England under Henry VIII
ENGLAND
UNDER
HENRY VIII
EXAMINATIONAL ESSAY BY
NOVIKOV SERGEI
10th "B" GRADE, SCHOOL NO. 1276
MOSCOW - 1996
ENGLAND UNDER
HENRY THE EIGHTH.
Henry VIII
Tudor (1491-1547)
was the
second son of Henry VII.
His brother
Arthur, being only 15, married to Catherine,
the daugter
of the Spanish monarch.
But in a very
few month he sickened and died.
Henty VII
arranged that the young widow
should marry
his second son Henry,
then 12 years
of age, when he too should be 15.
A few years
after settling this marriage, in 1509,
the King
died of the gout.
King Henry the Eighth was just eighteen
years of age when he came to the throne.
People said he was a handsome boy, but
in later life he did not seem handsome at
all. He was a big, burly, noisy, small-eyed,
large-faced, double-chinned fellow, as we
know from the portraits of him, painted by
the famous Hans Holbein*.
The king was anxious to make himself
popular, and the people, who had long dis-
liked the late king, believed to believe that
he deserved to be so.
He was extremely fond of show and display, and so were they.
There-fore there was great rejoicing when he married the Princess Catherine,
and when they were both crowned. And the King fought at tournaments and always
came off victorious - for the courtiers took care of that - and there was a
general outcry that he was a wonderful man.
The prime favourites of the late King, who were engaged in
money-raising matters, Empson, Dudley, and their supporters, were accused of a
variety of crimes they really had been guilty; and they were pilloried, and
then beheaded, to the satisfaction of the people, and the
enrichment of the
King.
The Pope, so indefatigable in getting the world into trouble,
had mixed
himself up in a war on a continent of Europe, occasioned by the
reigning
Princes of little quarrelling states in Italy having at various
times married
into other royal families, and so led to their claiming a share in
those petty
Governments. The King, who discovered that he was very fond of the
Pope, sent a herald to the King of France, to say he must not make war
upon the father of all Christians. As the French King did not mind
this relationship in the least, and also refused to admit a claim King Henry
made to certain lands in France, war was declared between the two coun-
tries.
England made a blundering alliance with Spain, and got
stupidly taken in by that country, which made its own terms with France when it
could,
and left England in the lurch. Sir Edward Howard, a bold admiral,
son of the Earl of Surrey, distinguished himself by his bravery against the
French
in this business; but, unfortunately, he was more brave than wise,
for, skimming into the French harbour of Brest with only a few row-boats, he
attempted to take some strong French ships, well defended with
cannons.
The upshot was, that he was left on board of one of them with not
more than about a dozen man, and was thrown into the sea and drowned.
***
After this great defeat the King took it into his head to invade France in
person,
first executing that dangerous Earl of Suffolk whom his father had left in the
Tower, and appointing Queen Catherine to charge of his king-dom in his absence.
He sailed to Calais, where he was joined by Maximi-lian, Emperor of Germany,
who pretended to be his soldier, and who took
pay
in his service. The King might be successful enough in sham fights, but his
idea of real battles chiefly consisted in pitching silken tents of bright
colours that were ignominiously blown down by the wind, and in
making
a vast display of a gaudy flags and golden curtains. Fortune, however, flavoured
him better than he deserved: he gave the French battle, and they took such an
anaccountable panic, and fled with such
swiftness,
that it was ever afterwards called by the English the Battle of
Spurs**.
Instead of following up his advantage, the King, finding that he had had enough
of real fighting, came home again.
The Scottish King, though nearly related to Henry by marriage, had taken part
against him in this war. The Earl of Surrey, as the English gene-
ral,
advanced to meet him when he came out of his own dominions and crossed the
river Tweed. The two armies came up with one another when
the
Scottish King had also crossed the river Till, and was encamped upon
the
Hill of Flodden. Along the plain below it, the English, when the hour of battle
came, advanced. The Scottish army, which had been drawn up in five great
bodies, then came steadily down in perfect silence. So they, in their turn,
advanced to meet the English army, which came on the one long line; and they
attacked it with a body of spearman, under Lord Home.
