The World Today

The world today
1. What is the population of the world when you opened this web page?6 billion human beings
2. How many people were on the earth when you were born and what percentage has the population increased by since then?
3. What is the predicted population in 120 years time? The United Nations estimate that we will only be 12 billion in 120 years.
4. How many babies come to life everyday? 400000 babies come to life everyday


How many children in your lifetime?
5. How many babies is it possible for a woman to have in her lifetime? 24 babies
6. If a woman became sterile at 45, how many babies is it possible for her to have?15 children
7. What are the main reasons why women do not have this many children?

• marriage, which delays the first birth,
• breastfeeding, nature's way to delay the next birth,
• birth control

8. Enter on the web page the best age for a woman to get married. How many does this reduce the fertility potential (the number of babies you can have) by? Globally women get married on average at age 21.
9. What is the average age of marriage in the regions listed below?
North America: 23 years old

Europe: 23 years old

Latin Ameria: 22 years old

Asia: 21 years old

Africa: 20 years old

Oceania: 23 years old
10. Enter on the web page the number of months you think a woman should breastfeed for. How much does the birth potential reduce by?
11. How many months, on average, do women from each of the regions below breastfeed?
North America: 4 months
Europe: 4 months
Latin America: 12 months
Asia: 22 months
Africa: 20 months
Oceania: 6 months

How many children in your lifetime?
12. Enter on the web page the number of children you want. If you do not use birth control, how many children could you have?7 children
13. For each of the birth control methods shown below, write down their efficiency rate.
Efficiency rate
Have no sex: 0%
Withdrawal: 4%
Condoms: 8%
Pill: 12 %
IUD: 23 %
Sterilization: 39 %
14. What is the most common form of birth control worldwide? Sterilization

Benavente plan

*The historical centre and the business district: Santa Maria Square, La Rua, La Herreros, San Juan Church, La Mota.

*The main residencial areas: Benavente outsides.

*The industrial areas: Transportation centre.

*The main streets: La Rua and La Herreros.

What kind of City layout are there?, Only one?
It's historical, and some parts new.

Site features

Hill-foot: It's the picture number 3, because is sheltered, with flat land for building and farming.
Gap: It's the picture number 1, because is lower, more sheltered land between two hills.
Wet-Point: It's the picture number 4, because is close to water in a dry area

Dry-Point: It's the picture number 2, because is on higher, dry area close to wet land e.g. marshes or flooding rivers. Route Centre: It's the picture number 5, because is focus of routes (e.g. roads) from surrounding area.

The Gipsies

Where did the gipsy people come from?They are from Rom.
How many gypsies are there in the world?No one knows exactly how many Gypsies there are, either in general or in Spain in particular.
How many gipsies are there in Spain?Estimates of the Spanish Gypsy population range as low as 500,000 and as high as 700,000.
What language do they speak in Spain? They speak Romany but they have to speak Spanish.

What do you think the gipsies are excluded from the society?Because they are from other culture and there are some prejudices of them.
Are social integrartion programmes necesary?I think yes why?Because they have the same right as other people of integrate in society.

