June 28, 1491 - Henry VIII

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until he died in 1547. After the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry passed legislation that severed England and Ireland from the Roman Catholic Church and established the monarch as Supreme Head of the Church of England, initiating the English Reformation.

Henry was born in Greenwich as the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, was heir apparent until he died in 1502, after which Henry succeeded him. Originally intended for an ecclesiastical career, he instead received an education suited to kingship. Of his six siblings, only Margaret and Mary survived into adulthood.

Henry brought radical changes to the Constitution of England, expanding royal power and ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings in opposition to papal supremacy.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry VIII under CC BY-SA 4.0.