The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #264 ｜ The Life of Henry VIII - Part 2

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs, where I shall be continuing my story all about the monarchy,

00:00:26.320 the english monarchy we're up to henry the eighth now aren't we last time you remember uh we did

00:00:31.760 this early reign because he became king quite young didn't he was only like 17 or 18 uh we got

00:00:37.320 through some of the early details we did the battle of flodden flodden field where the english beat

00:00:42.580 the scots even killed the king of scotland on the battlefield and so that sort of makes it a bit

00:00:48.960 quieter well a lot more quiet on the scottish border for most of henry the eighth's reign we

00:00:53.460 talked about the Battle of the Spurs, where England won a victory in France. It wasn't

00:00:58.040 sort of any sort of crushing, decisive victory, was it? Like Cressy or Agincourt, a victory.

00:01:03.060 And we started talking about Wolsey, the Bishop, the Dean Wolsey, goes on to be famously Cardinal

00:01:08.760 Wolsey. So we started on that, didn't we? So this time I shall continue telling the story.

00:01:14.840 And we'll talk all about Wolsey and really the break with the Church of Rome, the Catholic

00:01:19.460 church in Rome and all that sort of thing, the age of Martin Luther we're in. As always I shall be

00:01:24.080 reading from Professor Sir Charles Oman, a late 19th century, early 20th century Oxford professor

00:01:30.420 of history, one of the best to ever do it, as well as Sir Winston Churchill and his history of the

00:01:34.980 English-speaking peoples, which if you haven't noticed borrows heavily from Oman, but you do get

00:01:42.220 all sorts of different details and slightly different takes. So okay let's jump straight

00:01:45.860 into it let me start reading to you then from omar who tells us following on from the the field of

00:01:53.280 the cloth of gold if you remember where the king of france and the king of england our henry met

00:01:59.380 and made out that they were best friends but in fact soon after both sort of betrayed that

00:02:05.180 friendship and there's that three-way power struggle remember between france spain and england

00:02:09.700 France and Spain are much more powerful militarily

00:02:12.600 But actually England is richer, incredibly

00:02:16.180 At this moment in time

00:02:17.880 Mainly because of the prudence of Henry VII

00:02:20.420 Henry Tudor, Henry VIII's dad

00:02:23.280 But that power struggle is

00:02:25.820 That balance of power is constantly shifting and changing

00:02:28.720 Okay, Oman says this

00:02:30.320 Quote

00:02:30.620 From all the negotiations and fighting

00:02:33.300 Which accompanied the changes of English policy

00:02:35.760 I keep switching sides between France and Spain

00:02:38.020 And they keep doing the same

00:02:38.940 One definite result was reached

00:02:41.680 England was beginning to grow poorer and more discontented

00:02:45.440 The hoarded treasure of Henry VII had long been exhausted

00:02:49.160 And the taxation which his son was compelled to levy was growing more and more heavy

00:02:54.900 Henry had fallen into the evil habit of dispensing with parliamentary grants

00:02:59.980 You know, a parliament giving the king money

00:03:03.480 from 1515 to 1523 and again in 1527 and 1528 he never summoned the two houses to assemble

00:03:12.360 the money which he ought to have asked for from them he raised by the illegal devices of

00:03:18.340 quote benevolences quote and forced loans that's a nice way of saying theft stealing it from rich

00:03:26.400 people saying don't you think it's in your best interest to just give me loads of money or a big

00:03:32.580 chunk of your money perhaps all your money do you want to still be alive perhaps you should give me

00:03:39.700 loads of your money right okay we've known we've seen how kings in the past have done that

00:03:44.940 and how that works out for them often Henry VIII happens to be living in a period of

00:03:51.100 very very strong monarchy where there aren't you know we've had the wars of the roses and there

00:03:57.880 isn't a really really strong nobility at this point in history it can rise up and sort of

00:04:04.800 overthrow him throw him in a castle and starve him to death or anything like that

00:04:08.700 most of the great lions of the age died in the walls of the roses the country doesn't want a

00:04:14.980 return to civil war like that so okay henry can basically sort of get away with it he's lucky in

00:04:21.240 his time and place. Wolsey got the credit of advising this tyrannous extortion and gained no

00:04:28.240 small hatred thereby but his master was in truth far more responsible for it than he. The cardinal

00:04:34.340 however bore the blame and it was said that all the chaotic changes in England's policy were

