PREVIEW： Epochs #266 ｜ The Life of Henry VIII： Part IV
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
6
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Toxicity
17
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Hate speech
23
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Summary
Cardinal Wolsey is one of the most well-known figures in the history of the Tudor empire, and one of Henry VIII's closest advisors, Thomas Cromwell, was one of his most trusted advisors. But when he was dismissed from the position in the wake of the scandal surrounding his affair with the Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon, he went on to marry another of her children, Anne Boleyn. And when that marriage fell apart, he tried to get an annulment of his marriage to Catherine so he could move on to someone else.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome back to Epochs. If you remember last time we've been talking all about the life
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and the reign of Henry VIII, the great Henry VIII.
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So if you recall last time, we'd got up to sort of the point in his life,
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probably the most important, well, maybe not the most important,
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but the most famous part of his life, where he was putting his first wife,
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Catherine of Aragon, who he was married to for 20 odd years,
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putting her aside, trying to get a divorce or an annulment of his marriage to her
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so that he can move on to somebody else and that his eye had fallen on Anne Boleyn,
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one of the nieces of the Duke of Norfolk and so all of that is wrapped up in the disgrace
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of Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Wolsey's pretty timely death around that same time
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so we'll pick up the story with all of that and as I say it's probably one of the most well
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documented most famous bits of Henry's life and reign because as well if you remember we started
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to talk about last time it's all wrapped up with the break with rome and england becoming
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a protestant country um one thing to say before we talk about that is that that was quite a
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complicated thing henry was a difficult person if you haven't gathered already it's very clear
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he's a difficult person a dangerous changeable person um and so even very late in his reign
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towards the end of his life, sometimes someone would say something, they would say something
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Protestant, and he would explode with anger and say, no, we're a Catholic country, I'm a Catholic,
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even though he's been living as legally as a type of Protestant for years. So you might ask,
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well, wait a minute, what? How does that make sense? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Yeah,
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it's not fair. It doesn't. He liked to keep people on their toes. And in terms of religion,
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very much so so like around this time when he wants to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon
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and marry Anne Boleyn he has to break with Rome formally legally say that England is no longer
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part of the the Catholic world and that there will be a new church a whole new church in England
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the Church of England of which he is king as monarch sovereign is the head of that church
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So he will still, all throughout the rest of his reign
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It's like, but wait, you're a heretic though
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But you're still going to burn people alive for it
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It's okay to express certain types of Protestant ideas
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Alright, well let's pick up the story about that time
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and Henry has to get a new government and he starts the real process of breaking with Rome
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and then of course as quickly as possible marrying Anne Boleyn. As always I should be reading from
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Professor Sir Charles Oman an Oxford professor of history in the late 19th century very early 20th
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century so all of his histories doesn't suffer from any sort of wokeness or any sort of silly
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revisionism and Sir Winston Churchill's history of the English-speaking people because we get
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slightly more detail there and the prose is very good so okay let me read start reading to you
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again then from Omar who wrote this Wolsey's disgrace and the complete failure of the attempt
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to win a divorce from the Pope had been leading the king into new paths he had taken to himself
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two new counsellors in secular matters including everything to do with the law he gave his
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confidence to Thomas Cromwell a clever low-born adventurer whom Wolsey had discovered and brought
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to court. So if you remember I've said you can look back through the back catalogue of Epochs
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and find an episode or two of me in conversation with the great Luca Johnson talking all about
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just Thomas Cromwell and how he was in the first instance a creature of Wolsey. He was Wolsey's
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right-hand man in some ways. So you might think many people have thought all through centuries
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that's a bit of an odd decision isn't it that he doesn't henry doesn't make thomas cronwell
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chancellor or anything not yet uh but he uses him as his sort of his right hand uh quite quickly
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and you might think well wouldn't he want anyone and anything connected to wolsey to be in complete
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disgrace and completely out of court and never sort of grace his doorstep ever again particularly
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someone like thomas cronwell who is he really was wolsey's right hand man so he's just adopted him
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everyone says or everyone knows really that the reason for that is is that Thomas Cromwell was
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just very very very capable right there's just some people aren't there where they're just good
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at their job sort of undeniably brilliant at their job and Thomas Cromwell was one of those people
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he was very worldly he traveled a lot he traveled all over Europe he'd been to Italy and knew bankers
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and things in Italy he knew the business of statescraft right he knew the law he knew the
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law inside out he knew religion inside out and he was the type of religion stripe of religion
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which was exactly what henry wanted i.e not really a fan of rome and the pope but not a full-blown
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dyed-in-the-wool die-hard lutheran though who's prepared to be burnt alive for for the sake of it
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for for virtue signaling so in other words he's exactly the type of kind of semi-proto-protestant
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Henry needed and Thomas Cromwell being low-born was more than happy to work for the king I mean
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you know if you're if you're a low-born person it's the greatest thing you could hope for really
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in in those days is to be at court working for the king directly let alone actually talking to
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the king let alone actually having an audience with the king regularly being one of his if not
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his actual closest advisor so of course Thomas Cromwell who was an ambitious person very very
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clever and ambitious person well Oman there calls him an adventurer he prepared to risk everything
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all the time not a shrinking violet right and on top of all of that just just a capable man
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you set him a task and he'll get it done you know like a fixer he can handle other men other
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powerful dangerous men he can handle them he can manage them that's exactly the sort of minister
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you want right the last thing you want in a minister is someone that's just weak weak-willed
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weak-wristed slow of mind and action no no you want the opposite of that you want someone you
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can just give them instructions and leave them to it and lo and behold it happens your will is done
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that's exactly what henry liked and wanted and he found he found the right man thomas cromwell
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fascinating person. Omar goes on saying, in matters religious, he, Henry, was beginning to
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listen to his chaplain, his personal chaplain, Thomas Cramner. Now, I've also said how I intend
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to do a whole episode just about Thomas Cramner. I've been thinking about it for a long, long time.
