what was the deal with Henry the eight chopping off his wives heads why did a cocktail get named after a Tudor Queen and why was Elizabeth the first known as the Virgin Queen the kings and queens of England part 5 the Tudors off with their heads the War of the Roses and Richards third short and bloody reign came to an end on Bosworth Field in 1485 Richard died of a head wound and the crown of England was found under a bush and placed on the head of the victor Henry the seventh the House of Tudor Henry of the Lancastrian and the red rose married Edward the fourth daughter Elizabeth of York and the white rose and the two warring sides were finally brought together this didn't stop a myriad of Impostors from popping up claiming to be one of the Lost princes in the tower or some other long-lost relative with a closer claim to the throne Henry took care of them all cutting off mini heads in the process Henry went about spreading propaganda that made Richard out to be a villain and himself the hero and rightful king he named his eldest son Arthur after the ancient English warrior king sadly the prince died at fifteen the wool trade grew under his rule and the kingdom grew wealthier however as Henry had inherited a bankrupt government he went about taxing the people heavily to fill his coffers greed marked the end of his 24 year reign Henry the eighth's Henry the seventh second son and successor is famous for his ferocious appetites for food and for women although he is popularly remembered as a heavy old man when he took the throne at seventeen he was handsome and athletic he made himself immediately popular by reducing taxes and beheading two of his father's unpopular ministers his father did leave him with the well-stocked treasury and with so many Barons dead in the War of the Roses Henry held more power than any previous King in England he fell in love with and married his brother Arthur's widow Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon they had a happy relationship for many years sadly Catherine suffered several miscarriages and had only one surviving child Mary being only the second pure King Henry was obsessed with cementing his dynasty when it became clear that Catherine was unable to bear any more children Henry decided to divorce her he had a replacement all picked out a young lady in waiting and servant to the Queen and belen unlike other women including Anne's own sister who had gone quickly to Henry's bed and played a coquettish game of resistance why settle for being a royal mistress when she could be queen Catherine wasn't going to give up her husband or her place without a fight Henry's basis for the divorce was a Bible verse was said it was a sin to marry your brother's widow but Catherine stood up to Henry in court and proclaimed that her marriage to Arthur had never been consummated and therefore didn't count the only one who could grant a royal divorce was the Pope and he was currently under siege from the Holy Roman Emperor who happened to be Catherine's nephew the Pope refused to grant Henry's divorce so Henry used the Protestant movement to make himself head of the new Church of England he dissolved the monasteries and enriched himself by looting their wealth and he granted himself a divorce Catherine heartbroken died shortly after and was finally Queen and bore a daughter Elizabeth during a joust Henry fell from his horse and suffered a leg load that would plague him for the rest of his life ending his athleticism and allowing him to pile on weight historians hypothesized that he also suffered brain damage that would explain his hair-trigger temper the shock of the accident also caused and to miscarry their second child increasing strife in the marriage partly due to Anne's refusal to ignore Henry's philandering caused Henry to resent his wife her enemies at court accused her of adultery and incest with her brother she was most likely innocent of all charges but nonetheless she was beheaded at the Tower of London eleven days after Anne's execution Henry married Jane Seymour Jane learned from the mistakes of her predecessors and was quiet and demure and kept her head she gave birth to Henry's long-awaited son Edward but died shortly after the birth due to infection next Henry was encouraged to make an advantageous political marriage and to add a spare to the nursery of the air unsurprisingly princesses were not lining up to marry the wife murdering monarch one said if she had two heads she'd be happy to marry him and of Cleves sister the German elector was eventually selected after Henry became infatuated with her portrait Henry decided to surprise her upon their first meeting by disguising himself as a peasant being sure that she would fall in love with him on sight but when Anne was shocked rather than enamored with the old overweight stranger who burst in on her Henry was humiliated he complained that it was Anne who is ugly and thus she was unable to consummate the marriage and was happy to accept a divorce a generous settlement and an estate and escaped with her head fifty-year-old henry quickly healed his broken heart with 16 year-old Catherine Howard for a year he doted on her and fulfilled her childish desires for clothes and jewelry while another man was fulfilling her more womanly desires court rivals brought evidence of her adultery to the king along with the knowledge that she had sex before marriage both Catherine's current and former lovers and Catherine herself lost their heads in the Tower of London since Henry the Eighth had split with the Catholic Church the Vatican no longer recognized his rule Ireland still devoutly Catholic didn't care to be a fiefdom of the Vatican and preferred Henry as their King even if he was technically a Protestant so the Irish parliament upgraded to title held by kings of england since Henry the second from Lord of Ireland to king of Ireland Henry's sixth and final wife was Catherine Parr there was no question of her virginity as she had already been twice widowed she was a companion and nurse for the ailing old king as well as a published author a remarkable feat for a woman of the time she got herself into hot water when she angered thinking by arguing her Protestant beliefs though Henry was head of the Church of England and demanded Protestantism of his subjects he