00:04:40.480 inspired by Wolsey's desire to attain the position of Pope. There's only ever been one English Pope

00:04:46.400 and that was centuries before this he desired the position of pope by the aid of whichever of the

00:04:51.840 two powers of france and austria had the advantage for the moment again the house the house of austria

00:04:58.100 and and sort of the spanish kingdoms and even the holy roman empire all rests in one person

00:05:05.400 the spanish king the spanish emperor habsburg emperor there is no doubt that there was some

00:05:11.340 truth in the charge the cardinal's ambition was overweening and he would gladly have become pope

00:05:16.840 because he had conceived great schemes of church reform which the possession of the papacy alone

00:05:22.940 would have enabled him to carry out it is certain that charles v the habsburg holy roman emperor

00:05:28.980 and king of spain twice deluded wolsey into aiding him by the tempting bait of the papal tiara

00:05:36.300 the tiara crown being pope but on each occasion the emperor used his influence at rome to get

00:05:43.720 some surer partisan elected wolsey's scheme of reforming the church was no doubt suggested to

00:05:49.560 him by the discontent against the clergy which was at this moment beginning to break out all over

00:05:55.080 europe again right we're in the age of martin luther and the reformation since the days of

00:06:00.700 Wycliffe, hundreds of years before, John Wycliffe, religious matters had not been taking any very

00:06:06.360 prominent place in English politics, but a storm was now at hand far more terrible than that which

00:06:11.800 had swept over the land in the days of the Lollards. The Lollards were the followers of Wycliffe.

00:06:17.300 I've talked about him before, but just to remind you, was a proto-Protestant, a Protestant hundreds

00:06:21.960 of years before actual Protestantism, saying there's all sorts of things wrong with the Catholic

00:06:26.660 church. We need to reform all sorts of things. The popes in Rome are doing Christianity wrong.

00:06:33.520 They're conducting themselves in an evil way, in a non-Christian way. So he was saying that

00:06:39.880 centuries before this. Martin Luther wasn't the first person to notice, let's put it that way.

00:06:45.280 The condition of the church of Western Christendom had become more and more deplorable of late.

00:06:50.400 The worst example was set at headquarters. Bad as the popes of the 14th century had been,

00:06:55.520 those who were contemporary with the Tudors were far worse. Rome had seen almost in succession

00:07:01.760 three scandalous popes, the first of whom, Alexander VI, the celebrated Rodrigo Borgia,

00:07:07.980 was a monster of depravity, a murderer giving up to the practice of the foulest vices.

00:07:13.700 The second, Julius II, was a mere secular statesman with no piety, but a decided talent

00:07:20.920 Both for intrigue and for hard fighting

00:07:23.680 The third, Leo X

00:07:25.140 Was a lover of art

00:07:27.200 And more than half a pagan

00:07:28.820 Who was reported to have said that

00:07:31.080 Christianity was a profitable superstition

00:07:33.800 For popes

00:07:34.440 So perhaps you can see why people like

00:07:37.160 Martin Luther or Calvin

00:07:38.680 Or any of these

00:07:40.600 Catholic heretics, Protestants

00:07:43.460 Why their message

00:07:45.320 What they were saying might have

00:07:47.100 Landed now in the

00:07:49.260 Early 16th century

00:07:50.920 there might be more people in fact millions of people that are genuinely prepared to hear that

00:07:56.620 message at this point under such pontiffs all the abuses of the medieval church came to a head

00:08:02.640 ill living corruption open impiety reckless interference in secular politics non-resistance

00:08:09.040 neglect of all spiritual duties greed for money were more openly practiced by the clergy than in

00:08:15.260 any previous age. Even the better sort of ecclesiastics could see no harm in obvious

00:08:20.780 abuses. Fox, Bishop of Winchester, a man of great virtue, absented himself for 20 years from his C.

00:08:28.440 He should have been in Winchester doing the business of being a Bishop of Winchester,

00:08:31.920 but just didn't go there. He was more interested in playing power politics and making money.

