{"id":180,"date":"2024-04-13T18:05:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T01:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/?page_id=180"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:23:11","slug":"henry-viii-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/henry-viii-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry VIII"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commentaries on
Shakespeare’s History Plays<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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HOME<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
OLLI<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
QUESTIONS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
COMMENTARIES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
AUDIO<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
GUIDES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
LINKS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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ACT 1<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 2<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 3<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 4<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 5<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ENDNOTES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare, William. The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth.<\/em> (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 883-954.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare Sources & Resources<\/strong>: <\/strong>RSC Resources<\/a> | ISE Resources<\/a> | S-O Sources<\/a> | 1623 Folio 561-88 (Folger)<\/a> | Shakespeare\u2019s Holinshed: Chronicle and \u2026 Plays Compared<\/em><\/a> | Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles<\/em> \u2026 \u201cHenry VIII\u201d<\/a> | Foxe\u2019s Actes and Monuments <\/em>of Martyrs 1890-91\/1866-67 (1583)<\/a> | Rowley\u2019s When You See Me, You Know Me<\/em> (1605)<\/a> | Tudor Society Sources<\/a> | H. B. Tree\u2019s Court of Henry VIII<\/em><\/a> |Henry VIII: The Reign (Mark Holinshed)<\/a> | Letters & Papers<\/em> 28 vols. (British History Online)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encyclopedias\/Lexica:<\/strong> Britannica.com<\/a> | <\/strong>World History Encyclopedia<\/a> | <\/strong>Wikipedia<\/a> | Wiktionary<\/a> | C. T. Onions\u2019 Shakespeare Dictionary<\/a> | A. Schmidt\u2019s Shakespeare Dictionary<\/a> | Concordance (Shakespeare Network)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comprehensive Shakespeare:<\/strong> Folger Shakespeare Library<\/a> | RSC Shakespeare\u2019s Plays<\/a> | Shakespeare-Online (Mabillard)<\/a> | Internet Shakespeare Editions (U-Vic)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text\/Media Repositories:<\/strong> U-Penn Books Page<\/a> | Holinshed Project<\/a> | Early English Books (EEBO)<\/a> | Renascence\/Luminarium<\/a> | Gutenberg<\/a> | HathiTrust<\/a> | Internet Archive<\/a> | M\u00fcnchen Digital Lib. (MDZ)<\/a> | Wikisource<\/a> | Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English & European Royals:<\/strong> English Monarchy Timeline (Drake)<\/a> | English Monarchs<\/a> | Kings & Queens of Britain (Historic-UK)<\/a> | Historic-UK.com<\/a> | Shakespeare <\/a>& History<\/a> | Family Trees: Edward III  \/ Neville \/ Percy (Hist. of Eng.)<\/a> | Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford)<\/a> |Burke\u2019s Peerage<\/a> | European Royal History<\/a> | French Rulers 840 CE to Present (Thoughtco)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundred Years\u2019 War: <\/strong>Medievalists.net<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War (Britannica)<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War (WHE)<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War Timeline<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wars of the Roses:<\/strong> Wars of the Roses.com<\/a> | <\/strong>Key People<\/a> | Battles Timeline<\/a> | <\/strong>Battles (Brit. Battles)<\/a> | Battles (Battlefields Trust)<\/a> | R3 Society: Wars of the Roses<\/a> | R3 House of York Timeline<\/a> | History Extra<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tudors: <\/strong>Tudor Society<\/a> | TudorHistory.org<\/a> | The Tudors (Eng-Heritage UK)<\/a> | Life in Elizabethan England (M. Secara)<\/a> | Elizabethan Era.org<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 1.0, Prologue (884-85, the prologue emphasizes the seriousness of the play that the audience is about to see: the characters are more or less modern, but the medieval mainstay \u201cthe fall of the great\u201d is a key theme.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s plenty of history and pageantry in Henry VIII, <\/em>subject to Shakespeare\u2019s usual telescoping and rearrangement of events. There is celebration and prophecy, too, and palace intrigue, with an emphasis on the interplay of subtle and strong characters. A key part of the play, however, remains (as the Norton editors say about the history play Sir Thomas More<\/em> that Shakespeare may have helped to revise) the Boccaccio-inspired tradition known as de casibus virorum illustrium:<\/em> \u201c[plays or stories] about the fall of illustrious men.\u201d [1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This play, then, offers in part a medieval morality tale of illustrious men and women falling from a great height. Often, the emphasis is upon the mistakes made by the great, the better to admonish humbler people. But sometimes, especially in a medieval context, the mistake consists in being a \u201cfallen\u201d human being: first you\u2019re at the top of Lady Fortune\u2019s wheel, and then you\u2019re at the bottom. [2]<\/a> The great ones whom Henry VIII destroys\u2014Buckingham, Cardinal Wolsey, and Catharine of Aragon\u2014are manifestly not villains. The sixteenth-century compendium A Mirror for Magistrates <\/em>illustrates this variety of sin, error, and mere misfortune. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In keeping with the dignity of the de casibus <\/em>tradition, the prologue-speaker politely asks the audience to adjust their attitude to one that will respect the playwright\u2019s aim in staging a play grounded in this tradition: \u201cBe sad as we would make ye,\u201d he asks, and continues with \u201cthink you see them great\u201d and then, \u201cin a moment, see \/ How soon this mightiness meets misery (884, prologue 25, 27, 29-30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other preliminary matter: most textual scholars consider Henry VIII <\/em>to have been a collaborative effort between Shakespeare and his successor playwright for the King\u2019s Men, John Fletcher, with each man probably writing about half of the play. As is almost always the case with such assertions, opinions vary on how much collaboration there was, and where exactly in the play it occurs. Whatever the final tally and location of lines and scenes may be, the results show that Fletcher was worthy of cooperating with Shakespeare to create a subtle, brilliant play. [4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 1 (885-90, the Duke of Buckingham complains to Norfolk about Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s self-interested handling of the English-French negotiations at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; the two men discuss the Cardinal\u2019s shortcomings, but Wolsey orders Buckingham arrested on a charge of treason.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, is the first to speak, and will be the first to fall. This Duke (son of Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham\u2014the man who unsuccessfully rebelled against King Richard III in 1483 after having supported him in usurping the throne) explains to Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk that he did not attend the meeting of more than two weeks\u2019 length between Henry VIII and the French King Francis I, a 1520 meeting known as the Field of Cloth of Gold, which was meant to solidify the friendship between the two nations following the Anglo-French peace treaty of 1514. [5]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk, describes the scene as a \u201cview of earthly glory\u201d (885, 1.1.14), praising both the French and English displays of splendor. Buckingham is not impressed, and he clearly resents Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s role in arranging this meeting: \u201cno man\u2019s pie is freed \/ From his ambitious finger\u201d (886, 1.1.52-53), says the aristocrat. As for the ceremonies, Buckingham describes them as \u201cfierce vanities\u201d (886, 1.1.54).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To what Buckingham has said, Norfolk adds some interesting analysis of their opponent Wolsey, saying, \u201cThere\u2019s in him stuff that puts him to these ends\u201d (886, 1.1.58). This lord goes on to describe Wolsey as a spider spinning a web from his own inner qualities: \u201cOut of his self-drawing web, \u2018a gives us note \/ The force of his own merit makes his way\u2014 \/ A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys \/ A place next to the King\u201d (886, 1.1.63-66).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What fuels Wolsey\u2019s great advancement? Lord Abergavenny has a ready answer: it is what Christianity tags as the first and worst of sins. Says his Lordship, \u201cI can see his pride \/ Peep through each part of him\u201d (887, 1.1.68). One must realize that some of these great noblemen could themselves stake a claim to the English throne\u2014Buckingham\u2019s father had a claim through the Beaufort line. [6]<\/a> So their resentment of the commoner Wolsey is understandable\u2014the man\u2019s father was a successful merchant, but not an aristocrat. Yet, Wolsey has grown closer to the king than any of them, and he enjoys throwing his weight around in their presence. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aristocrats in this scene don\u2019t think much of the treaties made with France recently, in which the Cardinal had a hand, just as he played a role in urging King Henry to go to war. The most recent wars against the French had lasted from 1512-14, and saw an English alliance with Pope Julius II\u2019s Holy League to free Italy from France. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bad blood between Buckingham and Wolsey evidently goes both ways: when the two pass each other, Wolsey eyes him suspiciously, and his words make it plain that he is plotting mischief for Buckingham. He wants to meet with the Duke\u2019s overseer or surveyor, and says, \u201cwe shall then know more, and Buckingham \/ Shall lessen this big look\u201d (888, 1.1.118-19). Buckingham, for his part, when Wolsey is out of earshot, calls him a \u201cbutcher\u2019s cur\u201d and \u201cvenom-mouthed\u201d (888, 1.1.120), but admits that he doesn\u2019t have the clout to take him down.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk tries to advise Buckingham with wise Baconian advice: \u201cTo climb steep hills \/ Requires slow pace at first \u2026\u201d (888, 1.1.131-32). Some readers may remember that Sir Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I\u2019s old counselor, writes in his 1597\/1612 essay \u201cOf Great Place\u201d that, \u201cAll rising to great place is by a winding stair.\u201d [9]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it all goes for naught with Buckingham, who considers Wolsey \u201ccorrupt and treasonous\u201d (889, 1.1.156). What is the justification for such an extreme claim? Buckingham explains that he believes the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V is in league with Cardinal Wolsey to break the peace with France since the Emperor feels threatened by that amity (889, 1.1.174-90). No sooner does Buckingham broach this issue with Norfolk than he is, as if on cue, arrested for high treason (890, 1.1.198-202).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buckingham realizes that the King has enlisted key subordinates against him, and understands at once that his day is over: \u201cMy life is spanned already; \/ I am the shadow of poor Buckingham \u2026\u201d (890, 1.1.223-24). Although Buckingham has been venting his resentment against Cardinal Wolsey throughout this scene, his real enemy is King Henry VIII, who surely does not trust this dangerously high-ranking nobleman\u2014given his ancestry, he is too close to being able to take the crown for himself. [10]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 2 (891-96, Queen Catharine and Norfolk complain to Henry about Wolsey\u2019s 16% tax on commerce; Henry sides with them against Wolsey by issuing a pardon to tax-evaders; Wolsey accuses Buckingham of treason, and this charge is bolstered by Buckingham\u2019s own former surveyor; despite Catharine\u2019s sharp questioning, King Henry is convinced of Buckingham\u2019s guilt and commands that a trial be held.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Henry seems grateful to Cardinal Wolsey for stopping what he believes is a full-on conspiracy on the part of Buckingham, but matters are more complex than that: Queen Catharine (that is, Catalina de Arag\u00f3n, daughter of King Ferdinand II of Arag\u00f3n and Queen Isabella I of Castile) has it in for Cardinal Wolsey, whom she sees as an enemy. [11]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catharine informs Henry that the Cardinal\u2019s tax scheme has incensed his subjects, and Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk, backs her with a detailed account of economic and social unrest: he explains that the clothiers have had to lay off \u201cThe spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers\u2026.\u201d These, he says, \u201care all in uproar \u2026\u201d (891-92, 1.2.33-36). Catharine may be a foreigner, but she seems to understand that this new tax is the sort of thing that might just bring down an English kingdom, if things aren\u2019t set right with alacrity. Names such as Wat Tyler and Jack Cade come to mind. [12]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, Cardinal Wolsey has levied a 16% tax that the commercial class has found unbearable. The tax is allegedly for the wars in France. King Henry is not amused, saying, \u201cThis is against our pleasure\u201d (892, 1.2.68), and he overrules Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s attempt at sage advice regarding how to take criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After listening to Wolsey, the King says, \u201cThings done well, \/ And with a care, exempt themselves from fear \u2026\u201d (893, 1.2.88-89), and follows it up with a remark that seems  sympathetic to the ordinary taxpayers of England: \u201cWhy, we take \/ From every tree, lop, bark, and part o\u2019th\u2019 timber, \/ And though we leave it with a root, thus hacked \/ The air will drink the sap\u201d (893, 1.2.95-98). The sum of it is, Henry issues a pardon to those who have failed to pay the tax, and that\u2019s that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Catharine next focuses on Buckingham\u2019s travails, and it seems that King Henry is disturbed at this man\u2019s fall as well: \u201cThe gentleman is learned and a most rare speaker \u2026\u201d (893, 1.2.112), he says, and can only point out that when corruption sets in the mind of such a man, the results are worse than they would be for an ordinary person (893, 1.2.115-18). Buckingham\u2019s surveyor confirms Henry\u2019s suspicions with the claim that his master\u2019s confessor Nicholas Hopkins has put it into his head that he should be king (894, 1.2.146-47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Catharine, however, isn\u2019t buying this story, and she points out that this surveyor lost his job when the tenants complained about him (895, 1.2.172-76), but the surveyor drives home his point by insinuating that Buckingham referred to his father\u2019s intention to assassinate King Richard III (895, 1.2.193-99), and that is quite enough for King Henry: \u201cThere\u2019s his period\u2014 \/ To sheathe his knife in us\u201d (896, 1.2.209-10). Perhaps Henry, a monarch as close to wielding absolute power as any in England\u2019s history, had a touch of paranoia. But then again, perhaps it wasn\u2019t paranoia at all. [13]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 3 (896-98, Sandys, Lovell, and the Lord Chamberlain mock French fashions and discuss Wolsey\u2019s generosity in distributing favors, as he will at this evening\u2019s feast.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This scene at the English court consists partly in mockery of French fashions, [14]<\/a> but there\u2019s also ambivalent praise of Cardinal Wolsey. Talking with Sir Thomas Lovell [15]<\/a> and the Lord Chamberlain, [16]<\/a> Lord William Sandys [17]<\/a> says of him, \u201cMen of his way should be most liberal\u201d (898, 1.3.61), implying that a great man of the church has much the same responsibility for spreading largess as secular lords. It may be distasteful to hear of a man of the cloth behaving corruptly or at least in a way that sidles up to corruption, but this is how authoritarian governments\u2014and what else is a medieval or early modern monarchy but authoritarian?\u2014usually operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 4 (898-901, Wolsey presides as \u201cmonarch\u201d during a courtly masque, and correctly espies King Henry amongst the masquers, who are also his courtiers; King Henry dances with Anne Boleyn and is quite taken with her fine appearance.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a courtly masque unfolds, with Cardinal Wolsey playing the role of monarch and King Henry one of the masquers. [18]<\/a> In it, the Cardinal is tasked with choosing which disguised person is King Henry himself. He chooses correctly, and turns over to him the place of honor. This action elicits from Henry the statement, \u201cYou are a churchman, or\u2014I\u2019ll tell you, Cardinal\u2014 \/ I should judge now unhappily\u201d (901, 1.4.88-89). Henry\u2019s statement is lighthearted, but there is menace in it: this man of humble origins is dangerously close to the king. Even in a pageant, Henry IV\u2019s dictum applies: \u201cUneasy lies the head that wears a crown.\u201d [19]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the spring 1522 courtly performance, [20]<\/a> King Henry asks a fateful question: \u201cWhat fair lady\u2019s that?\u201d (901, 2.1.91), and he receives the answer that the pretty lady is Anne Boleyn, who waits upon Queen Catharine. [21]<\/a> He is instantly drawn to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 1 (901-05, Buckingham\u2019s trial for treason is discussed by two gentlemen; Buckingham reflects as he goes to the executioner\u2019s block, and then does the standard things one might expect: says he is not guilty, pardons his enemies, and proclaims his continued loyalty to the King; rumors fly about King Henry\u2019s supposed scruples concerning his marriage to Catharine of Aragon.