Biland Monastery
Rievaul Abbey
Mount Grace Priory
Dissolution of the monasteries
The reason why monasteries were disillusioned was because Henry VII disapproved of them, he was the person that started all of this. For starters he was protestant; all the monasteries at that time were catholic based. Monasteries had much power over England and they were very rich. Everyone had to pay taxes including Henry VII himself. They also owned a lot of land. Henry VII of course didn’t like that and thought he had to do something about it…… So he sent Thomas Cromwell to dig up as much dirt as possible about monasteries. He came up with things like the monks were always drunk, they were always drinking, the monks were sleeping with the nuns, they were corrupt, they were embezzling public funds etc. he waited until he gathered enough “evidence” to close down these monasteries. The act of supremacy gave him the authority to do so. This all happened between 1536 and 1541.
Henry VIII
He had six wives, this could be a good thing to show that he was powerful and he needed sons to carry on the kingdom when he's dead. This could also be a bad thing because he fell in love with many woman. He executed two of his wives,which may seem harsh but they did commit crimes of which Henry VII decided to kill them. He started the dissolution of monasteries, he may have thought he was doing what was the best for his country or he was just greedy and wanted more power. He was the supreme head of the church of England, he could have used that power for the better of England or he could've abused it. He was given the title defender of the faith this showed that he was faithful to his religion and that he was getting more powerful. All of the facts above were neither good or bad, depending on the way you look at it. Personally I don’t have an opinion about weather he was a good or a bad king, he did England good the same amount as he did England bad. A lot of people were scared of him and considered him brutal. He was a man who changed English history and shall never be forgotten.
A painting of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein
Henry VIII hired Hans Holbein from Holland, who was one of the best painters at the time to paint a portrait of him. In the painting he with legs wide apart, showing that he was a powerful man. He was wearing expensive clothes to show that he was rich and he was carrying a knife to show that he was a military man.