At
first they had the best of it; but the English fought with such valour, that,
when the Scottish King had almost made his way up to the Royal standart, he was
slain, and the whole Scottish power routed. Ten thousand Scottish men lay dead
that day on Flodden Field. For a long time after-wards, the Scottish peasantry
used to believe that their king had not been
really
killed in this battle, because no Englishman had found an iron belt he wore
about his body as a penance for having been an undutiful son. But, whatever
became of his belt, the English had his sword and dagger, and the ring from his
finger, and his body was recognized by English gent-lemen who had known the
Scottish King well.
***
When King Henry was making ready to renew the war in France, the French King
was contemplating peace. His Queen, dying at this time, he proposed, though he
was upwards of fifty years old, to marry King Henry's sister, Princess Mary,
who, becides, being only sixteen, was bet-
rothed
to the Duke of Suffolk. As the inclinations of young Princesses were not too
much considered in such matters, the marriage was conclu-ded , and the poor
girl was escorted to France, where she was immidiately left as the French
King's bride, with only one of her English attendants. That one was a pretty
young girl named Anna Boleyn, niece of the Earl of
Surrey,
who had been made Duke of Norfolk after the victory of Flodden
Field.
The French King died within three month, and left the young Queen a young
widow. The new French monarch, Francis I, seeing how important
Princess
being herself so fond of that Duke, as to tell him that he must either do so
then, or lose her forever, they were wedded; and Henry after-
wards
forgave them. In making interest with King, the Duke of Suffolk had addressed
his most powerful favourite and adviser, Thomas Wol-sey*** - a name very famous
in history for its rise and downfall.
Wolsey was the son of a respectable butcher at Ipswich, in Suffolk, and
recieved
so exellent education that he became a tutor to the family of Mar-
qius
of Dorset, who afterwards got him appointed one of the late King's
chaplains.
On the accession of Henry VIII, he was promoted and taken into great favour
with the King - whether he were a foreign monarch or an English nobleman - was
obliged to make a friend of the great Cardinal Wolsey.
He was a gay man, who could dance and jest, and sing and drink. He was
wonderfully fond of pomp and glitter, and so was the King. He knew a good deal
of the Church learning of that time, much of which consisted of finding artful
excuses and pretences for almost any wrong thing, and in
arguing
that black was white, or any other colour. This kind of learning pleased the
King too. For many such reasons, the Cardinal was high in estimation with the
King, and, being a man of greater ability, knew how to manage him. Never had
there been seen in England such state as that Lord Cardinal kept. His wealth
was equal, it was reckoned, to the riches of the Crown. His palaces were as
splendid as the King's, and his retinue was eight hundred strong. He held his
Court, dressed out from top to toe in flaming scarlet; and his very shoes were
golden, set with precious stones.
His
followers tode on blood-horses, while he, with wonderful affectation of humility
in the midst of his great splendour, ambled on a mule.
Though the influence of his stately priest, a grand meeting was arranged to
take place between the French and English Kings in France, but on ground
belonging to England. A prodigious show of friendship was to be made on the
occation, and heralds were sent to proclaim with brazen trumplets through all
the principal cities of Europe, that, on a certain day, the Kings of France and
England, as companions and brothers in arms,
each
attended by 18 followers, would hold a tournament against all knights who might
choose to come.
Charles, a new Emperor of Germany (the old one being dead), wanted to prevent
that aliance between the two sovereigns, and came over to Eng-
land
and secured Wolsey's interest by promising that his influence should make him
Pope when the next vacancy occured. On the day when the Em-
peror
left England, the King and the Court went over to Calais, and thence
to
the place of meeting, commonly called the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
There were sham castles, temporary chapels, fountains running wine, great
cellars full of wine free as water to all comers, silk tents, gold lace and
gilt lions, and such things without end. And, in the midst of all, the rich
Cardinal outshone and outglittered all the noblemen and gentlemen assembled.
After a treaty had been made between the two Kings with as much solemnity as if
they had intended to keep it, the lists - 900 feet long,
and
320 broad - were opened for the tournament. Then, for ten days, the
two
sovereigns fought five combats every day, and always beat their polite
adversaries.
