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midsummer day 1509 the 18 year old King

Henry the Eighth had sat on coronation

chair here in Westminster Abbey to be

crowned King of England before God he

vowed to respect the ancient liberties

of his subjects and above all to

preserve the independence of the church

with goodwill and devout soul he swore

on the Gospels I should keep the

privileges of Oly Church and I shall by

God's grace offend you and every each of

you bishops and Abbot's throughout my

realm it could not have been clearer or

more binding but 25 years later the now

middle aged King Henry at second

thoughts here in the British Library is

a copy of the coronation oath it has

been amended in Henry's own hand

in sport the universal church would be

the Church of England its ancient

liberties now subordinate to the

supremacy of the English crown it was

the greatest par graph in the thousand

year history of the English monarchy

Henry was now claiming to rule not just

his subjects bodies but their very souls

as well and to make good his claim he

would remake religion remake England and

remake the English people and heaven

helped anyone foolhardy enough to get in

his way

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this is a face that could strike men

dumb with fear the face of a king who

condemned hundreds of his subjects to

lingering agonizing death the monstrous

tyranny of his rule echoes down the

centuries our pleasure is that dreadful

execution be done on a good number of

the inhabitants of every town village

and hamlet that have offended in this

rebellion

let me befall dead Arab a dismembered

from mercy mercy

but in Henry the eighth's

own eyes his cruelty served a higher

purpose that purpose was primarily

religious and if we want to find a man

behind the tyrant of legend then we have

to understand the significance of

religion in Henry's life and kingship to

peer in effect into his very soul

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as King Henry would Institute the most

radical change in the entire history of

English Christianity but as a young

prince his party seems to be tense he'll

entirely conventional the evidence comes

from a very rare and very precious

personal possession from his childhood a

portable aid to prayer called Abbey DRO

and this is the or shawl roll and read

about it I seen photographs of it but I

never actually seen the thing it's us

it's extraordinary

it begins here with a grand and Noble

image of the Trinity but then here it

gets down to what merely I think is the

heart of late medieval religion the

actual image of the suffering Christ

with the body originally invaded white

now oxidized to black you can still see

the deep carmine splashes of the wounds

the five wounds on the hands on the head

and the side and on the feet and here

Henri has written the injunction to his

body servant William Thomas

I pray you pray for me your loving

master Prince Henry this is the world of

late medieval Christianity in which

images relics and above all the

consecrated bread and wine of the mass

had power we might say magical power

look here

say this the road promises and

miraculously something good will happen

to you you will escape death despair

disease shorten the number of years but

your soul spends in agony

before ascending to the joys of paradise

the young prince henry was certainly a

believer in this power of images but how

long would he remain so as a reformation

mounted its sweeping attack on the magic

and a mystery of Holy Church

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but it was not theology that first shook

Henry's faith in traditional Catholicism

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it was ambolyn in order to marry an

henry had been forced to break with Rome

and make himself head of the Church of

England in so doing in our lives that

beam those who wanted not just an

independent English church but a

radically reformed one as well including

and herself

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in 1535 Henry and Anne made a progress

to the West of England ending up here

that I am acting travelling Whitman was

Henry's leading minister Thomas Cromwell

Cromwell was now vice-gerent in

spirituals Henry's deputy the supreme

head of the church and a leading

advocate of religious reform Cromwell

and Anne took advantage of the progress

to launch an attack on the traditional

religious practices and bogus relics

which was reform minded Christians they

believed that led the faithful astray

for instance only a few miles from here

was the monastery of Hale's

its greatest treasure was a relic of the

true blood of Christ which made Hales

one of the most popular and wealthy

places of pilgrimage in England but when

the skeptical and centered chaplains to

investigate they reported back that the

sacred blood far from being divine or

even human was nothing else but the

blood of some duck

it along with many other relics such as

fake fragments of the true cross statues

which seemed to move but turned out to

be puppets and the bones nail clippings

of various Saints were taken to London

and consigned to a great bonfire of the

profanity

and as Cromwell in his agents began to

taut up the land and endowment some

monasteries like Hales it became clear

that here was a vast store of wealth

which now held kept kingly under the

jurisdiction of the crown the whole

fabric of traditional religion now

seemed to be under threat for many it

wasn't just shrines and Abbey's that

would stake but their immortal souls and

to save those men were prepared to fight

to die but then less than a year later

in May 1536 Anne Boleyn was executed on

Tower Green

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and was responsible for the divorce she

was also a religious radical who would

be which the King implemented revolution

so many believed

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on the other hand the wife who replaced

