Today in History

January 28, 1547

Henry VIII Dies

The second Tudor King consolidated power in the monarchy in a manner that made him perhaps the most powerful of British kings. Famously married six times, Henry's love life landed him cross-ways with the Roman Church - a circumstance that he chose to deal with by declaring himself head of the Church of England, launching the English Reformation. His search for a male heir led him to have his second wife, Anne Boleyn, beheaded and he went on to marry Jane Seymour who died in childbirth, giving Henry the male heir apparent he desired. He annexed Wales into the United Kingdom and increased the might of the British Navy, setting the stage for the kingdom's future colonial empire. He died on 28 January 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall with the mysterious utterance "Monks, Monks, Monks!"

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