People

King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547)

So the first person I have to add to my favorite people in history has to be of course Henry VIII. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with this man. And there just seems to be something so familiar about him, its quite strange and hard to explain. But besides that he is also just so very interesting. Let me fill you in on some history on him.

Henry was born on 28 June 1491 in Greenwich. After the death of his elder brother Arthur in 1502, Henry VIII became heir to the English throne. Seven years later his father Henry VII died and he was crowned king of England. Shortly afterwards he married Catherine of Aragon, Arthur's widow. Henry increasingly relied on Thomas Wolsey to rule for him and Wolsey became lord chancellor in 1515.

One of Henry's favourite pursuits, alongside hunting and dancing, was to wage war. Wolsey organised the first French campaign and proved to be an outstanding minister. The Scots were defeated at Flodden in 1513. But war with France ultimately proved expensive and unsuccessful and Wolsey's ascendancy was cut short by Henry's need for a male heir. He was determined to replace Catherine - whose only surviving child was a daughter, Mary, but the pope refused to grant the divorce. In 1533, Henry went ahead anyway and married Anne Boleyn, with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth. The pope excommunicated him, and parliamentary legislation confirmed Henry's decision to break with Rome. With the help of Wolsey's replacement, Thomas Cromwell, Henry established himself as head of the Church of England and ordered the dissolution of the monasteries. Other reforms - including the uniting of England and Wales and the creation of the Council of the North and the Household and Exchequer - were also instigated during the 1530s. Henry grew tired of Anne Boleyn, who had failed to produce a male heir, and she was executed for adultery and treason in 1536. Jane Seymour became queen and in 1537 produced a male heir, Edward, but died after childbirth. 

Henry's personal religious beliefs remained Catholic, despite the growing number of people at court and in the nation who had adopted Protestantism. In an attempt to establish a Protestant alliance with German princes, Cromwell arranged a marriage between the king and Anne of Cleves. Henry divorced her a few months later and turned on Cromwell, who was executed. The final years of his reign witnessed his physical decline and an increasing desperation to appear all-powerful. In 1540, he married Catharine Howard but she was executed for adultery and treason within two years. A final marriage to Catherine Parr was more harmonious. There were fruitless and expensive wars against Scotland and France. Henry died on 28 January 1547 and was succeeded by his son.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_viii_king.shtml)


Marie Antoinette (1755 - 1793)

    Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest and most beautiful daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Marie Antoinette was brought up believing her destiny was to become queen of France. She married the crown prince of France in 1770. Four years later she became queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI (House of Bourbon).

The stories of Antoinette's excesses are vastly overstated. In fact, rather than ignoring France's growing financial crisis, she reduced the royal household staff, eliminating many unnecessary positions that were based solely on privilege. In the process she offended the nobles, adding their condemnation to the scandalous stories spread by royal hopefuls. It was the nobility that balked at the financial reforms the government ministers tried to make, not the King and Queen, who were in favor of change. In truth, Antoinette and Louis were placed in harms' way not only by elements of their personalities, but by the changing face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. From that point on the King and Queen were virtual prisoners. Antoinette sought aid from other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and her sister, Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791, Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria and Prussia declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine.
Marie Antoinette was cruelly treated during her final days of captivity. Her best friend, the Princess de Lambelle, was killed and her severed head was put on a pike and paraded in front of the Queen.
Her children (Marie Therese and Louis XVII) were taken from her. Louis XVII was subjected to abuse by the family's jailers and later died, supposedly of Tuberculosis and malnutrition. Marie Therese, her firstborn daughter was the only family member to survive.
Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. She was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused. She was only 37 years old.
The Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon I. The succession went to the closest living relative of Louis XVI who became Louis XVIII. He had escaped to Britain where he sat out the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The new monarchy had a bumpy road, lasting until 1848 and the ascension of Napoleon III. After Napoleon III abdicated in 1871, France became a republic.

(http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/antoinette.html)