Реферат: England under Henry VIII

 

ENGLAND

         UNDER

HENRY VIII

          EXAMINATIONAL  ESSAY  BY

                NOVIKOV SERGEI                              

                      10th«B» GRADE, SCHOOL NO. 1276

                                   MOSCOW — 1996

             ENGLAND UNDER 

       HENRY THE  EIGHTH.

 

Henry VIII Tudor (1491-1547)

was the second son of Henry VII.

His brother Arthur, being only 15, married to Catherine,

the daugter of the Spanish monarch.

But in a very few month he sickened and died.

Henty VII arranged that the young widow

should marry his second son Henry,

then 12 years of age, when he too should be 15.

A few years after settling this marriage, in 1509,

 the King died of the gout.

    KingHenry the Eighth was just eighteen

years of age when he came to the throne.

People said he was a handsome boy, but

in later life he did not seem handsome at

all. He was a big, burly, noisy, small-eyed,

large-faced, double-chinned fellow, as we

know from the portraits of him, painted by

the famous Hans Holbein*.

    The king wasanxious to make himself

popular, and the people, who had long dis-

liked the late king, believed to believe that

he deserved to be so.

    He was extremelyfond of show and display, and so were they. There-fore there was greatrejoicing when he married the Princess Catherine, and when they were bothcrowned. And the King fought at tournaments and always came off victorious — for the courtiers took care of that — and there was a general outcry that hewas a wonderful man.

    The primefavourites of the late King, who were engaged in money-raising matters, Empson,Dudley, and their supporters, were accused of a variety of crimes they reallyhad been guilty; and they were pilloried, and

then beheaded, to the satisfaction of the people, and theenrichment of the

King.

    The Pope, soindefatigable in getting the world into trouble, had mixed

himself up in a war on a continent of Europe, occasioned bythe reigning

Princes of little quarrelling states in Italy having atvarious times married

into other royal families, and so led to their claiming ashare in those petty

Governments. The King, who discovered that he was very fondof the Pope, sent a herald to the King of France, to say he must not make war

upon the father of all Christians. As the French King didnot mind this relationship in the least, and also refused to admit a claim KingHenry made to certain lands in France, war was declared between the two coun-

tries.

    England made ablundering alliance with Spain, and got stupidly taken in by that country,which made its own terms with France when it could,

and left England in the lurch. Sir Edward Howard, a boldadmiral, son of the Earl of Surrey, distinguished himself by his braveryagainst the French

in this business; but, unfortunately, he was more bravethan wise, for, skimming into the French harbour of Brest with only a fewrow-boats, he

attempted to take some strong French ships, well defendedwith cannons.

The upshot was, that he was left on board of one of themwith not more than about a dozen man, and was thrown into the sea and drowned.

                            ***

 

    After this great defeat theKing took it into his head to invade France in

person, first executing that dangerous Earl of Suffolk whom his fatherhad left in the Tower, and appointing Queen Catherine to charge of his king-domin his absence. He sailed to Calais, where he was joined by Maximi-lian,Emperor of Germany, who pretended to be his soldier, and who took

pay in his service. The King might be successful enough in sham fights,but his idea of real battles chiefly consisted in pitching silken tents ofbright colours that were ignominiously blown down by the wind, and in

making a vast display of a gaudy flags and golden curtains. Fortune,however, flavoured him better than he deserved: he gave the French battle, andthey took such an anaccountable panic, and fled with such

swiftness, that it was ever afterwards called by the English the Battleof

Spurs**. Instead of following up his advantage, the King, finding thathe had had enough of real fighting, came home again.

    The Scottish King, thoughnearly related to Henry by marriage, had taken part against him in this war.The Earl of Surrey, as the English gene-

ral, advanced to meet him when he came out of his own dominions andcrossed the river Tweed. The two armies came up with one another when

the Scottish King had also crossed the river Till, and was encampedupon

the Hill of Flodden. Along the plain below it, the English, when thehour of battle came, advanced. The Scottish army, which had been drawn up infive great bodies, then came steadily down in perfect silence. So they, intheir turn, advanced to meet the English army, which came on the one long line;and they attacked it with a body of spearman, under Lord Home.

