There are people in the history of every country that can be a "turning point".
I think the era of Henry VIII was a turning point in British history.
British Renaissance
In 1491 Henry VIII was born the second son of Tudor King Henry VII and his Queen Elizabeth.
The king of the era was supposed to be succeeded by his brother Arthur, who was actually taken over by the Crown Prince and became Prince of Wales. However, Arthur died suddenly in 1501. Henry VIII becomes Prince of Wales.
It wasn't just that position that Henry VIII inherited from his brother.
His brother Arthur is married to Princess Catherine of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain, and Henry VIII will marry Catherine after Arthur's death. At this point Henry VIII is only 10 years old.
In 1509 his father, Enry VII, died this time.
Henry VIII became King of England and officially married Catherine. It was an obvious political marriage, and Henry VIII strongly opposed it, but as King of England, marriage to the Spanish royal family was inevitable.
This experience casts a dark shadow on Henry VIII's life.
Henry VIII decided to take a different path from his father.
At the same time as his coronation, he arrested and executed his father's senior vassals, and he took advantage of Thomas Wolsey, who can be said to be his parent, to take up the most important positions such as Cardinal and Lord High Chancellor.
It was a time when the whole of Europe was bubbling with the Renaissance. Henry VIII, unlike his father, was a flashy king who liked hunting, music, dance, and romance, with the ideals of ancient kings such as David and Constantine.
In other words, it also means that Europe before the pope's rule is ideal.
Young Henry VIII embarks on an expedition to France with his own army. However, this was easily bounced off, and on the contrary, Scotland, who had tied up with the King of France, invaded England.
After this, with the success of Thomas Uruji, he succeeded in forming an alliance with France, and England enjoyed a brief peace.
Religious reform
1517 Martin Luther initiates religious reform.
The Pope, who was an absolute strong man, will issue an excommunication and assassination order to Luther, but anti-Roman sect will rise in various places, and Henry VIII will also declare the establishment of the Anglican Church.
In fact, Henry VIII initially opposed the reform of the Lutheran faction, and signed a London treaty with the royal princes of each country to subdue the Ottoman Empire and the Lutheran faction, and became known as the "Peacemaker". It was.
The reason why such an Anglican came to create a national church is his own divorce issue.
In 1527, ten years after the religious reform, Henry VIII pleaded with Pope Clement VII to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn.
However, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and the head of the Habsburgs, argued against it. Charles V and Catherine had a nephew relationship with their aunt. The Pope summoned Henry VIII to Rome, who left the negotiations to Thomas Wolsey, but failed, and Wolsey took responsibility for it and was dismissed.
Henry VIII convenes Congress to justify his divorce from Catherine.
In fact, there was only one Pope from England among the popes of all time. Moreover, at this time, the Pope had never set foot in England (his first visit to England was in the 20th century). Therefore England was generally dissatisfied with the Pope.
In 1530, Henry VIII decided to make the King of England the "chief chief" of the church and priests, and in 1533 forced him to marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope countered this by excommunicating Henry VIII, and the two completely broke down.
That same year, Anne Boleyn gives birth to a girl.
The child, named Elizabeth, became an eternal queen in world history decades later.
The Anglican Church founded by Henry was, in a sense, created by ideas and flows, and it was not until the time of Elizabeth I that the Anglican Church began to function as an organization.
Henry VIII disbanded monasteries across England and confiscated land and property. The monastery owns considerable land in England, and Henry VIII sold it to aristocrats and the emerging landowners Gentles.
It is the first time in the history of England that the owner of the land has changed so much since William I's "Norman Conquest".
It can be said that the establishment of the Anglican Church brought about a revolutionary change in England in a sense, and it can be said that this swelled and influenced the history afterwards.
Successor problem and the death of the king
Anne Boleyn eventually gave birth to only a girl. As a result, Henry VIII divorced Anne and was executed.
After that, he married Jane Seymour, and the long-awaited boy Edward was born, but maybe he was still not satisfied, he repeated three divorces and three marriages. But Edward was the only boy born.
Henry VIII is a fairly aggressive person who has executed a significant number of senior vassals and families. In addition to Anne Boleyn, he is executing his wife, as well as Thomas More, known for his work on "Utopia," which represents the British Renaissance.
The domestic affairs are such, but vulnerable to expeditions, and he attempted to conquer Scotland by marrying his son Edward and Mary, who became Queen of Scotland, but was eventually repelled by the French troops who tied up with Scotland. The expeditionary outcome was zero.
In 1547 Henry VIII died.
His only son, Edward VI, took over his mark.
Personal evaluation of Henry VIII
He is the King of England with a considerable presence despite the lack of a virtuoso element.
In particular, the founding of the Anglican Church, headed by the King, is of great historical significance. This intensified the conflict between Catholicism and the Church of England in England, creating conflicts with Scotland and the relationship with Ireland is still unrepaired.
Furthermore, despite the fact that Britain began to follow its own path, it created a situation in which the King of England was a Catholic, and became the basis for the Puritan Revolution and the Glorious Revolution.
It can be said that Henry VIII was the one who pushed the switch at the turning point of his time.