Henry VIII -- Architect of Term Paper

During their courtship, Anne Boleyn and Henry exchanged frequent letters, often in poetry (Jury, 2001).

With renewed confidence, Henry began to expand the military arsenal of England. Henry also invested in the navy, and increased its size from 5 to 53 ships ("Henry VIII." History of the Monarchy: The Tudors, 2007). Without such expansion, it is doubtful that England would ever have been able to defeat the Spanish Armada under Elizabeth. Of course, the great successes of Henry's regime do not cancel out his acts of brutality, such as his beheading of Anne Boleyn on a pretext, to marry again with the hopes of producing a son. After Henry's reign, England grew unstable once again, and there was the war of succession he feared, as England rapidly swung back from Protestant to Catholic again, only finally realizing its true glory under the steadier hand of Elizabeth I. But without the institutional foundation of secularism and a support of high culture in the court created by her father, Elizabeth's regime would never have been as glorious as it proved to be, cumulating in the age of exploration, Shakespeare, and England's dominance of foreign policy and the high seas.

Works Cited

Henry VIII." History of the Monarchy: The Tudors. 1 Nov 2007 http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page19.asp

Jokinen, Annina. "Henry VIII: 1491-1548." 11 Aug 2006. Last updated May 6, 2007.

Nov 2007. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudorbio.htm

Jury, Louise. "Love notes show Henry VIII's romantic side."

The Independent. 7 Dec 2004. 1 Nov 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_200412/ai_n12814866

Walker, Greg. "Henry VIII and the invention of the royal court." History Today.

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