1 | <html>
|
---|
2 |
|
---|
3 | <head>
|
---|
4 | <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
|
---|
5 | <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
---|
6 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
---|
7 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
|
---|
8 | <title>Primary Sources: A contemporary description of Henry VIII, 1515</title>
|
---|
9 | <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {color: #0000FF; font-weight: bold}
|
---|
10 | </style>
|
---|
11 | </head>
|
---|
12 |
|
---|
13 | <body link="#0000FF" vlink="#0000FF" alink="#0000FF">
|
---|
14 |
|
---|
15 | <div align="center">
|
---|
16 | <center>
|
---|
17 | <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" width="94%">
|
---|
18 | <tr>
|
---|
19 | <td valign="bottom" colspan="3">
|
---|
20 | <p align="center"> <br>
|
---|
21 | <p align="center">
|
---|
22 | <img border="0" src="1515.gif" alt="Primary Sources: 1515: A contemporary description of King Henry VIII" width="397" height="109"><p align="center"> </td>
|
---|
23 | </tr>
|
---|
24 | <tr>
|
---|
25 | <td></td>
|
---|
26 | <td></td>
|
---|
27 | <td></td>
|
---|
28 | </tr>
|
---|
29 | <tr>
|
---|
30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size="2">The accounts
|
---|
31 | at right were written by the Venetian ambassador to Henry's court.
|
---|
32 | They are among the most famous descriptions of Henry VIII and capture his
|
---|
33 | exuberance, vanity and wit.</font><p><font size="2">Henry VIII was born on
|
---|
34 | 28 June 1491, the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
|
---|
35 | He was originally destined to be archbishop of Canterbury, but his older
|
---|
36 | brother, Prince Arthur, died in 1502, shortly after marrying the Spanish
|
---|
37 | princess Katharine of Aragon. And so Henry became king of England at
|
---|
38 | the age of 18.</font></p>
|
---|
39 | <p><font size="2">He was strong, handsome, athletic and very intelligent.
|
---|
40 | The English people at first idolized him. His thirty-eight year
|
---|
41 | reign, however, disabused them of their early worship. Henry married
|
---|
42 | six times, executed two of his wives, was rumored to have poisoned one and
|
---|
43 | secretly ordered the death of another. He was increasingly mercurial
|
---|
44 | and tyrannical. He imprisoned or executed, or both, many of the
|
---|
45 | great nobles; he also executed several religious and intellectual leaders,
|
---|
46 | most famously Sir Thomas More.</font></p>
|
---|
47 | <p><font size="2">Much of the drama and confusion of Henry's reign was
|
---|
48 | caused by his pressing need for a male heir. His first marriage, to
|
---|
49 | his brother's widow, Katharine of Aragon, lasted over twenty years but
|
---|
50 | produced only a surviving daughter. In order to marry again, Henry
|
---|
51 | eventually rejected papal authority in England and named himself supreme
|
---|
52 | head of a new English church. This decision forever altered English
|
---|
53 | history; it also threw the English people into a social and religious
|
---|
54 | upheaval which superficially ended during Queen Elizabeth I's reign.</font></p>
|
---|
55 | <p><font size="2">As king, Henry was as efficient as his father, though
|
---|
56 | far more of a spendthrift. He effectively controlled Parliament and
|
---|
57 | chose brilliant advisers (first Wolsey, then Cromwell.) His foreign
|
---|
58 | policy was largely inconsequential, driven by his desire to interfere in
|
---|
59 | continental affairs. He remains one of the most famous and
|
---|
60 | influential kings in English history.</font></p>
|
---|
61 | <p> </p>
|
---|
62 | <p> </p>
|
---|
63 | <p> </td>
|
---|
64 | <td width="4%"></td>
|
---|
65 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
|
---|
66 | <p>After dinner, we were taken to the King [Henry VIII], who embraced
|
---|
67 | us, without ceremony, and conversed for a very long while very familiarly,
|
---|
68 | on various topics, in good Latin and in French, which he speaks very well
|
---|
69 | indeed, and he then dismissed us, and we were brought back here to London....
|
---|
70 | <br>His Majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the
|
---|
71 | usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion very
|
---|
72 | fair and bright, with auburn hair combed straight and short, in the French
|
---|
73 | fashion, his throat being rather long and thick. He was born on the
|
---|
74 | 28th of June, 1491, so he will enter his twenty-fifth year the month after
|
---|
75 | next. He speaks French, English, and Latin, and a little Italian,
|
---|
76 | plays well on the lute and harpsichord, sings from book at sight, draws
|
---|
77 | the bow with greater strength than any man in England, and jousts
|
---|
78 | marvelously. Believe me, he is in every respect a most accomplished
|
---|
79 | Prince; and I, who have now seen all the sovereigns in Christendom, and
|
---|
80 | last of all these two of France and England in such great state, might
|
---|
81 | well rest content. </p>
|
---|
82 | <p>[And later that year....] His Majesty came into our arbor, and addressing
|
---|
83 | me in French, said: 'Talk with me awhile! The King of France, is
|
---|
84 | he as tall as I am?' I told him there was but little difference.
|
---|
85 | He continued, 'Is he as stout?' I said he was not; and he then inquired,
|
---|
86 | 'What sort of legs has he?' I replied 'Spare.' Whereupon he
|
---|
87 | opened the front of his doublet, and placing his hand on his thigh, said
|
---|
88 | 'Look here! and I have also a good calf to my leg.' He then told
|
---|
89 | me that he was very fond of this King of France, and that for the sake
|
---|
90 | of seeing him, he went over there in person, and that on more than three
|
---|
91 | occasions he was very near him with his army, but that he never would allow
|
---|
92 | himself to be seen, and always retreated, which his Majesty attributed
|
---|
93 | to deference for King Louis, who did not choose an engagement to take place;
|
---|
94 | and he here commenced discussing in detail all the events of that war,
|
---|
95 | and then took his departure....
|
---|
96 | <br>After dinner, his Majesty and many others armed themselves <i>cap-a-pie</i>,
|
---|
97 | and he chose us to see him joust, running upwards of thirty courses, in
|
---|
98 | one of which he capsized his opponent (who is the finest jouster in the
|
---|
99 | whole kingdom), horse and all. He then took off his helmet, and came
|
---|
100 | under the windows where we were, and talked and laughed with us to our
|
---|
101 | very great honor, and to the surprise of all beholders.
|
---|
102 | <br> <p align="center">
|
---|
103 | <font size=-1><a href="primary.html">to
|
---|
104 | Primary Sources</a></font></td>
|
---|
105 | </tr>
|
---|
106 | </table>
|
---|
107 | </center>
|
---|
108 | </div>
|
---|
109 |
|
---|
110 | </body>
|
---|
111 |
|
---|
112 | </html><!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://hostingprod.com/js_source/geov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082595" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
---|
113 | <IMG SRC="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082595" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
---|