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A First and Second Gentleman compare what they know about Buckingham\u2019s trial. The emphasis is on the manner in which the great lord has conducted himself throughout and on the malice and envy shown by Cardinal Wolsey. Says the First Gentleman, \u201cwhoever the King favors, \/ The Card\u2019nal instantly will find employment\u2014 \/ And far enough from court, too\u201d (902, 2.1.47-49). The Second Gentleman notes that while the people love Buckingham, the same cannot be said of Wolsey: \u201cAll the commons \/ Hate him perniciously and, o\u2019my conscience, \/ Wish him ten fathom deep\u201d (902, 2.1.49-51). Both see that the Cardinal\u2019s machinations are at the root of Buckingham\u2019s downfall. [22]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his way to the block, Buckingham recounts in a dignified way his tale of being restored to the honor of his house by Henry VII only to see that honor stripped away by the king\u2019s son, Henry VIII. His father the 2nd<\/sup> Duke, of course, had died while rebelling against Richard III in 1483, betrayed, as he says, by his servant Banister (904, 2.1.109, see 100-35). [23]<\/a> The son seems to assert his righteousness, if not strictly \u201cinnocence,\u201d by allying his image with that of his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Duke\u2019s final advice has to do with liberality of counsel: even your friends, he says, \u201cwhen they once perceive \/ The least rub in your fortunes, fall away \/ Like water from ye \u2026\u201d (904, 2.1.128-30). Nevertheless, the Duke\u2019s final speech praises the King graciously, as such speeches generally do, the aim being to avoid punitive measures against one\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first scene closes with the information that King Henry is rumored to be expressing \u201ca scruple\u201d (905, 2.1.157) about his marriage to Catharine of Aragon. That scruple, as the Norton editor points out in footnote 2 for pg. 905, regards the fact that Henry\u2019s elder brother Arthur, the crown prince, was initially married to Catharine, but in 1509 (seven years after Arthur died in 1502 at the age of 15), Henry married his former sister-in-law. But the real reason, thinks the first gentleman, is that the ambitious Cardinal Wolsey is preparing \u201cto revenge him on the Emperor \/ For not bestowing on him, at his asking, \/ The archbishopric of Toledo \u2026\u201d (905, 2.1.161-63). [24]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 2 (905-09, Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Lord Chamberlain denounce Wolsey; they blame him for introducing trouble between King Henry and his virtuous wife: Wolsey wants Henry to marry the sister of the King of France; Henry bristles at Norfolk and Suffolk disturbing his private time, but extends a warm welcome to Wolsey and Campeius; Henry plans to divorce Catharine, even though, as he reveals to Gardiner, he appreciates her virtue.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Lord Chamberlain get together to hash out their observations about the present proceedings. Norfolk refers to Wolsey as operating like Fortune\u2019s child: \u201cThe King-Cardinal, \/ That blind priest, like the eldest son of fortune, \/ Turns what he list\u201d (906, 2.2.18-20). What exactly is Wolsey up to? He means to maneuver the King into marrying the French King\u2019s sister, the Duchess of Alen\u00e7on. Norton footnote 5 for pg. 906 tells us that such a marriage would bring the English and French kings back together in amity and thereby injure the standing of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underlying the noblemen\u2019s anger at Cardinal Wolsey is their strong class-based resentment of his rise to power. Norfolk again sums it up best: he worries, he says, that \u201cthis imperious man will work us all \/ From princes into pages. All men\u2019s honors \/ Lie like one lump before him, to be fashioned \/ Into what pitch he please\u201d (906, 2.2.45-48). As the early modern monarch Henry continues centralizing power in his hands, it seems, his noblemen have begun to feel the insecurity of even such strong positions as the ones they hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t help that the King practically tosses them out on their aristocratic ears when they intrude on his solitude. He exclaims, \u201cHow dare you thrust yourselves \/ Into my private meditations?\u201d (907, 2.2.63-64) But then he receives Cardinals Wolsey and Campeius warmly. He does not say to them, as he says to Suffolk and Norfolk, \u201cWe are busy. Go\u201d (907, 2.2.78). Ouch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Henry looks to Cardinal Wolsey for comfort amidst his gossiping and sniping lords (907, 2.2.72-74), and both men are set to go forward with the divorce proceedings against Queen Catharine. Just how dangerously misplaced Henry\u2019s trust is, we can catch by listening in on the conversation between Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeius from Rome. [25]<\/a> When the Roman cardinal asks him to verify his reason for transferring a certain Richard Pace away from his position as secretary to King Henry, Wolsey is not shy about his reason: \u201cHe was a fool, \/ For he would needs be virtuous\u201d (909, 2.2.130-31). Wolsey\u2019s secretary, Stephen Gardiner, now becomes the King\u2019s new secretary. [26]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by Wolsey\u2019s prideful declaration spoken in proffered fellowship with Cardinal Campeius, \u201cWe live not to be griped by meaner persons\u201d (909, 2.2.134). Such a remark seems appropriate only for a prince to say, if anyone at all. At least for Henry, there\u2019s probably some genuine emotion involved in his decision to abandon his virtuous queen, even if he stage-manages his feelings for maximum political effect, as when he says to Stephen Gardiner, \u201cWould it not grieve an able man to leave \/ So sweet a bedfellow?\u201d (909, 2.2.140-41)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sort of language just quoted raises an interesting question about discourse at the court of Henry VIII. The King\u2019s maneuvering against Catharine of Aragon and some of his male enemies is at times ruthless, and the stakes could scarcely be higher. Since Henry separated from Catharine in 1531, when he was 40 and she was 46, there may be some nostalgia here for passion long gone, but this vain King is surely not suggesting that he is no longer \u201cable\u201d sexually, so how should we take his utterance to Wolsey? How much of what he and others say amounts to double-speak designed to cover self-serving shifts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his critical text Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, <\/em>Stephen Greenblatt argues that the early modern era is distinguished from the medieval period in the extent to which artists, courtiers, and politicians tended to \u201cfashion\u201d and experiment with their identities through various species of performance-related activities. [27]<\/a> It makes sense to apply that concept of fashioning or constructing identity to the age\u2019s powerful kings and queens as well. At his best, Henry VIII certainly had the skills of his great courtiers, officials, and nobles. We could say the same of Queen Elizabeth I, too, with her carefully produced \u201ccult of the Virgin Queen\u201d image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 3 (909-12, Anne Boleyn says she sympathizes with Queen Catharine, but she also receives sage, saucy advice from a worldly older woman about what she would willingly do to become Henry\u2019s queen; the Lord Chamberlain soon informs Anne that King Henry has declared her \u201cMarchioness of Pembroke.\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third scene, we hear a partly comic discussion between an elderly lady of the court and Anne Boleyn. \u201cI swear, \u2018tis better to be lowly born \/ And range with humble livers in content \/ Than to be perked up in a glist\u2019ring grief \/ And wear a golden sorrow\u201d (909, 2.3.19-22), declares Anne, adding \u201cI would not be a queen\u201d (910, 2.3.24). To this elegant denial, the old woman offers only scorn: \u201cI would,\u201d she says, \u201cAnd venture maidenhead for\u2019t; and so would you, \/ For all this spice of your hypocrisy\u201d (910, 2.3.24-26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the conversation continues, both before and after the Lord Chamberlain enters and informs the young lady that King Henry has decided to honor her with the title Marchioness of Pembroke and a substantial income of 1000 pounds per year, which would be worth perhaps nearly half a million pounds today (911, 2.3.60-65). [28]<\/a> Anne seems both fearful and excited at the same time\u2014an understandable response to the attentions of so great a figure as Henry VIII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord Chamberlain speaks prophetically without knowing it when, adding a serious note when he enters and says of Anne, \u201cwho knows yet \/ But from this lady may proceed a gem \/ To lighten all this isle\u201d (911, 2.3.77-79).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 4 (912-18, Queen Catharine defends herself sharply against Wolsey, but then, disdainful of the domineering Cardinal, she walks out on the Church court\u2019s divorce proceedings; Henry absolves Wolsey of undue influence in urging the divorce, taking the blame himself; the proceedings are left unsettled because of Catharine\u2019s absence; Henry feels \u201cplayed\u201d by the Roman cardinals, and longs for the return of the sympathetic Cranmer.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The divorce proceedings begin, and in spite of the old saw that those who defend themselves in court have a fool for a client, Queen Catharine proves herself an able rhetorician. What the Queen wants is time to get some advice from her native Spain, but Cardinal Wolsey has a vested interest in keeping her from any such counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Cardinal\u2019s intentions, Queen Catharine has no illusions, and confronts him with fortitude: \u201cI do believe, \/ Induced by potent circumstances, that \/ You are mine enemy, and make my challenge \/ You shall not be my judge\u201d (914, 2.4.73-76). The Queen\u2019s appeal is to Pope Clement VII (Giulio de\u2019 Medici, 1523-34), not to anyone in this English court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catharine accuses Cardinal Wolsey of having a heart \u201ccrammed with arrogancy, spleen, and pride\u201d (915, 2.4.108), and says further, \u201cYou \u2026 \/ \u2026 now are mounted \/ Where powers are your retainers and your words, \/ Domestics to you, serve your will as\u2019t please \/ Yourself pronounce their office\u201d (915, 2.4.109-13). We might suggest that she is attributing great impiety to the Cardinal here, in that only God should have such a relationship to authority and language, with the latter all but instantly being, as the Norton editor\u2019s footnote 9 to pg. 915 says, transformed into actual deeds. In other words, \u201cLet there be light!\u201d saith Thomas Wolsey, and it is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this and with her demand that the case be judged by the Pope, not her accusers, Catharine of Aragon makes an imperious, unstoppable exit from the court. Her words at this juncture are magnificent: she says to Griffith, \u201cI will not tarry; no, nor ever more \/ Upon this business my appearance make \/ In any of their courts\u201d (915, 2.4.128-30). Not even Henry VIII could top that!