Chapter XXVIII - England Under Henry the Eighth

by Charles Dickens

　　PART THE SECOND

　　The Pope was thrown into a very angry state of mind when he heardof the King's marriage, and fumed exceedingly. Many of the Englishmonks and friars, seeing that their order was in danger, did thesame; some even declaimed against the King in church before hisface, and were not to be stopped until he himself roared out'Silence!' The King, not much the worse for this, took it prettyquietly; and was very glad when his Queen gave birth to a daughter,who was christened Elizabeth, and declared Princess of Wales as hersister Mary had already been.

　　One of the most atrocious features of this reign was that Henry theEighth was always trimming between the reformed religion and theunreformed one; so that the more he quarrelled with the Pope, themore of his own subjects he roasted alive for not holding thePope's opinions. Thus, an unfortunate student named John Frith,and a poor simple tailor named Andrew Hewet who loved him verymuch, and said that whatever John Frith believed he believed, wereburnt in Smithfield - to show what a capital Christian the Kingwas.

　　But, these were speedily followed by two much greater victims, SirThomas More, and John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester. The latter,who was a good and amiable old man, had committed no greateroffence than believing in Elizabeth Barton, called the Maid of Kent- another of those ridiculous women who pretended to be inspired,and to make all sorts of heavenly revelations, though they indeeduttered nothing but evil nonsense. For this offence - as it waspretended, but really for denying the King to be the supreme Headof the Church - he got into trouble, and was put in prison; but,even then, he might have been suffered to die naturally (short workhaving been made of executing the Kentish Maid and her principalfollowers), but that the Pope, to spite the King, resolved to makehim a cardinal. Upon that the King made a ferocious joke to theeffect that the Pope might send Fisher a red hat - which is the waythey make a cardinal - but he should have no head on which to wearit; and he was tried with all unfairness and injustice, andsentenced to death. He died like a noble and virtuous old man, andleft a worthy name behind him. The King supposed, I dare say, thatSir Thomas More would be frightened by this example; but, as he wasnot to be easily terrified, and, thoroughly believing in the Pope,had made up his mind that the King was not the rightful Head of theChurch, he positively refused to say that he was. For this crimehe too was tried and sentenced, after having been in prison a wholeyear. When he was doomed to death, and came away from his trialwith the edge of the executioner's axe turned towards him - as wasalways done in those times when a state prisoner came to thathopeless pass - he bore it quite serenely, and gave his blessing tohis son, who pressed through the crowd in Westminster Hall andkneeled down to receive it. But, when he got to the Tower Wharf onhis way back to his prison, and his favourite daughter, MargaretRoper, a very good woman, rushed through the guards again andagain, to kiss him and to weep upon his neck, he was overcome atlast. He soon recovered, and never more showed any feeling butcheerfulness and courage. When he was going up the steps of thescaffold to his death, he said jokingly to the Lieutenant of theTower, observing that they were weak and shook beneath his tread,'I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up; and, for my comingdown, I can shift for myself.' Also he said to the executioner,after he had laid his head upon the block, 'Let me put my beard outof the way; for that, at least, has never committed any treason.'Then his head was struck off at a blow. These two executions wereworthy of King Henry the Eighth. Sir Thomas More was one of themost virtuous men in his dominions, and the Bishop was one of hisoldest and truest friends. But to be a friend of that fellow wasalmost as dangerous as to be his wife.

　　When the news of these two murders got to Rome, the Pope ragedagainst the murderer more than ever Pope raged since the worldbegan, and prepared a Bull, ordering his subjects to take armsagainst him and dethrone him. The King took all possibleprecautions to keep that document out of his dominions, and set towork in return to suppress a great number of the Englishmonasteries and abbeys.

　　This destruction was begun by a body of commissioners, of whomCromwell (whom the King had taken into great favour) was the head;and was carried on through some few years to its entire completion.There is no doubt that many of these religious establishments werereligious in nothing but in name, and were crammed with lazy,indolent, and sensual monks. There is no doubt that they imposedupon the people in every possible way; that they had images movedby wires, which they pretended were miraculously moved by Heaven;that they had among them a whole tun measure full of teeth, allpurporting to have come out of the head of one saint, who mustindeed have been a very extraordinary person with that enormousallowance of grinders; that they had bits of coal which they saidhad fried Saint Lawrence, and bits of toe-nails which they saidbelonged to other famous saints; penknives, and boots, and girdles,which they said belonged to others; and that all these bits ofrubbish were called Relics, and adored by the ignorant people.But, on the other hand, there is no doubt either, that the King'sofficers and men punished the good monks with the bad; did greatinjustice; demolished many beautiful things and many valuablelibraries; destroyed numbers of paintings, stained glass windows,fine pavements, and carvings; and that the whole court wereravenously greedy and rapacious for the division of this greatspoil among them. The King seems to have grown almost mad in theardour of this pursuit; for he declared Thomas a Becket a traitor,though he had been dead so many years, and had his body dug up outof his grave. He must have been as miraculous as the monkspretended, if they had told the truth, for he was found with onehead on his shoulders, and they had shown another as his undoubtedand genuine head ever since his death; it had brought them vastsums of money, too. The gold and jewels on his shrine filled twogreat chests, and eight men tottered as they carried them away.How rich the monasteries were you may infer from the fact that,when they were all suppressed, one hundred and thirty thousandpounds a year - in those days an immense sum - came to the Crown.

