"To what extent had Henry VIII left an explosive legacy to his son Edward VI in 1547".
“To what extent had Henry VIII left an explosive legacy to his son Edward VI in 1547”
Henry VIII came to the throne after his father Henry VII died in 1509. He married six times in his reign and had 3 siblings, from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon he had a daughter called Mary, from his second wife, Ann Boleyn he had a daughter called Elizabeth and from his third wife, Jane Seymour he had a son, Edward. In his reign with the help from Thomas Cromwell he dissolved the monasteries and gained 1 million. This left Henry to be head of the church and caused a great divide through the country with Catholics and Protestants. Catherine Parr, Henry’s last wife, brought up Henry’s second son Edward VI. She brought him up as a protestant trying to secure the protestant position after her husband’s death. During Henry’s reign Henry had two major wars, he gained land in France (Boulogne) and enabled himself to have garrisons in France. Henry VIII reign wasn’t always steady though as he was faced with debasement of the coinage. His main problems were religion, social and economic problems, government and political problems along with foreign policy.
Henry VIII had a huge impact to his son’s legacy due to religion. Henry turned the church upside down and turned it protestant to an extent. Henry had divided the country into two parts, Catholics and Protestants. Protestant changes were made when Henry took over the church, such as the publish of an English bible. This had a big impact of the people of Britain as it meant that many more people could read the bible and proved to be a impact on Edward’s reign as well as the English bible was carried on and never stopped. The English monasteries were dissolved and their land was sold off. This meant that the land that once was the churches could never returned to the church. And thus causing a issue for Edward in his reign if he ever did want to give back the church’s land. But this also meant that gentry had invest interest in the protestant side of the church has their now owned the churches land and needed the church to stay protestant. Henry tried to solve the problems of the division throughout religion by passing treason and herasay law. Henry thought that these laws would sort the problem of the division of religion. So Henry tried not to leave a explosive legacy for his son, but in some cases within religion he was unable to change peoples religions and their feelings towards it.