00:08:37.840 Wolsey held three C's at once and never went near any of them. The lamentable state of the church

00:08:44.200 would have provoked murmuring in any age but in the 16th century it led to open rebellion in all

00:08:49.900 those countries of Europe which still retained some regard for religion and morals. The revival

00:08:55.720 of arts and letters which men called the Renaissance was now at its height and Europe was for the first

00:09:01.500 time full of educated laymen who could criticize the church from outside and compare its teachings

00:09:07.160 with its practice. The multiplication of books owing to the discovery of printing, the Gutenberg

00:09:13.420 printing press had placed the means of knowledge in every man's hands and the revived study of

00:09:19.600 Hebrew and Greek, ancient Greek, was setting the learned to read the scriptures in their original

00:09:24.800 tongues. All the elements of a violent outbreak against the papacy, its superstitions and its

00:09:30.700 enormities were ready to combine. That's an absolute key thing that people like Martin Luther

00:09:36.060 Or Calvin or whoever would say

00:09:38.280 Is that the Latin mass

00:09:40.120 Well it is that

00:09:41.640 It's in Latin

00:09:42.600 And most normal people

00:09:44.720 Or nearly all normal people

00:09:46.080 Wouldn't know Latin

00:09:47.960 Wouldn't be able to read Latin for themselves

00:09:49.600 So they just have to rely on what their priest

00:09:52.340 Or bishop says it says

00:09:54.160 In the Bible

00:09:54.780 Well if you were unscrupulous

00:09:57.640 You could make up all sorts of things couldn't you

00:09:59.960 You could just tell the average

00:10:02.160 Unlettered person

00:10:04.420 Who can't read Latin

00:10:05.240 You can say, it says in the Bible, X, Y, Z

00:10:07.580 It doesn't necessarily say that

00:10:09.560 It's in your interest to tell them

00:10:11.120 And it doesn't

00:10:11.860 Well, now they can read it

00:10:13.100 Someone else can translate it for them into their native tongue

00:10:17.040 Whether it's German or French or Spanish or Italian or English

00:10:20.480 And now you can read it for yourself

00:10:22.380 And you realise, oh, the clergy have been lying to me and us for centuries

00:10:28.640 In fact, Jesus doesn't talk about tithes

00:10:32.100 And how we have to give loads of money to the church all the time

00:10:34.540 In fact, Jesus doesn't talk about the church at all

00:10:36.600 In fact, the Gospels don't say anything about popes

00:10:39.700 That sort of thing

00:10:41.000 And one goes on

00:10:42.180 In 1517, a German friar, Martin Luther

00:10:45.060 Had first given voice to the universal discontent

00:10:48.120 By opposing the immoral practice of selling

00:10:51.080 Quote, indulgences, quote

00:10:52.700 Of papal letters remitting penances for sins

00:10:56.100 In return for money

00:10:57.360 He had followed this up by preaching against any other papal abuses

00:11:01.500 And when Leo X replied by excommunicating him, Martin Luther

00:11:06.300 He began to attack the whole system of the medieval church

00:11:09.600 In vying against the Pope's spiritual supremacy

00:11:12.640 The invocation of saints, the celibacy of the clergy

00:11:16.480 The adoption of the monastic life and many other matters

00:11:20.260 Yeah, so, you know, a number of things

00:11:22.540 Again, Martin Luther and people like him are asking

00:11:25.520 Sorry, where does it say in the Bible

00:11:27.920 that that we're supposed to revere saints that we're supposed to give our money so that some

00:11:34.520 sort of big golden icon of a saint can be made where does it say that again aren't the clergy

00:11:40.400 supposed to be married to the church and be celibate how is it then that my my local bishop

00:11:45.960 has got many many lovers and wives and mistresses and is in fact some sort of sex pest show me the

00:11:52.240 lines where jesus says that there should be monasteries and that the monastery should own

00:11:57.240 Loads and loads of land

00:11:58.280 And be really really rich

00:11:59.580 And ring normal people for money

00:12:01.720 Where's the lines in the gospel

00:12:03.340 That say that?