　　These things were not done without causing great discontent amongthe people. The monks had been good landlords and hospitableentertainers of all travellers, and had been accustomed to giveaway a great deal of corn, and fruit, and meat, and other things.In those days it was difficult to change goods into money, inconsequence of the roads being very few and very bad, and thecarts, and waggons of the worst description; and they must eitherhave given away some of the good things they possessed in enormousquantities, or have suffered them to spoil and moulder. So, manyof the people missed what it was more agreeable to get idly than towork for; and the monks who were driven out of their homes andwandered about encouraged their discontent; and there were,consequently, great risings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Thesewere put down by terrific executions, from which the monksthemselves did not escape, and the King went on grunting andgrowling in his own fat way, like a Royal pig.

　　I have told all this story of the religious houses at one time, tomake it plainer, and to get back to the King's domestic affairs.

　　The unfortunate Queen Catherine was by this time dead; and the Kingwas by this time as tired of his second Queen as he had been of hisfirst. As he had fallen in love with Anne when she was in theservice of Catherine, so he now fell in love with another lady inthe service of Anne. See how wicked deeds are punished, and howbitterly and self-reproachfully the Queen must now have thought ofher own rise to the throne! The new fancy was a Lady Jane Seymour;and the King no sooner set his mind on her, than he resolved tohave Anne Boleyn's head. So, he brought a number of chargesagainst Anne, accusing her of dreadful crimes which she had nevercommitted, and implicating in them her own brother and certaingentlemen in her service: among whom one Norris, and Mark Smeatona musician, are best remembered. As the lords and councillors wereas afraid of the King and as subservient to him as the meanestpeasant in England was, they brought in Anne Boleyn guilty, and theother unfortunate persons accused with her, guilty too. Thosegentlemen died like men, with the exception of Smeaton, who hadbeen tempted by the King into telling lies, which he calledconfessions, and who had expected to be pardoned; but who, I amvery glad to say, was not. There was then only the Queen todispose of. She had been surrounded in the Tower with women spies;had been monstrously persecuted and foully slandered; and hadreceived no justice. But her spirit rose with her afflictions;and, after having in vain tried to soften the King by writing anaffecting letter to him which still exists, 'from her dolefulprison in the Tower,' she resigned herself to death. She said tothose about her, very cheerfully, that she had heard say theexecutioner was a good one, and that she had a little neck (shelaughed and clasped it with her hands as she said that), and wouldsoon be out of her pain. And she was soon out of her pain, poorcreature, on the Green inside the Tower, and her body was flunginto an old box and put away in the ground under the chapel.

　　There is a story that the King sat in his palace listening veryanxiously for the sound of the cannon which was to announce thisnew murder; and that, when he heard it come booming on the air, herose up in great spirits and ordered out his dogs to go a-hunting.He was bad enough to do it; but whether he did it or not, it iscertain that he married Jane Seymour the very next day.

　　I have not much pleasure in recording that she lived just longenough to give birth to a son who was christened Edward, and thento die of a fever: for, I cannot but think that any woman whomarried such a ruffian, and knew what innocent blood was on hishands, deserved the axe that would assuredly have fallen on theneck of Jane Seymour, if she had lived much longer.

