Chained library
A chained library is a library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, sufficiently long to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but not removed from the library itself. This would prevent theft of the library's materials. However, it led to crowding and awkwardness when readers had to stand side by side, each holding a book or clumping so they could share one; the practice was usual for reference libraries from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. However, since the chaining process was expensive, it was not used on all books. Only the more valuable books in a collection were chained; this included large books. It is standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the cover of a book; this is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible.
This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain. To remove the book from the chain, the librarian would use a key; the earliest example in England of a library to be endowed for use outside an institution such as a school or college was the Francis Trigge Chained Library in Grantham, established in 1598. The library still exists and can justifiably claim to be the forerunner of public library systems. Marsh's Library in Dublin, built 1701, is another non institutional library, still housed in its original building. Here it was not the books that were chained, but rather the readers were locked into cages to prevent rare volumes from'wandering'. There is an example of a chained library in the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, as well as at Bolton School. Hereford Cathedral has the largest surviving chained library. While chaining books was a popular practice throughout Europe, it was not used in all libraries; the practice of chaining library books became less popular as printing increased and books became less expensive.
Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England is yet another example of a Chained Library. It is one of the first in the second largest. There has been increased interest in reconstructing chained libraries. Worldwide, only five chained libraries have survived with their original furniture and books; this includes the library built in the Church of Saint Walpurga, located in the small town of Zutphen in the Netherlands. This library was built in 1564; the library is now part of a museum that allows visitors to tour and view the library's original books and chains. Another chained library is the Malatestiana Library in Cesena near Bologna in Italy, dating back to the Italian Renaissance. A lot of work has gone into preserving these great libraries. For example, many workers, over a decade, massive monetary donations were spent to restore the Mappa Mundi and Chained Library museum located in Hereford, England. Built over 900 years ago, the library faced destruction; the oldest chained book found in the library is the Hereford Gospels.
Written in the eighth century, it is one of 229 chained books located in this great library. The Hereford library is the largest surviving chained library with its books intact; the library is now open to the public as a tourist museum. The chained library in Wimborne Minster is the second-largest chained library in the UK; the first donation came from Revd William Stone. These were theological books, used by the clergy and therefore were not chained; when another local donor, Roger Gillingham, gave another 90 books in 1695, he insisted that the books be chained up, but that the Library should be opened, for the people of the town, providing they were ‘shopkeepers or the better class of person'. Bolton School, England Chelsea Old Church, England Chetham's Library, England houses the chained parish library of Gorton Church of All Saints, England Church of St John the Baptist, England Francis Trigge Chained Library, England Hereford Cathedral Library, England Malatestiana Library, Italy Royal Grammar School, England St Peter's Church, Wootton Wawen, England St Walburga's Church, The Netherlands Trinity Hall, England Wimborne Minster, England Wells Cathedral, England In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, the library of the magical Unseen University has a number of chained books—however, in this case, the purpose of the chains is to prevent the more vicious magical books from escaping or attacking passers-by.
David Williams has written Murder in Advent, that features a chained library. In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Restricted section of the library features chained books. In the season six finale of Game of Thrones, Samwell Tarly is granted access to the Citadel Library where many of the books are chained. In the film Doctor Strange, the library of Kamar-Taj is home to countless ancient books, but some books are forbidden and on chains and watched over by the librarian, Wong. Foredge shelving Spine shelving William Blades, Books in chains: and other bibliographical papers. London: Elliot Stock, 1892. John Charles Cox & Alfred Harvey, English church furniture. Chapter XI:'Church libraries and chained books.' Second edition. London: Methuen, 1908. B. H. Streeter, The Chained Library: a survey
Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of part of Suffolk; the most recent Bishop of Norwich was Graham James. The see is in the city of Norwich and the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity; the Bishop's residence is Norwich. It is claimed that the Bishop is the Abbot of St Benet's Abbey, the contention being that instead of dissolving this monastic institution, Henry VIII united the position of Abbot with that of Bishop of Norwich, making St Benet's the only monastic institution to escape de jure dissolution, although it was despoiled by its last Abbot. East Anglia has had a bishopric since 630, when the first cathedral was founded at Dommoc to be identified as the submerged village of Dunwich. In 673, the see was divided into the bishoprics of Elmham. After the Conquest the seat was moved in 1070 to Thetford, before being located in Norwich in 1094 under William II, ahead of the completion of the new cathedral building.
