PREVIEW： Epochs #263 ｜ The Life of Henry VIII - Part 1
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Words per minute
162.23897
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
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Toxicity
3
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Hate speech
13
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Summary
Henry VIII was one of the most famous kings there ever was, and there's so much to be said about him. He was a man of many talents, but his greatest strength was his ruthlessness, and he was also a man with a dark sense of humor.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing once again my story of the English
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monarchy the English monarchy to begin with before we get into Britain many centuries from now we're
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only up to Henry VIII aren't we if you remember last time we did all of Henry VII Henry Tudor
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the original the OG Tudor and he had his eldest son Arthur who's going to be king next but then
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he dies of natural causes before he became king so it passes to the next boy down the second son
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who's another Henry Henry VII Henry Tudor's eldest surviving son Henry VIII now of course
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this is a big one I imagine it'll be more than one episode and in fact there's so much to be said
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that already in epochs we've touched around it you might recall if you've watched them all
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that with Luca I've had conversations about Thomas More who plays a big part in the story
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and Thomas Cromwell who also plays I think that was more than one part that one
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who plays a big part in all of this. So Henry VIII, one of the most famous kings there's ever
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been and so much to be said. I mean I might even do episodes of other people that are really
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important in his reign but to begin with let's just start the story with Henry VIII. As always
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I shall be reading from Professor Sir Charles Oman, a late 19th century early 20th century
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professor of history at Oxford University as well as Sir Winston Churchill in his history of the
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English-speaking peoples. So let's kick off with a little bit of Oman, whose chapter is called
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Henry VIII and the Breach with Rome. Perhaps that's the biggest story of Henry VIII's reign,
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even bigger than that he had six wives and two of them executed. Perhaps even bigger than that is
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that it's the Protestant Reformation, the age of Luther, right? And England becoming not Catholic.
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So that's one of the biggest overarching themes of the reign of Henry VIII
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Henry himself, if you didn't already know, is a true monarch
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He wielded power with aplomb, like he was born to it
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Some people in France called him the English Nero, i.e. more or less a tyrant
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He was nowhere near as bloodthirsty and evil and sadistic as Nero
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But he was still reasonably bloodthirsty and sadistic
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Sir Charles Oman wrote this quote the young king who succeeded to the cautious and politic Henry
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VII was perhaps the most remarkable man who ever sat on the English throne he guided England
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through the epoch of change and unrest which lay between the Middle Ages and the modern history
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and his guidance was of such a peculiar and personal stamp that he left an indelible mark
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Was due to his own strange combination of qualities
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He would change his mind without telling anyone
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and then you were suddenly on shaky ground without realizing it and then he could be angry with you
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or even punish you right so i mean mercurial is is a nice way of putting it dangerous a dangerous
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person i've said before a number of times on epochs haven't i um there's certain people
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throughout history i personally would be terrified just to be in the same room with them somebody
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like nero somebody like caligula somebody like domitian perhaps starlin you do or say the wrong
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thing look the wrong way perhaps don't do anything at all you're just simply in their line of sight
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simple as that and that you're in terrible trouble now you might get tortured to death
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you quite literally have done nothing wrong Henry VIII is I think particularly the older Henry VIII
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he got worse and worse as he got older is something close that not quite that not quite as terrifying
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as being in the same room with Caligula or Stalin but close quite close he could just he could just
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make up something he could just decide in his own head that you've slighted him or embarrassed him
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in some way and you you've basically done nothing so again a dangerous man continue saying this
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henry's character was a very complex one mingling qualities good and bad in strange confusion
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in many things he showed the traits of his grandfather edward the fourth his selfishness
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his love of display, his sensuality, his outbursts of ruthless cruelty. But Edward had been nothing
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more than a soldier and a man of pleasure. He had no love of work, no power to read the character
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of others. Henry VIII was a student, a statesman, a deep plotter, a keen observer of other men.
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He chose his servants, or rather his tools, with a clear-headed sagacity which no king ever
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surpassed and he could break them or fling them away when they became useless with a coolness
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that was all his own love of power love of work love of pleasure love of show and pomp did not
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distract him one from the other but blended closely together into one complex impulse
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the determination to have his own will in all things end quote so that's another key thing
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You might think a true alpha might be magnanimous sometimes
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Like Julius Caesar or Richard the Lionheart or something
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Part of their alphaness is that they forgive people
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But no, if Henry VIII doesn't get exactly what he wants
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and a tyrant henry became but a tyrant whose brain was as strong as his will who knew the
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possible from the impossible who could discern how far it was safe to go and could check himself
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on the edge of any dangerous precipice of foreign or internal politics he kept as it were a finger
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on the nation's pulse and could restrain himself for a space if ever it began to beat too excitedly
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the pulse of the nation. He did his best to call popularity with the English by an affable bearing
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and a regard for their prejudices. He strove to make them look on him as the nation's representative
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and to flatter them into believing that his resolves were really in accordance with their
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own will and interests. He represented to them not only law and order but national feeling and
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national pride. It was this clever acting that made it possible for him to manipulate England
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according to his wishes. He appeared to take the people into his confidence and they replied by
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believing his statements even when they were most unfounded and misleading. Thus it was that Henry
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was able to rule despotically for 40 years without having a serious quarrel with his parliament
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and without being compelled to raise a standing army, the tool which all contemporary despots
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were forced to employ. Henry VIII was very young when he came to the throne. He had not quite
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reached the age of 18. His character was still undeveloped, though he was known to be both
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clever and active. All that the nation knew of him was that he was a bright, handsome youth,
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fond of horse and hound, and equally fond of his books and of his loot. He had from the first and
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ire for popularity and did all that he could to please the people by shows of pageants that forced
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him to dip deeply into his father's hoarded money. If you remember, Henry VII had been very prudent
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financially speaking. Remember, he finished his reign with more money than any other king of
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England ever had up to that point. So Henry VIII goes about spending it quite lavishly. Omar again.
