Henry VIII: Foreign Policy After the Break with Rome, 1529-1547 (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Henry VIII's foreign policy after the Break with Rome was transformed by diplomatic isolation following the excommunication of 1538

  • England became diplomatically isolated from Catholic Europe and faced the genuine threat of invasion

• Cromwell's response was to seek Protestant allies in Europe through the Schmalkaldic League

  • Henry's rejection of Anne of Cleves destroyed this strategy and contributed to Cromwell's fall

• Relations with France and the Habsburgs after 1534 were defined by constant repositioning as Henry tried to prevent the two powers from uniting against him

• Henry's six wives and the three Acts of Succession were not just personal matters:

  • Some had significant diplomatic dimensions that shaped England's international position

• Henry's last major military venture, the capture of Boulogne (1544), ended with Boulogne being promised back to France under the Treaty of Ardres (1546): a costly and ultimately fruitless campaign

• Historians offer contrasting views:

  • Ives sees Henry as embodying regal magnificence and military success

  • Elton argues the later reign wasted resources and left England’s survival to chance rather than sound judgement

The Diplomatic Consequences of the Break with Rome

England's new diplomatic position

• Before 1534, England had been a respected player in European diplomacy

  • After the Act of Supremacy and excommunication, it became a schismatic outcast in Catholic Europe

• Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry in 1538

  • This released Henry’s subjects from their oaths of loyalty in theory

  • It also sanctioned rebellion and legitimised invasion by Catholic powers

• Both Charles V and Francis I were orthodox Catholic rulers and could not publicly ally with a heretical king

  • Charles V was also Catherine of Aragon's nephew, giving him a personal grievance against Henry

The invasion threat, 1538–1539

• In June 1538, Charles V and Francis I signed the Truce of Nice, temporarily ending their long conflict

  • For the first time, England faced the prospect of a united Catholic Europe directed against it

• Henry responded with a major programme of coastal fortification

  • The Device Forts were built along the south coast, including Deal, Walmer and Camber Castles

  • They represented a genuine and lasting defensive achievement

• Henry also struck at potential figureheads for a Catholic invasion at home

  • The Exeter Conspiracy (1538) led to the execution of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, and Henry Pole, Lord Montague

  • Both had Plantagenet blood and could have been used as rival claimants by a Catholic invasion force

• The threat receded by 1540 when France and Charles V’s Habsburg Empire returned to war with each other

  • But it had demonstrated how vulnerable England's diplomatic isolation had made it

Cromwell's Protestant alliance strategy

• Cromwell's answer to isolation was to seek allies among the Protestant princes of Germany

  • The Schmalkaldic League was the alliance of German Protestant rulers who had broken with Rome

  • A marriage alliance with a Protestant German state would give England a powerful continental partner

• This strategy led directly to the Anne of Cleves marriage (1540)

  • Anne was the sister of the Duke of Cleves, a significant Protestant ruler in north-west Germany

  • Henry found her physically repulsive (calling her a "great Flemish mare") and had the marriage annulled after six months

• The collapse of the Anne of Cleves marriage destroyed Cromwell's broader diplomatic strategy

  • It also gave his enemies at court the ammunition they needed to bring him down

  • With Cromwell's fall, the Protestant alliance strategy was abandoned

Relations with France, Spain & the HRE after 1534

• After 1534, Henry's foreign policy became increasingly reactive and expensive

• He constantly sought to prevent France and the Habsburgs from uniting against him

• The pattern was familiar from Wolsey's era: shifting alliances, diplomatic spectacle and limited lasting results

The broader verdict on relations with France and Spain

• Henry never achieved a stable alliance with either France or the Habsburgs after 1534

  • Both powers used England when it suited them and abandoned it when it did not

  • Charles V allied with Henry in 1543 only to make a separate peace a year later

• The wars of the 1540s were ruinously expensive

  • Henry spent the wealth accumulated from the dissolution on campaigns in France and Scotland

  • More than half of all monastic lands were sold off between 1543 and 1547 to fund the wars

• England's actual strategic position in 1547 was little improved from 1534

  • No new territory had been permanently gained

  • The dynasty was secure, but largely thanks to the birth of Edward in 1537 rather than foreign policy success

Securing the Succession: Henry's Six Wives & the Acts of Succession

• Henry's marriages were never purely personal:

  • Some had clear diplomatic purposes, while others had indirect consequences for England's international position

• A disputed succession invited foreign intervention:

  • Both France and the Habsburgs had potential claimants they could have backed

The six wives and their diplomatic significance

The three Acts of Succession

• First Act of Succession (1534): declared Mary illegitimate and made the children of Anne Boleyn heirs to the throne

  • It required all subjects to swear an oath accepting this

  • Refusal was treated as treason:

    • More and Fisher were executed partly for refusing

• Second Act of Succession (1536): declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate after Anne Boleyn's execution

  • It left the succession dangerously unclear if Jane Seymour failed to produce an heir

• Third Act of Succession (1544): restored both Mary and Elizabeth to the succession in the order Edward, Mary, Elizabeth

  • This was the most significant settlement

    • It gave England a clear line of succession for the first time since 1509

  • It reduced the risk of foreign-backed rival claims and stabilised the dynastic position in the short term

    • But the religious differences between Edward, Mary and Elizabeth helped to create the instability of the mid-Tudor period

  • The order was confirmed in Henry's will and shaped the reigns of all three of his children

How Successful was Henry VIII's Foreign Policy?

• This question covers the whole of Henry's reign, drawing on both foreign policy revision notes

• Use the specific evidence below to build and support your own argument

Evidence that Henry VIII's foreign policy was successful

• England's prestige was significantly raised in the early reign

  • The campaigns of 1513, the Treaty of London (1518) and the Field of the Cloth of Gold positioned England at the heart of European diplomacy

• Flodden (1513) neutralised Scotland as a military threat for a generation

  • It was a more decisive strategic victory than anything achieved in France

• England survived the potentially catastrophic threat of a united Catholic Europe in 1538/1539

  • The Device Forts provided a lasting coastal defence

  • The Exeter Conspiracy executions removed potential figureheads for invasion

• Boulogne was captured in 1544

  • Henry became the first English king to take French territory in over a century

  • Whatever its later fate, the capture was a genuine military achievement

• The Third Act of Succession (1544) gave England the clearest dynastic settlement since 1509

  • This reduced the risk of foreign intervention over a disputed succession

• Henry died with his throne intact and the Tudor dynasty secure

Key historian

Evidence that Henry VIII's foreign policy failed to achieve its objectives

• The Break with Rome created a diplomatic isolation that was never fully resolved in Henry's lifetime

  • England was excommunicated, cut off from Catholic Europe and threatened with invasion

  • No stable continental alliance was ever established after 1534

• The wars of the 1540s were enormously expensive and produced no lasting gains

  • Boulogne was captured in 1544 and agreed to be returned to France under the Treaty of Ardres (1546), though it was not actually handed back until 1550

  • Charles V abandoned Henry almost immediately after Crépy to make a separate peace

• Henry squandered the wealth of the dissolution on futile campaigns

  • More than half of all monastic lands were sold off between 1543 and 1547 to fund wars

  • The Crown lost the long-term income these lands would have generated

• The Rough Wooing of Scotland (1543–1550) backfired

  • Henry's brutal military campaigns in Scotland pushed it closer to France rather than delivering union

  • The Treaty of Greenwich collapsed and the French alliance with Scotland strengthened

• Henry left a 9-year-old son as his heir with no secure continental ally

  • England's diplomatic vulnerability in 1547 was arguably worse than in 1509

Key historian