Original subtitles

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on the 19th of May 1536 at the Tower of

London and Berlin Queen of England

mounted the scaffold her last words were

about King Henry the eighth's the

husband who had had her condemned to

death on trumped-up charges of adultery

and incest under such circumstances what

he said was extraordinary

I cried mercy to God and to the king and

I begged the people to pray for the king

for he is a good gentle gracious and

amiable prince

once indeed Henry had been gracious and

gentle but his steely determination to

divorce his first wife and to Mary Ann

who can herself had encouraged and

inspired of coercing and brutalized and

had helped to create a new Henry who

would change England forever now she was

to be one of his first victims

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the story of Henry the eighth's and Anne

Boleyn is one of the great tragic love

stories of all time but it's also rather

strange it's a story of a king who would

risk everything is thrown his kingdom

his immortal soul to marry the woman

that he loved only defender to the

scaffold a mere three years later

everyone involved from Henry's councils

to foreign ambassadors was surprised at

all above all puzzled by events but this

was an affair which turned Henry from

affable the pre gettable King and as she

achieved very little into the tyrannical

figure who we shaped a nation and

imprinted himself in Elodie on the pages

of history but behind this extraordinary

transformation is the all-too-human

story of a man changed and walked by a

passionate love affair and a bitter

divorce I promise take you as my sole

mistress I shall find a thousand to

declare the marriage go I need this

folio

this and that so perverted Emily does

not senior sayin

here in the bottle in librarian Oxford

is an insider account by someone who was

witnessed to the beginning of the whole

affair his name was George Cavendish and

he was a personal attendant on Henry's

leading minister Cardinal Wolsey in his

life of Wolsey Cavendish describes Henry

secret infatuation with wall of his wife

Catherine's ladies-in-waiting Anne

Boleyn her excellent gesture and

behaviour did excel all other in so much

as the King began to Kindle the brand of

the Moors which was not known to any

person and they scantly to her own

person but Henry didn't keep his secret

to himself for long the person that he

told however wasn't an what Wolsey his

trusted minister friend and confidant

Henry had discovered that he got a rival

to Ann Berlin's affections young Lord

Percy the heir to the great Oldham of

Northumberland and Henry wanted him out

of the way not Percy would resort for

his pastime and the Queen's Chamber and

there would fall in dalliance among the

Queen's maidens being most conversant

with mistress and Berlin so that they

grew such a secret love between them

that at length they were insured

together intending to marry the witch

thing came to the Kings knowledge who

was then much offended wherefore he

revealed his secret affection and my

lord Cardinal and consulted with him to

infringe the pre contract between them

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we'll see it was all in a day's work