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Yet the first act of Henry's reign was ominous of future cruelty and ruthlessness.
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Knowing the unpopularity of his father's harsh and extortionate but faithful servants,
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Empsom and Dudley, he cast them into prison and had them attainted by Parliament
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on a preposterous charge of treason. They were well hated and the people saw their heads fall
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with joy, not reflecting on the character of a king who had deliberately slain his father's
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councillors merely to win popular applause. Henry retained most of his father's old ministers in
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office but he instantly reversed his father's policy of non-intervention in the wars of the
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continent. He had not long been seated on the throne when he joined the Holy League, a confederacy
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formed against France by Pope Julius II in which both those old intriguers, the Emperor Maximilian
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and King Ferdinand of Aragon were already enlisted. This is in the year 1511 we're talking
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about here. Henry might have left them to fight their own battles for the mastery of Italy and
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Flanders, but he was burning to assert his power in Europe and to win military distinction. His
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arms were fairly fortunate. A first attack on the south of France failed, but he met with
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considerable success in 1513 when he landed at Calais with 25,000 men, took the towns of Tournai
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and Touraine and routed the French army of the north at the engagement called the Battle of the
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Spurs, named because of the haste with which the French knights urged their horses out of the fray.
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Finding his army's losing ground both in Italy and Flanders, King Louis XII sought peace from
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Henry and obtained it at the cheap price of paying a hundred thousand crowns and marrying the young
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princess Mary the the young English monarch's favorite sister and that was in 1514. These easy
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terms were granted because Henry found that his two wily allies Ferdinand and Maximilian had no
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intention of helping him and were bent purely on their own aggrandizement. The alliance with Louis
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And he's supposed to have been one of Henry's closest friends.
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it's very, very difficult to have proper, proper friends,
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They're not just in it to get power themselves by proxy
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or just to get money or ultimately to betray you.
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Nonetheless, Charles Brandon, the now Duke of Suffolk, seems to have been one of those for Henry, or was really, at least up until towards the very end.
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So remember, Brandon, Suffolk, you should be playing a role in all of this.
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So he decorated him with the ill-omened title of the Duke of Suffolk, the spoil of the unhappy Delapoles.
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And one way or another does away with all the remaining Yorkists
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And given it to his friend and now brother-in-law
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from this union sprang one who was to sit for a brief moment on the English throne and we talk
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about Lady Jane Grey there but we'll save that that's a much much later episode we'll talk all
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about what happens uh that that's a generation events okay Oman continues saying ere the French
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treaty had been made a short stirring episode of war had taken place in England's northern frontier
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King James IV of Scotland had certain border feuds to settle with the English
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and thought he might best take his revenge whilst Henry and his army were overseas in Flanders
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so he suddenly declared war and crossed the Tweed into Northumberland
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Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, son of John of Norfolk who fell at Bosworth
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this family the howard family will also be one of the key players in all of this you might know
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katherine howard his fifth wife years and years and years from what we're talking about here but
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but he's heavily involved with things more than that even involved with like the bolly and boleyn
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and mary boleyn and um so he's absolutely a key player thomas howard he raised the levies of the
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northern counties and marched to meet the scots by throwing himself between king james and his
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retreat on scotland he forced the enemy to fight on flodden field between the till and the tweed
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the armies met and fought a fierce and doubtful battle which lasted far into the night though
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victorious on one wing the scots were beaten in the center and their king and most of his nobles
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fell in a desperate struggle around the royal banner so flodden field super important battle
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particularly when englishmen and scotsmen argue about things argue about history who beat who at
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certain times an Englishman can always point to Floddenfield and say ah we served you up a treat
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there we stitched you up like a kipper on that one didn't we but it does set the tone for Henry
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VIII and the Scots right he wasn't constantly constantly worrying about invasions from the
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Scots because early on he deals them out uh although not personally deals them out a mortal
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blow at Floddenfield says in the darkness the survivors of the struggle the Scottish survivors
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of the struggle dispersed and fled home the death of their warlike sovereign and the slaughter
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which had thinned their fighting men kept the scots quiet for many a day during the long and
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minority of king james the fifth of scotland king henry need fear no danger from the north
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as a reward for his victory surrey was restored to his father's dukedom of norfolk and again that
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was in 1513. So Thomas Howard is the Duke of Norfolk. So already we've introduced a couple
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of key players here. Suffolk, his friend, his brother-in-law and friend, actual friend, and
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Norfolk of the Howard family. One of, if not the main sort of military man, Henry VIII's go-to
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military man. If you need to put down a rebellion somewhere or other, the obvious choice is get in
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touch with Norfolk. He can do that. You know, he won at Flodden. Tried and tested.
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We hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please head over to
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