Was Henry VIII a good monarch?
Depends on your definition of a good monarch :P. At the beginning of his reign he was young, handsome, athletic, well educated and well liked. But as he got older he became more irritable, fatter, he had a bad ulcer in his leg and was starting to go mad. It all went downhill after his first divorce really. His courtiers were afraid of him. Where there had once been the jolliest court in Europe, now everyone tiptoed around Henry and were fearful of his capricious moods. It didn’t take much to get on the wrong side of him, and Henry wasn’t cautious about beheading people… After Henry’s death, his memory among the people became treasured. This was partly because of Edward’s short and not particularly successful rule, and then Mary’s disastrous reign. When Elizabeth came to the throne, she was compared to ‘Great Harry’, and people believed that the good days had returned. Perhaps Henry VIII wasn’t a good monarch, but he is a greatly remembered one who fascinates a lot of people.