Types of Societies

Types	Time	Lifestyle	Special features
Hunting and gathering societies	The vast majority of these societies existed in the past, with only a few (perhaps a million people total) living today on the verge of extinction.	The members of hunting and gathering societies primarily survive by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering plants.	To survive, early human societies completely depended upon their immediate environment. When the animals left the area, the plants died, or the rivers dried up, the society had to relocate to an area where resources were plentiful.
Pastoral societies	Members of pastoral societies, first emerged 12,000 years ago.	Domesticating animals allows for a more manageable food supply than do hunting and gathering.	Pastoral societies are able to produce a surplus of goods, which makes storing food for future use a possibility.
Horticultural societies	These societies first appeared in different parts of the planet about the same time as pastoral societies	Unlike pastoral societies that rely on domesticating animals, horticultural societies rely on cultivating fruits, vegetables, and plants.	Horticultural societies occasionally produced a surplus, which permitted storage as well as the emergence of other professions not related to the survival of the society.
Agricultural societies	They appeared as long as 8,500 years ago that led to cultivating crops and raising farm animals.	Women previously had higher social status because they shared labor more equally with men.	A system of rulers with high social status also appeared. This nobility organized warriors to protect the society from invasion.
Feudal societies	From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land.	Unlike today's farmers,vassals under feudalism were bound to cultivating their lord's land.	In exchange for military protection, the lords exploited the peasants into providing food, crops, crafts, homage, and other services to the owner of the land.
Industrial societies	During the 18th century.	Industrial societies are based on using machines (particularly fuel-driven ones) to produce goods.	Cultural diversity increased, as did social mobility. Large cities emerged as places to find jobs in factories.
Postindustrial societies	In the actuality, when the world the world is witnessing a technological revolution.	The society is being shaped by the human mind, aided by computer technology.The storesstore, manipulate, and sell information.

Doctors without borders

• Would you be prepared to work in one of them?I think so. Why?Because I think being with children is very easy.
• What problems face most people in developing countries?I think that they haven't got all the resources that we have.
• Would their situation be better if the birth rate fell?I think so Why?Because if there is less people they don't have to spend much money.
• Why do many people in Africa die before they are 40 years old? Because there are a lot of epidemics and there isn't medical advances.
• Why is a child in an underdeveloped country more likely to die than a child in a developed one?Because there isn't medical advances.

population rates

1. Why is it called a crude rate?
It's the same as a normal rate.

2. What aspect of population growth or decline is not measured by the natural increase calculation?
The population decline.
3. Calculate the Birth and Death Rates for Ireland in each of the four years
Birth Rate:

-1995: 13/1000
-1998: 14/1000
-2000: 14/1000
-2002: 15/1000

Death Rate:

-1995: 8/1000
-1998: 8/1000
-2000: 8/1000
-2002: 7/1000

4. Calculate the Natural Increase for Ireland in each of the four years.
Natural Increase:

-1995: 4/1000
-1998: 5/1000
-2000: 6/100
-2002: 7/1000

5. Write a short paragraph outlining the population changes experienced over the period from 1995 to 2002, based on this data.

The Birth rate increased and the death rate went down. The population increased.

The World Population

WHICH ARE THE MOST DENSELY POPULATED REGIONS IN THE WORLD? Why?

The occident. Because in the map, it is the most spread region.

WHICH ARE THE MOST DENSELY POPULATED COUNTRIES? Is all territory densely populated?

India, China and Russia.

China: The most populated regions are Shangai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongking.

India: Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Myderabad, Chennai.

Russia: Moscow, Nobo Sivirsk, Vladivostok, Sankt-Petesburg, Volgograd.

Spread of the potato

The potato spread started in Peru, and it spread in America, to the South and to the North.

Then the potato spread into Spain by the Spanish invasion in South America in the 1500s.

It also spread into Europe to Belgium and France. Then, the culvation of the potato was introduced to Bermuda in the British Islands.

In the 1600s the potato appeared in Africa and Japan. In 1769, the potato spread into New Zealand.

I think that the potato spread very quickly in all the world.

Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire

Homework:

Where was born Charles V?
He was born in Ghent on February 24, 1500.

Could Charles V make decisions alone?
No, he work with other people too.

Whose approval did he need before increasing taxes, for example?
The decisions about taxes needed the approval of the Parliments of each kingdom.

Who were the children of Charles I?
Felipe II of Spain, Maria de Hasburgo, Fernando, Juana de austria and Juan.

Who ruled each territory in the king’s name?
A viceroy or governor

Why did the king need to ask for loans?Because the taxes alone were not enough to finance his policies.

Why did Charles V have problems with France?
Because France was his main rival for supremacy in Europe.