At first they had the best of it; but the English fought with suchvalour, that, when the Scottish King had almost made his way up to the Royalstandart, he was slain, and the whole Scottish power routed. Ten thousandScottish men lay dead that day on Flodden Field. For a long time after-wards,the Scottish peasantry used to believe that their king had not been

really killed in this battle, because no Englishman had found an ironbelt he wore about his body as a penance for having been an undutiful son. But,whatever became of his belt, the English had his sword and dagger, and the ringfrom his finger, and his body was recognized by English gent-lemen who hadknown the Scottish King well.

                             ***

    When King Henry was makingready to renew the war in France, the French King was contemplating peace. HisQueen, dying at this time, he proposed, though he was upwards of fifty yearsold, to marry King Henry's sister, Princess Mary, who, becides, being onlysixteen, was bet-

rothed to the Duke of Suffolk. As the inclinations of young Princesseswere not too much considered in such matters, the marriage was conclu-ded, andthe poor girl was escorted to France, where she was immidiately left as theFrench King's bride, with only one of her English attendants. That one was apretty young girl named Anna Boleyn, niece of the Earl of

Surrey, who had been made Duke of Norfolk after the victory of Flodden

Field.

    The French King died withinthree month, and left the young Queen a young widow. The new French monarch,Francis I, seeing how important

it was to his interests that she should take for her second husband noone but an Englishman, adviced her first lover, the Duke of Suffolk, when KingHenry sent him over to France to fetch her home, to marry her. The

Princess being herself so fond of that Duke, as to tell him that hemust either do so then, or lose her forever, they were wedded; and Henry after-

wards forgave them. In making interest with King, the Duke of Suffolkhad addressed his most powerful favourite and adviser, Thomas Wol-sey*** — aname very famous in history for its rise and downfall.

    Wolsey was the son of arespectable butcher at Ipswich, in Suffolk, and

recieved so exellent education that he became a tutor to the family ofMar-

qius of Dorset, who afterwards got him appointed one of the late King's

chaplains. On the accession of Henry VIII, he was promoted and takeninto great favour with the King — whether he were a foreign monarch or anEnglish nobleman — was obliged to make a friend of the great Cardinal Wolsey.

    He was a gay man, who coulddance and jest, and sing and drink. He was wonderfully fond of pomp andglitter, and so was the King. He knew a good deal of the Church learning ofthat time, much of which consisted of finding artful excuses and pretences foralmost any wrong thing, and in

arguing that black was white, or any other colour. This kind oflearning pleased the King too. For many such reasons, the Cardinal was high inestimation with the King, and, being a man of greater ability, knew how tomanage him. Never had there been seen in England such state as that LordCardinal kept. His wealth was equal, it was reckoned, to the riches of theCrown. His palaces were as splendid as the King's, and his retinue was eighthundred strong. He held his Court, dressed out from top to toe in flamingscarlet; and his very shoes were golden, set with precious stones.

His followers tode on blood-horses, while he, with wonderfulaffectation of humility in the midst of his great splendour, ambled on a mule.

    Though the influence of hisstately priest, a grand meeting was arranged to take place between the Frenchand English Kings in France, but on ground belonging to England. A prodigiousshow of friendship was to be made on the occation, and heralds were sent toproclaim with brazen trumplets through all the principal cities of Europe,that, on a certain day, the Kings of France and England, as companions andbrothers in arms,

each attended by 18 followers, would hold a tournament against allknights who might choose to come.

    Charles, a new Emperor ofGermany (the old one being dead), wanted to prevent that aliance between thetwo sovereigns, and came over to Eng-

land and secured Wolsey's interest by promising that his influenceshould make him Pope when the next vacancy occured. On the day when the Em-

peror left England, the King and the Court went over to Calais, andthence

to the place of meeting, commonly called the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

    There were sham castles,temporary chapels, fountains running wine, great cellars full of wine free aswater to all comers, silk tents, gold lace and gilt lions, and such thingswithout end. And, in the midst of all, the rich Cardinal outshone andoutglittered all the noblemen and gentlemen assembled. After a treaty had beenmade between the two Kings with as much solemnity as if they had intended tokeep it, the lists — 900 feet long,

and 320 broad — were opened for the tournament. Then, for ten days, the

two sovereigns fought five combats every day, and always beat theirpolite adversaries. 

