Why was Henry VIII seen as a significant monarch?

He helped with the reformation of the church of England. Henry also wrote a stinging attack in Luther's Ideas. In recognition the pope gave him the title of "Defender of the Faith". Later political needs, however, soon tested his religious loyalty, He needed a Heir, a male Heir. Henry's father had become a king after a long civil war. He feared that a similar war would start if he died without a son as his Heir. Henry and his wife Catherine of Aragon, had a living child but not a son, a daughter, Mary, but no woman at the time had ever successfully claimed the English throne