Henry VIII’s Late Foreign Policy: A Masterclass in Failure, Humiliation, and Defeat.
Henry VIII was an ambitious man. As a young King, aged only 17, Henry’s main aim was clear: wage war. The English monarch, ever since the Hundred Years’ War, had a claim to the French throne. Henry wanted to push this claim as far as he could, whilst simultaneously boosting his international prestige. Why then, by Henry’s death in 1547, was England left bankrupt, nearly defenceless, and as isolated as ever? The answer comes in a series of failed wars, international embarrassment, and a French crown which never came close to sitting on Henry’s head.
It would hardly be fair to say that Henry was entirely unsuccessful in war. Although his later years were much less successful than those prior — where the Treaty of London (1518) and the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520) saw England take centre-stage in international politics and battles such as the Battle of the Spurs (1513) allowed Henry to flex his military muscles — they were not entirely fruitless. Negotiations with Scotland were initially positive and the Treaty of Greenwich (1543) offered an extensive and long-lasting dynastic union between England and Scotland through the marriage…
