Henry VIII Essay

As the second Tudor monarch, he had the freedom to rule as he pleased. While a leader may pick certain Machievalian characters to help foster his influence among his subjects, Great England King Henry VIII did absurdly on this matter. As such, comparative analysis of his leadership style with other regional leaders views him as an accomplished Machievalian disciple. King Henry VIII was the second born son of King Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York. He was born on the 28th June 1491 at Greenwich. After the death of Henry VII in 1509, the then very famous and popular prince became King Henry VIII. His love for hunting and dancing could not be unnoticed with the royal family. King Henry VIII was very instrumental in the early church reformation by instigating the break from Rome in 1532 (Starkey, par.

He is remembered as a bully who executed his mates and destroyed their religious buildings, artwork, and anybody opposed to his ideology. In order to beat the biblical warning (Lev. In the year 1533, the newest Archbishop of Canterbury oversaw the trial that determined that his first marriage was null and void and declared the new one valid. Thereafter, Henry declared himself the head leader of the Church of England as opposed to the pope thereby revoking the English Reformation. The child that Boleyn was expecting was Queen Elizabeth who later became England’s most famous monarchs in the world. When Anne Boleyn was unable to bear a son, the King became dissatisfied with the marriage and had her put into trial for allegations of treason, witchcraft, and adultery where she was killed in the year 1536.

Surprisingly, Even before the day was over, King Henry had already become engaged to Jane Seymour his mistress. However, he had the dark side of his life that became apparent after several years at the helm of power. On the contrary, King Henry during his time never had the opportunity to hold any state affairs and was not at any chance allowed to be independent. It was due to such circumstances that cost Henry VII his five children. As such, King Henry VII only had Henry VIII as his most valued contact. Several characters made Henry VIII be referred to as a Machiavellian leader. The evenings were full of dance, gambling and playing cards that were unusual with the royal. However, it is paramount to note that playing games meant that he did not care about his duties.

Henry VIII held several meetings with his secretary and ambassadors and had a prodigious memory that fostered his ability to make quick decisions as a king. The Machiavellian leadership has both positive and negative implications. Crucial enough is the ability of the present-day leader to transcend the evil practices and strategies described by Machiavelli while keeping in mind the ones that genuinely develop strategic thinking. As the king of England, King Henry was required to marry as soon as possible. On the death of his father, Henry married his brother’s wife with joy and expense after he discovered would rule himself and ignore the advice of his restrictive grandmother. He united the two fractious royal houses by marrying Elizabeth of York and took the throne as Henry VIII. His policy was to maintain peace and create economic prosperity.

Indeed, Henry succeeded in realizing these objectives. He would often spend many weeks in isolation always keeping away from anyone whom he figured might have caught infections including his wives. At one point Anne Boleyn had contacted the sweating illness in the year 1528, Henry stayed away from her until she recovered from the sickness. Among his marriages, the one for Anne Cleves, his fourth wife was the shortest since he married her under political influence. Henry felt duped at the sight of Anne Cleves. Fearing that sending Anne Cleves back to her father's home could cause adverse political ramifications, Henry decided to keep her until the right moment to divorce her. By 1521 when Henry was 29 years old, he was diagnosed with malaria infections that almost took his life. Henry's first wife had consecutive miscarriages and childbirths only to be found that she had been infected with Syphilis.

This infection meant that Henry might have contacted this disease way before he was 17 years old. At that stage, it was argued the disease was at an advanced stage since it was assumed that the disease might have stayed in his body for nearly 30 years. At that level, the infection is characterized by a destroyed nasal cavity, sores at the lymph nodes, the falling off of the front teeth, sometimes destruction of the upper roof of the mouth, red and large lesions on the scalp as well as on the chin. Katherine was said to have infected King Henry VIII with syphilis the disease she got from her husband, Arthur. Though, the correct line of the infection might have been incorrectly captured. This could be connected with her public confession that she and Arthur might not have been sexually intimate (Scarisbrick p.

It was certain that even if Henry had not contacted syphilis from one of his wives, he might have gotten infected through another non-venereal way, a means that was much more common back in the days than it is today. Thus it is now clear that King Henry VIII had all lots of means through which he could have contacted the disease. So it is difficult to prove for sure whether the King had syphilis and what exactly caused the miscarriages among his wives. Additionally, of all the offspring that king Henry had none of them had symptoms of syphilis arguably because syphilis was not a disease that could easily be diagnosed, especially in the good old days when remedies were scarce. Even though playing around with various women appears to be fun and exciting, it carries the severe consequence of falling in love with a woman (Scarisbck p.

According to most romantic scholars, this was in fact what happened when Henry met Anne Boleyn. Even though he had had a tryst with her sister, he still wanted to make her queen. In fact, some refer to him as the king who was as a Machiavellian musical ruler since he could spend most of his free time listening to the most influential musicians of his day. These musicians included Venetian organist Dionysus Memo. Not to mention the fact that his staff included shameless, the king’s Trompytts. This is evidenced by the fact that there were recordings of the pages he paid them. When he was young, Henry VIII composed some music. Henry became very selfish, suspicious, and irritable and a right tyrant who ruled his subjects. No wonder, he was referred to as the cruelest and dangerous man on earth at the time by Castilian, the French ambassador.

In conclusion, several factors define King Henry as a great leader in the history of England in spite of the traits that make him a Machiavellian disciple. It is very shallow to blame his wife for all their problems. Matters of the heart, however, have no way of being sustained. Hrp. Org. Uk, 2018, https://www. hrp. org. History. Csusb. Edu, 2018, http://history. csusb. edu/facultystaff/history500/documents/HenryVIIIPaper. Accessed 5 Oct 2018.