                             ***

    Of course, nothing came ofall these fine doings but a speedy renewal of the war between England andFrance, in which the two Royal com-panions longed very earnestly to damage oneanother. But, before it broke out again, the Duke of Buckingham was shamefullyexecuted on Tower Hill, on the evidence of a discharged servant — really fornothing, except the folly of having believed in a friar of the name of Hopkins,who had pretended to be a prophet, and who had mumbled and jumbled out somenonsense about the Duke's son being destined to be very great in the land. Itwas believed that the unfortunate Duke had given offence to the great Cardinalby expressing his mind freely about the expense and absurdity of the wholebusiness of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

    The new war was a short one,though the Earl of Surrey invaded France again, and did some injury to thatcountry. It ended in another treaty of peace between the two kingdoms, and thediscovery that the Emperor of Germany was not such a good friend to England inreality, as he pretend-ed to be. Neither did he keep his promise to Wolsey tomake him Pope, though the King urged him. So the Cardinal and King togetherfound out that the Emperor of Germany was not a man to keep faith with. Theybroke off a projected marriage between the King's daughter Mary, Prin-cess ofWales, and that sovereign, and began to consider whether it might not be wellto marry the young lady, either to Francis himself, or to his eldest son.

                       ***

    There now arose atWittemberg****, in Germany, the great leader of the mighty change in Englandwhich is called The Reformation*****, and which set the people free from theirslavery to the priests. This was a learned Doctor, named Martin Luther******,who knew all about them, for he had been a priest, and even a monk, himself.The preaching and writing of Wickliffe******* had set a number of men thinkingon this subject, and Luther, finding one day to his great surprise, that therereally was a book called the New Testament which the priests did not allow tobe read, and which contained truths that they suppressed, began to be veryvigorous agains the whole body, from the Pope downward. It happened, while hewas yet only beginning his work or awakening the nation, that a friar namedTetzel came into his neighbourhood selling what were called Indulgences, bywholesale, to raise money for beautifying the St. Peter's Cathidral at Rome.Those who bought an Indulgence of the Pope were supposed to buy themselves fromthe punishment of Heaven for their offences. Luther told the people thatIndulgences were worthless bits of paper.

    The King and the Cardinalwere mightly indignant at this presumption; and the King (with the help of SirThomas More********, a wise man, whom the afterwards repaid by striking off

his head) even wrote a book about it, with

which the Pope was so well pleased that he

gave the King the title of Defender of the

Faith. The King and Cardinal also issued

flaming warnings to the people not to read

Luther's books, on pain of excommunica-

tion. But they did read them for all that; and

the rumour of what was in them spread far

and wide.

    When this great change wasthus going

on, the King began to show himself in his

truest and worst colours. Anne Boleyn, the pretty little girl who hadgone abroad to France with her sister, was by this time grown up to be very

beautiful, and was one of the ladies in attendance on Queen Catherine.Queen Catherine was no longer young or pretty, and it is likely that she wasnot particularly good-tempered, having been always rather melan-choly, andhaving been made more so by deaths of four of her children when they were veryyoung. So, the King fell in love with the fair Anne Boleyn. He wanted to getrid of his wife and marry Anne.

    Queen Catherine had been thewife of

Henry's brother Arthur. So the King called

his favourite priests about him, and said

that he thought that it had not been lawful

for him to marry the Queen.

    They answered that it was aserious busi-

ness, and perhaps the best way to make it

right, would be for His Majesty to be de-

vorced. That was the answer the King was

pleased with; so they all went to work.

    Many intrigues and plots tookplace to

get this devorce. Finally, the Pope issued

a commission to Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio (whom he sentover from Italy for the purpose), to try the whole case in England. It issupposed that Wolsey was the Queen's enemy, because she had reproved him forhis manner of life. But, he did not at first know that the King wanted to marryAnne Boleyn, and when he did know it, he even went down on his knees, in theendeavour to dissuade him.