that Jane Seymour was conventional in

her piety surely now the nightmare was

over surely his new queen will persuade

the King to return to the old religion

but Henry was tired of interfering wives

increasing age of the royal supremacist

relentless elevation of the monarchy was

making him evermore intolerant of

contradiction and disagreement what he

required of Jane was simply a son and

submission so when she begged him on her

knees to restore the Abbey's Henry's

response was brutal get up do not

presume to meddle in my affairs remember

and this was enough to kau Jane and she

never dared to raise a subject again and

his wife Henry could command obedience

prompt absolute unconditional but could

he expect the same from his people

by his sweeping assault on traditional

religion King was courting rebellion as

and in the autumn of 1536 rebellion came

starting in Lincolnshire and spreading

to the whole of the north of England a

huge popular rising officered by local

gentry and Nobles often recruited by

their own tenants at the point of a

pitchfork and here in Durham Cathedral

the rebels raised as their standard a

potent religious symbol the banner of

the five wounds of Christ under which

they would march south to confront King

Henry miraculously

one of the rebels badges with this same

device still survives at arendelle

Castle in Sussex Henry would have

recognized it immediately the nails in

hands and feet the heart pierced with

the wound the coup de Grasse of the

Centurion spear the same badge of the

five wounds of Christ found in the

Beedrill before which the young Prince

Henry at once knelt in prayer as such it

encapsulates perfectly what the revolt

was about Henry might have abandoned the

many of the beliefs of his youth but

vast numbers of his subjects still clung

passionately to the old ways they wanted

cromwell's reforms stopped and they

wanted the ministers head as well the

rebels found a charismatic leader in a

minor Yorkshire landowner and lawyer

Robert asked who drew up an

uncompromising manifesto to go to London

on pilgrimage to the king to have all

the vile blood put from his council and

noble blood set up again

to have the faith of Christ and all

God's laws kept and to have restitution

for the wrongs done to the church he

also gave the rebellion a ceremonious

title the pilgrimage of grace asked

indeed saw the enterprise as a religious

act they had also deployed impressive

physical force mustering over 40,000 men

the rebels far outnumber the little army

that Henry had sent north under the Duke

of Norfolk faced with overwhelming odds

Norfolk wrote an alarm to Henry that the

rebels were far too strong to be stopped

by mere force of arms with the gravest

threat to his throne that Henry had ever

faced the letters he wrote in response

can still be found in the British

National Archives can we agree that it

was necessary to buy time and authorize

Norfolk to negotiate Henry also decided

to write to the rebels himself

responding to their demands point by

point first as touching on the

maintenance of the face we declare and

protest ourselves to be he that always

do and have minded to die and live in

the purity of the same marveling not a

little that ignorant people will take

upon them to instruct us which something

have been noted to be learning what the

right faith should be concerning

choosing of counselors I never have read

heard nor known that a Prince's

counselors and pellets should be

appointed by ruled and ignorant common

people but after the bluster and threats

the King offered a carrot

wherefore we let you wit ye our subjects

of Yorkshire to the intent that you all

shall know that our princely heart

rather embraces pity and compassion of

his offending subjects than will to be

revenged for their naughty deeds

that we are contented if we may see in

you all a sorrowful nests for your

offenses and will henceforth to do no

more so to grant unto you all our

letters patent of pardon for this

rebellion the offer of a free pardon and

the promise of special Parliament to

settle all demands with enough to

persuade the rebels to disband and

return home

northern Henry between them defuse the

immediate crisis by persuasion and

negotiation or or they by duplicity and

guile the rebel leader Robert ask was

invited to spend Christmas with Henry at

Greenwich he found himself lionized by

the court

the king gave him a jacket of crimson

satin and the assurance that the promise

Parliament would be held in York for the

first time in 200 years it was a

consummate performance and ask settle

for it before the festivities were ended

asked carried north to spread the good

news and had the desired effect of

disarming and dividing opposition

so when in February a few diehards

launched a new revolt most of asks

followers refused to join them now Henry

was able easily to crush the rebellion

Henry summoned asked to London asked

went willingly enough but Henry now felt

himself absolved from all this promises

asked was arrested tried and condemned

desperately he wrote to Henry with a

last request it is paired the full

horror of execution for treason let me

be full dead air a Buddhist membered

Henry agreed

instead with his collar sirs taste in

executions he had asked tangled alive in

Chains probably as he twisted in agony

for our endless our ask wished for the

Swift to death of the ninth

and ask was only one of hundreds to die

our pleasure is that dreadful execution

be done on a good number of the

inhabitants of every town village and

hamlet that have offended in this

rebellion as well as by the hanging of

them upon trees as by the quartering of

them and the setting of their heads and

quarters in every town great and small

and all other such places as they may be

a fearful spectacle to all other hair

after that would practice any like

matter which we require you to do

without pity or

the scars of Henry's terrible vengeance

are still visible

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hitherto the great monastic foundations