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The powerful King Henry\u2019s response to this action is remarkably mild: he says only, \u201cGo thy ways, Kate \u2026\u201d (915, 2.4.130). Catharine\u2019s virtue and nobility together are a force of nature. What else can the royal gentleman say? We might note that Henry waits to make even this statement until the Queen has exited the court with her attendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a bit of court theater between King Henry and Cardinal Wolsey, in which Wolsey earnestly asks the King \u201cwhether ever I \/ Did broach this business to your highness \u2026\u201d (916, 2.4.145-46). Henry duly lets Wolsey off the hook, and proceeds to offer a public explanation for his actions, calling upon the Bishop of Lincoln to testify to his deep anxiety over the fact that Henry has married his widowed sister-in-law and regards it as a sin: \u201cThus hulling in \/ The wild sea of my conscience\u201d (917, 2.4.196-97), insists Henry, he made his way toward divorcing Catharine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the court is adjourned due to Catharine\u2019s absence, King Henry believes he is being played by the assembled cardinals in the interest of Rome, and this leads him to wish for the return of his trusted supporter Thomas Cranmer, soon to be Archbishop of Canterbury (917-18, 2.4.232-38). This same man would go on to have a distinguished career during Henry\u2019s reign, but would then be burnt at the stake in 1556 by Henry\u2019s Catholic daughter Queen Mary for his adherence to the Protestant cause. [29]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 3, Scene 1 (918-22, Catharine at first resists the counsel of Wolsey and Campeius to stop trying to prevent Henry from divorcing her, but ultimately, she submits\u2014a strong woman crushed by larger forces.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, Cardinal Wolsey is at his height and Queen Catharine recognizes how far she has fallen. She has become another portrait in the grand de casibus virorum illustrium <\/em>pattern so common in medieval and early modern European literature. Little does Wolsey know that in the second scene, he, too, will join the same gallery of those who have lost Fortune\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening of the scene presents to us a queen still in strong command of her own image and bearing. Wolsey tries to shoehorn Catharine into a more private recess in her apartments, but she rebuffs this clumsy effort with the declaration, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing I have done yet, o\u2019my conscience, \/ Deserves a corner\u201d (918, 3.1.30-31). When Wolsey tries to flatter her in fine Latin, addressing her as \u201cregina serenissima<\/em>\u201d (the Norton editor glosses this phrase accurately as \u201cmost serene queen\u201d) her wonderfully poised and witty response is, \u201cO good my lord, no Latin. \/ \u2026 \/ The willing\u2019st sin I ever yet committed \/ May be absolved in English\u201d (919, 3.1.48-49). [30]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two cardinals offer false good will and veiled threats. Catharine\u2019s self-defense includes making herself out to be less capable than she is, as she refers to her \u201cweak wit\u201d (919, 3.1.71). She also requests basic legal representation: \u201cgood your graces,\u201d she says, \u201cLet me have time and counsel for my cause. \/ Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless\u201d (919, 3.1.77-79). Catharine also says boldly, \u201cI dare not make myself so guilty \/ To give up willingly that noble title \/ Your master wed me to\u201d (921, 3.1.138-40). She is telling these powerful men that if they want her crown, they\u2019ll have to take it from her\u2014she won\u2019t make it easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Queen does a fine job of exposing the cardinals\u2019 subterfuges in the service of Henry VIII\u2019s sham \u201ctrial\u201d of her. She will trust no one in England, saying bluntly, \u201cThey that must weigh out my afflictions, \/ They that my trust must grow to, live not here\u201d (920, 3.1.87-88). Catharine\u2019s direct challenge of English probity generally is remarkable, as she rounds upon Wolsey and says, \u201cWould I had never trod this English earth \/ Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it! \/ Ye have angels\u2019 faces, but heaven knows your hearts\u201d (921, 3.1.142-44).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, however, there is no way out. Catharine is surrounded by pontifical jackals and menaced with the loss of Henry\u2019s affection: \u201cThe King loves you; \/ Beware you lose it not\u201d (921, 3.1.170-71), says Cardinal Campeius to her. There is nothing left for Catharine but to say, \u201cDo what ye will, my lords, and pray forgive me \u2026\u201d (921, 3.1.174). Even this imperious queen must take up the posture of \u201ca woman lacking wit\u201d (176) and consign her future to the powerful men who have been set upon her to do King Henry\u2019s bidding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 3, Scene 2 (922-33, Courtiers reflect upon Wolsey\u2019s falling out of grace with the King, and they also talk about Henry\u2019s marriage to Anne Boleyn, whose coronation is imminent; Wolsey enters, disturbed; King Henry hands him a raft of papers exposing his dishonesty and avarice, and the Cardinal knows his fall is inevitable; he reflects on his life and ponders his spiritual state; Wolsey also offers Cromwell counsel about how to gain the King\u2019s confidence.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s enemies appear to be encircling him\u2014Norfolk, Surrey, Suffolk and the Lord Chamberlain open the scene by assessing the Cardinal\u2019s current position and their own prospects for unseating him. Surrey\u2019s stated reason for hating Wolsey is that the man was responsible for the downfall of his father-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham. Norfolk believes that presenting a unified front will sweep the Cardinal away, but the Lord Chamberlain is more circumspect: the key thing is to \u201cBar his access to th\u2019 King\u201d since Wolsey has, says the Lord Chamberlain, \u201ca witchcraft \/ Over the King in\u2019s tongue\u201d (922, 3.2.17-19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is known, as Suffolk points out, that some letters Cardinal Wolsey intended only for Pope Clement VII have been misdelivered, and Henry has seen them. In those materials, Wolsey was trying to get the Pope to delay Catharine\u2019s divorce and thereby keep Henry from furthering his affair with Anne Boleyn (922-23, 3.2.30-36). Wolsey doesn\u2019t know it yet, but in truth, the King has already secretly married his sweetheart Anne, so as the Lord Chamberlian points out, all the Cardinal\u2019s scheming has been for naught (923, 3.2.38-42). [31]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also find out that Cardinal Campeius has departed back to Rome without settling the matter of Henry\u2019s divorce from Queen Catharine, and that soon-to-be Archbishop Cranmer has returned from Europe with affirmations that what Henry is doing is legitimate (923, 3.2.56-60, 64-66). The upshot is that Catharine is now to be demoted to the titles \u201cPrincess Dowager\u201d and \u201cwidow to Prince Arthur\u201d (923-24, 3.2.70-71).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell enter, and the lords observe the interaction from a distance. Cromwell tells him that he has already delivered a packet of letters to the King and that he seemed to be in consternation over the contents. Wolsey must intuit that he has included material not meant for Henry. Even so, when Cromwell departs, he\u2019s still scheming against Henry\u2019s companion: \u201cNo, I\u2019ll no Anne Boleyns for him; \/ There\u2019s more in\u2019t than fair visage. Boleyn? \/ No, we\u2019ll no Boleyns\u201d (924, 3.2.87-89). Wolsey thinks Henry should marry the King of France\u2019s sister, the Duchess of Alen\u00e7on. He prefers a French-English alliance. [32]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the height of his power, then, Cardinal Wolsey presumes to be the arbiter of Henry\u2019s romantic affairs, and the only true shepherd of his foreign policy as well. Wolsey cannot stand this woman who has caught Henry\u2019s eye. She is, in his view, \u201cA spleeny Lutheran,\u201d [33]<\/a> and her ally Thomas Cranmer is \u201cAn heretic, an arch-one\u201d (924, 3.2.99, 102). He considers them enemies of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, King Henry is thinking unpleasant thoughts about the Cardinal\u2019s accumulation of personal wealth. Those letters misdelivered into his hands contained, among other things, an inventory of the precious-metal plate owned by Wolsey (925, 3.2.120-28). Why is this man of the cloth accumulating so much private wealth? Henry must be asking himself. How can Cardinal Wolsey be loyal to the King\u2019s interests if he\u2019s so attentive to his own betterment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange that follows is initially decorous, with Henry reminding Wolsey that his own predecessor, King Henry VII, honored him and that he himself has made the Cardinal \u201cThe prime man of the state\u201d (926, 3.2.162). But civility soon gives way to threatening bluntness. Giving him in quick succession a few of the incriminating papers, the angry and incredulous Henry offers his parting shot: \u201cRead o\u2019er this, \/ And, after, this\u2014and then to breakfast with \/ What appetite you have\u201d (927, 3.2.201-03).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left alone, Cardinal Wolsey can do no other than reflect on King Henry\u2019s rage: \u201cWhat should this mean?\u201d (927, 3.2.203) When he sees the contents of the papers that the King has returned to him, Wolsey immediately realizes his salad days are over: \u201c\u2018Tis th\u2019account \/ Of all that world of wealth I have drawn together \/ For mine own ends \u2026\u201d (927, 3.2.210-12). As he confesses to himself, with this wealth he had intended to make himself pope and pay off his allies in Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the worst of it is the fact that the King has searched into his conspiracy to delay the divorce with Catharine. This is damning, and he responds hauntingly, \u201cI shall fall \/ Like a bright exhalation in the evening, \/ And no man see me more\u201d (927, 3.2.225-27). The Norton editor glosses \u201cexhalation\u201d as \u201cshooting star.