Henry VIII (b. June 28,1491, Greenwich, near London, Eng.—d. Jan. 28, 1547, London) King of England (1509-47). Son of Henry VII, Henry married his brother’s widow, Cathe¬ rine of Aragon (the mother of Mary I), soon after his accession in 1509. His first chief minister, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, exercised nearly complete control over policy in 1515-27. In 1527 Henry pursued a divorce from Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn, but Pope Clement VII denied him an annulment. Wolsey, unable to help Henry, was ousted. The new minister,
Thomas Cromwell, in 1532 initiated a revolution when he decided that the English church should separate from Rome, allowing Henry to marry Anne in 1533. A new archbishop,
Thomas Cranmer, declared the first marriage annulled. A daughter, Eliza¬ beth I, was bom to Anne soon after.
Becoming head of the Church of England represented Henry’s major achievement, but it had wide-ranging consequences. Henry, once pro¬ foundly devoted to the papacy and rewarded with the title Defender of the Faith, was excommunicated, and he was obliged to settle the nature of the newly independent church. In the 1530s his power was greatly enlarged, especially by transferring to the crown the wealth of the monasteries and by new clerical taxes, but his earlier reputation as a man of learning became buried under his enduring fame as a man of blood. Many, including St. Thomas More, were killed because they refused to accept the new order. The king grew tired of Anne, and in 1536 she was executed for adultery. He immediately married Jane Seymour, who bore him a son, Edward VI, but died in childbirth. Three years later, at Cromwell’s instigation, he married Anne of Cleves, but he hated her and demanded a quick divorce; he had Cromwell beheaded in 1540. By now Henry was becoming paranoid, as well as enormously fat and unhealthy. In 1540 he married Catherine Howard, but he had her beheaded for adultery in 1542. In 1542 he waged a financially ruinous war against Scotland. In 1543 he married Catherine Parr, who survived him. He was succeeded on his death by his son, Edward.
Henry, Cape Promontory, at the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay, southeastern Virginia, U.S. Located in Virginia Beach city, it is opposite Cape Charles, to which it is connected by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It is the site of Cape Henry Memorial, which marks the 1607 landing of the first permanent English settlers in America. The memorial, part of Colonial National Historical Park, includes the Old Lighthouse, the first in the U.S. (1792). The nearby New Lighthouse (1881) has one of the world’s most powerful lights, visible offshore for 20 mi (32 km).
Henry, Joseph (b. Dec. 17, 1797, Albany, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 13, 1878, Washington, D.C.) U.S. physicist. He aided Samuel F.B. Morse in developing the telegraph. He discovered several important principles of electricity, including self-induction. He observed electromagnetic induc¬ tion a year before Michael Faraday announced its discovery. He made improvements to electromagnets, discovered the laws on which the trans¬ former is based, investigated electric discharge, and demonstrated that sunspots radiate less heat than the general solar surface. In 1846 he became the first secretary and director of the Smithsonian Institution, where he organized a corps of volunteer weather observers that led to cre¬ ation of the U.S. Weather Bureau. He was a chief technical adviser to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and a primary organizer of the National Academy of Science. In 1893 the standard unit of electrical inductance, the henry, was named in his honour.
Henry, O. orig. William Sydney Porter (b. Sept. 11,1862, Greens¬ boro, N.C., U.S.—d. June 5,1910, New York, N.Y.) U.S. short-story writer. He wrote for newspapers and later worked as a bank teller in Texas, where he was convicted of embezzlement; he began writing stories in prison as O.
Henry VIII, oil on panel by the studio of Hans Holbein the Younger, after 1537; in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England.
THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY/NATIONAL MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES ON MERSEYSIDE (WALKER ART GALLERY, LIVERPOOL)
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
864 I Henry ► Hephaestus
Henry. He moved to New York, where his tales romanticizing the common¬ place, particularly the life of ordinary New Yorkers, and often using coin¬ cidence and surprise endings, became highly popular. His collections include Cabbages and Kings (1904); The Four Million (1906), including “The Gift of the Magi”; The Trimmed Lamp (1907), including “The Last Leaf’; and Whirligigs (1910), including “The Ransom of Red Chief.”
Henry, Patrick (b. May 29, 1736, Studley, Va.—d. June 6, 1799, Red Hill, near Brookneal, Va., U.S.) American Revolutionary leader. Admit¬ ted to the bar in 1760, he soon built a large and profitable practice. His skill as an orator was displayed in the Parson's Cause trial (1763). Elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, he opposed the Stamp Act; during the next decade he became a leader of the radical opposition to British rule. He was a founding member of the Committees of Correspon¬ dence and a delegate to the Continental Congress. At a Virginia assembly in 1775 he delivered his famous speech in defense of liberty, which con¬ cluded with the words “Give me liberty or give me death.” He helped draft the state’s first constitution in 1776 and was elected governor the same year (1776-79, 1784-86). As wartime governor, he ably supported Gen. George Washington; during his second term, he authorized the expe¬ dition of George Rogers Clark to invade the Illinois country. In 1788 he opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which he felt did not suf¬ ficiently secure the rights of states and individuals. He was later instru¬ mental in the adoption of the Bill of Rights.
Henry, Saint See Henry II (Germany)
Henry Beauclerc See Henry I (England)
Henry of Anjou See Henry II (England)
Henry Plantagenet See Henry II (England)
Henry the Navigator Portuguese Henrique o Navegador orig. Henrique, infante (prince) de Portugal, duque (duke) de Viseu, senhor (lord) da Covilha (b. March 4, 1394, Porto, Port.—d. Nov. 13, 1460, Vila do Infante, near Sagres) Portuguese prince and patron of explorers. He helped his father, John I, capture the Moroc¬ can city of Ceuta in 1415 and served as governor of Ceuta and later of the Portuguese province of Algarve. He established his own court at Sagres and sponsored voyages of discovery in the Madeira Islands and along the western coast of Africa. As grand master of the Order of Christ, he gained funds for backing voyages aimed at the conversion of pagans. His patronage led to the development of the Portuguese caravel and improved navigational instruments and the advancement of cartography.
Henry Tudor See Henry VII (England)
Henslowe, Philip (b. c. 1550, Lindfield, Sussex, Eng.—d. Jan. 6, 1616, London) English theatre owner and manager. He settled in London before 1577, married a wealthy widow, and became the owner of several theatres, among them the Rose Theatre, which he built (with a partner) in 1587. The most lavish was the Fortune Theatre, built in 1600 for the Admiral’s Men, the chief rivals of William Shakespeare’s company. Hen¬ slowe’s theatres gave the first productions of many Elizabethan dramas. His diary (edited 1904-08 by Sir Walter Gregg) is an important source for theatrical history.
Henson, Jim in full James Maury Henson (b. Sept. 24, 1936, Greenville, Miss., U.S.—d. May 16, 1990, New York, N.Y.) U.S. puppe¬ teer and producer. He created a puppet show for a television station while in college and developed the first Muppets (melding marionettes and puppets ). In the 1960s he made TV commercials. When PBS featured the Muppets on Sesame Street (from 1969), Henson achieved nationwide notice. He premiered The Muppet Show on television in 1976 and gained audiences in over 100 countries. He also produced and directed The Mup¬ pet Movie (1979) and its sequels.