October 19th, 2018

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 192

Henry Vlll

 

 

Hello Everyone

 

 

Have you ever heard of Henry Vlll?

 

l expect you have, because he is actually famous the world over – and why? Well, because everyone knows that he was the king that had six wives – not all at the same time of course!

 

There is a little poem to help you remember what happened to them all.

 

Divorced, beheaded, died

Divorced, beheaded, survived

 

A while back, l took Bill and Bob to see one of the palaces that Henry Vlll lived in, so of course, they wanted to know more about the famous king that lived there.

 

The palace is called Hampton Court Palace. lt is very easy to get to from Waterloo Station. lt is a big palace with an even bigger garden which is nice to visit any time of the year. ln the spring, the grass is full of sweet-smelling daffodils and there is a big lake at the back and lots of fountains.

 

Henry Vlll was given this palace as a gift by one of his churchmen and top minister, a Catholic Cardinal called Wolsey who was Archbishop of York. lt became only one of Henry’s many palaces.

 

Henry Vlll was born in 1491 and although he was the second son of Henry Vll he became king of England because his older brother Arthur died at the age of fifteen without becoming king.

 

Henry Vll’s surname was Tudor and that is why this was known as the Tudor Age.

 

The Pope allowed Henry to marry Arthur’s wife, Catherine of Aragon. (Aragon is a region of Spain.)

 

lt was not usual to marry your brother’s widow, but in those days princes often married princesses from other countries in order to form alliances – that means a sort of political friendship, and it was useful to Henry Vll (Henry Vlll’s father) that the marriage went ahead. This meant Catherine of Aragon would still become queen as planned.

 

Henry Vlll became king when his father died in 1509. His reign saw great changes in the kingdom.

 

Henry was a popular king at first. He was young, handsome and athletic. ln his reign he built up a national army and the beginnings of the Royal Navy with around fifty ships. All of this made the country stronger and safer.

 

Because of this feeling of national unity and security, people started to build beautiful, big houses to live in with gardens around them (if they had enough money) instead of fortified castles. These were so much more comfortable to live in.

 

Henry had a daughter with his first wife Catherine. She was called Mary. But Henry wanted to have a son.

 

Henry was with Catherine for twenty-four years; a longer time than all of his other wives put together. At first they were very happy.

 

Eventually he became dissatisfied with his marriage, and he wanted to marry a lady that he had fallen in love with called Anne Boleyn. Anne was not extremely pretty but she was very interesting, and Henry became completely smitten.

 

The Pope at the time wouldn’t allow Henry to divorce Catherine so Henry decided to eject the Catholic Church from England. He wanted total control of his own country without interference from other authorities. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church and lives in Rome in ltaly.

 

There was a new Christian religion rising in Europe. lt was called Protestantism. The religion was against the way the Catholic Church did things and wanted their churches to operate in a different way.

 

Henry decided to adopt the new religion for England, it suited his purposes; although it is said that he always remained a Catholic in his heart.

 

This swapping of religions in England was called The Reformation.

 

lt was also the end of Wolsey’s career; he had not managed to persuade the Pope to help Henry when he wanted a divorce from Catherine. Wolsey gave Henry his own house, which was Hampton Court Palace, but it was not enough for the king to forgive him.

 

Thomas Cromwell became Henry’s new chief minister and helped him become the head of the Church of England; a title the monarch still holds today.

 

ln the space of four years, Cromwell had taken the riches and land from eight hundred monasteries and transferred them to the king. The land was sold to the gentry (people with money who already owned land) to raise further funds. Henry always needed more money because he liked spending it so much. His father had built up riches for the kingdom but then Henry spent money on expensive wars and making the royal court more opulent (glamorous).

 

Henry owned over sixty houses and palaces and the royal court consisted of over one thousand people. At Hampton Court Palace the kitchens were very used to serving 1,200 people at one meal.

 

The monarch became stronger with all this additional wealth and money was no longer leaving the country and going to Rome. But at the same time a lot of the welfare work that the monasteries had done to help old, sick and poor people could not be continued. The shift of power had an effect on the whole of society.

 

Henry had many portraits of himself spread around the kingdom. ln those days people didn’t travel very much from the place they were born so most people would never see the king in person. These pictures told everyone who was in charge and what he looked like. lt was like advertising himself to the whole kingdom. lt was a Tudor-style publicity stunt.

 

We still easily recognize Henry’s face today. ln his portraits he is wearing fine clothes and stands in a way that makes him look powerful; even quite fierce.

 

ln 1533, Henry broke from the Catholic Church and married Anne Boleyn. Although it was what he really wanted to do, he thought it was best for his country as well. lf he did not have a son to succeed him, there would be war and division when people started to fight over the throne. With a prince to take the crown from him, this was unlikely to happen. England’s future would be secured.