of the North had escaped destruction of

now seen as complicit in the revolt they

were ruthlessly suppressed

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the half a millennium the great Abbas of

being a dominating presence in the land

for centuries their monks had tilled the

soil tended the sheep collected the

rents sung the services now one by one

their cloisters fell silent desert

ruined it was the most visible dramatic

rupture in English history since the

Norman Conquest and it was Henry's work

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and the changes wrought by Henry wood

just beginning the wealth taken from the

Abbess and the very stones themselves

would now be used by the King to remake

and reinvent England itself

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for the country now stood alone against

the combined might of Catholic Europe

goaded by Henry's assault on the church

the Pope brought France and the Empire

into a grand alliance to invade England

it goes Henry and restore his people to

the true Catholic faith

the threat was real and urgent henry's

response matched it and scale and

imagination he would survey the entire

English coastline from Milford Haven to

the wash and beyond identify a Bea Haven

where potential invader could land and

then he would fortify it from a special

map room deep in the heart of Whitehall

palace

Henry coordinated the greatest

construction project the country had

ever seen to make England into an island

fortress under his direct supervision

coastal maps were marked up with the

locations for new fortifications then

the engineers set to work

armed with cash and building materials

often taken from the dissolve Abbott's

much of what they built can still be

seen here at Falmouth Bay

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these fortifications have a highly

distinctive plan which may well be

Henry's own design and suddenly the four

tops mores in corn there's a Latin

inscription invoking the spirit of King

Henry but the force was simply one line

of defense out see were newly built

ships armed for the first time with

effective heavy artillery their mission

was to intercept any invading force

Henry was funding the Royal Navy with

its doctrine of control of the narrow

seas all this amounted to a change in

English national identity and direction

once the channel had been a great

highway to the continent now it became

defensive mode India was separating

itself from Europe turning away to chart

a different independent course

one she would follow for four centuries

some indeed of henry's forts were still

mounting guns in Second World War

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these aren't just fortifications each

one is also a massive footprint planted

by Henry rocks and soil of ink and in

its history same pervy vet animal Regis

and ricky-rock table a the spirit of

King Henry VIII a live forever Henry the

aim is brutal but effective response the

dissent at home and threats from abroad

was changing England and the aged the

king himself was changing too

one of the greatest treasures of the

British Library is a book which reveals

much about Henry's state of mind in

these latter years of his reign the

King's personal book of Psalms his

Salter this illustration shows Henry a

models scholar King diligently reading

in his bedchamber a few years before

this scene was painted Henry had had a

bad fall from his horse the resulting

injury to his leg meant that he spent

less time hunting and he never douse

today Gaye instead but predictors in

urging that have been devoted to sport

when now directed almost single-mindedly

to the government of his kingdom the

central task of that government was to

settle the doctrines of the newly

independent English church and to put an

end to the religious conflict that

threatened to tear the country apart as

the illustrations in Henry's Salters

show Henry saw himself is an English

King David David had slain the giant

Goliath

Henry had struck down the no less

monstrous power of the papacy both Kings

had destroyed idols and restored true

religion but what exactly was true

religion was it the kind of radical

reform once espoused by Thomas Cromwell

and Anne Boleyn or something else Henry

saw it as his responsibility and his

alone to answer that question what he

sought was a middle way between the

radicals who wanted in church free of

rituals and relics and the Conservatives

who yearned for the old ways of Rome and

both sides tried to sway the king was in

minister Cromwell explained to a radical

who had sent Henry his book the king who

is the most active and vigilant observer

is wont to hand over books of this kind

which

he has not patience to read himself to

one of his Lords in waiting for perusal

from whom he may afterwards learn their

contents he then takes the book back and

presently gives it to be examined by

someone else of an entirely opposite way

of thinking to the former party when he

hath made himself master of their

opinions and sufficiently ascertained

both what they commend and what they

find fault with it length openly

declares his own judgment respecting the

same points the king's theological

learning culminated in these the six

articles of the Church of England which

laid down the religious doctrines to

which the Kings subjects were now

required to adhere on pain of death the

articles repeatedly and heavily

corrected by Henry in his own hand a

conservative their firm the miracle of

the mass and the need for confession in

the traditional Catholic manner but at

the same time

Henry balance these doctrines with an

important concession to the reformers

the use of the Bible not in Latin but in

English and so every parish church was

required to buy a copy of this Henry's

great Bible in English the Magnificent

title page shows Henry as he wished BC

at the top a rather small dirty hands

his teachings directly to a much larger

and more central Henry who then passes

them to his grateful people

who are shown here praising Oh God but

Henry over in the corner is a hint of

the unpleasant fate of anyone would

think of deviating long shot of the

Kings middle way

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those who challenged the supremacy and