    The Cardinals opened theircourt in the Convent of the Black friars, in

London. On the opening of the court, when the King and Queen were call-

ed on to appear, that poor lady kneeled at the King's feet, and saidthat she had come, a stranger, to his dominions, that she had been a good andtrue wife for him for 20 years, and that she could acknowledge no power inthose Cardinals to try whether she should be considered his wife after all thattime, or should be put away. With that, she got up and left the court, andwould never afterwards come back to it.

    It was a difficult case totry and the Pope suggested the King and Queen to come to Rome and have it triedthere. But by the good luck for the King, word was brought to him about ThomasCranmer, a learned Doctor of Cambridge, who had prospered to urge the Pope on,by referring the case to all the learned doctors and bishops, and getting theiropinions that the King's marriage was unlawful. The King, who was now in ahurry to marry Anne Boleyn, thought this such a good idea, that sent forCranmer.

    It was bad for cardinalWolsey that he had left Cranmer  torender this help.  It was worse for himthat he had tried to dissuade the King from marrying Anne Boleyn. Such aservant as he, to such a master as Henry, would probably have fallen in anycase; but he fell suddenly and heavily. Soon he was arrested for high treason,and died on his way to Tower. Sir Thomas More was made Chancellor in Wolsey'splace.

                             ***

    Meanwhile, the opinionsconcerning the divorce, of the learned doctors

and bishops and others, being at last collected, were forwarded to thePope, with an entreaty that he would now grant it. The unfortunate Pope, whowas a timid man, was half distracted between his fear of his authority beingset aside in England if he did not do as he was asked, and his dread ofoffending the Emperor of Germany, who was Queen Catherine's neph-ew. In thisstate of mind he still evaded and did nothing. So, the King took the matterinto his own hands, and made himself a head of whole Church.

However, he recompenced the clergy by allowing Luther's opinions. Allthese events made Sir Thomas More, who was truly attached to the Church,resign.

    Being now quite resolved toget rid of Queen Catherine, and marry Anne Boleyn without more ado, the Kingmade Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, and directed Queen Catherine to leavethe Court. She obeyed. but replied that wherever she went, she was Queen ofEngland still, and would remain so, to the last. The King then married AnneBoleyn priva-tely, and the new Archbishop of Cantebury, within half a year,declared his marriage with Queen Catherine void, and crowned Anne Boleyn Queen.

    She might have known that nogood could ever come with such wrong, and that the King who had been sofaithless and so cruel to his first wife, could be more faithless and morecruel to the second. But Anne Boleyn knew that too late, and bought it at dearprice. Her marriage came to its natural end. However, its natural end was

not a natural death for her. The Pope was

thrown into a very angry state of mind when

he heard of the King's marriage. Many of

English monks and friars did the same, but

the King took it quietly, and was very glad

when his Queen gave birth to a daughter,

who was christened Elizabeth, and declared

Princess of Wales as her sister Mary had

already been.

    One of the most atrociousfeatures of

the reign was that Henry VIII was always

trimming between the reformed religion with the Pope, the more of hisown subjects he roasted alive for not holding the Pope's opinions. Thus, anunfortunate student named John Frith, and a poor simple tailor named AndrewHewet who loved him very much, and said that whatever John Frith believed hebelieved, were burnt in Smithfield — to show what a capital Christian the Kingwas.

    But these were speedilyfollowed by two much greater victims, Sir Thomas More, and John Fisher, theBishop of Rochester. The latter, who was a good and amiable old man, hadcommitted no greater offence then believing in Elizabeth Barton, called theMaid of Kent — another of those ridiculous women who pretended to be inspired,and to make all sorts of heavenly revelations, though they indeed utterednothing but evil nonsen-se. For this offence — as it was pretended, but reallyfor denying the king to be the supreme Head of the Church — he got intotrouble, and was put in prison. Even then he might have died naturally, but thePope, to spite the King, resolved to make him a cardinal. So the King decidedthat Fisher should have no head on which to wear a red Cardinal's hat. He wastried with all unfairnence and injustice, and sentenced to death. He died likea noble and virtuous old man, and left a worthy name behind him.