***
Of course, nothing came of all these fine doings but a speedy renewal of the
war between England and France, in which the two Royal com-panions longed very
earnestly to damage one another. But, before it broke out again, the Duke of
Buckingham was shamefully executed on Tower Hill, on the evidence of a
discharged servant - really for nothing, except the folly of having believed in
a friar of the name of Hopkins, who had pretended to be a prophet, and who had
mumbled and jumbled out some nonsense about the Duke's son being destined to be
very great in the land. It was believed that the unfortunate Duke had given
offence to the great Cardinal by expressing his mind freely about the expense
and absurdity of the whole business of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
The new war was a short one, though the Earl of Surrey invaded France again,
and did some injury to that country. It ended in another treaty of peace
between the two kingdoms, and the discovery that the Emperor of Germany was not
such a good friend to England in reality, as he pretend-ed to be. Neither did
he keep his promise to Wolsey to make him Pope, though the King urged him. So
the Cardinal and King together found out that the Emperor of Germany was not a
man to keep faith with. They broke off a projected marriage between the King's
daughter Mary, Prin-cess of Wales, and that sovereign, and began to consider whether
it might not be well to marry the young lady, either to Francis himself, or to
his eldest son.
***
There now arose at Wittemberg****, in Germany, the great leader of the mighty
change in England which is called The Reformation*****, and which set the
people free from their slavery to the priests. This was a learned Doctor, named
Martin Luther******, who knew all about them, for he had been a priest, and
even a monk, himself. The preaching and writing of Wickliffe******* had set a
number of men thinking on this subject, and Luther, finding one day to his
great surprise, that there really was a book called the New Testament which the
priests did not allow to be read, and which contained truths that they
suppressed, began to be very vigorous agains the whole body, from the Pope
downward. It happened, while he was yet only beginning his work or awakening
the nation, that a friar named Tetzel came into his neighbourhood selling what
were called Indulgences, by wholesale, to raise money for beautifying the St.
Peter's Cathidral at Rome. Those who bought an Indulgence of the Pope were
supposed to buy themselves from the punishment of Heaven for their offences.
Luther told the people that Indulgences were worthless bits of paper.
The King and the Cardinal were mightly indignant at this presumption; and the
King (with the help of Sir Thomas More********, a wise man, whom the afterwards
repaid by striking off
his
head) even wrote a book about it, with
which
the Pope was so well pleased that he
gave
the King the title of Defender of the
Faith.
The King and Cardinal also issued
flaming
warnings to the people not to read
Luther's
books, on pain of excommunica-
tion.
But they did read them for all that; and
the
rumour of what was in them spread far
and
wide.
When this great change was thus going
on,
the King began to show himself in his
truest
and worst colours. Anne Boleyn, the pretty little girl who had gone abroad to
France with her sister, was by this time grown up to be very
beautiful,
and was one of the ladies in attendance on Queen Catherine. Queen Catherine was
no longer young or pretty, and it is likely that she was not particularly
good-tempered, having been always rather melan-choly, and having been made more
so by deaths of four of her children when they were very young. So, the King
fell in love with the fair Anne Boleyn. He wanted to get rid of his wife and
marry Anne.
Queen Catherine had been the wife of
Henry's
brother Arthur. So the King called
his
favourite priests about him, and said
that
he thought that it had not been lawful
for
him to marry the Queen.
They answered that it was a serious busi-
ness,
and perhaps the best way to make it
right,
would be for His Majesty to be de-
vorced.
That was the answer the King was
pleased
with; so they all went to work.
Many intrigues and plots took place to
get
this devorce. Finally, the Pope issued
a
commission to Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio (whom he sent over from
Italy for the purpose), to try the whole case in England. It is supposed that
Wolsey was the Queen's enemy, because she had reproved him for his manner of
life. But, he did not at first know that the King wanted to marry Anne Boleyn,
and when he did know it, he even went down on his knees, in the endeavour to
dissuade him.
The Cardinals opened their court in the Convent of the Black friars, in
London.