The main battles against France: He said four wars with Francis I of France, who also aspired to the imperial crown, and that Charles demanded the return of Burgundy.
*In the first war (1521-1526), France, seized Milan and helped Henry II to restore the Kingdom of Navarre, after its conquest in 1512.
*In the second war (1526-1529) the imperial troops stormed and sacked Rome (Sack of Rome), forcing Pope Clement VII, an ally of Francis I, after the League of Cognac ", to take refuge in the Castel Sant'Angelo.
*The third (1535-1538) was produced by the French invasion of the Duchy of Savoy, an ally of Spain, with the intention to continue to Milan.
*The fourth (1542-1544) ended because of renewed conflict with the Protestants in Germany.

Why were the Ottoman Turks his rivals?
They were a constant threat in the Mediterranean and along the eastern boundary of The Holy Roman Empire.

The main battles against the Ottoman Empire: The Battle of Mohacs


What was his most serious problem?


How did he divide his possessions when he surrendered his power? The Holy Roman Empire went to his brother Ferdinand, and the rest of his possesions went to his son Philip.

Where Charles V decided to retire?

Martin Luther and the German Reformation and the Counter Reformation

Martin Luther and the German Reformation
1. (a) Describe the event that is taking place in the source
shown on the right.
Martin Luther is writing something on the door of a Church or Cathedral.
(b)Mention one immediate consequence of this event.
I think he is showing a new cathedral or church.

1. Explain the following terms:
(a)justification by faith: Martin Luther discovered the first Bible
(b) indulgences: Documents issued by the Pope to pardon sins for money
(c) Papal bull: Through his bulls, popes have been declaring their willingness to their faithful.
(d) excommunicated: Pope denied the right to take the Holy Host
(e) heretic: they were persecuted by the Inquisition
(f) clerical celibacy: Not being married and in the use of the Church, a commitment not to marry. The Church makes a distinction between celibacy lay and ecclesiastical celibacy. In both cases, freely chosen, for religious reasons, not married.

2. Write briefly four important landmarks in the life of Martin Luther.
The excommunication
The justification by faith

Counter-reformation

1. Why was the Council of Trent summoned? It was to stop the Protestant movement and improve conditions in the church.

2. Identify three conclusions reached at this Council.

(a) New ways of spreding Catholicism

(b) New religious orders were former

(c)They formed the Society of Jesus

3. Name five countries in Europe where the Counter-Reformation was successful and one country

where it was not.

(a) Successful in: Spain, France, Italy, Germany and

(b) Unsuccessful in: England and Scotland.

Vocabulary Unit 7 and Unit 8

Unit 7

Unit 8

Marco Polo: He was a navegator who made a lot of journeys to discovered the world Technical advances: They were the portulan charts, the navigational instruments and ships Portulan Charts: They were new maps that showed the coastline and any obstacles Compass: it was a new navigational instrument which marked the north astrolabe: It is a historical astronomical instrumentused by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars; determining local time Quadrant: A quadrant is an instrument that is used to measure angles up to 90°. Caravels: A 'caravel' is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by thePortuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. Prince Henry the Navigator: was an infante (prince) of the Kingdom of Portugal and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire, being responsible for the beginning of the European worldwide explorations. Bartolomeu Dias: He rounded the Cape of Good Hope Vasco de Gama: He reached India Christopher Columbus: He was a Genoese sailor Ferdinand Magallan: He captained the Magellan's expedition. Juan Sebastian Elcano: He was the second-in-command Overseas empires: great empires Treaty of Tordesillas: unexplored regions were divided by this. Indigenous population of America

The plague: the most terrible event en the 14th century The Black Death: the same of the plague Bourgueoisie: became influential bureaucracy: a professional and centralised administration army: troops paid by the monarch diplomatic: system to maintain relations with other countries autoritarian monarchies: they were born Ivan the Great: unified Russia Henry VIII: increased the royal power in the early sixteenth century Charles VII: unified France Francis I: unified France Catholic Monarchs: unified Spain Holy brotherhood: a judicial force Royal Council: the highest judicial body Corregidores: to establish royal authority in the towns Treasury: it was stregthned by the Monarchs Tribunal of the Inquisition: to prosecute heretics conversos: Jews who converted into Christianism Mudejares: Spanish Muslims Moriscos: Muslims who converted to Christianity.

complete the information in these works

Auteur: Raphael
Work: The Holy Family with a lamb
Type of work: oil
Function or Subject: Religion. The Virgin Mary helps the baby Jesus riding on a lamb under the gaze of San Jose.
Decoration or Characteristics: The colors and brushstrokes are a very good match to the original.