\u201d That\u2019s a lovely figure for an ugly political and personal reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There ensues a bitter argument between the Cardinal and his enemies Norfolk, Suffolk, and Surrey, with them demanding that he surrender the great seal that goes with his office and Wolsey peremptorily refusing to do so: \u201cThat seal \/ You ask with such a violence, the King, \/ \u2026 with his own hand gave me \u2026\u201d (928, 3.2.245-47). \u201cEnvy,\u201d declares Wolsey, lies at the root of his enemies\u2019 gloating (928, 3.2.239). But calling him a traitor and murderer, the lords recount Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s numerous offenses, all of them implying either subterfuge for personal ends or abuse of King Henry\u2019s authority (929-30, 3.2.302-32). Essentially, for Wolsey to have put his own interests before the King\u2019s was treasonous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surrey\u2019s broadside pins on Wolsey a charge of sheer avarice or greed, facilitated by extortion. Like that of the other lords, Surrey\u2019s resentment runs deep in part because Wolsey\u2019s low birth and great power present an intolerable threat to the aristocracy: he speaks of \u201cour despised nobility\u201d and \u201cour issues [sons]\u2014 \/ Who, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen \u2026\u201d (929, 3.2.291-92).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows this argument when Cardinal Wolsey is alone is classic after the manner of de casibus <\/em>rhetoric. [34]<\/a> The disgraced man sums up his career to himself, \u201cI have ventured, \/ Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, \/ This many summers in a sea of glory, \/ But far beyond my depth\u201d (930, 3.2.358-61). The \u201cbladder,\u201d Wolsey goes on to elucidate, was \u201chigh-blown pride\u201d (930, 3.2.361), the very sin that others in Shakespeare and Fletcher\u2019s play have attributed to him all along. His de casibus-<\/em>inspired speech as a whole, with its turn to poetics in the service of honesty, appears to be the beginning of a sincere casting-off of that sin of pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge brings more stinging sorrow and humiliation. Wolsey learns that Sir Thomas More has replaced him as Lord Chancellor [35]<\/a> and that Cranmer, whom he considers a heretic, has been made Archbishop of Canterbury. [36]<\/a> In addition, the Cardinal learns that King Henry has married Anne Boleyn. [37]<\/a> His plans have gone awry, wrecking him in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolsey\u2019s response to all this is, in part, \u201cAll my glories \/ In that one woman I have lost for ever\u201d (932, 3.2.408-09), and his main concern seems to be to protect his ally Cromwell and shield him from King Henry\u2019s displeasure (932, 3.2.414-17). Wolsey seems resolved to concentrate on the next world now that he\u2019s been stripped of everything in this one. At the outset of his conversation with Cromwell, he had already said, \u201cI know myself now, and I feel within me \/ A peace above all earthly dignities \u2026\u201d (931, 3.2.378-80).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peace that Wolsey is talking about is that great curative, a newly clear conscience. But there is also bitterness and self-reproach in his concluding words to Cromwell: he says, \u201cHad I but served my God with half the zeal \/ I served my King, he would not in mine age \/ Have left me naked to mine enemies\u201d (933, 3.2.455-57). With these words, the once great Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s fall from grace is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Cardinal Wolsey fall? It makes sense here to quote the British 19th-century Liberal Party politician Lord Acton, who writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. [38]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above quotation seems more precise than the old medieval saw, \u201cPride goeth before a fall.\u201d Acton\u2019s Law flows from the older saying, but it is easier to draw out the political implications from what its author says: holders of great offices tend to conflate their own desires and ambitions with the powers of the office they hold, and even with the good of the people subject to those powers. Authoritarian rulers invariably confound the interests and well-being of the nation they rule with their own interests and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardinal Wolsey, we may surmise, came to suppose that his own ambition to rise in the Catholic Church was consonant with the good of the Church and that the authority he wielded in King Henry VIII\u2019s name was one with his own interest to rise in English society and politics. This man of humble origins who achieved dizzying heights of power, then, put himself in an impossible position, trying to square the circle of these two \u201cgoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manifestly, King Henry did not consider his own interests compatible with the imperatives of the Catholic Church, and he eventually ran out of patience with a servant, however exalted, who not only enriched himself by means of his office but also presumed to settle his romantic affairs for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acton\u2019s Law aside, the Shakespeare-and-Fletcher portrait we get of Cardinal Wolsey is not that of a thoroughly bad man, and certainly not that of a monster. There is dignity in Wolsey\u2019s willingness and even eagerness to put his earthly authorities behind him and seek the absolution of heaven. He died of an illness late in 1530, which spared him the ordeal of being put on trial for treason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 1 (933-36, it\u2019s a time of strange forsakings and changes: gentlemen say Catharine of Aragon is banished to Kimbolton; Anne Boleyn is crowned queen and the procession returns home; the disgraced Wolsey\u2019s York Place is renamed Whitehall.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This scene evokes the \u201cstrange fashion of forsaking\u201d that Henry VIII\u2019s machinations established in Tudor England. One of his courtiers, Sir Thomas Wyatt, was the author of the phrase just quoted in his mid-1530s poem \u201cThey flee from me, that sometime did me seek.\u201d [39]<\/a> It would be difficult to find a better phrase to describe the changes wrought by Henry\u2019s desire for a male heir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The various gentlemen whose voices traverse this scene tell us that Queen Catharine \u201cwas divorced, \/ And the late marriage made of none effect \u2026\u201d (933, 4.1.32-33). For her failure to appear during the divorce proceedings, Catharine has been shunted off to Kimbolton Castle in Cambridgeshire, which will be the location of her death from cancer in January 1536.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Anne Boleyn, the gentlemen have gathered to behold her June 1533 coronation procession, for which the text offers fairly detailed instructions. The second gentleman is lavish in his praise, saying, \u201cOur King has all the Indies in his arms, \/ And more, and richer, when he strains that lady. \/ I cannot blame his conscience\u201d (934, 4.1.45-47). The last sentence of this effusion could<\/em> be taken as somewhat suggestive of Henry VIII\u2019s placing sexual desire above marital loyalty, but perhaps that would be reading too harshly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gentlemen observers go on to describe the giddiness of the commonfolk at Anne\u2019s crowning. The third gentleman says he found a spot in the procession, but it was so crowded that \u201ca finger \/ Could not be wedged in more\u201d and that as for the crowd, he is \u201cstifled \/ With the mere rankness of their joy\u201d (935, 4.1.57-59). The Norton editor\u2019s footnote 6 for pg. 935 glosses the first part of this quotation suggestively, saying that such passages call to our attention \u201cthe sexual energy somehow connected with, and unleashed by, Anne.\u201d This near-fertility goddess, then, returns to York Place as Henry\u2019s queen. [40]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the first gentleman, serving as unofficial censor for King Henry, who points out that \u201cYork Place\u201d place must be called Whitehall, now that the former Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York, Cardinal Wolsey, is no longer its resident (936, 4.1.95-97). [41]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 2 (936-41, Griffith informs the ailing Catharine of Wolsey\u2019s death; she at first speaks harshly of the Cardinal, but then charitably; the sleeping Catharine is treated to a vision of joyful spirits; her dying request to Ambassador Caputius, sent from her nephew, Emperor Charles, is to take good care of her servants and speak on her daughter Mary\u2019s behalf with King Henry.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 2 takes us from our observation of Anne Boleyn\u2019s coronation procession to the seriously ill former queen Catharine in her Kimbolton apartments. Although Shakespeare and Fletcher telescope the temporal aspect of this scene, in real life around two-and-a-half years would have passed between Anne\u2019s coronation in June 1533 and, say, mid-1535 through January 7, 1536, when Catharine died from cancer. [42]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffith recounts for Catharine the death of the disgraced Wolsey, and her reaction at first is highly critical: \u201cHe was a man \/ Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking \/ Himself with princes \u2026\u201d (937, 4.2.33-35). But almost at once, she accepts Griffith\u2019s offer to speak fairly of the man. Griffith makes the proverbial comment, \u201cMen\u2019s evil manners live in brass; their virtues \/ We write in water\u201d (937, 4.2.45-46), [43]<\/a> and reminds Catharine that whatever his faults, Wolsey was a true scholar, generous in giving, and, towards the end of his life, magnificent in his acceptance of a newly humbled condition (938, 4.2.48-68 inclusive).