On the opening of the court, when the King and Queen were call-
ed
on to appear, that poor lady kneeled at the King's feet, and said that she had
come, a stranger, to his dominions, that she had been a good and true wife for
him for 20 years, and that she could acknowledge no power in those Cardinals to
try whether she should be considered his wife after all that time, or should be
put away. With that, she got up and left the court, and would never afterwards
come back to it.
It was a difficult case to try and the Pope suggested the King and Queen to
come to Rome and have it tried there. But by the good luck for the King , word
was brought to him about Thomas Cranmer, a learned Doctor of Cambridge, who had
prospered to urge the Pope on, by referring the case to all the learned doctors
and bishops, and getting their opinions that the King's marriage was unlawful.
The King, who was now in a hurry to marry Anne Boleyn, thought this such a good
idea, that sent for Cranmer.
It was bad for cardinal Wolsey that he had left Cranmer to render this help.
It was worse for him that he had tried to dissuade the King from marrying Anne
Boleyn. Such a servant as he, to such a master as Henry, would probably have
fallen in any case; but he fell suddenly and heavily. Soon he was arrested for
high treason, and died on his way to Tower. Sir Thomas More was made Chancellor
in Wolsey's place.
***
Meanwhile, the opinions concerning the divorce, of the learned doctors
and
bishops and others, being at last collected, were forwarded to the Pope, with
an entreaty that he would now grant it. The unfortunate Pope, who was a timid
man, was half distracted between his fear of his authority being set aside in
England if he did not do as he was asked, and his dread of offending the
Emperor of Germany, who was Queen Catherine's neph-ew. In this state of mind he
still evaded and did nothing. So, the King took the matter into his own hands,
and made himself a head of whole Church.
However,
he recompenced the clergy by allowing Luther's opinions. All these events made
Sir Thomas More, who was truly attached to the Church, resign.
Being now quite resolved to get rid of Queen Catherine, and marry Anne Boleyn
without more ado, the King made Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, and directed
Queen Catherine to leave the Court. She obeyed. but replied that wherever she
went, she was Queen of England still, and would remain so, to the last. The
King then married Anne Boleyn priva-tely, and the new Archbishop of Cantebury,
within half a year, declared his marriage with Queen Catherine void, and
crowned Anne Boleyn Queen.
She might have known that no good could ever come with such wrong, and that the
King who had been so faithless and so cruel to his first wife, could be more
faithless and more cruel to the second. But Anne Boleyn knew that too late, and
bought it at dear price. Her marriage came to its natural end. However, its
natural end was
not
a natural death for her. The Pope was
thrown
into a very angry state of mind when
he
heard of the King's marriage. Many of
English
monks and friars did the same, but
the
King took it quietly, and was very glad
when
his Queen gave birth to a daughter,
who
was christened Elizabeth, and declared
Princess
of Wales as her sister Mary had
already
been.
the
reign was that Henry VIII was always
trimming
between the reformed religion with the Pope, the more of his own subjects he
roasted alive for not holding the Pope's opinions. Thus, an unfortunate student
named John Frith, and a poor simple tailor named Andrew Hewet who loved him
very much, and said that whatever John Frith believed he believed, were burnt
in Smithfield - to show what a capital Christian the King was.
But these were speedily followed by two much greater victims, Sir Thomas More,
and John Fisher , the Bishop of Rochester. The latter, who was a good and
amiable old man, had committed no greater offence then believing in Elizabeth
Barton, called the Maid of Kent - another of those ridiculous women who
pretended to be inspired, and to make all sorts of heavenly revelations, though
they indeed uttered nothing but evil nonsen-se. For this offence - as it was
pretended, but really for denying the king to be the supreme Head of the Church
- he got into trouble, and was put in prison. Even then he might have died
naturally, but the Pope, to spite the King, resolved to make him a cardinal. So
the King decided that Fisher should have no head on which to wear a red
Cardinal's hat. He was tried with all unfairnence and injustice, and sentenced
to death. He died like a noble and virtuous old man, and left a worthy name behind
him.
