Henry VIII of England

Born in Greenwich on 28 June 1491, Henry was the second son of Henry VII and became heir only after his elder brother Arthur died in 1502. He took the throne at 17 in 1509 and married Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon. When Catherine produced Mary but no surviving male heir, Henry sought an annulment. Pope Clement VII delayed under pressure from Catherine's nephew, Charles V, so Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn in 1532. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared the first marriage void in May 1533; the pope excommunicated Henry. In response, Henry broke from Rome and passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, making himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and launching the English Reformation. He dissolved monasteries, seized their wealth, and married four more times - Anne Boleyn was executed for treason after bearing Elizabeth, Jane Seymour died giving him his longed-for son Edward, and Catherine Parr nursed him through his final years as he grew severely overweight and increasingly tyrannical. He died on 28 January 1547, leaving three children who would each rule England.