In about 630 or 631, a diocese was established by St. Felix for the Kingdom of the East Angles, with his episcopal seat at Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. In 672, the diocese was divided into the sees of Dunwich and Elmham by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury; the line of bishops of Elmham continued until it was interrupted by the Danish Viking invasions in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. By the mid 950s, the sees of Elmham and Dunwich were reunited under one bishop, with the episcopal see at Elmham. After the Norman conquest, the see was transferred to Thetford in 1075, soon afterwards to Norwich in 1094. Though the see took the name Norwich in the 11th century, its history goes back 500 years earlier, to the final conversion of the kingdom of East Anglia by St Felix; the East Angles became Christian during the reign of Sigeberht, who succeeded to the kingdom in 628. Felix fixed his see at Dommoc, which may have been at Dunwich, now entirely submerged off the coast of Suffolk. From there he evangelized the areas corresponding to the modern counties of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, which were to form the diocese of Norwich.
He was succeeded in turn by Thomas in 647, Bifus. Upon the death of Bifus, in 673 Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the see between Dunwich and Elmham; the see of Elmham came to an end in about 870, after the East Anglian king Edmund and the bishop Humbertus were murdered by the Danes. East Anglia was ravaged, the churches and monasteries destroyed, Christianity was only practised with difficulty. Wilred, Bishop of Dunwich seems to have reunited the dioceses, choosing Elmham as his see; the line of his successors at Elmham descended to Herfast, a chaplain to William the Conqueror, who removed his see to Thetford Priory and died in 1084. Herbert de Losinga obtained his appointment in 1091 by means of a simoniacal gift to King William Rufus to secure his election, but being subsequently struck with remorse went to Rome in 1094 to obtain absolution from the pope. Herbert founded a priory in Norwich in expiation for his sin and at the same time moved his see there from Thetford in 1094 under William.
The See of Thetford was formed when Herfast moved the episcopal see from Elmham to Thetford in 1075. This short-lived see continued until it was moved to Norwich in 1094; the chapter of secular canons was dissolved and monks took their place. The foundation-stone of the new cathedral at Norwich was laid in 1096, in honour of the Blessed Trinity. By the time of his death in 1119, Herbert de Losinga had completed the choir, apsidal and encircled by a procession path, which gave access to three Norman chapels, his successor, completed the long Norman nave so that the cathedral is a early twelfth-century building, modified by additions and alterations. The chief of these is the Lady Chapel; the cathedral suffered much from iconoclasm during the civil wars. The Norwich diocese consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk with some parts of Cambridgeshire, being divided into four archdeaconries: Norfolk, Norwich and Sudbury. At the end of the seventeenth century there were 1,121 parish-churches, this number had not changed much since Catholic times.
The main religious houses in the medieval diocese were the Benedictine Abbeys of Bury St Edmunds, St Benet's of Hulme, the cathedral priory of Norwich, along with the Cistercian Abbey of Sibton, the only Cistercian Abbey in East Anglia, the abbeys of the Augustinian Canons at Wendling and Laystone. Both Dominican and Franciscan convents were to be found at Lynn, Yarmouth and Ipswich, while the Dominicans had houses at Thetford and Sudbury and the Franciscans at Bury St Edmund's and at Walsingham, where the great shrine of Our Lady was, a foundation of Augustinian canons; the Carmelites were at Lynn, Norwich and Blakeney. The last bishop before the start of the English Reformation was Richard Nykke, succeeded by William Rugg in 1536. After him came in 1550 Thomas Thirlby, appointed Bishop of Westminster by the King alone but was reconciled to the Pope in the reign of Queen Mary. After him in 1554 came John Hopton, the last Bishop of
Canon law
Canon law is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law, or operational policy, governing the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion; the way that such church law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was a rule adopted by a church council. Greek kanon / Ancient Greek: κανών, Arabic Qaanoon / قانون, Hebrew kaneh / קנה, "straight"; the Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles is a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, incorporated with the Apostolic Constitutions which are part of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. In the Fourth century the First Council of Nicaea calls canons the disciplinary measures of the Church: the term canon, κανὠν, means in Greek, a rule.
There is a early distinction between the rules enacted by the Church and the legislative measures taken by the State called leges, Latin for laws. In the Catholic Church, canon law is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the Church's hierarchical authorities to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church. However, despite the power of the church and its insistence on creating a specific format for the way its members would live their lives, it was not followed. Powerful and wealthy individuals simply did not abide by the rules and were allowed to approach family life and marriage how they saw fit. A prime instance of this was shown through annulments granted by the church; the church disregarded and disallowed divorce. However, powerful men could annul their marriages; this was noteworthy due to the fact that an annulment was distorting to marriage law and contradicting to the disallowance of divorce.