    The King supposed that SirThomas More would be frightened by this example. But, as he was not to beeasily terrified, and, thoroughly believed in the Pope, had made up his mindthat the King was not rightful Head of the Church, he positively refused to saythat he was. For this cri-me he too was tried and sentenced, after having beenin prison a whole year.

    When he was doomed to death,and came away from his trial with the edge of executioner's axe turned towardshim — as was always done in those times when a state prisoner came to thathopeless pass — he bore it quite serenely, and gave his blessing to his son,who pressed through the crowd in Westminster Hall and kneeled down to recieveit.

    But, when he got to the TowerWharf on his way back to his prison, and his favourite daughter, MargaretRoper, a very good woman, rushed through the guards to kiss him and to weepupon his neck, he has over-come at last. He soon recovered and never moreshowed any feeling but courage. When he had laid his head upon the block, heasked jokingly the executioner to let him put his beard out of the way becausefor that thing, at least, had never committed any treason. Then his head wasstrucked off at a blow.

    These two executions wereworthy of King Henry VIII. Sir Thomas More was one of the most virtuous men inhis dominions, and the Bishop was one of his eldest and truest friends.

                             ***

    When the news of these twomurders got to Rome, the Pope was enra-ged and prepared a Bull, ordering hissubjects to take arms against the King of England and dethrone him. The Kingtook all possible precautions to keep that document out of his dominions, andset to work in return to suppress a great number of English monasteries andabbeys.

    This destruction was begun bya body of commissioners, of whom Tho-mas Cromwell was the head. It was carriedon through to some few years to its entire completion. There is no doubt thatmany of these religious es-tablishments imposed upon the people in every possibleway; that they had images moved by wires, which they pretended weremiraculously mo-ved by Heaven; that they had bits of coal which they said hadfried Saint Lawrense, and bits of toe-nails which they said belonged to otherfamous saints, etc.; and that all these bits of rubbish were called Relics, andadored by the ignorant people. But, on the other hand, there is no doubteither, that the King's men punished the good monks with the bad; did greatinjustice; demolished many beautiful things and many valuable libra-ries;destroyed numbers of paintings, stained glass windows, fine pave-ments, andcarvings; and that the whole court were ravenously greedy and rapacious for thedivision of this great spoil among them. The King seems to have grown almost madin the ardour of this pursuit, for he declared Thomas a Becket a traitor,though he had been dead for many years, and had his body dug up out of hisgrave. The gold and jewels on his shrine filled two great chests, and 8 menwere needed to carry them away.

    These things caused greatdiscontent among the people. The monks who were driven out of their homes andwandered about encouraged their discontent, and there were, consequently, greatrisings in Licincolnshire and Yorkshire. These were put down by terrificexecutions, from which the monks themselves did not escape.

                              ***

    The unfortunate QueenCatherine was by

this time dead, and the King was by this ti-

me as tired of his second Queen as he had

been of his first. As he had fallen in love

with Anne when she was in the service of

Catherine, so he now fell in love with ano-

ther lady in the service of Anne.

    The King resolved to haveAnne Boleyn's

head to marry Lady Jane Seymour. So, he

brought a number of charges against Anne,

accusing her of dreadful crimes which she

had never committed, and implicating in

them her own brother and certain gentlemen in her service. As the lordsand councillors were afraid of the King, they brought in Anne Boleyn guilty,and the other unfortunate persons accused with her, guilty too.

They were all sentenced to death. Anne Boleyn tried to soften herhus-band by touching letters, but as he wanted her to be executed, she was soonbeheaded.

    There is a story that theKing sat in his palace listening very anxiously for the sound of the cannonwhich was to announce this new murder; and that, when he heard it, he rose upin great spirits and ordered out his dogs to go a-hunting. He married JaneSeymour the very next day.

    Jane Seymour lived just longenough to give birth to a son who was christened Edward, and then to die of afever.

                             ***

    Cranmer had done what hecould to save some of the Church property for purposes of religion andeducation. But the great families had been so hungry to get hold of it, thatvery little could be rescued for such objects. Even Miles Coverdale, who didthe people the inestimable service of translating the Bible into English (whichthe unreformed religion never permitted to be done), was left in poverty whilethe great families clutched the Church lands and money. The people had beentold that when the Crown came into possession of these funds, it would not benecessary to tax them. But they were taxed afresh directly afterwards.

