How Far Henry the Eighth Pursued New Policies During the...

How Far Henry the Eighth Pursued New Policies During the Period 1509-1514 Henry VIII became king in 1509. His policies were completely different to his fathers’, Henry VII. Henry VII was a wise and calculating man, who would think through his actions before he would take them, he would consider the long term and short term advantages and disadvantages of his actions. However Henry VIII was quite the opposite and he was emotional and took decisions straight away without analyzing them unlike his father. These differences caused Henry VIII to purse new policies and abolish the traditional ones which had been used by his father. When Henry VIII took the throne in 1509, at the age of 17, he made it†¦show more content†¦When Henry VII was on the throne he had been imposing heavy taxes on the people. The people despised taxes and especially hated the two main taxmen, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. So Henry VIII tried to gain the popularity and the support of the people by executing Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. This definitely gave him the short-term popularity he was after, but without tax, this would affect his finances. Henry VIII’s decision to continue the Hundred Years War cost the government a lot. Around  £1.7 million was spent on preparing England and its allies for war. His aim was to seize the French Crown, and make England and himself greater, by means of war. His policy on finance was not like his fathers, he didn’t realise what problems he would face after stopping tax. His ally in the war was his Father-in-law, Ferdinand Aragon and it was decided that Spain and England would go to war against France in 1512. But Henry VIII’s ideas of conquering France did not succeed. Firstly because the Spanish did not turn up to fight, due to the Pyrenees mountains, on the border of Spain and France. The English troops get dysentery due to the water in France as it was contaminated. Even though Henry VIII failed to attack France, this didn’t prevent him from trying again. In 1513, Henry VIII decided to attack France again, this time with the help of Maximilian who was