Cardinal priest though he was he had a

long-term mistress of his own and an

acknowledged son by her Henry had had

mistresses - including Anne's own sister

none of them had mattered much and

they'd been married off to convenient

quarters as soon as Henry tired of them

why Wolsey must have thought should Anne

be any more significant but for once the

Cardinal miscalculated and was different

compared to most women of the court

Anne was unusually well educated

this is Hever Castle in Kent her family

seat today it houses a fine collection

of Tudor portraits including this one of

Anne herself but I wasn't brought up

here in England instead her father sent

her abroad - a succession of continental

royal households to learn the poised

Polish and easy command the French that

ensured she stood out on her return to

the English Court at the age of 20

Anne was also highly intelligent and

pious this is her book of ours and

during her time abroad she been

introduced to the movement for religious

reform which sought to renew

Christianity by return to its sources in

Scripture Henry liked the company of

intelligent people one of his closest

friends with England's leading

intellectual Thomas More the king would

have me and his private rum

and there sometime in matters of

astronomy geometry divinity and other

such faculties and sometime in his

worldly affairs to sit and confer with

him sometime we would climb up onto the

roof there to consider with him the

diversities courses notions and

operations of the Stars and the planets

but if Henry and more were receptive to

new trends in the Arts and Sciences they

took a very different attitude to the

new religious ideas being advanced by

Martin Luther and his followers on the

continent Luther pointed out that the

Bible contained no mention of the Pope

he questioned the legitimacy of the

papacy

Henry was appalled with Moore's help

pirogue this the first book by an

English king since Alfred the Great in

the assertive September Cremant or Henry

marshaled his considerable theological

expertise to mount a powerful

counter-attack on Martin Luther for the

assertive Henry was entitled defender of

the faith by a grateful Pope so Henry

and Anne were well matched both were

intelligent well-educated polished and

fascinated by theological argument

though here Henry's case was

conservative as Anne's would have proved

to be reformist but at this point

Henry was more interested in Ann's body

than her mind and to get that Percy had

to be got out of the way which was

wolves his job Wolsey as Cavendish

reports subjected the young man to a

brutal semi-public dressing-down

I won by Lawson little at my peevish

follow but thou would tangle and ensure

amble in that foolish girl of the court

thus thou not consider the state that

God had called you unto in this world

for after the death of thy noble father

are most like to enhance and possess one

of them were these albums of this realm

and now behold what you have done

through your wills you have not only

offended your natural father but also

your most gracious sovereign Lord their

king

poor Percy burst into tears and his

resistance broken was quickly married

off to another heiress but what a pan

and it seems certain had been really in

love with Percy and as cavendish report

she failed her revenge on Wolsey prison

messy

he would ever lay in her power she would

work with Cardinal as much displeasure

as he had her Wolsey had made an enemy

just how dangerous he could not have

imagined

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or the 18th of May

15:27 the new Spanish ambassador in

London made a sensation coded report to

the Emperor Charles v a nephew of

Henry's Queen Catherine of Aragon a king

has secretly assembled certain bishops

and lawyers that they may sign a

declaration to the effect that his

marriage to the Queen is null and void

on account of her having been his

brother's wife the Ambassador was well

informed the day before

Henry's minister Cardinal Wolsey had

indeed convened a secret trial at his

London Palace its aim was to dissolve

Henry's 18 year old marriage to

Katherine of Arab could cling quietly

and with minimum fuss the Spanish

ambassador believed the secret trial to

be Wilson's work but I doubt if that's

right in all the rules is the Luminess

papers there's no trace of any

preparation for the case instead it was

Henry himself who picked and briefed the

leading lawyer to the tribunal the case

he presented to Wolsey was based on a

single verse from the Bible taken from

the Book of Leviticus and if a man shall

take his brother's wife it is an unclean

thing he had uncovered his brother's

nakedness

they shall be childless Henry of course

had taken his brother's wife Catherine

had originally been married to Henry's

elder brother Arthur who was then heir

to the throne but Arthur died soon after

the marriage and Catherine would quickly

betrothed to Henry instead their union

had the blessing of the Pope would

issued special dispensation which stated

that in this case Leviticus

did not apply but in it 20 years later

Catherine and Henry had failed to

produce a son this Henry's hand-picked

lawyer argued was proof that the Kings

marriage was offensive to God the Pope

had been wrong to allow it the only

remedy was to end it immediately then

Wolsey dropped a bombshell instead of

deciding to the King as Henry expected

and Catherine feared was it allows the

case too difficult for summary judgment

and adjourn the court to enable him to

consult expert opinion the delay was

fatal there was now no question of

keeping the divorce under wraps or a

settling it in England instead then the

full glare of European publicity would

have to be referred to Rome

what allsey did not know was that Rome

was under attack by the mutinous army of

the emperor charles v charles was

fighting french and their papal ally for

control of italy and he was winning but

he admitted to pay his mercenary troops

and so they decided to pay themselves by

looting rome the sack of Rome was a

violent brutal affair and Pope Clement

was forced to flee with very life along

the heavily fortified elevated walkway

that still connects the Vatican to the

almost impregnable papal fortress of

Castel Sant'Angelo

here

Pope Clement now found himself a virtual

prisoner Charlesworth it who was not

above taking advantage of his armies pad

behavior by referring the case to Rome

Wolsey had unwittingly made Henry's

divorce a form of European power

politics he was decided not so much by

the Pope as by whoever had the upper

hand in Italy for the moment that was

the emperor charles v and he was

Catherine's nephew

there was another difficulty when Wolsey

wrote this letter to Pope Clement he

presented the case as a master of the

Kings conscientious scruples

they have already told you how the King

partly by assiduous learning and study

and policy by conference with

theologians has found his conscience

somewhat burdened by his present

marriage he considers it will be

offensive to God and man were he to

persist in it

you

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but at some point the Vatican got hold

