'How successful was Henry VIII's Foreign Policy' A* Essay
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This essay answers the AQA Alevel style question - 'how successful was Henry VIII's foreign policy in the years 1509 - 29?' which received 23/25.
I have more summary notes on the whole of the AQA Tudor course should those be of any use to you too.
How successful was Henry VIII’s foreign policy in the years 1509 to 1529? (25 marks)
Foreign policy was a matter which Henry VIII, as well as the whole of the Tudor dynasty,
dealt with in a number of ways, which held much weight throughout their reign’s. Although
Henry VIII was a fairly ambitious character and was determined to achieve a number of
objectives through his relations with foreign powers, his foreign policy was rather
inconsistent. Initially, in 1509 it seemed this renaissance king demonstrated enthusiasm and
he held, on the surface, a rather significant amount of success however as his reign
progressed, this drastically altered through not only inconsistency but there were arguably a
large amount of failures, which mostly stemmed from only a decade after the beginning of
his reign in the 1520s. This therefore undermines the extent of success that this King
could/would achieve in his overall foreign policy, however when focusing on his foreign
policy from 1509-1529 it is unfair to say that he did not experience any successes.
Firstly, when measuring the success of Henry’s foreign policy, it can be argued that Henry
VIII experienced a fair amount of military glory, with his foreign policy objectives reflecting
his hunger for this. This can heavily be seen through Henry’s attacks on France - he believed
that he had a right to the French crown (mostly due to the fact that Henry V – a tenuous
relative – had previously held strong control over France, with Henry therefore thinking this
allowed him to have the same right) and so it is shown through most of his early actions that
he was keen to gain much French territory – which would also additionally help
demonstrate the strengths of this new monarch to foreign powers. After a disastrous attack
in 1512 where 10,000 soldiers were sent to South West France, which failed due to the
failure of Spanish support for the English (despite only two years prior both England and
Spain joining an alliance together, the Holy League) some could argue that Henry still
‘redeemed’ himself through his success in France the following year, 1513. It was Henry
himself who led a force to north-eastern France where he won the ‘Battle of Spurs’ and as a
result of this, he was able to control the French towns of Thérouanne and Tournai, deeming
this battle a success for the King since it had met one of his main objectives of securing
French land and moreover, although Henry did not face the same level of proving himself
legitimate as his father had to, he still needed to prove himself as a strong King, which was
proven through the success of this battle (especially since he was essentially still a young
boy, ‘playing’ amongst many experienced, elder rulers). However, it is important to note
that whilst the Battle of Spurs appeared to be a military victory, it in fact heavily drained the
royal finances that Henry VII had worked so hard to build up - war was costly and although
Henry gained some land, these gains turned out to be rather insignificant. They held very
little value to England and in 1519 Tournai was sold back to France, with Thérouanne soon
after and so in actual fact some historians might argue that this battle did not achieve
anything meaningful - it was rather a small, short term triumph, hardly the beginning of a
new era of English greatness in Europe. And so, whilst it seemed that Henry had made
victory through his wishes to gain French territory through military success, it was not this
simple since the consequences of these battles were far greater than the supposed reward
he got from it.
Another key objective of Henry’s in regards to foreign policy in the early years of his reign
was forming strong alliances with other European powers and this is also debatable as to
the extent of the success this achieved. At the very beginning of his reign in 1510, Henry
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