    One of the most activewriters on a Church's side against the King was a member of his own family — asort of distant cousin, Reginald Pole by name — who attacked him in the mostviolent manner (though he recieved a pension from him all the time), and foughtfor the Church for his pen, day and night. He was beyong the King's reach, inItaly.

    The Pope made Reginald Pole acardinal; but, so much against his will, that it is thought he had hopes ofmarrying the Princess Mary. His being made a high priest, however, put an endto that. His mother, the Countess of Salisbury — who was unfortunately forherself, within the tyrant's reach -was the last of his relatives on whom hiswrath fell. When she was told to lay her grey head upon the block, she answeredthe executioner that her head had never committed treason, and if he wanted herhead, he should  seize that. So, she ranround and round the scaffold with the executioner striking at her, and her greyhair bedabbled with blood. And even when they held her down upon the block shemoved her head about to the last, resolved to be no party to her own barbarousmurder. All this the people bore, as they had borne everything else.

    Indeed they bore much more;for the slow fires of Smithfield were continually burning, and people wereconstantly being roasted to death — still to show what a good Christian theKing was. He defied the Pope and his Bull, which was now issued, and had comeinto England; but he bur-ned innumerable people whose only offence was thatthey differed from the Pope's religios opinions.

    All this the people bore, andmore than all this yet. The national spirit seems to have been banished fromthe kingdom from this time. The people who were executed for treason, the wivesand friends of the «bluff» King, spoke of him on the scafford as agood and gentle man.

    The Parliament were as bad asthe rest, and gave the King whatever he wanted. They gave him new powers ofmurdering, at his will and pleasure, anyone whom he might choose to call atraitor. But the worst measure they passed was an Act of Six Articles*********,commonly called at the time «the whip with six strings», whichpunished offences against the Pope's opinions, without mercy, and enforced thevery worst parts of the monkish religion.

    Cranmer would have modifiedit, if he could; but he had not the power, being overborne by the Romish party.As one of the articles declared that priests should not marry, and as he wasmarried himself, he sent his wife and children into Germany, and began totremble at his danger. This whip of six strings was made under the King's owneye. It should never be for-gotten of him how cruelly he supported the Popishdoctrines when there was nothing to be got by opposing them.

    This monarch now thought oftaking another wife. He proposed to the French King to have some of the ladiesof the French Court exhibited be-fore him, that he might make his Royal choice.But the French King ans-wered that he would rather not have his ladies to beshown like horses at a fair. He proposed to the Dowager Duchess of Milan, whoreplied that she might have thought of such a match if she had had two heads.At last Cromwell represented that there was a Protestant Princess in Germany — those who had the reformed religion were call Protestants, because theirleaders had protested against the abuses and impositions of the unreform-edChurch — named Anne of Cleves, who was beautiful, and would answer the purposeadmirably.

    The King sent over the famouspainter, Hans Holbein, to take her a portrait. Hans made her out to be sogood-looking that the King was satis-fied, and the marriage was arranged. ButHans had flattered the Princess. When the King first saw her, he swore she was«a great Flanders mare», and said he would never marry her. Beingobliged to do it, he would not give her the presents he had prepared, and wouldnever notice her. He never forgave Cromwell his part in the affair. Hisdownfall dates from that time.

    It was quickened by hisenemies, in the interests of the unreformed religion, putting in the King'sway, at a state dinner, a niece of the Duke of Norfolk, Catherine Howard.Falling in love with her on the spot, the King soon divorced Anne of Cleves onpretence that she had been previously betrothered to someone else, and marriedCatherine. It is probable that on his wedding day he sent his faithful Cromwellto the scaffold, and had his head struck off.

    It soon came out thatCatherine Howard was not a faithful wife, and again the dreadful axe made theKing a widower. Henry then applied him-self to superintending the compositionof a religious book called «A ne-cessary doctrine for any ChristianMan».