The King supposed that Sir Thomas More would be frightened by this example.
But, as he was not to be easily terrified, and, thoroughly believed in the
Pope, had made up his mind that the King was not rightful Head of the Church,
he positively refused to say that he was. For this cri-me he too was tried and
sentenced, after having been in prison a whole year.
When he was doomed to death, and came away from his trial with the edge of
executioner's axe turned towards him - as was always done in those times when a
state prisoner came to that hopeless pass - he bore it quite serenely, and gave
his blessing to his son, who pressed through the crowd in Westminster Hall and
kneeled down to recieve it.
But, when he got to the Tower Wharf on his way back to his prison, and his
favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, a very good woman, rushed through the
guards to kiss him and to weep upon his neck, he has over-come at last. He soon
recovered and never more showed any feeling but courage. When he had laid his
head upon the block, he asked jokingly the executioner to let him put his beard
out of the way because for that thing, at least, had never committed any
treason. Then his head was strucked off at a blow.
These two executions were worthy of King Henry VIII. Sir Thomas More was one of
the most virtuous men in his dominions, and the Bishop was one of his eldest
and truest friends.
***
When the news of these two murders got to Rome, the Pope was enra-ged and
prepared a Bull, ordering his subjects to take arms against the King of England
and dethrone him. The King took all possible precautions to keep that document
out of his dominions, and set to work in return to suppress a great number of
English monasteries and abbeys.
This destruction was begun by a body of commissioners, of whom Tho-mas Cromwell
was the head. It was carried on through to some few years to its entire
completion. There is no doubt that many of these religious es-tablishments
imposed upon the people in every possible way; that they had images moved by
wires, which they pretended were miraculously mo-ved by Heaven; that they had
bits of coal which they said had fried Saint Lawrense, and bits of toe-nails
which they said belonged to other famous saints, etc.; and that all these bits
of rubbish were called Relics, and adored by the ignorant people. But, on the
other hand, there is no doubt either, that the King's men punished the good
monks with the bad; did great injustice; demolished many beautiful things and
many valuable libra-ries; destroyed numbers of paintings, stained glass
windows, fine pave-ments, and carvings; and that the whole court were
ravenously greedy and rapacious for the division of this great spoil among
them. The King seems to have grown almost mad in the ardour of this pursuit,
for he declared Thomas a Becket a traitor, though he had been dead for many
years, and had his body dug up out of his grave. The gold and jewels on his
shrine filled two great chests, and 8 men were needed to carry them away.
These things caused great discontent among the people. The monks who were
driven out of their homes and wandered about encouraged their discontent, and
there were, consequently, great risings in Licincolnshire and Yorkshire. These
were put down by terrific executions, from which the monks themselves did not
escape.
***
The unfortunate Queen Catherine was by
this
time dead, and the King was by this ti-
me
as tired of his second Queen as he had
been
of his first. As he had fallen in love
with
Anne when she was in the service of
Catherine,
so he now fell in love with ano-
ther
lady in the service of Anne.
The King resolved to have Anne Boleyn's
head
to marry Lady Jane Seymour. So, he
brought
a number of charges against Anne,
accusing
her of dreadful crimes which she
had
never committed, and implicating in
them
her own brother and certain gentlemen in her service. As the lords and
councillors were afraid of the King, they brought in Anne Boleyn guilty, and
the other unfortunate persons accused with her, guilty too.
They
were all sentenced to death. Anne Boleyn tried to soften her hus-band by
touching letters, but as he wanted her to be executed, she was soon beheaded.
There is a story that the King sat in his palace listening very anxiously for
the sound of the cannon which was to announce this new murder; and that, when
he heard it, he rose up in great spirits and ordered out his dogs to go
a-hunting. He married Jane Seymour the very next day.
Jane Seymour lived just long enough to give birth to a son who was christened
Edward, and then to die of a fever.
***
Cranmer had done what he could to save some of the Church property for purposes
of religion and education. But the great families had been so hungry to get
hold of it, that very little could be rescued for such objects. Even Miles
Coverdale, who did the people the inestimable service of translating the Bible
into English (which the unreformed religion never permitted to be done), was
left in poverty while the great families clutched the Church lands and money.