Auteur: Donatello
Work: Statue of David
Type of work: bronze statue
Function or Subject: The statue shows the David's victory on Goliat.
Decoration or Characteristics: the first freestanding nude male sculpture











Auteur: Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera.
Work: The Monastery of el Escorial
Type of work: It's make by granite
Function or Subject: The king Philiph II gave the orders to construct the monastery to commemorate the victory of San Quintin's battle on the frenchmen on August 10, 1557.
Decoration or Characteristics: The monastery of El Escorial looks like an enormous horizontal, closed an hermetic structure splashed by the vertical accents of the towers that surround the central dome.

Quattrocento y Cinquecento

		Quattrocento	Cinquecento
Architecture	Characteristics	classical elements: semicircular arches and classical colums Buildings were smaller and not as tall as gothic constructions. Ornametion simple and austere.	classical elements: semicircular arches and classical colums Buildings were smaller and not as tall as gothic constructions. Ornametion simple and austere.
	Artists and work	Autors:Brunescelli Works:Cathedral of Florence, the facade of the Pitti Palace and the churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito.	Autors: Michelangelo, Maderno Works: Saint Peter's Basilica.
Painting	Characteristics	Colour, composition, perspective	perspective, proprtions, beauty
	Artists and work	Masaccio, Piero della, Franscesca	Leonardo Da vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, Titian
Sculture	Characteristics	Proportions and anatomical studies. Nudes. Portrait sculptures or busts. Equestrian statues	Proportions and anatomical studies. Nudes. Portrait sculptures or busts. Equestrian statues
	Artists and work	Donatello	Michelangelo

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote". Marco Rosci points out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.

Within Leonardo's own lifetime his fame was such that the King of France carried him away like a trophy, and was claimed to have supported him in his old age and held him in his arms as he died. The interest in Leonardo has never slackened. The crowds still queue to see his most famous artworks, T-shirts bear his most famous drawing and writers, like Vasari, continue to marvel at his genius and speculate about his private life and, particularly, about what one so intelligent actually believed in.

Giorgio Vasari, in the enlarged edition of Lives of the Artists, 1568, introduced his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci with the following words:

In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.

—Giorgio Vasari

Vocabulary 5,6

Unit 5

1.Ummayad: it was a family which was assassinated in 750.
2.Caliphate of Damascus: It was the supreme power of Al-Andalus.
3.Caliphate of Cordoba: It was the most brilliant period of Al-Andalus.
4.Al-Andalus: It was a great territory on the Iberian Peninsula.
5.Jews: they played a significant role in the economy.
6.Emirate: a powerful part of al-Andalus
7.Emir: It was the most powerful person of Al-Andalus
8.Walis: they controlled the provinces
9.Visir: they were the ministers
10.Hayib: He was the prime minister
11.Raids:
12.Taifas: they were small kingdoms
13.Parias: the taifas paid that to the Christian kingdoms
14.Almoravids: they went to the Iberian Peninsula to stpo the Christian advance
15.Almohads: they came to power
16.Battle of Navas de Tolosa: the Christian armies defeated the Almohads
17.Nasrid Kingdom: it was the last muslim territory on the Iberian Peninsula
18.Dinar: it was the gold coin which was used by Al-Andalus
19.Dirhem: It was the silver coin which was used by Al-Andalus
20.Arabs: they had the best land, and they were in charge of goverment
21.Berbers: they were more numerous, but had fewer privileges.
22.Muladies: they were former christians who adopted the religion, language and customs of Islam.
23.Mozarabs: they were Christians who continued to practise their religion
24.Medina: it contained the most important buildings
25.Aljama: it was the main mosque
26.Mosque: it was the centre of the city
27.Arrabales: they were workers' districts
28.Alcázar: A fortified area in the highest part of the town. The centre of political life.
29 Souk: Was the market, a place where social and economic life was centred.
30 Alhóndigas: Large warehouses, where the merchants kept their goods.
31 Averroes: Was an Islam philosopher who lived in this period.
32 Maimonides: Was an Islam intellectual,
33 Horseshoe arches: Were the arches used in the Islamic architecture.
34 Plasterwork: Was used to decorate the Islamic buildings.