of documents which told a very different

story private letters written by Henry

to amble in these the so called Vatican

letters are the most explosive royal

correspondence in English history so

they prove that the origins of the

divorce lay not in Henry's conscience

but in his desire for Anne Boleyn but

Anne wasn't good healed easily in this

letter

Henry pleads with her to have him and

become his official eye knowledge

mistress what the French who have a word

for this kind of thing call make less on

people I beseech you now with all my

heart

definitely to let me know your whole -

to the love between us the necessity

compels me to play you for reply having

been for more than a year now struck by

the dart of love and being uncertain

idea of failure or finding a place in

your heart and affection

but if it pleases you to do the duty of

a true loyal mistress and friend and to

give yourself body and heart to me I

promise to take you as my soul mistress

casting off all others out of mind and

affection to serve you only those girls

would have left at the offer but not ham

she was playing the higher stakes

Henry unused to the word no only found

that her resistance inflamed his passion

all the more finally he made the

ultimate offer his unchangeable

intention he vowed was out elique out

Lily be if not this then nothing for

this I am convinced can only be married

and to make sure that the issue of a

union was legitimate Henry further

pledged himself to abstain from sex with

AB until the lot was tied

henceforward my heart shall be dedicated

to you alone where the strong desire

that my body could be also that

dedicated which God can do as he pleases

written by the hand of he who in heart

body and well is your soil and most

assured servant h-6

baby

no other Tenma's promise was walls his

problem-free knew his political life

depended on getting the Kings the

divorce he needed to marry Anne he now

struggled desperately to get control of

the divorce proceedings back into his

own hands in England

Cavendish witnessed the frantic effort

is master put into one crucial deck he

rose early in the morning about four of

the clock sitting and write letters into

England under the king and to the floor

of the clock at afternoon all which

season my lord never rose once to piss

nay yet to eat any meat but continually

wrote his letters with his own hand

having all that time his nightcap and

kerchief on his head was easkey was to

persuade clement issue our so-called

dakuten commission by which the pope

granted Wolsey irrevocably power to try

the divorce in england clement resisted

doggedness was his agents pressed him

furiously

but then circumstances here in Italy

began to change in England's favor in

December

15:27 Clement escaped for the Castel

Sant'Angelo disguised as a god and fled

to the papal stronghold of Orvieto

and soon the French began advancing to

victory after victory in Italy

emboldened by the swing of the balance

of power against Catherine's nephew

Charles v Clement at last issued the

decree ttle commissioned but there was a

catch

it wasn't granted to Wolsey alone but

jointly to another special papal legate

or envoi Cardinal campeggio campeggio

wrecked by gout began a slow journey

across Europe to England followed

impatiently by Henry and Anne in their

correspondence the reasonable request of

your last letter causes me to send you

now these news the leggett which we most

desired arrived at Paris on Sunday so

that I trust by next Monday to hear of

his arrival at Calais and then I trust

within a while after to enjoy that which

I have so long longed for to God's

pleasure an hour both comfort too late

in 1528 after nearly six months travel

camp a Jew finally arrived in London on

the 22nd of October campeggio

accompanied by Wolsey was formally

received at court and Henry broke with

protocol by coming to the foot of the

staircase to greet them first there was

a grand public ceremony in which Charles

of this was denounced as a tyrant of a

common enemy of the Pope and Christendom

then the king accompanied by the two

Cardinals retard upstairs to the privy