The people had been told that when the Crown came into possession of these
funds, it would not be necessary to tax them. But they were taxed afresh
directly afterwards.
One of the most active writers on a Church's side against the King was a member
of his own family - a sort of distant cousin, Reginald Pole by name - who
attacked him in the most violent manner (though he recieved a pension from him
all the time), and fought for the Church for his pen, day and night. He was
beyong the King's reach, in Italy.
The Pope made Reginald Pole a cardinal; but, so much against his will, that it
is thought he had hopes of marrying the Princess Mary. His being made a high
priest, however, put an end to that. His mother, the Countess of Salisbury -
who was unfortunately for herself, within the tyrant's reach -was the last of
his relatives on whom his wrath fell. When she was told to lay her grey head
upon the block, she answered the executioner that her head had never committed
treason, and if he wanted her head, he should seize that. So, she ran round
and round the scaffold with the executioner striking at her, and her grey hair
bedabbled with blood. And even when they held her down upon the block she moved
her head about to the last, resolved to be no party to her own barbarous
murder. All this the people bore, as they had borne everything else.
Indeed they bore much more; for the slow fires of Smithfield were continually
burning, and people were constantly being roasted to death - still to show what
a good Christian the King was. He defied the Pope and his Bull, which was now
issued, and had come into England; but he bur-ned innumerable people whose only
offence was that they differed from the Pope's religios opinions.
All this the people bore, and more than all this yet. The national spirit seems
to have been banished from the kingdom from this time. The people who were
executed for treason, the wives and friends of the "bluff" King,
spoke of him on the scafford as a good and gentle man.
The Parliament were as bad as the rest, and gave the King whatever he wanted.
They gave him new powers of murdering, at his will and pleasure, anyone whom he
might choose to call a traitor. But the worst measure they passed was an Act of
Six Articles*********, commonly called at the time "the whip with six
strings", which punished offences against the Pope's opinions, without
mercy, and enforced the very worst parts of the monkish religion.
Cranmer would have modified it, if he could; but he had not the power, being
overborne by the Romish party. As one of the articles declared that priests
should not marry, and as he was married himself, he sent his wife and children
into Germany, and began to tremble at his danger. This whip of six strings was
made under the King's own eye. It should never be for-gotten of him how cruelly
he supported the Popish doctrines when there was nothing to be got by opposing
them.
This monarch now thought of taking another wife. He proposed to the French King
to have some of the ladies of the French Court exhibited be-fore him, that he
might make his Royal choice. But the French King ans-wered that he would rather
not have his ladies to be shown like horses at a fair. He proposed to the
Dowager Duchess of Milan, who replied that she might have thought of such a
match if she had had two heads. At last Cromwell represented that there was a
Protestant Princess in Germany - those who had the reformed religion were call
Protestants, because their leaders had protested against the abuses and
impositions of the unreform-ed Church - named Anne of Cleves, who was
beautiful, and would answer the purpose admirably.
The King sent over the famous painter, Hans Holbein, to take her a portrait.
Hans made her out to be so good-looking that the King was satis-fied, and the
marriage was arranged. But Hans had flattered the Princess. When the King first
saw her, he swore she was "a great Flanders mare", and said he would
never marry her. Being obliged to do it, he would not give her the presents he
had prepared, and would never notice her. He never forgave Cromwell his part in
the affair. His downfall dates from that time.
It was quickened by his enemies, in the interests of the unreformed religion,
putting in the King's way, at a state dinner, a niece of the Duke of Norfolk,
Catherine Howard. Falling in love with her on the spot, the King soon divorced
Anne of Cleves on pretence that she had been previously betrothered to someone
else, and married Catherine. It is probable that on his wedding day he sent his
faithful Cromwell to the scaffold, and had his head struck off.
It soon came out that Catherine Howard was not a faithful wife, and again the
dreadful axe made the King a widower. Henry then applied him-self to
superintending the composition of a religious book called "A ne-cessary
doctrine for any Christian Man".