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catharine responds generously, with a variation on an earlier pious sentiment. She now says of Wolsey, whom she admits to having hated, \u201cPeace be with him\u201d (938, 4.2.75). With that thought, we are on to the main significance of the second scene, which is to relate the manner of Catharine\u2019s departure from the world. She is granted in her sleep a visionary invitation to a banquet, which seems to signify purity, joy, and her salvation to come. The stage directions describe this vision in some detail, with white-clad spirits holding a garland over her head, which they pass one to another (938-39, 4.2.83ff). [44]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Catharine awakens from this masque-like dream, she receives a visit at King Henry\u2019s instance from her nephew Caputius, ambassador for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Catharine\u2019s requests are simple: bring up her daughter Mary well, and take care of the female and male servants who have so long attended her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, to her attendant Patience, Catharine says, \u201cStrew me over \/ With maiden flowers, that all the world may know \/ I was a chaste wife to my grave\u201d (940-41, 4.2.168-70). Shakespeare\u2019s Queen Catharine (Catalina de Arag\u00f3n was her Spanish name) dies as she had lived: a paragon of Franciscan Catholic virtue. [45]<\/a> While Shakespeare and Fletcher hardly seem interested in \u201ctrashing\u201d King Henry VIII, it is hard to ignore the damage that King Henry VIII\u2019s image suffers from the dignified portrayal in life and the pious passing of Queen Catharine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 1 (941-45, Cranmer, the newly invested Archbishop of Canterbury, is fearful at being surrounded by his enemies, who consider him a heretic; King Henry, who has just been told Anne is in labor, promises to help Cranmer and gives him a ring he can show to invoke royal authority before the Privy Council; the birth of a female child is announced to Henry.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 1 threatens to present the audience with the de casibus-<\/em>inspireddownfall of yet another great man in Henry\u2019s orbit, Thomas Cranmer. The scene, which sets up the play\u2019s representation of the 1543 Prebendaries\u2019 Plot against Archbishop Cranmer, [46]<\/a> begins with Gardiner confiding in Lovell about his dislike for the new queen. Gardiner is glad that she is about to give birth, but would just as well that she not long outlive this duty. His feelings are similarly uncharitable towards Thomas Cranmer. Says Gardiner of the Queen and Cranmer, nothing will be right in England until \u201cCranmer, Cromwell\u2014her two hands\u2014and she \/ Sleep in their graves\u201d (941, 5.1.31-32).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovell does not seem to share Gardiner\u2019s antipathy for Cranmer, Cromwell, or the Queen, and indeed he seems to provide some diplomatic \u201cgrease\u201d in speaking with these great lords and then with the King. This makes sense especially because, as already noted in this commentary, the historical figure Sir Thomas Lovell died in 1524, [47]<\/a> so he was no longer alive to see the unfolding of the 1543 Prebendaries\u2019 Plot. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, we may remember that the Catholic Cardinal Wolsey had called Cranmer a heretic in Act 3, Scene 2, and now Gardiner calls him the same: he is said to be \u201cA most arch-heretic\u201d (942, 5.1.45) who must be dealt with, and quickly. Cranmer is beset by deadly enemies, and it looks as if the pattern with which we are familiar is beginning to reassert itself. Leaving aside historical fact for a moment and dealing solely with dramatic representation, we might ask, will Cranmer go the way of all high-status flesh according to the de casibus<\/em> tradition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cranmer is fearful when King Henry takes him aside to inform him that various complaints have determined him to call his new archbishop before the council and that he must in the meantime reside in the Tower of London (942, 5.1.91-108). However, we soon realize that King Henry\u2019s intentions towards Cranmer are friendly and even that there is a budding romance plot in the way the King deals with the challenge to Cranmer\u2019s authority as archbishop. Henry promises Cranmer that he is keeping his enemies on a short leash, telling him, \u201cThey shall no more prevail than we give way to\u201d (944, 5.1.143).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Henry will play the role of a savior, giving the beleaguered man a ring by which the King\u2019s favor may be known and thereby get him out of a dangerous confrontation with his opponents. It seems almost as if Cranmer is an Arthurian knight on his way to an ordeal at the Chapel Perilous, where a magic artifact will come to his rescue just in time. (Shakespeare\u2019s readers will no doubt recall other \u201cring plots\u201d in his plays.) [48]<\/a> The King\u2019s gesture (historically factual, according to Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles<\/em>) [49]<\/a> would naturally appeal to the Protestant sensibilities of Shakespeare\u2019s audience, which had come to see Thomas Cranmer as a martyr for the cause against Catholic oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of Act 5, Scene 1, the old woman who attends the Queen informs King Henry that a child has been born, and introduces the matter of gender in comic fashion. Henry is desperate to hear that he has at last been given a legitimate son to inherit his throne, [50]<\/a> and the old woman dangerously fans his hopes. She declares the new child to be \u201ca lovely boy\u201d (945, 5.1.164), but immediately has to confess that \u201c\u2018tis a girl \/ Promises boys hereafter\u201d (945, 5.2.165-66).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This old woman must be a colorful character because after a performance like that, one would think she would be happy to have escaped the King\u2019s wrath, but the scene ends with her pursuing Henry to complain about his measly tip of \u201can hundred marks\u201d (945, 5.2.170).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The date of the future Queen Elizabeth I\u2019s birth was September 7, 1533. Her elder sister by Catharine of Aragon, Mary, had been born on February 18, 1516. Mary, a woman of profoundly Catholic convictions, would become queen in 1553 upon the death of her little brother King Edward VI, [51]<\/a> who reigned only from 1547-53, and who would be succeeded by Elizabeth upon her passing in 1558.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 2 (945-50, Archbishop Cranmer is first humiliated by his enemies when they shut him out of a Privy Council session, and then exalted with the aid of King Henry\u2019s ring-token; Henry soon enters and commands his councilors to make peace with Cranmer, whom he names as godfather to little Princess Elizabeth.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archbishop Cranmer is forced to wait outside the Privy Council chamber with common fellows. This detail alone incenses King Henry, as it probably should. The Lord Chancellor [52]<\/a> begins to make his case against Cranmer, who is rebuked for his teachings tending towards Reformation theology: these are, in the Chancellor\u2019s view, \u201cnew opinions, \/ Diverse and dangerous \u2026\u201d (946, 5.2.51-52; see 42-53). He is informed that since otherwise nobody will feel free to offer evidence against him, he must reside in the Tower of London (947, 5.2.85-91).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exchange goes on for a while, but in the end, Cranmer simply produces the ring his royal supporter had given him, saying, \u201cBy virtue of that ring, I take my cause \/ Out of the gripes of cruel men and give it \/ To a most noble judge, the King my master\u201d (948, 5.2.133-35). King Henry rounds off this piece of theater by taking his seat and sorely rebuking the members of the Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Surrey tries to calm him with a courtly \u201cMay it please your grace,\u201d King Henry cuts him short with \u201cNo, sir, it does not please me. \/ I had thought I had had men of some understanding \/ And wisdom of my council, but I find none\u201d (949, 5.2.168-70). Henry proceeds to insist that all Council members embrace Archbishop Cranmer and put aside their grievances. Which, of course, they do, knowing with whom they deal. The scene ends with Henry longing for the christening of his new daughter, Elizabeth (950, 5.2.211-14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 3 (950-52, the Porter and his man try to keep the crowd in check\u2014they have all come to see the christening of Henry and Anne Boleyn\u2019s daughter, Elizabeth; the porter and the Lord Chamberlain complain about the size of the crowd.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common people annoy the porter to no end\u2014he seems to think of himself and his companions as being under siege\u2014but they come nonetheless to enjoy the King\u2019s hospitality, such as it is. Something of Anne\u2019s \u201cfertility goddess\u201d appeal continues into this scene, with the porter marveling at the effect the whole affair is having on the multitude: \u201cBless me, what a fry of fornication is at door! \/ On my Christian conscience, this one christening will beget a \/ thousand: here will be father, godfather, and all together\u201d (951, 5.3.33-35).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord Chamberlain enters and exclaims, \u201cFrom all parts they are coming, \/ As if we kept a fair here!