HENRY VIII., the second son of Henry VII. by his queen, Elizabeth of York, was born at Greenwich ou the 28th of June 1491. On the let of November following he was created Duke of York, and in 1494 his father conferred upon him the honorary title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Sir Edward Poyninga being appointed his deputy. The government of Sir Edward is famous for the enactment of the statute, or rather series of statutes, declaring the dependence of the Irish parliament upon that of England, which passes under his name. Heory's nominal lord-lieutenancy appears to have lasted only till the next year, when he exchanged that dignity for the office of President of the Northern Marches. The king's design in these appointments seems to have been to oppose his son's name to the pretensions of Perkin Warbeek, and the efforts of the supporters of that adventurer, first in Ireland and afterwards from the side of Scotland. Although thus early distinguished by these and other civil titles and appointments, it is stated by Paolo Serpi, in his ' History of the Council of Trent,' that Henry was from the first destined to the archbishoprio of Canterbury; "that prudent king, his father," observes Lord Herbert (in the ' History of his Life and Reign '), "choosing this as the moat cheap and glorious way for disposing of a younger son." He received accordingly a learned education ; "so that," continues this writer, "besides his being an able Latinist, philosopher, and divine, he was (which one might wonder at In a king) a curious musician, as two entire manse. composed by him, and often sung in his chapel, did abundantly witness." As the death of his elder brother Arthur however, on the 2nd of April 1502, made him heir to the crown before he had completed his eleventh year, it is evident that his clerical education could not have proceeded very far, and that what he knew either of divinity or the learned tongued must have been for the most part acquired without any view to the church. There is a contra diction in the statements as to the timo when he was created Prince of Wales; but there is a patent in Rymer (voL xiii., p. 11) appointing
him warden of the forest of Gualtres iu Yorkshire by this title, June 22nd 1502, within three months after his brother's death. This is consistent with what we aro told by Holinshed, who, after relating the death of Arthur, says—" his brother, the Duke of York, was stayed from the title of prince by the apace of a month, till to women it might appear whether the Lady Catherine, wife to the said Prince Arthur, was conceived with child or not." Very soon after Arthur's death the singular project was started of marrying Henry to his brother's widow. The proposition appears to have originally come from Ferdinand and Isabella, the parents of the princess, who were anxious to retain the connection with England ; and to have been assented to by King Henry in great part from his wish to avoid the repayment of the dower of the princess. The final agreement between the two kings was signed on the 23rd of June 1503, and, according to the chroniclers, the parties were affianced on Sunday the 25th of the same month, at the Bishop of Salisbury's house in Fleet Street, although the dispensation was certainly not obtained from Pope Julius II. till the 26th of December following. This bull however contains a clause legitimatising the marriage, although it should have been already contracted, or even consummated. It may be observed that nobody at this time seems to have doubted that Catherine's preceding marriage with Arthur had been followed by consummation.
Henry became king on the 22nd of April 1509, being then in his nineteenth year. On a memorial being presented by the Spanish ambassador, it was, notwithstanding the opposition of Warham, arch bishop of Canterbury, revolved in the council that the marriage with Catherine should ho completed ; Fox, bishop of Winchester, strongly urging, among other reasons, "that there was uo room to doubt that the princess was still a virgin, since she herself affirmed it, offering even to be tried by matrous, to show that she spoke the truth." The marriage was accordingly solemnised in the beginning of June.