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I nearly did a conversation with Calvin Robinson all about that a couple of years ago. It never
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happened. It fell through. But I've been meaning to do a long form bit of content just talking
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about Cranmer because he's extremely interesting person as well and I think I mentioned last time
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that his life and his career goes on beyond Henry VIII one of the few that survived it all
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Thomas Cranmer so now in various ways we'll get to Thomas more in a moment but Henry's two new
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sort of most senior ministers are Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cranmer and Thomas
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Cromwell got on well together again they saw religion in basically the same way and that they
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were able to work together. And that's something else Henry wanted. He was sick of sort of division
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at court, where loads of people had hated Wolsey for years and years and years. There was all sort
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of infighting and factional divisions. At least he could, in Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cramner,
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he could have two guys that would work together, pull together in the same direction at the same
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time. So that suited Henry as well. All right, his personal chaplain, Thomas Cramner, a man with a
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mixture of piety and weakness. Yeah, out of the two, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell
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was the senior one, if you like. Cromwell would sort of go along with what Thomas Cromwell and
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Henry said very much more. One of the few Englishmen, Thomas Cromwell this is, who had as yet
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been touched by the doctrines of the continental reformers. It was not, however, as a reformer that
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Cromwell commended himself to his master. Indeed, he kept his Lutheran opinions very secret, which
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was prudent at the moment because Henry hasn't made it explicitly clear that that's the way
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he's going to go. So Crabner keeping his powder dryer for now. He had suggested to the king a new
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method of dealing with the divorce question which Henry considered not unpromising. It might be
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urged that marriage with a deceased brother's wife was so strictly and definitely forbidden
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in the scriptures that the Pope had no authority to sanction it. And so the permissory bull of
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Julius II might be scouted as so much waste paper. If you remember that papal bull he got in the
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first instance in order to marry Catherine of Aragon years ago when his older brother Arthur
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had died of natural causes, where the Pope said, it's okay, I give you my blessing to marry her.
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Now Cram was saying, well, that was always nonsense. That doesn't count though, because
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even the Pope can't make that sort of decision. I mean, you know, a bit weird that it's 20 years
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later though. They've been married and had children, or a child at least, multiple pregnancies
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and one surviving child. Henry eagerly swallowed this idea and sent round the question, stated as
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a moot point to all the universities of Europe. About half of them answered, as he wished, that
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the marriage was illegal from the first. Armed with this authority, he resolved to go further.
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But first Henry was resolved to show the English clergy
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That he was determined to stand no opposition from them on this point
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He opened a campaign against all manner of church abuses
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With the object of winning for himself popularity with the nation
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By the cheap expedient of a pretended zeal for purity and piety
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Among some people, actually quite a lot of people
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the church the catholic church was quite unpopular and had been for a few centuries
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not the gospels not the scriptures let's be clear about this not christianity itself as a concept
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but the church the ecclesiastical hierarchy popes and bishops that were just corrupt and venal
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money grabbing sex criminals even a lot of people hadn't been happy about that for centuries so
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if Henry cracks down on them a bit as as Omar says here a pretended zeal for purity and piety
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people a lot of people are actually going to like that in the early 16th century. Omar goes on he
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told the convocation of the clergy that they had all made themselves liable to the penalties
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of pré-ménur that is basically the church trying to have authority above the crown
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For recognising Wolsey as legate without the royal leave
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They only got pardon by voting the king a large fine of £118,000
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Which is obviously a large fortune in those days
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Quote, supreme head as far as the law of Christ will allow
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in fact quite a way down the road of repudiating the Pope saying that look the highest religious
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authority in the world is not the Pope it's me what I say in this country goes okay if me and
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the Pope disagree you go with me that's what he's saying okay then that is kind of new well it is
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new for England you can have your religion and you can be Catholic and you can insist on Latin mass
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Haven't we that going back to sort of the 13th century
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Trying to be the highest authority in the world
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Whether it's the papal diadem or the secular crown
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Convocation was also forced to submit to an act of parliament
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The right to claim, quote, benefit of clergy, quote
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That is, that there used to be different courts for clergymen
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If it was a vicar or a dean or a bishop or something
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Again, it's been something that's been argued about
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instead of in full proprietorship money and land that the church can't necessarily just own money
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and land forever you know it's given to them at some point they bought it at some point and that's
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it that's the end of the story for all time they own it now not so much you can hold it in trust
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maybe from the king but you haven't necessarily got a freehold forever and ever okay oh my god