00:12:05.020 Oh there aren't any

00:12:06.100 Okay

00:12:06.480 He was supported by his prince

00:12:08.640 Martin Luther

00:12:09.200 Was supported by his prince

00:12:10.580 Frederick

00:12:11.340 Elector of Saxony

00:12:12.500 And a great part of Germany

00:12:13.960 At once declared in his favour

00:12:15.720 And that was between

00:12:17.060 1517 and 1521

00:12:19.080 So usually

00:12:20.440 In centuries past

00:12:21.900 Somebody like Martin Luther

00:12:23.220 The church in Rome

00:12:24.500 Would hear of such a man

00:12:26.780 Spreading heresy

00:12:28.280 And demand that he's turned over

00:12:30.720 Or go and get him themselves

00:12:32.320 And well ultimately

00:12:34.660 Almost certainly burn him alive

00:12:36.620 For that

00:12:37.300 But Martin Luther

00:12:39.740 His prince Frederick of Saxony

00:12:42.340 Says to the Pope and to the Catholic Church

00:12:44.700 When they ask for Martin Luther

00:12:46.780 To be turned over to them

00:12:47.760 Says no actually no

00:12:49.660 I don't think so

00:12:51.020 Well that's a game changer

00:12:53.340 Real big game changer

00:12:54.920 Well, it sparks the Reformation

00:12:57.100 It says, England was not at first very much affected by the revolt of Germany against the papacy

00:13:03.800 The English church was far less corrupt than those of France or Italy

00:13:07.600 And though full of abuses, was not really unpopular with the nation

00:13:11.260 It still retained much of the old national spirit and was not the mere slave of the pope

00:13:15.940 Neither king nor people showed any signs of following the lead of the Germans

00:13:20.060 Henry wrote a book to prove Luther's views heretical

00:13:23.500 And received in return from Pope Leo X

00:13:26.640 The title of Defender of the Faith

00:13:28.840 So at 1st, Henry VIII is a good, loyal, good boy

00:13:31.740 Loyal to Rome and the Pope

00:13:33.040 We're told that the title of Defender of the Faith

00:13:35.460 Is an English sovereign still display on their coinage

00:13:38.780 In fact, King Charles III, our current king

00:13:41.700 Decided to change that to Defender of Faiths

00:13:45.240 In our own age

00:13:46.280 Bit of overreach

00:13:47.760 From Charles Saxe-Cobo-Gotha, Sausage Fingers, if you ask me

00:13:51.180 Suddenly he's a defender of all faiths

00:13:53.740 Really? A bit presumptuous

00:13:55.460 Okay, Oman goes on saying

00:13:57.400 Wolsey devoted himself

00:13:59.580 To practical reforms

00:14:01.020 Leaving doctrine alone

00:14:02.700 Because Wolsey is a cardinal

00:14:04.440 So he's got to or will always

00:14:07.140 Remain faithful to Rome

00:14:09.020 In Catholicism

00:14:10.240 He left doctrine alone

00:14:11.840 His first measure was to suppress

00:14:14.080 Many small and decayed monasteries

00:14:17.160 And to build with their plunder

00:14:19.060 His great foundation

00:14:20.300 of Cardinals College, afterwards known as Christchurch, in the University of Oxford.

00:14:26.000 So another thing to say, which will come up loads here, is the question of the monasteries.

00:14:29.840 So just to try and paint a picture of that. All over England, and there were hundreds,

00:14:34.120 maybe even thousands, there were certainly hundreds and hundreds of monastic houses.

00:14:39.200 Quite often they're just described as houses. What that means is a monastery, right? And

00:14:43.540 in centuries past, they would be filled with monks, and they would be great centres of

00:14:49.520 of learning of communities and served a really important sort of social purpose and all that

00:14:55.600 sort of thing and they became rich and they bought up land they became a whole giant power

00:15:00.460 structure in their own right and did some good things as I say learning like proto-hospitals

00:15:05.520 often all sorts of things but by the early 16th century a lot of them retained the land and the

00:15:13.000 money and the right to levy taxes on the local people but they'd fallen into disrepair disrepute

00:15:20.780 well Oman describes many of them as decayed that sometimes actual monastery itself is sort of

00:15:25.660 half in ruin falling down because the people that ran them the remaining monks often they were half

00:15:30.520 empty almost entirely empty of monks no one particularly wanted to be a monk not no one

00:15:34.800 very very fewer people wanted to become a monk by the 16th century and so where these houses

