Henry VIII foreign policy

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Niall Ashton

How successful was Henry VIII’s foreign policy?

Henry VIII was a young king with many aims for England. His foreign policies mainly focused peace and security as expected by most kings however he choose to achieve this through war. Wolsey however wanted it through many peace agreements. Henry VII’s foreign policy can therefore be split in to aims he tried to achieve. These were: to please the pope, to increase security, to maintain the ‘balance of power’ to increase his prestige and finally for the image of a glorious kingship or his own reputation.

Henry had to try and please the pope as the pope was god’s voice on earth and people were very religious including Henry in his youth. If the pope was an ally of Henry’s he could gain more prestige and increase security.  In 1521 Henry proved his loyalty to the Catholic Church by writing his book called defiance of 7 sacraments. This he wrote this after Martin Luther started Protestantism. This gave Henry the title of ‘Fidei defensor’ (defender of the faith) which the monarch still has today. Although pope Paul III did try to take this title away in 1530 after Henry being excommunicated from the church, however in 1544 the English parliament declared through an act it to be reinstated. In 1512 Henry was invited in to the Holy league which was a group headed by Pope Julius II. The group was England, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and the pope all against France. However in 1525 the king wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled. This was a problem as he had to get permission to marry her as she was her brother’s widow. No pope should ever overturn any decision of another since they are god’s voice on earth so what they say god says and if 1 pope says another is wrong that means god was wrong. Henry could therefore not marry Anne Boleyn while he was a member of the Catholic Church. So he left it and England became protestant. He was also then excommunicated which is being kicked out of the church but he already left. Another bad foreign policy was the Avignon project which was Wolsey saying he would step in as pope why the actual pope was in captivity by the holy roman emperor. This was bad as people saw this as Wolsey only wanting to be the pope. In summary it was a short term success hence Henry being given the title by the pope and him being invited into the holy league. On the other hand it was a massive failure in the long term as he quits the religion and then is excommunicating leaving England a country with no allies and no democratic significance.

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Due to Henry being a young king he would also be seen as a weak one. This would then put security as a big aim of his. The treaty of London in 1518 increased security massively as it called a cease fire across Europe. However was also seen as a failure since it collapsed with the uprising of Charles V in 1519. The field of the cloth of gold also increased security as it cemented the friendship between France and England using competitive sports. This replaced violent confrontation with peaceful competition. On the other hand the treaty of Cambrai in ...

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