He married yet once more. Yes, strange to say, he found in England another
woman who would become his wife, and she was Catherine Parr, widow of Lord
Latimer. She leaned towards the reformed religion, and it is some comfort to
know, that she argued a variety of doctrinal points with him on all possible
occasions. After one of these conversations the King in a very black mood
actully instructed Gardier, one of his Bishops who favoured the Popish
opinions, to draw a bill of accusation against her to the scaffold. But one of
the Queen's friends knew about it, and gave her timely notice. She fell ill
with terror, but managed the King so well when he came to entrap her into
further statements - by saying that she had only spoken on such points to
divert his mind and to get some points of infor-mation from his extraordinary
wisdom - that he gave her a kiss and called her a sweatheart. And, when the
Chancellor came next day to take her to the Tower, the King honoured him with
the epithets of a beast, a knave, and a fool. So near was Catherine Parr to the
block, and so narrow was her escape!
***
A few more horrors, and this reign was over. There was a lady, Anne Askew, in
Lincolnshire, who inclined to the Protestant opinions, and whose husband being
a fierce Catholic, turned her out of his house. She came to London, and was
considered as offending against the six articles, and was taken to the Tower,
and put upon the rack - probably because it was hoped that she might, in her
agony, criminate some obnoxious per-sons. She was tortured in a most cruel
manner without uttering a cry, but afterwards they had to carry her to the fire
in a chair. She was burned with three others, a gentleman, a clergyman, and a
tailor; and so the world went on.
Either the King became afraid of the power of Duke of Norfolk, and his son the
Earl of Surrey, or they gave him some offence, but he resolved to pull them
down, to follow all the rest who were gone. The son was tried first - of course
for nothing - and defended himself bravely; but all the same he was found
guilty, and was executed. Then his father's turn came. But the King himself was
left for death by a Greater King, and the Earth was to be rid of him at last.
When he was found to be dying, Cranmer was sent for, and came with all speed,
but found him speechless. In that hour he perished. He was in the fifty-sixth
year of his age, and the thirty-eighth of his reign.
Henry the Eighth, a bloody tyrant, has been favoured by some Protest-ant
writers, because the Reformation was achieved in his time. But the mighty merit
of his lies with other men and not with him.
What else can
I say about Henry VIII?
He was more a
beast than a man.
He executed
hundreds of people.
Though he was
wise enough to rule a country.
His reign was
bloody and he did not do a lot for his country.
His six
marriages caused the country to finish
all treaties
with the Roman Church.
And the
King's bloody deeds ashamed the mighty England.
For Charles
Dickens he was the most
untolerable
man, a shame for humanity.
Notes.
·
Hans Holbein (1497-1543)* - the German painter. Known as Hans
Holbein Jr.
·
the Battle of Spurs** was held on the 16th of August, 1513 a.d.
During it the French cavalry fled because of the advancing armies of Henry VIII
and Maximilian I.
·
Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530)***, Chancellor of England since 1515
till 1529. Since 1514 - the Archbishop of York, since 1515 - the Cardinal. In
1529 he was arrested for treason.
·
Wittemberg**** - the Saxon city where in 1517 Luther read his 95
thesises against the Catholic Church.
·
the Reformation***** - the movement against the Ca-tholic Church
in Western and Central Europe. It's crea-tor was Luther.
·
Martin Luther (1483-1546)****** - the leader of the Re-formation.
He also translated the Bible into German.
·
John Wickliffe (1330-1384)******* - the English refor-mator. He
said that the Pope was not necessary and wan-ted the Church to abandon its
lands.
·
Thomas More (1487 - 1535)******** - the great lawer and political
leader, was against the Reformation. Being a writer, he created
"Utopia". Anne Boleyn, the second wife of the King, knowing that More
had helped the King to dismiss Catherine of Aragon, caused Henry to execute
this clever and honest Chancellor of England.
List of the
Used Literature.
1. J. J.
Bell. The History of England.
2. L. V.
Sidorchenko. Absolute Monarchy.
3. I. I.
Burova. Just for Pleasure. Intermediate Level.
4. D.
Capewell. The History of English Monarchy.