chamber where they remain closeted for

several hours the pre-trial negotiations

had begun

they dragged on for months compared jobs

kept postponing meetings complaining

bitterly of the gout meanwhile an exiled

the distances safe to the country is

beginning to smell the rat worse

campeggio the decreto Commission really

the solution or just another device by

which the Pope was buying time there

were also worrying developments in Italy

itself where the armies of the emperor

charles v once more had the upper hand

what campeggio turn out to be imperial -

that is in the pocket of charles v would

the pope henry on the other hand trusted

in walls assurances and campeggio 'he's

goodwill just to make sure he'd already

dangled the valuable bishopric of durham

in front of the leg 8 as an enormous

bribe he went to calm and fears about

campeggio I assure you the unfeigned

thickness of this well winning leg it

does somewhat retard his access to your

presence but I trust verily when God

shall send him out he will with

diligence recompense his demure for I

know well where he had said lamenting

the saying and brute that he should be

Imperial that would be well known in

this matter that he is not Imperial and

US for lack of time sweetheart farewell

written by the hand which fain would be

yours and so is the heart

but was Henry's confidence misplaced who

would prove to have the better grasp of

papal politics the king and the King's

mistress his attempt to divorce

Catherine of Aragon who was by now these

handle of Europe and nowhere were events

being followed more closely than at the

imperial court the emperor charles v was

as Catherine's nephew and her closest

living male relations himself a leading

party to the affair

causes information came in the form

regular included dispatches from his

ambassador's to Henry's Court these

dispatches still exist in the archives

here in Vienna the former capital of

Habsburg Empire that Charles founded in

August 15 29 and new Imperial ambassador

arrived in London mr. shepley was a

lawyer from Savoy am a weakened

intelligent he quickly established

remarkably close relationships with

booth King Henry and Queen Catherine

ship we had arrived in England at a

critical moment a month before the trial

of Henry's divorce which the kingdom

fault was in the bag had collapsed

Catherine had been a far more compelling

witness than Henry whilst compared you

proving himself to be imperialist at

last had in effect adjourned the trial

back to Rome after two years and a vast

expenditure of money effort and

political capital henry was back to

square one and was still married who

deeply reluctantly to Catherine the Lord

failed him it was time to try a fresh

tack theology and ship we was the first

to get wind of the new approach cheap

weed was witness to a painful quarrel

one day at dinner when Catherine accused

the king neglect the king said that it

was impossible to visit the Queen's

apartment because he was not her husband

he had consulted learn 'add opinion and

there was agreement that the marriage

was invalid he will he said collect the

evidence and send it to Clement if the

Pope does not in conformity with these

opinions declare our marriage null and

void then I will denounce the Pope as a

heretic and marry whom I please but

Catherine would fight theology theology

for each doctor and lawyer who might

decide in your favor against

me I shall find a thousand to declare

the marriage good I didn't know noble

but if Henry were to try a new approach

to the divorce where would that leave

the man who was so closely identified

with the old walls he was his job as

minister was to do what Henry wanted for

the first time he'd failed there was

also a ship we was quick to discover and

Berlin's old grudge against Wolsey and a

new power to give it his SEC the Kings

affection for a Berlin increases daily

if the said Lady Anne his concubine

chooses the Cardinal will soon be

dismissed in his affair settled but she

happens to be the person in all his

kingdom he hates him most and has spoken

and acted most against him

[Music]

