King · 1491 – 1547
Henry VIII
Little-Known Facts
- He was a gifted musician and scholar in his youth, once praised by the pope as a defender of the faith.
- The fates of his six wives are remembered in the rhyme: 'divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived'.
Myths & Misconceptions
Did Henry VIII become a Protestant?
He broke with the pope and founded the Church of England, but he remained doctrinally conservative; England's fuller turn to Protestantism came under his children.