　　Cranmer had done what he could to save some of the Church propertyfor purposes of religion and education; but, the great families hadbeen so hungry to get hold of it, that very little could be rescuedfor such objects. Even Miles Coverdale, who did the people theinestimable service of translating the Bible into English (whichthe unreformed religion never permitted to be done), was left inpoverty while the great families clutched the Church lands andmoney. The people had been told that when the Crown came intopossession of these funds, it would not be necessary to tax them;but they were taxed afresh directly afterwards. It was fortunatefor them, indeed, that so many nobles were so greedy for thiswealth; since, if it had remained with the Crown, there might havebeen no end to tyranny for hundreds of years. One of the mostactive writers on the Church's side against the King was a memberof his own family - a sort of distant cousin, Reginald Pole by name- who attacked him in the most violent manner (though he received apension from him all the time), and fought for the Church with hispen, day and night. As he was beyond the King's reach - being inItaly - the King politely invited him over to discuss the subject;but he, knowing better than to come, and wisely staying where hewas, the King's rage fell upon his brother Lord Montague, theMarquis of Exeter, and some other gentlemen: who were tried forhigh treason in corresponding with him and aiding him - which theyprobably did - and were all executed. The Pope made Reginald Polea cardinal; but, so much against his will, that it is thought heeven aspired in his own mind to the vacant throne of England, andhad hopes of marrying the Princess Mary. His being made a highpriest, however, put an end to all that. His mother, the venerableCountess of Salisbury - who was, unfortunately for herself, withinthe 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 answered the executioner, 'No! My head never committedtreason, and if you want it, you shall seize it.' So, she ranround and round the scaffold with the executioner striking at her,and her grey hair bedabbled with blood; and even when they held herdown upon the block she moved her head about to the last, resolvedto be no party to her own barbarous murder. All this the peoplebore, as they had borne everything else.

　　Indeed they bore much more; for the slow fires of Smithfield werecontinually burning, and people were constantly being roasted todeath - still to show what a good Christian the King was. Hedefied the Pope and his Bull, which was now issued, and had comeinto England; but he burned innumerable people whose only offencewas that they differed from the Pope's religious opinions. Therewas a wretched man named Lambert, among others, who was tried forthis before the King, and with whom six bishops argued one afteranother. When he was quite exhausted (as well he might be, aftersix bishops), he threw himself on the King's mercy; but the Kingblustered out that he had no mercy for heretics. So, he too fedthe fire.

　　All this the people bore, and more than all this yet. The nationalspirit seems to have been banished from the kingdom at this time.The very people who were executed for treason, the very wives andfriends of the 'bluff' King, spoke of him on the scaffold as a goodprince, and a gentle prince - just as serfs in similarcircumstances have been known to do, under the Sultan and Bashawsof the East, or under the fierce old tyrants of Russia, who pouredboiling and freezing water on them alternately, until they died.The Parliament were as bad as the rest, and gave the King whateverhe wanted; among other vile accommodations, they gave him newpowers of murdering, at his will and pleasure, any one whom hemight choose to call a traitor. But the worst measure they passedwas an Act of Six Articles, commonly called at the time 'the whipwith six strings;' which punished offences against the Pope'sopinions, without mercy, and enforced the very worst parts of themonkish religion. Cranmer would have modified it, if he could;but, being overborne by the Romish party, had not the power. Asone of the articles declared that priests should not marry, and ashe was married himself, he sent his wife and children into Germany,and began to tremble at his danger; none the less because he was,and had long been, the King's friend. This whip of six strings wasmade under the King's own eye. It should never be forgotten of himhow cruelly he supported the worst of the Popish doctrines whenthere was nothing to be got by opposing them.

　　This amiable monarch now thought of taking another wife. Heproposed to the French King to have some of the ladies of theFrench Court exhibited before him, that he might make his Royalchoice; but the French King answered that he would rather not havehis ladies trotted out to be shown like horses at a fair. Heproposed to the Dowager Duchess of Milan, who replied that shemight have thought of such a match if she had had two heads; but,that only owning one, she must beg to keep it safe. At lastCromwell represented that there was a Protestant Princess inGermany - those who held the reformed religion were calledProtestants, because their leaders had Protested against the abusesand impositions of the unreformed Church - named Anne of Cleves,who was beautiful, and would answer the purpose admirably. TheKing said was she a large woman, because he must have a fat wife?'O yes,' said Cromwell; 'she was very large, just the thing.' Onhearing this the King sent over his famous painter, Hans Holbein,to take her portrait. Hans made her out to be so good-looking thatthe King was satisfied, and the marriage was arranged. But,whether anybody had paid Hans to touch up the picture; or whetherHans, like one or two other painters, flattered a princess in theordinary way of business, I cannot say: all I know is, that whenAnne came over and the King went to Rochester to meet her, andfirst saw her without her seeing him, he swore she was 'a greatFlanders mare,' and said he would never marry her. Being obligedto do it now matters had gone so far, he would not give her thepresents he had prepared, and would never notice her. He neverforgave Cromwell his part in the affair. His downfall dates fromthat time.