called for the restoration of papal

authority were guilty of treason and

liable to be hanging drawn and quartered

while those who advocated full-blown

Protestantism would find themselves

condemned as heretics burn

and it wasn't just religious enthusiasts

whether Protestant or Catholic who fell

foul of the law relatively few of

Henry's leading courtiers or counselors

agreed precisely with the pace of the

Kings religious changes instead they

wanted to go either faster or more

slowly than the king providing they kept

their views to themselves they were safe

but if they strayed too far and too

publicly from the straight and narrow of

the Kings Middle Way then they too were

at risk of treason or heresy and

closeness to the king was no protection

as Cromwell himself would discover

in October 1537 Henry's third Queen Jane

Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward the

son Henry have longed for for so long

then joy turned to grief when Jane

herself died a few days later for once

Henry didn't have another wife lined up

but everyone took it for granted that

the king would marry again including

Thomas Cromwell who thought that he had

just the bride for him Anne of Cleves

from the point of view of foreign policy

the Cleves marriage made excellent sense

Anne's rather the Duke ruled an

important agglomeration of territories

in northwestern Germany strategically

sited between France and Henry's enemy

the Catholic emperor charles v

unfortunately for cromwell however

henry's priorities in marriage were

personal rather than political he wanted

a pretty young girl that he could love

or imagine that he loved Hindoo of this

Cromwell and his followers talked up

Anne as a great beauty but when she

arrived in England as his bride Henry

she is nothing so well as she was spoken

of if it were not for fear of making a

ruffle in the world that is to be the

means to drive her brother into the

hands of the Emperor I would never have

married her the wedding night was a

disaster but Henry complained to

Cromwell from such physical contact as

they'd had he strongly suspected that

Anne wasn't a virgin

surely you know I liked her before not

well but now I like how much worse for I

have felt her belly and her breasts and

thereby I can judge she be no maid the

witch thought struck me so to the heart

that I had neither will nor courage to

proceed any further in matters Henry's

marriage to Anne of Cleves was soon

dissolve grounds of non-consummation

it was embarrassing for Henry but fate

refers Minister deprived of the

protection of the Kings favour

Cromwell fell victim to the conservative

faction of court that he terrorized for

so long he was arrested and condemned

the treason and heresy like Robert asked

before him he wrote to Henry

in desperation from the tower most

gracious Prince a cry for mercy

mercy

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but Cromwell with his radical reforming

views was now an obstacle to the

religious unity that Henry craved and on

the 20th of July 1540

he too was beheaded three days later to

vindicate his middle way

Henry had three Catholics hanged drawn

and quartered as traitors and at the

same time three Protestants burned at

the stake as heretics this was terror

dealt with an impartial and unsparing

ham from now on the hand will belong not

to the minister but the King Henry

himself in the castle of samantha's

where the State Archives of Spain have

been kept at the time of the emperor

charles v there's a tower room that

helps us understand what sort of ruler

henry had become

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treading where the kings of Spain would

drop this is where their papers were

kept and they move from here into this

little cell here and they sat and they

rent them they took the decisions and

the world change we know Henry the

Eighth had rooms exactly like this in

French it's called a cabinet in 16th

century English it's called a closet

it's very much like of course the

private oratories which Kings had also

had deeds still have but this is a kind

of new form of worship this is the

worship the power on paper as opposed to

the worship of a God and in the British

National Park eyes there's evidence of

how Henry created and wielded this new

form of power this is the first volume

of the acts of the Privy Council the

council was reorganized by Henry within

days of Cromwell's execution the

background was the Royal supremacy which

made the principal business of

government the imposition of religious

uniformity always and everywhere thus

for the first time in English history

the council needed to meet every day and

to concern itself potentially with the

affairs of every village the Revolution

was the work of Henry but is also the

beginning of government by committee or

as we say cabinet we are governed in the

same way to this day and from pretty

much the same place since the usual

meeting room of the Privy Council in

Whitehall was only yours for the present

day sight of number 10 Downing Street

during the unseasonable damp summer the

1541 the pace of execution slackened at

last

Henry was finally embarked on the

progress to the north which he promised

Robert asked five years previously the

aim was reconciliation and with him was

his fifth Queen Catherine Howard

catherine was young pretty and

delightfully accommodating Henry was

infatuated and there were none of the

sexual problems he'd had with Anne of

Cleves

it was his Indian Summer of Love but

like most Indian summers it was sought

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on also today 15:41 Henry came to hear