Unit 6

1.Reconquest: it invilved the occupation of territory fron one valley to another
2.Kingdom of Asturias: It was originated in the mountain ranges of Cantabria
3.Kingdom of León: It was originated in the mountain ranges of Cantabria
4.Aragonese counties: Aragon came under the rule of the kingdom of Navarre
5.Catalan counties: Wilfred the Hairy united them
6.Pelayo: visigoths choosed him as their king
7.Battle of Covadonga: Was produced in 722.The Muslim was defeated by the Christian
8.Alfonso III: He was one king who reigned in the last years of 9th century and early years of the 10th century, when was the greatest expansion just that moment.
9.Fernán González: he divided Castile in a county which was made independent.
10.Spanish March: Lands in the south of Pyrenees between the Muslims and the Carolingian Empire.
11.Carolingian Empire: Empire created by Charlemagne was dissolved in the 9th century. it had the Spanish march in the Pyrenean region.
12.Sancho III the Great: King of Navarre, he became the most powerful Christian king on the Peninsula in the 11th century.
13.Wilfred the Hairy: Was the person who united the Catalan counties, in the 9th century.
14.Beatus: Kind of book that is a famous example of the mozarabic art. It was a manuscript with beautiful paintings
15.Mozarabic art: Was the art witch emerged in the Christian kingdoms in the 10th century.
16.Mudejar art: It Was emerged in the 12th in Sahagún, Leon.
17.Asturian art: Art Developed near of Oviedo between the 8th and 10th centuries.
18.Repopulation: Was produced when the Christians kingdom advance went from the Duero valley until the Granada Kingdom
19 Fueros: Were the privileges given by the kings to the towns.
20 Military orders: Religious order, was a religious army created by the feudal estates to fight to the Muslim advance
21 Mudejars: Where Muslims who remained in Christian territory.
22 Alfonso VI: He conquered Toledo, the Tajo valley and a part of Andalusia.
23 Ferdinand III: Was the person who united Castile and Leon in 1230 and founded the crown of Castile.
24 Cortes: Their function was to approve or reject new taxes.
25 Honourable Council of the Mesta: was creates in 1273 to discuss the problem of the Merino sheep. It was a council of breed sheep and your problems
26 Alfonso I the Battler: Was the first king of Aragon.
27 James I the Conqueror: King of the Crown of Aragon. He took Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and the Balearic islands. 28 Generalitat: An institution which defended the rights of individuals in Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, ensured that the fueros and decisions of their Cortes were respected.

The Mesta

I think it was a good form to gave more ''privileges'' to the sheeps and cattle.

The Mesta was a powerful association of sheep holders in the medievalKingdom of Castile.

The sheep were transhumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to Castile and back according to the season.

The no-mans-land (up to 100km across) between Christian Spain and Moorish Spain was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. When the land was reconquered by the Spanish, farmers began to settle and disputes with pastoralists were common. The Mesta can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in medieval Europe.

The exportation of merino wool enriched the Mesta members (nobility and church orders) who had acquired ranches during the process ofReconquista.

The kings of Castile conceded many privileges to the Mesta. Even today, herds of sheep may be transported by rail, but the perhaps prehistoric cañadas are legally protected "forever" from occupation and barring.