　　It was quickened by his enemies, in the interests of the unreformedreligion, putting in the King's way, at a state dinner, a niece ofthe Duke of Norfolk, Catherine Howard, a young lady of fascinatingmanners, though small in stature and not particularly beautiful.Falling in love with her on the spot, the King soon divorced Anneof Cleves after making her the subject of much brutal talk, onpretence that she had been previously betrothed to some one else -which would never do for one of his dignity - and marriedCatherine. It is probable that on his wedding day, of all days inthe year, he sent his faithful Cromwell to the scaffold, and hadhis head struck off. He further celebrated the occasion by burningat one time, and causing to be drawn to the fire on the samehurdles, some Protestant prisoners for denying the Pope'sdoctrines, and some Roman Catholic prisoners for denying his ownsupremacy. Still the people bore it, and not a gentleman inEngland raised his hand.

　　But, by a just retribution, it soon came out that Catherine Howard,before her marriage, had been really guilty of such crimes as theKing had falsely attributed to his second wife Anne Boleyn; so,again the dreadful axe made the King a widower, and this Queenpassed away as so many in that reign had passed away before her.As an appropriate pursuit under the circumstances, Henry thenapplied himself to superintending the composition of a religiousbook called 'A necessary doctrine for any Christian Man.' He musthave been a little confused in his mind, I think, at about thisperiod; for he was so false to himself as to be true to some one:that some one being Cranmer, whom the Duke of Norfolk and others ofhis enemies tried to ruin; but to whom the King was steadfast, andto whom he one night gave his ring, charging him when he shouldfind himself, next day, accused of treason, to show it to thecouncil board. This Cranmer did to the confusion of his enemies.I suppose the King thought he might want him a little longer.

　　He married yet once more. Yes, strange to say, he found in Englandanother woman who would become his wife, and she was CatherineParr, widow of Lord Latimer. She leaned towards the reformedreligion; and it is some comfort to know, that she tormented theKing considerably by arguing a variety of doctrinal points with himon all possible occasions. She had very nearly done this to herown destruction. After one of these conversations the King in avery black mood actually instructed Gardiner, one of his Bishopswho favoured the Popish opinions, to draw a bill of accusationagainst her, which would have inevitably brought her to thescaffold where her predecessors had died, but that one of herfriends picked up the paper of instructions which had been droppedin the palace, and gave her timely notice. She fell ill withterror; but managed the King so well when he came to entrap herinto further statements - by saying that she had only spoken onsuch points to divert his mind and to get some information from hisextraordinary wisdom - that he gave her a kiss and called her hissweetheart. And, when the Chancellor came next day actually totake her to the Tower, the King sent him about his business, andhonoured him with the epithets of a beast, a knave, and a fool. Sonear was Catherine Parr to the block, and so narrow was her escape!

　　There was war with Scotland in this reign, and a short clumsy warwith France for favouring Scotland; but, the events at home were sodreadful, and leave such an enduring stain on the country, that Ineed say no more of what happened abroad.

　　A few more horrors, and this reign is over. There was a lady, AnneAskew, in Lincolnshire, who inclined to the Protestant opinions,and whose husband being a fierce Catholic, turned her out of hishouse. She came to London, and was considered as offending againstthe six articles, and was taken to the Tower, and put upon the rack- probably because it was hoped that she might, in her agony,criminate some obnoxious persons; if falsely, so much the better.She was tortured without uttering a cry, until the Lieutenant ofthe Tower would suffer his men to torture her no more; and then twopriests who were present actually pulled off their robes, andturned the wheels of the rack with their own hands, so rending andtwisting and breaking her that she was afterwards carried to thefire in a chair. She was burned with three others, a gentleman, aclergyman, and a tailor; and so the world went on.

　　Either the King became afraid of the power of the Duke of Norfolk,and his son the Earl of Surrey, or they gave him some offence, buthe resolved to pull them down, to follow all the rest who weregone. The son was tried first - of course for nothing - anddefended himself bravely; but of course he was found guilty, and ofcourse he was executed. Then his father was laid hold of, and leftfor death too.

　　But the King himself was left for death by a Greater King, and theearth was to be rid of him at last. He was now a swollen, hideousspectacle, with a great hole in his leg, and so odious to everysense that it was dreadful to approach him. When he was found tobe dying, Cranmer was sent for from his palace at Croydon, and camewith all speed, but found him speechless. Happily, in that hour heperished. He was in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and thethirty-eighth of his reign.

　　Henry the Eighth has been favoured by some Protestant writers,because the Reformation was achieved in his time. But the mightymerit of it lies with other men and not with him; and it can berendered none the worse by this monster's crimes, and none thebetter by any defence of them. The plain truth is, that he was amost intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot ofblood and grease upon the History of England.