An annulment would not only cease a marriage but rather end the marriage and rule that the marriage was never valid, nor did it formally exist. Another potent example of Canon Law not being enforced is in regards to polygyny. Men having multiple wives was outright banned by the Catholic church. However, as seen in the example of wealthy and powerful individuals it was allowed. Men who were powerful enough were allowed to have multiple wives, concubines and could have sex prior to marriage. Despite the aforementioned blatant nonobservance to Canon Law, the codes set in place did shape and provide a code that the majority of the members of the catholic church directly abode and lived their lives according to. In the Latin Church, positive ecclesiastical laws, based directly or indirectly upon immutable divine law or natural law, derive formal authority in the case of universal laws from the supreme legislator, who possesses the totality of legislative and judicial power in his person, while particular laws derive formal authority from a legislator inferior to the supreme legislator.
The actual subject material of the canons is not just doctrinal or moral in nature, but all-encompassing of the human condition. The Catholic Church includes the main five rites of churches which are in full union with the Holy See and the Latin Church: Alexandrian Rite Churches which include the Coptic Catholic Church and Ethiopian Catholic Church. West Syriac Rite which includes the Maronite Church, Syriac Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Armenian Rite Church which includes the Armenian Catholic Church. Byzantine Rite Churches which include the Albanian Greek Catholic Church, Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, Bulgarian Church, Byzantine Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia, Greek Church, Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, Italo-Albanian Church, Macedonian Greek Catholic Church, Melkite Church, Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, Russian Church, Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Slovak Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Catholic Church. East Syriac Rite Churches which includes the Chaldean Syro-Malabar Church.
All of these church groups are in full communion with the Supreme Pontiff and are subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The Catholic Church has what is claimed to be the oldest continuously functioning internal legal system in Western Europe, much than Roman law but predating the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. What began with rules adopted by the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem in the first century has developed into a complex legal system encapsulating not just norms of the New Testament, but some elements of the Hebrew, Visigothic and Celtic legal traditions; the history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law. In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus novum; the canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which had developed some different disciplines and practices, underwent its own process of codification, resulting in the Code of Canons of the Eastern C
David J. Thouless
David James Thouless was a British condensed-matter physicist. He was the winner of the 1990 Wolf Prize and a laureate of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics along with F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. Born in Bearsden, Thouless was educated at Winchester College and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge as an undergraduate student of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he obtained his PhD at Cornell University. Thouless was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California and worked in the physics department, from 1958 to 1959, he was the first director of studies in physics at Churchill College, Cambridge, in 1961–1965, professor of mathematical physics at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom in 1965–1978, professor of applied science at Yale University from 1979 to 1980, before becoming a professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1980.
Thouless made many theoretical contributions to the understanding of extended systems of atoms and electrons, of nucleons. He worked on superconductivity phenomena, properties of nuclear matter, excited collective motions within nuclei. Thouless made many important contributions to the theory of many-body problems. For atomic nuclei, he cleared up the concept of'rearrangement energy' and derived an expression for the moment of inertia of deformed nuclei. In statistical mechanics, he contributed many ideas to the understanding of ordering, including the concept of'topological ordering'. Other important results relate to localised electron states in disordered lattices. Selected papers include: Thouless was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1979, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Among his awards are the Wolf Prize for Physics, the Paul Dirac Medal of the Institute of Physics, the Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society, the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Thouless married Margaret Elizabeth Scrase in 1958 and together they had three children. In 2016, Thouless was reported to be suffering from dementia, he died on 6 April 2019 in Cambridge, aged 84. Media related to David Thouless at Wikimedia Commons
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham, known as Howard of Effingham, was an English statesman and Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I. He was commander of the English forces during the battles against the Spanish Armada and was chiefly responsible after Francis Drake for the victory that saved England from invasion by the Spanish Empire. Few details of Charles Howard's early life are known, he was born in 1536, was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He was son of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham and Margaret Gamage, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage, he was a grandson of 2nd Duke of Norfolk. He was the cousin of Anne Boleyn, held several prominent posts during the reign of Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I, it is believed that Charles Howard was taught French and a bit of Latin at the house of his uncle, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was educated in penmanship, chivalric exercises, some legal traditions, he served as a page to his cousin Thomas who became the 4th Duke of Norfolk.