mass in the chapel run to find a letter

by his seat was fraught with cranber--

and it made the sensational claim that

Queen Catherine was a young woman with a

past who slept with at least two men

before she'd married Henry

Henry's initial reaction was confident

disbelief but when an investigation

confirmed the truth of Cranmer's charges

he was devastated he even broke down and

wept openly before his counselor

but worse was to follow for it soon

became apparent that Catherine had also

had secret assignation after she was

Queen in fact during the progressed to

the north this is the record of the

confession of the young man in question

Thomas Culpepper at first sight

it's almost illegible but with time is

possible to make out what it says and it

tells a tale straight out of romantic

fiction Castle and Culpepper admit poor

throughout the night they pledged their

love to each other but they done nothing

more nevertheless towards the end of his

interrogations Culpepper made the fatal

admission that he intended and meant to

do ill with the Queen and that in

likewise the Queen so minded to do with

him it was enough to condemn them both

Culpepper went to the scaffold of the

10th of December

Catherine two months later

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at about this time in his Bible

Henry marked a passage from Proverbs for

the lips of an harlot are a dropping

honeycomb and her throat softer than ale

but at the last she is as bitter as

wormwood and as sharp as a two-edged

sword Culpepper's confession contains

one other fascinating revelation that

Queen Katherine had warned him against

speaking of their affair when confessing

his sins

Sheila Queen bade him beware that

whensoever he went to confession he

should never Shrive him of any such

things I should pass betwixt her and him

so if he did surely the king being

supreme head of the church should have a

knowledge of it what was Katherine

afraid of that the priest might break

the seal of the confessional and inform

her husband at her infidelity or did she

think that the royal supremacy came

equipped with supernatural powers and

that where Henry subject spoke to God

Henry as goes adjutant who's actually

listening in in short did Catherine

think that she'd actually married

someone who was more than merely mortal

did others too if so it's a striking

sign just what the Royal supremacy meant

in an age dominated by religious belief

Henry's impressed himself in the hearts

and minds with people the figure almost

divine authority but behind the image is

an aging man in increasing

when he'd fallen badly from his horse a

few years previously it seems likely

he'd fractured his shin it healed the

fragment of bone remains lodged the

cosmos they've caused chronic ulceration

the tremendous pain and swelling after a

while the swelling would burst his

charging stinking pus this afforded

temporary relief then the cycle would

start again the time went on Henry found

walking increasingly difficult he had to

be hauled up stairs in a Tudor starless

and pulled along the endless galleries

of his palaces the wheelchair known as a

trap

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even so Henry retained his tremendous

physical stamina and despite the

sometimes prostrating pain from his leg

he would marry one more wife and fight

one more war but finally even Henry's

Constitution gave out and on the night

of the 28th of January 1547 he succumbed

to set to senior he was 55 years old he

died confident of salvation from the God

with who he was on such intimate terms

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Henry had planned for himself a great

monument to outdo even his father's tool

a metal effigy and magnificent

candlesticks were cast and a great

marble sarcophagus fashioned to receive

Henry's body was Walden placed here in

some George's Chapel Windsor which it

would have dominated but fatally for

Henry's ambitions he died leaving his

tomb unfinished under his son Edward the

sixth the Royal supremacy to return

towards radical Protestantism and Church

monuments were being torn down not put

up under his daughter Mary England

repudiated the supremacy returned albeit

briefly to Rome and Henry became an

inconvenient memory the final blow came

under the Republican Oliver Cromwell

then Henry's SOG was melted down and the

great candelabra sold abroad so all that

henry supreme head on earth of the

Church of England has is a simple marble

floor slab

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Henry wanted to be remembered as a great

religious reformer but the fate of his

monument mirrors the fate of the

supremacy itself for in the end

Henry's legacy was centuries of

religious conflict that would all but

destroy the monarchy but yet all that

Henry did create something that lasted

his sarcophagus survived and still sits

in the crypt beneath some Paul's

Cathedral but it contains remains lots

of Henry but of that other great

Englishman Admiral Lord Nelson

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I think it's strangely appropriate for

with Henry broke with Rome he began to

forge new sense of national identity of

England as a country unafraid to stand

apart from Europe bloody-minded perhaps

then a phobic evil yet self confidently

different a country that built this

great Church at Nelson's greater Navy

and nation reflected Henry's own

character a bit of it survived and to

the extent that it does we're all still

made in Henry's image

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Oh

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you