Henry VIII Takes the English Throne

April 21, 1509

The seventeen-year-old Prince Henry Tudor succeeded his miserly father, tall and athletic and freshly married to his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. England celebrated a new golden age. No one guessed that this chivalric prince would one day smash the abbeys and behead two of his wives. His early reign earned him the papal title Defender of the Faith, an honor he kept even after breaking with Rome.