He fished and hunted fervently throughout his life. Howard served at sea under his father's command as a youth. In 1552, he was sent to France to become well-educated in the French language, but was soon brought back to England at the request of his father because of questionable or unexpected treatment. Howard went to the peace negotiations between England and France which led to the Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis of 1559, he informed Elizabeth of its ratification. He served as Ambassador to France in 1559. In December 1562, he became the keeper of the Queen's park at Oatlands. In his early years at court he and five other gentlemen bore the canopy of state when Queen Elizabeth opened her second Parliament on 11 January 1563, he is recorded as having been a regular participant in jousts and tournaments, but despite his relationship to the Queen it is said that it took some time before he was able to gain any personal benefit from his situation. Howard was a member of the House of Commons, yet he was not as distinguished as many others have been.
He represented Surrey in Parliament in 1563 and again in 1572. In 1564 he became a member of Gray's Inn, received his Master of Arts at Cambridge in 1571; this was not because he had any legal ambitions, but because it was the normal thing for men of his status to do. He suppressed a Catholic rebellion in northern England, he commanded a squadron of ships escorting the Queen of Spain on a state visit in 1570. Howard was knighted in 1572 and became Lord Howard of Effingham following his father's death in 1573. From 1576–1603 he was patron of a playing company, Nottingham's Men called the Admiral's Men. On 3 April 1575 Howard was elected to the Order of the Garter to replace his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, executed in 1572, he was installed at Windsor on 8 May 1575. Howard was named Lord High Admiral in 1585; the French ambassador wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, saying Elizabeth's appointment of Howard was "a choice worthy of her virtue and prudence and necessary for the Admiralty.
I pray you tell her that the King has written to me by an express to thank her for having elected so good an admiral, from whom he hopes great things for the peace of his subjects". Howard attended the Privy Council during the Babington Plot, he was named as one of the commissioners to try Mary, Queen of Scots but is not subsequently mentioned as one of those who sat on the trial. William Davison alleged that Howard spoke to Elizabeth on 1 February 1587 "of the great danger she continually lived in" as there were rumours of new plots against her life and spoke of the stories that Mary had escaped from prison. Elizabeth was "moved by his lordship to have some more regard to the surety of herself and the state than she seemed to take" and made up her mind, telling Howard to send for Davison and Mary's death warrant. Howard met Davison and informed him that Elizabeth was now "fully resolved" and ordered him to bring forth the warrant to be signed, "that it might be forthwith despatched and deferred no longer".
Elizabeth would blame Davison for breaking orders that no-one must be told of what had happened. The Privy Council decided to take responsibility for the execution of Mary. In early December 1587 orders were drawn up for Howard to take the fleet to sea. On 21 December Howard's commission was signed, requiring Howard "according as there shall be occasion, wherever and whenever he shall deem it fitting, to invade, enter and make himself master of the kingdoms, lands and all other places whatever belonging to the said Spaniards", he was furthermore given full authority over the army at sea. Between 15 December and 1 April 1588 he sat on the Privy Council only four times and attended court every five or six days to meet with Walsingham. Writing on 27 January 1588, Howard believed the peace negotiations with Spain were a trap and expressed his dismay in a letter to Walsingham: I have made of the French King, the Scottish King, the King of Spain, a Trinity that I mean never to trust to be saved by.
Sir, there was never, since England was England, such a stratagem and mask made to deceive England withal as this is of the treaty of peace. I pray God we have not cause to remember one thing, made of the Scots by the Englishmen. You know; the next day he wrote again to Walsingham that if
Geoffrey Howe
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British Conservative politician. Howe was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council, his resignation on 1 November 1990 is considered by the British press to have precipitated Thatcher's own resignation three weeks later. Geoffrey Howe was born in 1926 at Port Talbot, Wales, to Benjamin Edward Howe, a solicitor and coroner, Eliza Florence Howe, he was to describe himself as a quarter Cornish and half Welsh. He was educated at three independent schools: at Bridgend Preparatory School in Bryntirion, followed by Abberley Hall School in Worcestershire and by winning an exhibition to Winchester College in Hampshire. Howe was not sporty, it was during wartime, so he was active in the Home Guard at the school, set a National Savings group.
