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I was fascinated with Henry VIII for a time. I pretty much came to the conclusion he was an asshole and attached his cart to an pre-existing religious dispute that had little or nothing to do with him because he could use political force to bend it to his will.

In general I agree with your assessment. The most autocratic monarch in English history. Has sometimes been called by historians Henry the Terrible.

In his (partial) defense, there is excellent reason to believe his primary motivation in starting the religious innovations was his entirely laudable desire to have an unchallenged heir.

After all, the last time England had a disputed succession, it led directly to 50+ years of civil war and the impoverishment of the realm.

All Henry wanted from the Church was a divorce so he could marry a more fertile Queen, something routinely handed out to monarchs by the Pope for centuries. In this case, the main reason Henry couldn't get what he wanted was that the Pope was essentially a prisoner of the (Catholic) Emperor Charles V, the present Queen's uncle.

The theory behind all this was that a ruling Queen would be unable to hold the country together, which is ironic when you remember Henry's second daughter became the greatest monarch of English history.