\u201d (951, 5.3.61-62) And the porter characterizes them as, \u201cthe youths that thunder at a playhouse \/ and fight for bitten apples \u2026\u201d (951, 5.3.54-55). That sounds like a certain segment of Shakespeare\u2019s audience! On the whole, the participants in this conversation seem to be wondering how a country so full of coarse, common folk could possibly produce England\u2019s exalted nobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 4 (952-254, at Elizabeth\u2019s christening, Archbishop Cranmer delivers a prophecy about England\u2019s great future under Elizabeth I and James I; King Henry declares the christening a holiday for all the people.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The playwright moves briskly to the christening itself. As a Tudor-era parent, King Henry and Anne would not have attended for the act of christening itself, but they appear to be waiting in Greenwich Palace for the arrival of the large deputation involved in the Chapel-centered christening ceremony. [53]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prophecy uttered by Archbishop Cranmer probably doubles as Shakespeare and Fletcher\u2019s own appreciation of their late sovereign: \u201cShe shall be loved and feared. Her own shall bless her; \/ Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, \/ And hang their heads with sorrow\u201d (953, 5.4.30-32). [54]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Elizabeth\u2019s realm, says Cranmer, \u201cGod shall be truly known \u2026,\u201d and she will leave her kingdom to a successor who \u201cShall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, \/ And so stand fixed\u201d (953, 5.4.36, 46-47). That, of course, would be King James I (also known as James VI of Scotland), the son of Mary Queen of Scots, whom Elizabeth had long imprisoned and would execute in 1587 for conspiring against her in the Anthony Babington-led plot of 1586. [55]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all that is far into the future, and King Henry concludes the action by declaring a holiday: This day, no man think \/ \u2018Has business at his house, for all shall stay: \/ This little one shall make it holiday\u201d (954, 5.4.74-76)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Cranmer\u2019s prophecy about a rosy future that lends this 1613 play an air of romance that makes it kindred to other dramas that Shakespeare composed late in his career: Cymbeline, The Winter\u2019s Tale,<\/em> The Tempest,<\/em> and The<\/em> Two Noble Kinsmen. <\/em>The happy conclusion mellows our recollection of the misfortune and sorrow that have marked the downfall of the play\u2019s great characters, mingling the whole into a bittersweet quality. [56]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The achievement of this effect, we can see, is so important to Shakespeare and Fletcher that they gleefully wrench the play\u2019s temporal scheme backwards about a decade. After all, Act 5, Scenes 1-2 centered on a conspiracy that occurred in 1543, while the final two scenes deal with Elizabeth\u2019s birth and christening, which happened in 1533. We could almost lose sight of the awful fact that by 1536\u2014still seven years before the Prebendaries\u2019 Plot\u2014Elizabeth\u2019s mother, Anne Boleyn, will have long since gone to the executioner\u2019s block on Tower Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Epilogue (954, the epilogue centers the playwright and actors\u2019 hopes on the women in the audience\u2014they will appreciate Shakespeare\u2019s representation of Henry VIII\u2019s virtuous but ill-treated Queen Catharine of Aragon; the men in the audience, says the epilogue-speaker, will take their cue from the women, and so all will be pleased.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The epilogue-speaker reminds female viewers to appreciate the play mainly because of its fine representation of the virtuous Queen Catharine of Aragon (and, as the Norton editor suggests in footnote 2 for pg. 954, possibly Princess Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn), and male viewers to applaud by way of following their ladies\u2019 example. We may conclude that this splendid woman, and the guileful Cardinal Wolsey with whom she engages in a bitter contest, are really the focal points of the play rather than King Henry VIII himself. The latter is an important figure, but he is not the emotional center of this historical drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edition.<\/strong>\u00a0Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors.\u00a0The Norton Shakespeare: Histories + Digital Edition.<\/em>\u00a03rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93859-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2012, revised 2025 Alfred J. Drake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Document Timestamp: 2\/18\/2026 5:42 PM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENDNOTES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

*To return to exact part of the text referenced by the endnotes below, left-click on the endnote’s numbered link. By contrast, the blue scroll-up button at the bottom right of the page returns to the top of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> The formal Latin phrase de casibus<\/em> comes from a collection of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>\u201cconcerning the falls\/accidents of illustrious men.\u201d A Latin manuscript copy is available to view from the German-based repository MDZ<\/a>. In one form or another, though, the de casibus <\/em>tradition goes all the way back to classical times. What else is Plutarch doing in Parallel<\/em> Lives, <\/em>with his side-by-side biographical sketches of famous politicians, rulers and generals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Lady Fortune is the medieval equivalent of the Greek goddess Tyche, <\/em>chance. An excellent early medieval treatment is that of Boethius in The Consolation of Philosophy. <\/em>See Book II, Ch. 2, \u201cFortune\u2019s Malice<\/a>.\u201d Gutenberg e-text. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. See Also this image of Fortune\u2019s Wheel<\/a> from a French translation of Boccaccio\u2019s De Casibus Virorum Illustrium. <\/em>Wikipedia. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> See Mirror for Magistrates, <\/em>Vol. 1<\/a> and Vol. 2<\/a>. HathiTrust. Accessed 12\/10\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> See, for example, the 2019 Guardian article \u201cAI \u2018reveals Shakespeare and Fletcher\u2019s different roles in Henry VIII\u2019<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u201d Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> See Historic Royal Palaces\u2019 \u201cThe Field of the Cloth of Gold<\/a>. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. See also Historic UK\u2019s entry \u201cField of the Cloth of Gold<\/a>.\u201d Norton footnote 2 for pg. 885 mentions that Buckingham, did, in fact, attend this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> By \u201cthe Beaufort line\u201d is meant a number of John of Gaunt\u2019s legitimized heirs. His descendants by sometime mistress and later wife Katherine Swynford were called the Beauforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> See HistoryExtra on Wolsey\u2019s achievements<\/a> as Cardinal and Chief Minister of Henry VIII. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> On the Holy League of Julius II, see Weapons and Warfare, \u201cWar of the Holy League, 1510-1514<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> See Sir Francis Bacon\u2019s Essay \u201cOf Great Place<\/a>.\u201d Renascence Editions. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. A fuller version of the quotation is, \u201cAll rising to great place is by a winding sta[i]r; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man’s self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> On Buckingham\u2019s ancestor, see \u201cHenry Stafford, Second Duke of Buckingham<\/a>.\u201d Warsoftheroses.com. \u201cWho\u2019s Who?\u201d section. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. See also Alison Weir\u2019s Henry VIII: The King and His Court. <\/em>Ballantine Books, 2008. It was said, writes Weir, that \u201cthe king\u2019s lack of a male heir had led people to speculate that Buckingham, a descendant of Edward III, might be named his successor, or even attempt to seize the crown for himself\u201d (226).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a> On Catharine of Aragon, see \u201cCatherine of Aragon<\/a>\u201d on Englishmonarchs.co.uk. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a> For brief introductions to these rebel figures, see \u201cJack Cade\u2019s Rebellion, 1450<\/a>\u201d (Britain Express) and  Britannica\u2019s entry on Wat Tyler, \u201cThe Peasants\u2019 Revolt<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13]<\/a> Perhaps, though, it isn\u2019t just paranoia. In the Letters & Papers of Henry VIII<\/a> (National Archives), there is mention of what Alison Weir calls \u201cevidence\u201d for the idea that Buckingham planned to assassinate the King with a knife. See also Sarah Stockdale\u2019s dissertation, \u201cBlood on the Crown: Treason in the Royal Kinship Structure of Fifteenth-Century England<\/a>.\u201d U of Winchester, Dec. 2018. Holinshed attributes the report of Buckingham\u2019s troubling statements about assassinating the King to his former surveyor, one Charles Knevet. See Boswell-Stone, Walter G. Shakespeare’s Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared<\/em>. Wentworth Press, 2019 [repr. of London: Chatto & Windus 1907 ed.]. ISBN-13: <\/strong>978-0530892863. Henry VIII. <\/em>424-507. See pp. 434-438.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14]<\/a> On fashion in Tudor times, see \u201cTudor Fashion<\/a>.\u201d Royal Museums Greenwich. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15]<\/a> Sir Thomas Lovell is Henry VIII\u2019s Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had supported Henry VII and who died in 1524. His presence in the latter part of Shakespeare and Fletcher\u2019s play is, therefore, anachronistic. Lovell\u2019s presence late in the play may owe something to the name\u2019s gravitas and familiarity: Francis Lovell (1456-c. 1487), who was not related to Sir Thomas but shared his surname, tried to dethrone King Henry VII in 1486. In more recent times, Henry Norris, said to be the son of Sir Edward Norris and Lady Frideswide Lovell, daughter of John, 8th<\/sup> Baron Lovell, was accused of being one of Anne Boleyn\u2019s lovers and executed. See the Dictionary of National Biography entry on \u201cSir Thomas Lovell<\/a>.