for nearly two decades Wolsey had

managed all Henry's affairs the king

called him friend a much stronger word

vendôme now despite the failure of

waters divorce strategy the Cardinal

still had influence over Henry if he

could get to see him but four long weeks

after the collapse of the divorce trial

Wolsey was banished from the court

whilst Henry and Anne enjoyed the

pleasures of the chase during an

extended hunting progress finally in

September 1529 rules II received his

invitation to court Nets were placed

amongst the courtiers but the king who

refused to speak to him instead ruled

his old magic seemed to work and Henry

was in a forgiving mood then came the

king into the chamber and standing there

under the cloth of a state My Lord

kneeled down before him then the King

took my lord out by both arms and caused

him to stand up and received him with

his amiable a cheer as ever he did then

to behold the countenance of those that

made their way to the contrary it would

have made you to smile but then the king

went to dinner with Anne the King dying

that same day with mistress Anne Burrell

in inner chamber who kept their estate

more like a queen than a simple maid and

as I heard it reported by them that

waited upon the King mistress Anne

Boleyn was much offended with the King

that he had so gently entertained my

lord saying what things that he wrote to

your great slander and Isana

there is never a nobleman within this

realm that if he had done but half of

what he had done he were well worthy to

lose his head

why then I perceive close the king ye

are not the Cardinals friend

and so entered their communication now

you may perceive the old malice

beginneth to break out who would prevail

the minister or the mistress the next

day Henry and wolves we met again and

their conversation was never concluded

instead

Henry was summoned to go hunting with an

the King had made his choice

Weasley never saw Henry again within

days he was stripped of office and

little more than a year later the

Cardinal was dying on his deathbed the

King's Minister reflected on the

character of the man he served so long

Henry is saw a royal prince and has a

princely heart and rather than missile

want any part of his will and appetite

he will put the loss of one half of his

realm in danger for I assure you I have

often kneeled before him in his privy

chamber on my knees a space of an hour

or two to persuade him from his will and

appetite but I have never brought to

pass to dissuade him there from there

for mr. Kingston if it chance hereafter

you to be one of his Privy Council I

warn you to be well advised what matter

you put in his head for you shall never

pull it out again

when was the gong good Woolsey's other

master the Pope before behind ship we

like many other intelligent observers on

both sides of the question

it could have seemed that the logic of

henry's dilemma could easily force him

to renounce the authority of the Pope

after all

immediately after campeggio to adjourn

the divorce trial the Duke of Suffolk

Henry's brother-in-law and boon

companion and struck the table and

exclaimed that there was never yet

Leggett or Cardinal that did good in

England I need scarcely observed that if

these sentiments of the Duke gained

ground with the king and the people of

this country there will be a door wide

open for the Lutheran's heresy to creep

into England I firmly believed if they

had not interfered with the Pope's

excommunication and malediction there

would be innumerable people in this

country would follow the Dukes advice

and make the King an ordinary planets so

many Pope's

and should we report it Henry himself

seemed increasingly unworried

by the threat of excommunication even if

his holiness to do his worse by

excommunicating me and so forth I shall

not mind it if I care not a fig for all

his excommunications

let him follow his own at Rome I will do

here what I think Beth

once Herod assembled the team of

scholars like Thomas More to help him

defend papal power in his book the

assert now a similar effort was mounted

once again this time to question the

Pope's Authority the evidence for that

effort can still be found here in the

British Library we can see Henry's

method in this book the collect a Nia

satis cocasa which can be loosely

translated as the collection that says

it all

it's a compendium assembled for Henry in

1530 and drawn for a wide range of

sources English history and a Saxon law

and the Old Testament but they all add

up to make the case however tendentious

Lee that the Pope's rule over the

English church was a usurpation of what

have once been an independent

self-governing National Church

Henry went through the colleague tenure

with enormous care

it has over 40 marginal notes in his own

hand by the time he'd finished he'd

convinced himself that the Pope in Rome

had no legitimate authority in England

instead it was Henry as king who was

rightful head of the English church now

as touching schism we are informed by

virtuous and learned men that

considering what the Church of Rome is

there's no schism to separate from it

and adhere to the words of God the lives

of Christ and the Pope are very opposite

therefore to follow the Pope they to

forsake Christ Henry the theologian an

amateur scholar that convinced himself

now Henry the politician had to persuade

others this book the glass of the truth

published by the Kings printer in 1531

was part of a sustained propaganda

campaign by which Henry sought to

persuade the English people that they

should reject any foreign jurisdiction

whether Emperor or in particular of the

Pope it was the birth of English euro

skepticism the King's take over the

church framed as an assertion of

national sovereignty and by and large it

worked

[Music]

the next year Henry's new minister

Thomas Cromwell a former protege of

Wolsey was stepped into his dead master

shoes steered legislation through

Parliament that forbade all appeals to

the Pope

making the King in effect the final

religious authority in England now

confident that robe could no longer run

do anything decided in an English Court

Henry

instructed his hand-picked Archbishop of

Canterbury Thomas Cranmer to make a

third trial of his marriage

the result was truly a foregone

conclusion since by the time the Cranmer

got round to declaring Henry's marriage

to Catherine of Aragon invalid

Henry had already married Anne Boleyn in

secret and probably twice over just to

make sure

[Music]