 

During his marriage to Anne, Henry fell off his horse during a jousting match. His horse rolled on top of him and Henry was badly injured.  He was never the same again.  He sustained an injury to his leg that never properly healed and gave him constant pain. His head was also badly bruised.

 

Henry and Anne had a daughter called Elizabeth.

 

When Henry first met Anne he was attracted to her strong character and the way she spoke her mind, which was unusual for women of that time; but eventually he grew tired of her. When the gossip around the royal court turned against her, he was happy to let her be beheaded for treason. Treason means behaving in a way that is against the king or state. She was accused of seeing other men behind the king’s back.

 

Now historians think that she was not guilty of behaving badly, but her enemies forced witnesses to speak against her through torture and she was found guilty in a court of law.

 

Henry had now fallen in love with a lady-in-waiting called Jane Seymour. She was very sweet-natured in comparison to the fiery Anne.

 

Anne was sentenced to death and an expert French executioner was brought over on Henry’s orders so that her head could be cleanly taken off with one swipe of a gigantic sword.  The deed was done at the Tower of London.

 

Henry married Jane soon after Anne’s death and she gave him the son that he so desperately wanted; his name was Edward. But Jane died soon afterwards.

 

Not long after that, Thomas Cromwell arranged a marriage for Henry with a German princess called Anne of Cleves to form a link with the German Protestants. Henry agreed to the marriage. He saw a portrait of Anne before she arrived in England and thought she looked quite nice, but when he met her in person, he was horrified. He thought she was ugly, they didn’t get on and the marriage was a total disaster.

 

A few months later the marriage was ended. Henry was by that time in love with Catherine Howard. Cromwell fell out of favour and soon afterwards was executed for treason.

 

Anne was treated very well and stayed at court where she was given a special position there. She was also awarded an income of £30,000 a year and given five palaces of her own.

 

ln 1540, Henry married his teenage bride, Catherine Howard. This marriage didn’t last long either. She was executed in 1542 for treason. lt was said that she met up with other boyfriends while she was married to Henry.

 

Henry’s final marriage was to Catherine Parr. As people they got on quite well. She looked after him as his health was failing and acted like a mother to his three children. He died before she did.

 

Henry was popular in his youth but in later life became known as a very harsh king. lt became his way to execute those who stood in his way or greatly displeased him; and there were many of these executions during his reign.

 

The leg wound Henry had received in 1536 in a jousting tournament got infected, never healed and caused him many health problems through the rest of his life. This event, added to the fact that he had had a nasty head injury too, might have been one of the reasons he had mood swings and fits of bad temper. Later in life he became so fat it was hard for him to move around.

 

Henry died aged 55 in 1547 and was buried next to his beloved Jane at Windsor Castle.

 

His three children all became monarchs. Edward was the first at the age of only nine years old. He was too young to be crowned so his uncle (his mother’s brother) ruled in his name. Edward died at fifteen.

 

His half sisters became monarchs after him. Mary l who turned England back into a Catholic country and then Elizabeth l who switched it back to Protestantism again.

 

Queen Elizabeth l was one of our strongest and most popular monarchs. She reigned from 1558 to 1603. l think l should tell you more about her in a later blog post.

 

 

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

 

lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.

 

Thank you!

 

And see you again next Fun Friday!

 

Love and kisses

 

 

Salty Sam

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

 

 

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

 

Bob: Do you know why Henry Vlll has so many wives?

 

Bill: No. Why did Henry Vlll have so many wives?

 

Bob: Because he liked to chop and change!

 

 

 

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Picture Gallery

 

The Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York made up the Tudor Rose

Henry VII of Lancaster married Elizabeth of York

 

Henry VII made England a rich and strong country

He was the first Tudor king

 

Henry VIII was crowned at 18

 

Cardinal Wolsey gave Henry his palace

when he knew he was falling out of favour with the king

– but in the end it didn’t help him much

 

Catherine of Aragon

 

Anne Boleyn

 

Jane Seymour

 

Anne of Cleves

 

Catherine Howard

 

Katherine Parr

 

Edward VII

 

Edward’s signature

 

Mary I

 

Elizabeth I was the last Tudor monarch

She had many portraits painted of herself

making her look very regal in the same way that her father did

 

Elizabeth’s signature famously had lots of scrolls underneath it

The writing looks a bit clumsy but remember that in Tudor and Elizabethan times people wrote with quills (feathers) –

‘R’ stands for Regina which means Queen

 

A painted portrait of Henry VIII

 

Henry with his family

 

Thomas Cromwell

 

A modern reconstruction of Anne Boleyn’s face

 

Henry VIII would have often arrived at Hampton Court by river upon his royal barge