    He married yet once more.Yes, strange to say, he found in England another woman who would become hiswife, and she was Catherine Parr, widow of Lord Latimer. She leaned towards thereformed religion, and it is some comfort to know, that she argued a variety ofdoctrinal points with him on all possible occasions. After one of theseconversations the King in a very black mood actully instructed Gardier, one ofhis Bishops who favoured the Popish opinions, to draw a bill of accusationagainst her to the scaffold. But one of the Queen's friends knew about it, andgave her timely notice. She fell ill with terror, but managed the King so wellwhen he came to entrap her into further statements — by saying that she hadonly spoken on such points to divert his mind and to get some points ofinfor-mation from his extraordinary wisdom — that he gave her a kiss and calledher a sweatheart. And, when the Chancellor came next day to take her to theTower, the King honoured him with the epithets of a beast, a knave, and a fool.So near was Catherine Parr to the block, and so narrow was her escape!

                             ***

    A few more horrors, and thisreign was over. There was a lady, Anne Askew, in Lincolnshire, who inclined tothe Protestant opinions, and whose husband being a fierce Catholic, turned herout of his house. She came to London, and was considered as offending againstthe six articles, and was taken to the Tower, and put upon the rack — probablybecause it was hoped that she might, in her agony, criminate some obnoxiousper-sons. She was tortured in a most cruel manner without uttering a cry, butafterwards they had to carry her to the fire in a chair. She was burned withthree others, a gentleman, a clergyman, and a tailor; and so the world went on.

    Either the King became afraidof the power of Duke of Norfolk, and his son the Earl of Surrey, or they gavehim some offence, but he resolved to pull them down, to follow all the rest whowere gone. The son was tried first — of course for nothing — and defendedhimself bravely; but all the same he was found guilty, and was executed. Thenhis father's turn came. But the King himself was left for death by a GreaterKing, and the Earth was to be rid of him at last. When he was found to bedying, Cranmer was sent for, and came with all speed, but found him speechless.In that hour he perished. He was in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and thethirty-eighth of his reign.

    Henry the Eighth, a bloodytyrant, has been favoured by some Protest-ant writers, because the Reformationwas achieved in his time. But the mighty merit of his lies with other men andnot with him.

What else can I say about Henry VIII?

He was more a beast than a man.

He executed hundreds of people.

Though he was wise enough to rule a country.

His reign was bloody and he did not do a lot for his country.

His six marriages caused the country to finish

all treaties with the Roman Church.

And the King's bloody deeds ashamed the mighty England.               

For Charles Dickens he was the most

untolerable man, a shame for humanity.

Notes.

 

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HansHolbein (1497-1543)* — the German painter. Known as Hans Holbein Jr.

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theBattle of Spurs** was held on the 16th of August, 1513 a.d. During it theFrench cavalry fled because of the advancing armies of Henry VIII andMaximilian I.

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ThomasWolsey (1473-1530)***, Chancellor of England since 1515 till 1529. Since 1514 — the Archbishop of York, since 1515 — the Cardinal. In 1529 he was arrested fortreason.

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Wittemberg****- the Saxon city where in 1517 Luther read his 95 thesises against the CatholicChurch.

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theReformation***** — the movement against the Ca-tholic Church in Western andCentral Europe. It's crea-tor was Luther.

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MartinLuther (1483-1546)****** — the leader of the Re-formation. He also translatedthe Bible into German.

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JohnWickliffe (1330-1384)******* — the English refor-mator. He said that the Popewas not necessary and wan-ted the Church to abandon its lands.

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ThomasMore (1487 — 1535)******** — the great lawer and political leader, was againstthe Reformation. Being a writer, he created «Utopia». Anne Boleyn,the second wife of the King, knowing that More had helped the King to dismissCatherine of Aragon, caused Henry to execute this clever and honest Chancellorof England.

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Actof Six Articles*********. Was written in 1539. It abolished the monasteries andshowed that England was interested in religion and that damage inflicted to theChurch was a crime. So, many Protestants were executed.

List of the Used Literature.

 

1. J. J. Bell. The History of England.

2. L. V. Sidorchenko. Absolute Monarchy.

3. I. I. Burova. Just for Pleasure. Intermediate Level.

4. D. Capewell. The History of English Monarchy.

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