this at the final open breach with RO

and it marks the water shake in Henry's

ray and England's history four thousand

years while Kings that rule their

subjects bodies oops

the rule their souls now Henry

claimed authority over both with new

legislation which explicitly made the

King supreme head of the church in

England Henry rose to a pinnacle of

power unprecedented in Christendom a

power which none of his subjects would

be permitted to question her even to

doubt all and now to swear an oath to

uphold the royal supremacy and it was

treason to refuse to do so well so ever

any such cankered malice shall I the

chance to break out or any to be accused

thereof His Highness would have the same

tried and thoroughly pursued with his

great dexterity and as little favor as

their demerits should require numa's he

will show not even the Henry's old

friend Thomas More the act of parliament

is like a sword with two edges

forever man answer one way will confound

his soul and if he answered the other

way it will confound his body more

refuse to accept the supremacy he kept

his soul but it cost him his head there

the king is by nature kind and

generously inclined this and has so

perverted him that he does not seem the

same man Henry had come a long way from

the assert you and his old friends skid

embarked on the journey out of luck

an the determination to marry her at

first he thought it would be relatively

easy to get what he wanted Catherines

resistance and Rome's reluctance

steadily raised the stakes until the

most fundamental questions of church and

state were involved few of Henry's

family and friends were prepared to

follow like more the parting of the ways

was a matter of conscience and profound

regret but for Henry it was treason and

equally outraged with on hand to fanned

the flames of his resentment and turn

him like an eel steal into something

harder colder and more beautiful than

before at last king henry was married to

Anne Boleyn the woman he'd fallen in

love with six long frustrating years

before and the marriage free in Henry's

eyes at least from the taint of incest

which had damned his first Union would

he fervently believed quickly produce a

son and heir so when ambassador shap we

was bold enough to tell him to his face

that he couldn't even be sure children

let alone a son Henry reacted with

passion am I not a man like any other

am I not a man a man like any other here

indeed was the

man behind the king the King longed for

a son

the man was even more desperate to prove

his continued virility now it rested on

an don al alone to satisfy both King and

a man but sure pre was proved right

Anson gave birth but to a girl Elizabeth

a second pregnancy ended in miscarriage

Henry's order stoked by long years of

denial quickly cooled some courtiers

tell me the further three in our salon

his King has not spoken 10 times to his

concubine so when the news of Emma's

character is brought in he only observed

I see God will not give me male children

[Music]

it wasn't very long since Catherine's

failure to produce a male heir and been

cited by Henry and Anne has proved

positive that Henry's first marriage was

displeasing to God now and own failure

leading Henry to draw the same

conclusion about his second marriage I

[Music]

have been told with the King in great

confidence and as it were in

confessional stated that he had made

this latest marriage seduced by

witchcraft and for this reason he

considered it now this was evident

because God did not commit him to have

any male issue and he believed he might

take another wife

the ground was shifting beneath Alma's

feet in March 1536 ship we first picked

up rumors of a quarrel between an the

king's leading advisor Thomas Cromwell

ship we who hated Anne as whore and a

heretic with eager to widen the breach

strike first or be struck he warned the

minister reminding him that it was Anne

who destroyed his old master Cardinal

Wolsey I begged him to guard against her

attacks more effectually than the

Cardinal done Cromwell seems to take my

word in good part he began to excuse

himself having promoted the Kings

marriage to Anne true it was he said

that seeing the king was so set upon it

he had paved the way towards although

the king's master was still inclined to

pay court to ladies yet it was generally

believed that in future he would lead a

more moral life than he led to a chaste

marital one with his present Queen this

Cromwell said to me in such a cold an

indifferent manner that I had a strong

suspicion that he meant just the

contrary indeed I observe what he said

it not may wot me end to put on he leant

against the window close to where we

were both standing and put his hand to

his mouth to prevent a smile on his lip

[Music]

cron would see how losses failure to end

the Kings first marriage had led to his

downfall

now if Henry wanted an end to his second

krama would make sure that he got what

he wanted and this time there will be no

long drawn-out legal struggle blood had

been spilled to make pearls marry blood

will be spilled to unbilled at the

beginning of May

Cromwell pounced mark Smeaton the court

musician who been rash enough to flirt

publicly with Anne was arrested and

brutally questioned

under torture sweeten confessed no doubt

falsely to adultery with the Queen a

wave of arrests fall and her brother

than three gentlemen of her circle the

charges of multiple adultery incest

sexual perversion and plotting the

King's death strange community but in an

atmosphere of moral panic and hysteria

all were found guilty among those

sitting judgment on Anne was her old

flame Henry Percy now Earl of

Northumberland Percy pronounced her

guilty along with the rest of her peers

and the effort of doing so caused him to

be physically sick

you

and what of Henry and it was claimed it

repeatedly cuckolded him with all the

sundry and his sexual prowess had been

mocked in open court most men would have

been shamed not Henry the King has been

heard to say that he believes that

upward of a hundred gentlemen have had

criminal connection with her you never

saw her prints eyes husband wear his

horns more patiently and lightly than

this one does I leave you to give the

cause of it here at the Walker Art

Gallery in Liverpool is the best

portrait of the man who so perplexed

shap we and us the original was painted

by hands Holbein in 1537 some 12 months

after Anne's

execution four year before Henry had

fallen heavily from his horse in a

tournament he never joust it again but

since the King continued to eat and

drink as heartily as before he quickly

put on weight in this picture Hall Bynes

genius turns the King's newly found bulk

into an image of crushing Authority and

with the Reformation Henry's power had

become crushing indeed

for it is marriage to an had failed to

provide the love and the son that he

craved it had given him something that

he craved even more a place in history

now unchallenged master of church and

state

he'd surpassed all his predecessors to

become the most powerful monarch ever to

rule England

this Henry we all remember Henry he

wanted the world to speak is also

unrecognizable with the Slim's charming

brilliant young man of promise that he

can't speak

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you

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