In the end of the day, did he do more good or harm to England?

He got the Catholic church out of English politics.

Yeah, he did that to assert the absolute power of the monarch. How is that a good thing, especially considering that his seizing of the Church, dissolving the monasteries, and wholesale slaughtering of Catholic religious concentrated power and cultural influence in the hands of a single individual?

>the cultural and resulting artistic disaster is immeasurable
what do you mean by this?

It meant that the government could get more revenue as it collected tithe among other things. Also, it made the nobles stronger and richer and thus more content with the king, which is ultimately how the king derives his power in the first place.

He means the iconoclasm which had very little effect during his reign.

and the catholic church was not influent anymore when he kicked them out so it is an extremely empty archivement

>how is increased national sovereignty a good thing

This how stupid you sound.

This is complete BS. The pope denied Henry's request for divorce from Catherine of Aragon due to Charles V influence in Rome

Did he do anything good?

He tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it didn't even matter.

the fact that the pope was a puppet in the hands of charles V should show you how little influence it had

The pope ultimately made the decision. Besides, Charles V was the most powerful man on earth at the time

I guess it's a good thing from a monetary perspective. But the effect it had on the culture of England was pretty extreme and much of it (iconoclasm, all the negative aspects of absolutism, the unleashing of Anglicanism onto the world) was pretty bad if you ask me. I'm also not so sure that it made nobles more content with the king in the long run, since there was a lot of unrest from the time he died until Elizabeth I came to power.

and that decision amounted to nothing because Henry did wathever he wanted anyway, while the pope did nothing to avoid it. The church had little influence in the XVI century and none past the XVII

>Iconoclasm
What, the one where the moment Mary came back almost all of the icons came back? I grant you the shrines to saints never recovered though
>negative aspects of absolutism
France had the exact same problem and it still held onto the Catholic church
>Anglicanism
Rape baby but still not as bad as Islam

That is because of the fact Henry fucked up the finances and Hereford further debased coinage and had poor harvests

You sound an awful lot like a Catholic

The pope would have excommunicated Henry if he had, which made him a target for crusade

being an heretic is an even greater reason for a crusade than being excomulgated, but there was no crusade anyway, in the age of henry viii crusades and religious wars were only an excuse for pursuing political interests and no one had interest in england

Related to iconoclasm, England is still littered with the ruins of beautiful medieval abbeys and friaries. Without the Reformation these might have survived to the present day.
>Rape baby but still not as bad as Islam
It more or less has the opposite problem Islam has. It's still pretty horrendous though, since modern day Anglicans lack any kind of moral authority or spine whatsoever. I'll grant you that absolutism probably wouldn't have been avoided either way, but it might have been delayed a bit without Henry VIII's meddling.

What? The wool and cloth trade was huge in England. It is what to a large degree made the seventeen provinces so rich

I am aware of that. However, that was more Edward VI I think, since he was a super protestant.

Yeah Anglicanism is mostly a cultural thing here.

yeah and the holocaust got jewish influence out of german society too. doesn't mean it was the right thing to do. the end didn't justify the means.

also, his selfish hissy fit with the church can be traced directly to the english civil war where dozens of thousands of people were killed, horrible atrocities committed, and resulted in the murder of the kang and stifling military rule under cromwell. not to mention it sowed the seeds amongst the would-be new world colonists that england was a religiously oppressive hellhole and should keep the fuck out of peoples' affairs. that whole meddling sentiment came to roost eventually.

Except for his utter failure to respond to Katrina, his failure to act on intelligence warning him about 9/11, the signing of the patriot act in response, and his total lack of control on fiscal policy setting up the worst recession since the Great Depression.

I dont dislike Bush personally but his presidency was a disaster.