Some Madrid streets are still part of the cañada system, and there are groups that organize sheep transportation across the modern city as a reminder of ancient rights and cultures.

Marco Polo's journey

The book starts with a preface about his father and uncle traveling to Bolghar where Prince Berke Khan lived. A year later, they went to Ukek and continued to Bukhara. There, an envoy fromLevant invited them to meet Kublai Khan, who had never met Europeans. In 1266, they reached the seat of the Kublai Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing, China. Khan received the brothers with hospitality and asked them many questions regarding the European legal and political system.He also inquired about the Pope and Church in Rome. After the brothers answered the questions he tasked them with delivering a letter to the Pope, requesting 100 Christians acquainted with theSeven Arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). Kublai Khan requested that an envoy bring him back oil of the lamp in Jerusalem.^[17] The long sede vacantebetween the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 and the election of his successor delayed the Polos in fulfilling Khan's request. They followed the suggestion of Theobald Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt, and returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270 to await the nomination of the new Pope, which allowed Marco to see his father for the first time, at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

Polo in costume.

In 1271, Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo embarked on their voyage to fulfill Khan's request. They sailed to Acre, and then rode on camels to the Persian port of Hormuz. They wanted to sail to China, but the ships there were not seaworthy, so they continued overland until reaching Khan's summer palace in Shangdu, near present-dayZhangjiakou. Three and one-half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, Khan welcomed the Polos into his palace. The exact date of their arrival is unknown, but scholars estimate it to be between 1271 and 1275. On reaching the Mongol court, the Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.

Marco knew four languages, and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to Khan. It is possible that he became a government official; he wrote about many imperial visits to China's southern and eastern provinces, the far south and Burma.

Kublai Khan declined the Polos' requests to leave China. They became worried about returning home safely, believing that if Khan died, his enemies might turn against them because of their close involvement with the ruler. In 1292, Khan's great-nephew, then ruler of Persia, sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife, and they asked the Polos to accompany them, so they were permitted to return to Persia with the wedding party — which left that same year from Zaitun in southern China on a fleet of 14 junks. The party sailed to the port of Singapore, travelled north to Sumatra and around the southern tip of India, eventually crossing the Arabian Sea to Hormuz. The two-years voyage was a perilous one - of the six hundred people (not including the crew) in the convoy only eighteen had survived (including all three Polos). The Polos left the wedding party after reaching Hormuz and travelled overland to the port of Trebizond on the Black Sea, the present day Trabzon.

Henry VIII

What happened during his reign?

Financially, the reign of Henry was a near-disaster. After inheriting a prosperous economy (augmented by seizures of church lands) heavy spending and high taxes damaged the economy.^[9][10]

For example, Henry expanded the Royal Navy from 5 to 53 ships. He loved palaces; he began with a dozen and died with fifty-five, in which he hung 2,000 tapestries.^[11] He took pride in showing off his collection of weapons, which included exotic archery equipment, 2,250 pieces of land ordnance and 6,500 handguns.^[12]

From 1514 to 1529, Thomas Wolsey (1473–1530), a Catholic cardinal, served as lord chancellor and practically controlled domestic and foreign policy for the young king. He negotiated the truce with France that was signaled by the dramatic display of amity on the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520). He switched England back and forth as an ally of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Wolsey centralised the national government and extended the jurisdiction of the conciliar courts, particularly the Star Chamber. His use of forced loans to pay for foreign wars angered the rich, who were annoyed as well by his enormous wealth and ostentatious living. Wolsey disappointed the king when he failed to secure a quick divorce from Queen Katherine. The treasury was empty after years of extravagance; the peers and people were dissatisfied and Henry needed an entirely new approach; Wolsey had to be replaced. After 16 years at the top he lost power in 1529 and in 1530 was arrested on false charges of treason and died in custody. Wolsey's fall was a warning to the Pope and to the clergy of England of what might be expected for failure to comply with the king's wishes. Henry then took full control of his government, although at court numerous complex factions continued to try to ruin and destroy each other.