was still a practicing Catholic Catherine was able to convince the hot-tempered King moments before guards arrived to arrest her that she was only debating his majesty in order to learn from his instruction Henry's failing health finally gave out in 1547 at the age of 55 he was survived by his wife Catherine Parr and a screams and was buried next to Jane Seymour the only wife who didn't live long enough to piss him off Edward 6 Henry the eighth's one and only longed for son Edward became King at the age of 9 he was staunchly Protestant and he and his Regency council did much to shape the Church of England including introducing the Book of Common Prayer which was an English rather than Latin and is still in use today Edward had always been a sickly child and lived in fear that his heir his older sister Mary was returned to country to Catholicism at age 15 he fell fatally ill with tuberculosis and he and his council drew up a new succession naming his cousin Lady Jane Grey as his heir Jane Jane was the granddaughter of Henry the eighth's younger sister Mary the Queen of France upon hearing that she would be Queen Jane fainted she had an outstanding humanist education and was a dedicated Protestant the council scheme to swap out Jane from Mary was doomed from the start Mary was popular with the people and they felt they'd been duped Mary easily raised an army in the English countryside and marched to London and Bing James reigned after only nine days the men who had put Jane in this dangerous position saw the writing on the wall and abandoned her to save their own skins her own father arrested her Jane and her husband were imprisoned in the Tower of London Mary now Queen recognised that Jane had been a political pawn and did not wish to execute her cousin but when a rebellion in James favour frightened Mary's betrothed from coming to England Mary signed the death warrant and a 16 year old nine days queen lost her head Mary the first Henry the eighth's oldest child Mary had had to fight her whole life for her position after her mother Catherine of Aragon had been cast out as Queen when Mary came to the throne at 37 she made quick work of undoing her father and brothers efforts to convert the nation to Protestantism she was a devout Catholic and became known as Bloody Mary by burning some 280 Protestants at the state in her short five-year reign she married her cousin Philip the second to Spain and loved him dearly but her affections were not returned she was desperate for an heir to keep the throne from her Protestant younger sister Elizabeth but with her husband frequently away in his own Kingdom this proved challenging at last Mary began to exhibit symptoms of pregnancy but as the tenth and eleventh months ticked by with no sign of labour her swollen belly began to recede she probably suffered a combination of Attu and a psychosomatic episode following the humiliation of her false pregnancy Philip returned to war on the continent and Mary was heartbroken she died at the age of 42 most likely of uterine cancer Elizabeth the first the daughter of Henry behaved and Ann Berlin had spent her half-sister Mary's reign desperately avoiding any association with plots against her sister even so Mary was always deeply suspicious of her Protestant sibling and had her in and out of imprisonment and always close to the chopping block when Mary died Elizabeth was declared queen at 25 she was incredibly intelligent an outstanding leader and is considered one of the greatest monarchs of England she was more politically moderate than her father and siblings and promoted religious tolerance in response the Pope declared that any Catholic who killed the English Queen would be innocent of sin the many assassination attempts that ensued were all foiled by the Secret Service as her mother had been beheaded at her father's order it is no surprise that Elizabeth refused to marry and became known as the Virgin Queen she did however has many favorites throughout her life she was particularly close to Robert Dudley a childhood friend whose wife died after a fall down the stairs that many believe may have been orchestrated by Dudley to free him up in case the Queen might propose marriage she did however and rebuffed her many foreign suitors as well including her sister's widower show up ii to spain who in his disappointment brought the Spanish Armada to overthrow Elizabeth against great odds she led the country to one of the greatest military victories in it and defeated Philips fleet Elizabeth dressed fabulously she wore elaborate red wigs and fine poisonous LED makeup she was idolized in art and encouraged her people to worship her as a goddess during her reign the wool trade flourished and the English became wealthier than ever she was beloved by most but had one enemy her cousin Mary Queen of Scots was the center of many Catholic plots to overthrow Elizabeth Mary was not the Queen Elizabeth once she had foolishly married a handsome but violent man Henry Donnelly who took as much of her power from her as he could in a jealous rage Darnley murdered Mary's secretary in front of her while Mary was pregnant another Scottish Lord James Boswell orchestrated darlie's death by blowing up his bedroom Mary then married Boswell and everyone suspected she'd been involved in her first husband's murder she was forced to escape to England where she was immediately arrested Elizabeth put off executing Mary for years she had a horror of killing her cousin and a fellow monarch but when Mary was found to have participated in a plot to have Elizabeth assassinated Elizabeth signed the death warrant and Mary lost her head Elizabeth's 44-year reign was a period of flourishing art led by the likes of William Shakespeare who wrote such timeless plays as Romeo and Juliet Hamlet and Macbeth exploration and colonization of the Americas was led by the legally sanctioned pirate Francis Drake and by Walter Raleigh who named Virginia after his Queen and brought tobacco and potatoes back to England Elizabeth died at 67 ending a golden era in England but with no children to follow the Virgin Queen who would rule next check out the next video to find out how did a gay king shape modern Christianity why did Charles the first get his head chopped off and why is part of the Irish flag Orange [Music] you [Music]