Henry main layout Richmond 24/4/09 19:53 Page 2
multi-lingual, skilled in everything from Maybe not. Even so, Suzannah’s theory
the lute to the hunt. The ultimate A-lister, raises awkward questions with regard to
he bestrode the party scene like a social Henry’s previous good character. Was he
colossus. And, contrary to all our ever really the shining prince that his
preconceptions, he was also – for the most contemporaries claimed? The monstrous
part – affable, courteous and kind. egotism which later showed itself in the
Listen for a moment to the gushing pitiless despatch of both enemies and
eulogy of Lord Mountjoy, writing to the friends was already on view in Henry’s
scholar Erasmus just a month before youth, with his sartorial vanity and
Henry’s coronation: unblushing self-satisfaction. Nor was he
“When you know what a hero (the king) above creating scapegoats for his own
now shows himself, how wisely he behaves, mistakes. When a new tax proved
what a lover he is of justice and unpopular in 1525, it was Henry’s
goodness......I will venture that you will Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey – who
need no wings to make you fly to behold famously surrendered Hampton Court to
this new and auspicious star. If you could the king – who took the blame.
see how all the world here is rejoicing in “All that should be put into context
the possession of so great a prince, how his though,” insists Suzannah. “Tudor politics
life is all their desire, you could not contain was all a charade in which it was perfectly
your tears of joy. The heavens laugh, the normal for ministers to take the fall.
earth exults......Our King does not desire Wolsey would have known that and
Suzannah Lipscomb at Hampton Court
Image courtesy of Kingston University, London
gold or gems or precious metals, but virtue, accepted it as the price of power. The same
glory and immortality.” with Hampton Court. Legally everything
“After all, this was an age when what
So what happened? Even allowing for belonged to the king, so if he wanted to
you believed about, say, the Real Presence
hyperbole, how did this putative paragon reclaim it, he could.
of Christ in the Eucharist could be a matter
fall like Lucifer to end his days as an obese “As for Henry’s ego, it was not initially
of life and death. Personal and religious
and unpredictable despot, feared and directed towards malicious ends. Yes, he
motives were deeply intertwined.”
reviled by high and low? dressed well, but in Tudor times that was
All of which leaves us with a problem.
The answer, insists Suzannah Lipscomb, all part of lordship. An air of magnificence
For if Suzannah is right, and it really was
is summed up in one date: 1536. For this was linked to the right to rule. He did show
the seismic events of 1536 that hardened
was the year when the monarch yielded to off, at jousts and so on, but when you’re so
Henry’s heart, troubling possibilities arise.
the man; when a sequence of very human attractive, capable and intelligent, and
Not to sympathize would be inhuman; yet
woes brought all Henry’s frailties to the you’re king as well, what man wouldn’t?”
to assert that his distress afforded Henry
fore. And what of the chapter for which he is
an excuse for tyranny would be to deny
First, in January, the king suffered a most famed: the divorce from his first
the moral force of free will and embrace
serious fall while jousting which left him wife, Katherine of Aragon, and everything
determinism in its crudest form.
unconscious for two hours and aggravated else – the break with Rome; the executions
Conversely, one could argue that
a previous wound. Henry would never of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Henry’s evil was latent all along; hidden
joust again – a catastrophic blow to the Fisher; marriage to Anne Boleyn; and, in during the gilded, early years of his reign,
sense of masculinity and virility of a man time, the entrenchment of the Protestant but brought to light by the stress of
already on the cusp of Tudor old age. Reformation in England – that this disappointment and grief. If that is true –
Then, possibly from the shock of this unhappy severance set in train? as believers in original sin might say – then
news, his wife Anne Boleyn miscarried, Once again, Suzannah is at odds with are we not all possible Henrys, prevented
dashing his habitual hopes for a male heir. the weight of opinion. Tradition has it that from actualizing our poisonous potential
In the spring, Anne was accused – almost Henry’s rationale – that the marriage was by purely circumstantial constraint?
certainly falsely, but convincingly to cursed, in accordance with the Book of “Perhaps,” agrees Suzannah. “Of course,
Henry – of serial adultery and beheaded, Leviticus, because Katherine was his most of us receive reality checks from those
filling Henry with a humiliating sense of brother’s widow – was an excuse. Henry around us. The problem with despots is
betrayal. And his grief was only intensified wanted a divorce and would say just about that people constantly defer to them.
in July, when he lost his illegitimate but anything to get it. Not so, says Suzannah. “I’m sympathetic to Henry, but I still
greatly loved 17-year-old son. Finally, in “Henry was a religious reformer in his think he was truly awful. The more you
the autumn, Henry’s growing obsession own idiosyncratic way. He took some research him, the more you realize how
with betrayal was lent wings by a massive things from Protestantism, such as disdain utterly terrifying he would have been. One
rebellion in the North, provoked by his for images in church, but rejected others, of the costumed guides here at the palace
recent dissolution of the smaller like belief in salvation by faith alone. In his looks uncannily like him. Whenever we
monasteries and associated religious eyes, he was simply doing what was right. pass, I feel like getting down on one knee.
proclamations. It was enough to turn any He genuinely believed that Christian kings That’s the Henry effect.”
man sour – and turn Henry sour it did. had a duty to rule spiritually. A pause for reflection.
“We mustn’t outrun our sources,” warns “Now, when it comes to the divorce, no “I have a very complex relationship with
Suzannah, “but there is a lot of evidence doubt there was a degree of self-delusion. Henry,” smiles Suzannah.
that these events had a decisive effect. Where I differ from other historians is that Somewhere in Tudor time, a chorus of
Almost all the summary trials and I think Henry allowed himself to become beheaded queens and courtiers is
executions took place after 1536. Of course, truly convinced of his case. Don’t get me whispering the very same thing.
it’s progressive to an extent. Subjects had wrong – he did fall in love and he wanted a73 1536: The Year that Changed Henry
been executed earlier in the reign, but with to marry Anne. But the standard version of VIII, by Suzannah Lipscomb, is published
good reason. It’s not as if Henry had been events tends to write religion out of the by Lion Hudson (£14.95). For Henry VIII
killing off 25 people a year.” script altogether. And that’s wrong. talks at Hampton Court see p13
www.richmondmagazine.co.uk 11
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84