Elton (1962) argues there was a major Tudor revolution in government. While crediting Henry with intelligence and shrewdness, Elton finds that much of the positive action, especially the break with Rome, was the work of Thomas Cromwell and not the king. Elton sees Henry as competent, but too lazy to take direct control of affairs for any extended period; that is, the king was an opportunist who relied on others for most of his ideas and to do most of the work. Henry's marital adventures are part of Elton's chain of evidence; a man who marries six wives, Elton notes, is not someone who fully controls his own fate. Elton shows that Thomas Cromwell had conceived of a commonwealth of England that included popular participation through Parliament and that this was generally expressed in the preambles to legislation. Parliamentary consent did not mean that the king had yielded any of his authority; Henry VIII was a paternalistic ruler who did not hesitate to use his power. Popular "consent" was a means to augment rather than limit royal power.

How many wives did he have?Who were they and what happened to them?

They were six:

1.Catherine of Aragon (divorced)

Catherine of Aragon was a Spanish princess who had previously been married to Henry's brother Prince Arthur. Henry was betrothed to Katherine by his father in 1509 and they had a daughter Mary who later become Queen Mary 1. Catherine had six children but only Mary survived. In 1527 Henry announced his desire to divorce Catherine because she had failed to produce a male heir.

2.Anne Boleyn (executed)

Anne grew up in the family home of Hever Castle in Kent and was a young and beautiful lady-in-waiting to the former queen, Catherine of Aragon. She gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth. When Anne miscarried a second child Henry accused her of witchcraft and had her beheaded on May 19th 1536 at the Tower of London for adultery and incest.

3.Jane Seymour (died)

Jane was born between 1507 and 1509. Henry married his third wife on May 30th, 1536, just eleven days after the execution of Anne. Jane gave birth to a baby boy on 12th October 1537. Henry was said to be devastated when she died 12 days later of blood poisoning. Jane was buried at Windsor Castle, later to be joined by Henry. Her son succeed Henry to become Edward VI.

4.Anne of Cleves (divorced)

Anne was born in 1515 in the small north German state of Cleves (close to the border of Holland). Her parents were John III of Cleves and Marie of Julich. Anne married Henry in 1540 to form a tie between England and the Protestant princes of Germany. After only six months Henry found the political alliance no longer to be to his advantage and so divorced her the same year. She died in 1557.

5.Catherine Howard (executed)

Catherine was born between 1520 and 1525. Henry married Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn's cousin and maid of honour to Anne of Cleaves. In 1542 Henry once again accused his wife of adultery and had Catherine beheaded at the Tower of London on 13 February 1542.

6.Katherine Parr (outlived Henry)

Katherine Parr, also known as Catherin Parr, was born around 1512. She was Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace. Katherine outlived Henry - so she is said to have survived.

What happened to his relations with the Pope?

In order for the new Prince of Wales to marry his brother's widow, a dispensation from the Pope was normally required to overrule the impediment of affinity because, as told in the book of Leviticus, "If a brother is to marry the wife of a brother they will remain childless". Catherine swore that her marriage to Prince Arthur had not been consummated. Still, both the English and Spanish parties agreed that an additional papal dispensation of affinity would be prudent to remove all doubt regarding the legitimacy of the marriage.

The impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella I, induced Pope Julius II to grant dispensation in the form of a Papal bull. So, 14 months after her young husband's death, Catherine found herself betrothed to his even younger brother, Henry. Yet by 1505, Henry VII lost interest in a Spanish alliance and the younger Henry declared that his betrothal had been arranged without his consent.

What was the name of the church he established in England?

Henry Vlll brought religious upheaval to England. When he became king, most people belonged to the Catholic Church, which was headed by the Pope, in Rome. In 1534, Henry broke away from the Catholic Church and proclaimed himself head of the Church of England. The land and riches of the church became Henry's property and he sold off most of this land to dukes, barons and other noblemen.