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the pope still proving recalcitrant in the matter of the divorce i.e not giving henry his divorce
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Henry took the further step of threatening to cut off the main contribution which England sent to
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Rome, the annati or first fruits, paid by all benefices when they changed hands. A type of
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religious tax. Henry was saying, no, we're not sending all that money to Rome anymore, just as
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a matter of course, for nothing, effectively. No, no, no. Again, that's done, that's over. This menace
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did not bring Clement VII to reason, i.e. giving Henry his divorce. Henry at last took the step
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He appointed the pliant Archbishop of Canterbury
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Queen Catherine refused to appear before such a tribunal
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And formally appealed to the Pope's justice
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Declared the marriage contrary to the law of God
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And pronounced the king free from all his tyres
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might be doomed to hell and things if the church excommunicates the whole country you can never go
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to heaven things like that you know very very serious anyone says even before the decision
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was announced henry has secretly married anne boleyn in january 1533 and the moment that the
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court had given judgment he presented her to the nation as queen of england the unhappy catherine
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retired into privacy at Kim Bolton where she survived nearly three years. She pined away,
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never had great health. She basically pined away and died. The Pope at once declared the new
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marriage illegal and threatened Henry with an excommunication. Many good men were scandalized
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to see the King repudiate a wife who had lived as his faithful spouse for 20 years.
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Murmurings and prophecies of ill filled the air and Henry felt that trouble was brewing.
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but he only hardened his heart and caused parliament to pass a bill for cutting short
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the pope's spiritual authority over england unless he should acknowledge the validity of
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the new marriage within three months clement refused to be bullied into compliance and the
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rupture came later that's later in 1533 so again it gives you the idea of how henry just won't put
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up with anyone standing against him right even the pope even a thousand years of catholic tradition
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where there's still no boy on the on the scene that Elizabeth is the rightful heir to the throne
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not Mary completely disinheriting Mary right okay this oath many persons refused to take
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since it openly disavowed the Pope's authority over the English church the chief of them was
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Sir Thomas More a learned and virtuous statesman who had succeeded Wolsey as chancellor again
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we've got I've got content with Luca again talking just all about Thomas More and how even
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though Thomas Cromwell had been made sort of Henry's political right-hand man the actual
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chancellorship a sort of the formal something like a prime minister it's not prime minister
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but something like that had gone to Thomas More now that was a strange choice everyone's noted
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that's a very strange choice of Henry to do that because everyone knew everyone knew that Thomas
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Moore was a staunch Catholic a 100% Catholic was never he hated Luther hated Luther with a passion
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would have burnt Luther alive if he could have done was never going to accept all these spurious
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and shaky reasons why Henry had divorced or had his marriage annulled to Catherine of Aragon he
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was never going to accept that but Henry would have needed his chancellor to accept that of course
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Thomas More was extremely famous in his own right
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It was a strange pick to make him the Chancellor
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But many have thought, it's almost certainly true
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Look, even the great Thomas More has given in to me
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So if Thomas More, one of the hardest hardliners you can imagine
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If he's gone along with me, nobody else has got a leg to stand on
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That was almost certainly the thinking, the calculation from Henry
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It was a problem though, because when push came to shove
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You know, renouncing the authority of the Pope in England
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Well, they're in a spot of bother, aren't they?
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was Sir Thomas More, the learned and virtuous statesman who had succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor
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and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Henry cast them into prison and soon after causing Parliament to
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pass the Act of Supremacy, this is like the formal parliamentary act, which declared him quote
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Supreme Head of the Church of England and a treason act pronouncing anyone who denied him this title
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Is he going to let Thomas More get away with it?
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Make him go and live in France or Italy or something
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Alright, I'll let you merely have your head cut off
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Now caused a bull to be drawn up against his enemy
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He not only pronounced King Henry an excommunicated person
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It was now war to the knife between King and the papacy
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And the rest of Henry's reign was to be taken up with the struggle
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He spent all his energies in severing every link that still bound England to Rome
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But also, Popes don't take that sort of thing lightly, do they?
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He doesn't try and make a deal the way King John did
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I didn't even necessarily want to be a Lutheran
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when I was younger I wrote a book repudiating Luther and if it wasn't for my the the fact that
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I haven't got any sons and I need to get remarried if it wasn't for any of that probably wouldn't be
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doing this but oh but now you've defied me all right okay so I'm just going to double down and
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double down and keep doubling down that's who Henry is we hope you enjoyed that video and if
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you did please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video