Henry VIII

Chapter II

Reading edition

PRINCE HENRY AND HIS ENVIRONMENT.

The honor of England I learned to spell, I gave him drink of the sugred well Of Helicon's waters crystalline, Acquainting him with the Muses nine.

The problems of Henry VIII.'s reign can indeed only be solved by realising the misrule of the preceding century, the failure of parliamentary government, and the strength of the popular demand for a firm and masterful hand. It is a modern myth that Englishmen have always been consumed with enthusiasm for parliamentary government and with a thirst for a parliamentary vote. The interpretation of history, like that of the Scriptures, varies from age to age; and present political theories colour our views of the past. The political development of the nineteenth century created a parliamentary legend; and civil and religious liberty became the inseparable stage properties of the Englishman. Whenever he appeared on the boards, he was made to declaim about the rights of the subject and the privileges of Parliament. It was assumed that the desire for a voice in the management of his own affairs had at all times and all seasons been the mainspring of his actions; and so the story of Henry's rule was made into a political mystery. In reality, love of freedom has not always been, nor will it always remain, the predominant note in the English mind. At times the English people have pursued it through battle and murder with grim determination, but other times have seen other ideals. On occasion the demand has been for strong government irrespective of its methods, and good government has been preferred to self-government. Wars of expansion and wars of defence have often cooled the love of liberty and impaired the faith in parliaments; and generally English ideals have been strictly subordinated to a passion for material prosperity.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · The Prince, who now succeeded to the position of heir-apparent, was nearly five years younger than his brother. The third child and second s Note 2 · The accumulation of these great offices of State, any one of which might have taxed the powers of a tried administrator, in the feeble hands Note 3 · But thoughts of the coercion of Ireland and conciliation of Yorkists were as yet far from the mind of the child, round whose person these me Note 4 · The coarseness of Skelton's satires and his open disregard of the clerical vows of chastity may justify some doubt of the value of the poet'Note 5 · Nor were the arts neglected, and in his early years Henry acquired a passionate and lifelong devotion to music. Even as Duke of York he had Note 6 · In April, 1502, at the age of ten, Henry became the heir-apparent to the English throne. He succeeded at once to the dukedom of Cornwall, bu Note 7 · Immediately on receiving the news, and two days before they dated their letter of condolence to Henry VII., Ferdinand and Isabella commissio Note 8 · The papal dispensation arrived in time to solace Isabella on her death-bed in November, 1504; but that event once more involved in doubt the Note 9 · The twenty-four years during which Henry VII. had guided the destinies of England were a momentous epoch in the development of Western civil Note 10 · Parallel with these developments in the relations between one State and another marched a no less momentous revolution in the domestic posit Note 11 · Nowhere was the king more emphatically the saviour of society than in England. The sixty years of Lancastrian rule were in the seventeenth c Note 12 · Never was this more apparent than under the Tudors. The parliamentary experiment of the Lancastrians was premature and had failed. Parliamen Note 13 · Such were the tendencies which Henry VII. and Henry VIII. crystallised into practical weapons of absolute government. Few kings have attaine Note 14 · To the office of king thus developed and magnified, the young Prince who stood upon the steps of the throne brought personal qualities of th Note 15 · The change from the cold suspicious Henry VII. to such a king as this was inevitably greeted with a burst of rapturous enthusiasm. "I have n