He was a keen photographer, film buff. A gifted classicist, Howe was offered an exhibition to Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1945, but first decided to join the army, he did a six-month course in physics. He did National Service as a lieutenant with the Royal Corps of Signals in East Africa, by his own account giving political lectures in Swahili about how Africans should avoid communism and remain loyal to "Bwana Kingy George". Having declined an offer to remain in the army as a captain, he matriculated at Trinity Hall in 1948, where he read Law and was chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association, on the committee of the Cambridge Union Society, he was practised in Wales. In August 1953 Geoffrey Howe married daughter of P. Morton Shand, they had two daughters. At first the valleys practice struggled to pay, surviving thanks to £1,200 gift from his father and a judicious marriage, he served on the Council of the Bar from 1957 to 1962, was a council member of the pressure group JUSTICE.
A high-earning barrister, he was made a QC in 1965. Choosing instead a career in politics, Howe stood as the Conservative Party candidate in Aberavon at the 1955 and 1959 general elections, losing in a safe Labour Party seat, he helped to found the Bow Group, an internal Conservative think tank of "young modernisers" in the 1950s. In 1958, he co-authored the report A Giant's Strength published by the Inns of Court Conservative Association; the report argued that the unions had become too powerful and that their legal privileges ought to be curtailed. Iain Macleod discouraged the authors from publicising the report. Harold Macmillan believed that trade union votes had contributed towards the 1951 and 1955 election victories and thought that it "would be inexpedient to adopt any policy involving legislation which would alienate this support". Through a series of Bow Group publications, Howe advanced free market ideas inspired by the thinking of Enoch Powell, to be known as Thatcherism. Howe represented Bebington in the House of Commons from 1964 to 1966 with a much reduced majority.
He became a chairman of the backbench committee on social services, being recognised for promotion to the front bench, as HM Opposition spokesman on welfare and labour policy. He was defeated at the 1966 general election. Howe returned to the bar, he sat as deputy chairman of Glamorgan Quarter Sessions. More politically significant was work on the Latey Committee tasked with recommending a reduction in the voting age. In 1969, he investigated Ely Mental Cardiff for alleged abuse, but of more legislative importance were the Street Committee on racial discrimination, Cripps Committee on discrimination against women, the reports of which helped the Labour government to change the law. He returned to the House of Commons as the MP for Reigate from 1970 to 1974, East Surrey from 1974 to 1992. In 1970, he was appointed Solicitor General in Edward Heath's government, he was responsible for the Industrial Relations Act. He was promoted in 1972 to Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, with a seat in the Cabinet and Privy Council membership, a post he held until Labour were returned to government in March 1974.
In 1974, the Reigate boundary changes redrew the seat as East Surrey, Heath appointed him as spokesman for social services. Howe contested the second ballot of the 1975 Conservative leadership election, in which Margaret Thatcher was elected as party leader, she saw him as a like-minded right-winger and he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. He masterminded the development of new economic policies embodied in an Opposition mini-manifesto The Right Approach to the Economy through dogged patience and quiet determination. At the same time, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey "went cap in hand to the IMF" to ask for a loan as Britain was bankrupt. In 1978, Healey said that an attack from Howe was "like being savaged by a dead sheep"; when Healey was featured on This Is Your Life in 1989, Howe appeared and paid warm tribute to an old antagonist. Indeed, the two men were friends for many years, died only six days apart. With the Conservative victory in the 1979 general election, Howe became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
His tenure was characterised by an ambitious programme of radical policies intended to restore the public finances, reduce inflation and liberal
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled, his disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is known as "the father of the Royal Navy". Domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering into England the theory of the divine right of kings. Besides asserting the sovereign's supremacy over the Church of England, he expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were used to quell dissent, those accused were executed without a formal trial, by means of bills of attainder.
He achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in Henry's administration, he was an extravagant spender and used the proceeds from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament to convert into royal revenue the money, paid to Rome. Despite the influx of money from these sources, Henry was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance as well as his numerous costly and unsuccessful continental wars with King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 and following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland, his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive and accomplished king.
He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne". He was an composer; as he aged, Henry became obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical and insecure king, he was succeeded by the issue of his third marriage to Jane Seymour. Born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York and a month or so made Warden of the Scottish Marches.
In May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. The reason for all the appointments to a small child was so his father could keep personal control of lucrative positions and not share them with established families. Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, learning at least some Italian. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king. In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding his brother's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile; as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. He was further honoured, on 9 February 1506, by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I who made him a Knight of the Golden Fleece. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine.
Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was supervised and did not appear in public; as a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship". Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur's widow Catherine. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen shortly after Arthur's death. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impediment of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.
Cohabitation was not possible. Isabella's death in 1504, the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters, her father preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated. Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daugh
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