Henry VIII was born in Greenwich in 1491. His father was Henry VII. He was second in line to the throne, but his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, so Henry became King in 1509.

When he was young, he was very handsome and good at sport, especially jousting. Lots of ladies fell in love with him. Very soon after his reign began, he got married - for the first time!

Catherine was the widow of his brother, Arthur. Henry and Catherine had a daughter in 1516, who later became Mary I, but Henry really wanted a boy to take over as King when he died. After they had been married for eighteen years, Henry thought it was unlikely they would have a son and in 1527 he decided he wanted to marry someone else – Anne Boleyn.

Before he could marry Anne Boleyn, Henry had to find a way to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon - but there was a rather large problem...

Henry was a Roman Catholic. In fact, he had been such a good Catholic that he wrote a book against the new Protestants, who were led by Martin Luther in Germany. The Protestants were ‘protesting’ about the huge amounts of money they had to give to the Catholic Church. After the book was published, the Pope was so pleased that he made Henry ‘Defender of the Faith’ – but now the Pope was becoming a bit of an obstacle.

Henry knew that he needed the Pope’s permission to end his marriage. He enlisted the help of Thomas Wolsey, who was a Cardinal of the Church of Rome. However, the Pope STILL wouldn't agree to the marriage ending and Henry was very angry. He thought Thomas Wolsey hadn’t tried hard enough and had him arrested for treason.

Henry VIII had a very hot temper and it looked like Thomas Wolsey was about to lose his head! In the end, Wolsey died before his trial could take place. Henry must have been very disappointed!

He decided the only way to get his divorce was to set up his own church. So Henry formed the Church of England, made himself Supreme Head and swiftly arranged his long awaited divorce.

Henry married Anne Boleyn in 1533. They had a daughter who later became Elizabeth I, but in 1536, after they had been married for only three years, Henry heard that Anne had other boyfriends...

... so he had her head chopped off!

Now he had created the Church of England, Henry VIII didn’t need the Roman Catholic Church any more – but he DID need a lot of money to fund wars and the building of new castles.

Thomas Cromwell, who was Lord Chancellor, had an idea.

He cunningly arranged to get rid of all the monasteries, steal their treasure and sell the land, with Henry receiving the proceeds. For the time being, Thomas Cromwell was in favour with the King - not for long, though!

Henry quickly married Jane Seymour. They had a son, who later became Edward VI, but Jane died soon after the birth. Henry was upset because he was very fond of this wife, but in 1540 he decided to get married again.

Catherine Howard became his fifth wife in 1540. Only eighteen months later, he heard she had been unfaithful to him - so she lost her head! (Isn't this getting to be a habit?)

In 1543, Henry married a widow named Catherine Parr. He was still married to her when he died at the age of 55 in 1546. His son, Edward, became King.

Although Henry was a handsome man when he was young, he was not attractive for very long. He ate mountains of food and didn't exercise enough. By the end of his life, he was so fat he could barely walk - and it is said that he smelt really bad, too!

Henry was a very dangerous friend and husband because he had a bad habit of executing anybody who disagreed with him.

Despite this, generally he was a popular King. This might have been because he always blamed someone else for things that went wrong – and the person taking the blame often ended up with no head!