty that I had left my son was a "fairly secure one and most definitely a wealthy one" (Bindoff, par. 7). When Henry VIII left the country, it had less wealth and many angry people. Henry was not good king because of his decrease of wealth, his executing behavior, and his selfishness.

My dynasty was considered a "healthy surplus" (Thomas, par 6) when my son became king of the throne. At this time, my son dismissed most of my employees that contributed to my financial success.

The way that I expanded the wealth of the empire was in induce heavy taxation. This gain of money was one of the main reasons why I was a successful king. Instead of building on the wealth, "one of the first things Henry VIII did when he became king was to order the execution of the two men [I] had employed to organize this taxation" (Morris, par 4). This event was the start to Henry the VIII's poor job with the financial aspect of being a king. "Henry VIII, who had indulged in endless diplomatic squabbles and foreign wars, left no grand achievement beyond his own borders" (Jenkins, par 4). Vast amounts of money were spent on these foreign entanglements but, in the end, nothing changed in the European balance of power. King Henry could not control the countries treasuries and ended up causing England to become...