 

The majestic gates at Hampton Court Palace

 

The front entrance of Hampton Court Palace

 

Tall chimneys were a sign of Tudor wealth – they were the ‘must have bling’ of their day

 

The grand entrance is flanked by lions, dragons and unicorns

 

They all hold a decorated shield

 

Beyond the entrance is a courtyard where carriages would enter

 

The ceiling of the entrance is decorated with royal symbols

 

The courtyard inside is called Base Court

 

Henry’s wine cellar – wine was continually being delivered by boats

 

The spits in the kitchen

 

The kitchen with cooking pots and bread ovens

 

Vegetables on the table at the side

 

The Chapel Court Garden provided fresh herbs

 

The Great Hall

 

There is a picture of Henry VIII in the stained glass window above the minstrel’s gallery

Minstrels were musicians

 

Henry loved hunting

 

Fountain Court in the more modern part of the palace

 

Does Anne Boleyn haunt this room?

 

There are supposed to be many ghosts at Hampton Court Palace

 

No ghosts caught on camera – just possibly some orbs

 

Catherine of Aragon’s children

 

There are places where people still live – they are called grace and favour apartments

and the people who live there report seeing ghosts of those that lived there before

 

The view from the back door

 

The Great Fountain Garden

 

The long lake in Home Park beyond the gardens

 

The Privy Gardens – a recreated Georgian garden outside the Georgian part of the palace

 

An embankment at the side of the Privy Garden

 

The greenhouse housing the Great Vine

 

The Great Vine – the grapes are ripening

 

The Pond Garden with the Banqueting House beyond

 

The horse drawn train tour of the gardens

 

The maze

 

The rose garden

 

The kitchen garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

     THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

 

Bill and Bob have kindly agreed to do a news desk quiz again this week. I keep them very busy, don’t I? 

 

Luckily they have a lot of books in their bedroom that they can use to help them.

 

See if you can answer their questions…

 

BILL AND BOB’S ANIMAL QUIZ

 

Can you complete these words?

 

1. a little animal with prickles	H = h_ _ _ _ _ _ _
2. the largest species of deer	E = e_ _
3. a small amphibian that looks like a lizard	N = n_ _ _
4. an animal that pulls Santa’s sledge	R = r_ _ _ _ _ _ _
5. a wild ox	Y = y_ _

 

 

 

This is Bill and Bob’s friend Henry

 

 

Bill and Bob have been playing with their dad’s camera again this week.

They went into the kitchen and rummaged about in the kitchen drawers to see what they could find to take pictures of.

They got up quite close to the objects to take photographs of them.

 

Can you see what they are?

 

 

 

1

 

                                                                                                         2

                                                                                                                                                                         3

 

 

 

 

                     4

                                                                                                                     5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a bumper crop of tree seeds this year – so a good opportunity to collect them and start growing your own little trees.

Trees help counteract pollution and global warming.

 

 

 

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Crafty Tip

 

This is an easy way to make a brooch that looks a little like a Tudor rose.

 

 

 

Draw around your centre button onto a piece of paper.

 

 

Extend the shape out to half as much again to make an arched window shape.

 

Fold the arch into half to check that it is symmetrical.

 

Cut five of these petal shapes out of felt.

 

Sew a running stitch along the flat base of each petal; gather each base in and secure the thread. Deal with each petal individually.

 

Run a thread along the base of all the petals so that they are in a line and then pull them into a ring.

 

 

Sew the button into the centre of the front.

 

Sew a brooch pin to the back.

 

 

 

 

 

BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!

PLUS

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lt’s the Weekend!

 

 

HOW TO MAKE A CAPE FOR YOUR TWELVE lNCH DOLL

 

If your doll is going out for the evening, this elegant cape will match any evening dress.

The white yarn in the photograph is King Cole Cuddles Chunky.

The evening dress is from Blog Post 170.

 

CAPE (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white chunky textured yarn cast on 30 stitches

Knit 26 rows of garter stitch

Cast off loosely and neaten ends

Tie a piece of 18cm ribbon to each top corner and tie into a bow.

 

 

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.

©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015

 

 

Answers to the News Desk Quiz

 

1. hedgehog
2. elk
3. newt
4. reindeer
5. yak

 

An elk

 

A newt

 

A yak

 

 

The mystery photographs are: a torch, the underside of a saucepan lid (note the steam hole), the bottom of the lid of a tomato ketchup bottle, their mum’s secret diary (oops!) and a playing card. No, I don’t know how the playing card got into the drawer either – someone must have been playing without a full deck. 

 

Don’t worry, Bill and Bob didn’t read their mum’s secret diary – luckily they couldn’t imagine that she had anything interesting to write about.