00:15:40.500 Were giant

00:15:41.160 And now they've only got

00:15:42.680 A handful of monks in them

00:15:43.760 But they're still

00:15:44.860 Raking in all the money

00:15:46.340 And owning all the land

00:15:47.440 Or a lot of money

00:15:48.520 And a lot of land

00:15:49.240 And people could see

00:15:50.460 That's not right

00:15:51.140 That's not fair

00:15:51.840 This is not

00:15:52.480 There's something

00:15:53.020 Gone terribly wrong here

00:15:54.300 There's a bishop

00:15:55.660 Who nominally

00:15:56.900 Or is

00:15:57.600 The head of this monastery

00:15:58.860 But there's only

00:15:59.700 A few monks there

00:16:00.660 He doesn't spend

00:16:01.640 Any of the money

00:16:02.300 On the monastery itself

00:16:03.320 Or in helping the people

00:16:04.620 In that area

00:16:05.740 He just rakes in

00:16:06.820 All the money

00:16:07.220 And he's also

00:16:09.200 Like a profligate

00:16:10.500 and he's also corrupt and in fact he's not even there very often nearly all the time he's not

00:16:15.380 even there he just rakes in the money for nothing he just goes there's no benefit to the normal

00:16:20.220 people it just goes straight into his pocket so a lot of people start to hate the monasteries

00:16:25.200 and so even before the reformation really really hits england already cardinal wolsey is beginning

00:16:31.740 to shut down and do away with some of the worst monasteries and just taking them all their money

00:16:37.040 and land it was not till about 1527 that england began to be drawn into the struggle which was

00:16:44.980 convulsing all continental europe and then the cause of quarrel came from the king's private

00:16:50.780 affairs and not from any doctrinal dispute and that is famously the fact that his wife catherine

00:16:59.560 of aragon who'd been married to for 20 plus years hadn't given him a son she'd had what was it four

00:17:05.840 or five different miscarriages or the child had died very very soon into infancy and she'd had

00:17:12.080 one they'd had one daughter together mary goes on to be mary the first queen mary the first bloody

00:17:17.200 mary so but henry wanted needed in his mind a son he absolutely needed a son because remember

00:17:24.080 the wars of the roses are in living memory or very nearly in living memory if you don't have

00:17:28.800 a son this is his thinking anyway if you don't have a son to pass the crown to then there may

00:17:35.200 may well be civil war and things other families will claim to be like the Della Poles will claim

00:17:40.780 to be on the Mortimers the the legitimate royal family so Henry feels he absolutely needs a son

00:17:47.640 at any price at any cost of course it turns out that a later daughter he has an Elizabeth

00:17:54.780 named after his mother Elizabeth of York goes on to be Elizabeth the first good queen best

00:18:01.360 and is one of the most successful, greatest monarchs we ever had.

00:18:05.780 A golden age, the golden age.

00:18:07.940 But all that's in the future.

00:18:09.600 And at this time, in Henry's mind, he just feels like he has to get a son.

00:18:14.000 And, OK, Catherine of Aragon is now probably too old to give him a son.

00:18:19.340 Somebody, was it Woolsey, described her as barren as a brick.

00:18:22.940 Pretty harsh.

00:18:23.620 But, OK, she can't give him a son and he needs a son.

00:18:28.340 So, ideally, he needs a new wife.

00:18:30.200 Well, he needs a new wife, doesn't he, for the child to be legitimate

00:18:33.040 But you don't really get divorced in these days

00:18:36.680 I mean, it is possible, but very difficult

00:18:40.100 You have to quite literally get the Pope himself to divorce you

00:18:44.320 Know your marriage, it's as difficult as that

00:18:46.820 But perhaps a king can get such a thing

00:18:49.480 Well, only if the Pope actually wants to

00:18:52.720 Only if the Pope isn't being bullied and coerced to not do that

00:18:57.060 Which sort of is the case

00:18:59.360 So Catherine of Aragon is, you know, an Aragonese princess

00:19:03.680 Spanish, she's Spanish

00:19:05.020 And the King of Spain doesn't want Henry to divorce her

00:19:09.360 Or get their marriage annulled

00:19:11.180 That would mean the King of Spain's position is heavily undermined

00:19:15.860 And the King of Spain, we'll get to all this in a moment

00:19:18.980 Is more powerful than Henry

00:19:22.360 Has got much more influence and power over the Pope

00:19:25.960 So this is what Henry wants

00:19:27.920 He wants a divorce or an annulment

00:19:29.320 from the Pope, but the Pope won't give it to him, can't really give it to him because the King of

00:19:36.360 Spain has got his thumb on the Pope's forehead and won't let him do such a thing. So a bit of an

00:19:42.700 impasse. We hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com

00:19:48.580 for the full unabridged video.

00:19:59.320 Thank you.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - May 24, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #264 ｜ The Life of Henry VIII - Part 2

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