Henry's second marriage had raised hopes for a male heir. Anne Boleyn, however, produced another daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and failed to produce a male heir. Henry got rid of Anne on charges of treason which were almost certainly false, and she was executed in 1536. In 1537 her replacement, Henry's third wife Jane Seymour, finally bore him a son, who was later to become Edward VI. Jane died in childbed, 12 days after the birth in 1537.
Another problem that Henry had faced in his reign was when he had a quarrel with the Pope, when the Pope was trying to crush the movement known as Protestantism. Henry disliked the Protestant ideas and he wrote a book against them Henry tried to stop them, but without much success.
Henry VIII died in 1547 and he was succeeded by his only son Edward VI.
There was now a big problem because Edward was too young, he was only nine years old and if Edward was going to die, he would have no one to succeed him.
So, the Duke of Somerset and Duke of Northumberland were Edward’s lord protectors.
In 1549 trade was bad, and harvests were poor, many people were turned off their farms. This caused a rebellion in Cornwall and in Norfolk. So Edward’s Lord Protectors sent troops down to end this rebellion and they did successfully.
In 1553 Edward VI died and was succeeded by his half-sister, Mary I. Mary was a catholic but the rest of the country were protestant. So to sort this problem out got Parliament to bring back the catholic services, and restored the power of the Pope in England.
The biggest of all problem Mary had was when she married The King of Spain, Phillip, because the English people absolutely hated foreigners. So in 1554 a group of Kentish gentleman marched to London to try and stop the wedding but their rebellion failed and the leaders were killed.
When Mary found out that there were protestant ideas in England she and her bishops arrested Protestants so that they could give up their beliefs. In the years, 1555 to 1558, three- hundred Protestants were killed. In 1558 Mary I died of Cancer and she died childless.
So the only person who could be able to succeed Mary would be her half-sister, Elizabeth I. Everybody expected Elizabeth to marry but she refused to and no-one could do anything about this.
Most English people had disliked the new protestant services that forced on them when Edward VI reigned. But the majority of people were horrified to watch Protestants being burned alive by Mary. Elizabeth had to satisfy the English people, so the new Church system, she and parliament set up in 1559 had to be Protestant.
The Tudors had experienced a great deal of problems and they were mostly successful with their problems as well. The Tudors were one of the crucial people who made the United Kingdom. If it weren’t for them some of things we have today would have not existed.