\u201d Wikisource. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16]<\/a> The Lord Chamberlain in 1530 would have been either William Fitzalan, 11th<\/sup> Earl of Arundel, or Baron William Sandys. Shakespeare has chosen to leave the title generic, perhaps because he himself had worked for a man of that office (Henry Carey, 1st<\/sup> Baron Hunsdon, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I since his mother was Anne Boleyn\u2019s sister, Mary Boleyn), when he was chief playwright for The Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[17]<\/a> William Sandys would become Lord Chamberlain in 1530. See \u201cLord Sandys<\/a>\u201d at Shakespeareandhistory.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[18]<\/a> See \u201cHistory of the Masque Genre<\/a>.\u201d John Milton\u2019s A Masque <\/em>or Comus. <\/em>Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[19]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Continuing to His Death, and Coronation of Henry the Fifth.<\/em> Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 710-78. The line is spoken by King Henry IV at741, 3.1.31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[20]<\/a> The actual historical year of the famous \u201cCh\u00e2teau Vert\u201d pageant during which Henry seems first to have noticed the beautiful Anne Boleyn was 1522, though not in the play since Buckingham was executed in 1521, and that\u2019s the subject of the next scene. Anne probably met King Henry during the pageant at Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s York Place, but intimacy between them may not have occurred until several years later because Henry was supposedly having an affair with Anne\u2019s sister Mary. See Olivia Longueville\u2019s blog entry \u201cAnne Boleyn: An official debut<\/a>.\u201d See also \u201cThe Ch\u00e2teau Vert Pageant<\/a>.\u201d ExploringtheTudors and \u201cTudor Minute: Ch\u00e2teau Vert Pageant<\/a>.\u201d Englandcast.com All accessed 12\/11\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[21]<\/a> Anne\u2019s sister Mary Boleyn was one of the King\u2019s mistresses even before this. See \u201cAnne Boleyn<\/a>\u201d at Shakespeareandhistory.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. On Mary Boleyn, see \u201cMary Boleyn: Biography, Portrait, Facts & Information<\/a>\u201d at Englishhistory.net. Accessed 12\/11\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[22]<\/a> Edward Stafford (1478-1521), 3rd <\/sup>Duke of Buckingham, was a member of the King\u2019s Privy Council and exercised other offices as well. His father, Henry Stafford, 2nd<\/sup> Duke of Buckingham (1455-83), was a close confidant and advisor of King Richard III until a falling out with Richard sundered them in 1483, which led to the 2nd<\/sup> Duke\u2019s capture and summary execution. See \u201cEdward Stafford, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of Buckingham<\/a>.\u201d Britannica.com. See also the Wikipedia entry \u201cEdward Stafford<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 12\/11\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[23]<\/a> See the entry \u201cHenry Stafford, 2nd<\/sup> Duke of Buckingham<\/a>.\u201d Englishmonarchs.co.uk. Accessed 12\/11\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[24]<\/a> This reference is to Catharine\u2019s nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. See \u201cEmperor Charles V\u2014His Life and His World<\/a>\u201d at Emperorcharlesv.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[25]<\/a> See \u201cCardinal Campeius<\/a>\u201d at Shakespeareandhistory.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. During the most critical point in Henry VIII\u2019s reign (1509-47), his papal adversary was Pope Clement VII<\/a> (r. 1523-34). New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[26]<\/a> Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s ally and onetime secretary, Stephen Gardiner, became the King\u2019s new secretary in August 1529, not long before Wolsey\u2019s fall from grace. In 1531, Gardiner would become the Bishop of Winchester. Under Queen Mary, he was appointed Lord Chancellor. See Britannica.com\u2019s brief entry \u201cStephen Gardiner<\/a>\u201d and Shakespeareandhistory.com\u2019s \u201cStephen Gardiner<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 12\/11\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[27]<\/a> Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. <\/em>U of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0226306599.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[28]<\/a> See the nationalarchives.gov.uk currency converter, specific page for 1000 pounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[29]<\/a> See \u201cThomas Cranmer<\/a>\u201d at Shakespeareandhistory.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[30]<\/a> Princes were often very learned in classical languages, as was Queen Elizabeth I. See \u201cElizabeth I and Languages<\/a>\u201d at the British Library\u2019s European Studies Blog. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[31]<\/a> Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII. were formally, but secretly, married on Jan. 25, 1533. But there was an even earlier secret marriage or betrothal on November 14, 1532. See Wikipedia entry \u201cAnne Boleyn<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[32]<\/a> Wolsey preferred an English-French alliance, mainly to disadvantage the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire and boost England\u2019s role in Europe. See EBSCO Research Starters page, \u201cWolsey Serves as Lord Chancellor and Cardinal<\/a>.\u201d EBSCO. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[33]<\/a> See \u201cLutheranism<\/a>\u201d at Britannica.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[34]<\/a> As mentioned in a previous endnote, the formal Latin phrase de casibus<\/em> comes from a collection of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>\u201cconcerning the falls\/accidents of illustrious men.\u201d A Latin manuscript copy is available to view from the German-based repository MDZ<\/a>. As an aside, Harold Bloom is probably not alone in suggesting that Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s magnificent speech hardly fits the rather paltry character we have come to know in the play up to the point of this fine speech. See Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.<\/em> Riverhead Books, 1999. ISBN-13: 978-1573227513. Pp. 689-91.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[35]<\/a> As of October 1529.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[36]<\/a> Late in 1532.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[37]<\/a> January 1533.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[38]<\/a> John E. E. Dalberg, Lord Acton,<\/em> excerpts from \u201cLetter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887<\/a>\u201d in his Historical Essays and Studies. <\/em>See also the more complete Acton-Creighton correspondence<\/a> at oll.libertyfund.org. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[39]<\/a> See Sir Thomas Wyatt\u2019s mid-1530s poem \u201cThey flee from me, that sometime did me seek<\/a>\u201d at U. Toronto\u2019s Representative Poetry Online. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[40]<\/a> Coronation scene. See \u201cAnne Boleyn\u2019s Coronation<\/a>.\u201d The Anne Boleyn Files website. See also \u201cAnne Boleyn\u2019s Coronation Procession<\/a>.\u201d The Tudor Travel Guide website. Bot sites accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[41]<\/a> \u201cWhitehall\u201d became the palace\u2019s name not long after Cardinal Wolsey\u2019s downfall. It had long been known as York Place because not long after 1240, Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York, bought a property not far from the key governmental site, the Palace of Westminster, and he named his property \u201cYork Place.\u201d See \u201cThe Tudor Whitehall Palace<\/a>\u201d at The History of London website. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[42]<\/a> See Alison Weir\u2019s \u201cThe Story Behind the Blackened Heart<\/a>.\u201d Hforhistory.co.uk. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[43]<\/a> Griffith\u2019s proverbial sentence sounds much like Mark Antony\u2019s great line in Julius Caesar, <\/em>\u201cThe evil that men do lives after them; \/ The good lies oft interr\u00e8d with their bones.\u201dShakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.<\/em> In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 288-343. See pg. 320, 3.2.73-74.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[44]<\/a> See \u201cThe Vision of Catherine of Aragon<\/a>.\u201d This scene was bodied forth in a 1781 painting by Henry Fuseli. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[45]<\/a> On the Franciscans, see \u201cFranciscan Religious Order<\/a>\u201d at Britannica.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[46]<\/a> The inclusion of this event, the Prebendaries\u2019 Plot of 1543, is another instance of the anachronism that is common in Shakespeare and Fletcher\u2019s Henry VIII. <\/em>Henry VIII and the whole country are looking ahead to the birth and christening of Anne Boleyn\u2019s child, who, we know, will turn out to be none other than Princess Elizabeth, England\u2019s future and perhaps greatest sovereign. The problem is, Elizabeth was born in September 1533, a decade before <\/em>the challenge to Cranmer. <\/em>On the plot itself, see Engole\u2019s entry \u201cThe Prebendaries\u2019 Plot<\/a>.\u201d The Elven for Knowledge. See also the detailed entry by David Crowther, \u201cThe Prebendaries\u2019 Plot<\/a>\u201d at The History of England website. Accessed 12\/13\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[47]<\/a> See the Dictionary of National Biography entry on \u201cSir Thomas Lovell<\/a>.\u201d Wikisource. Accessed 12\/13\/2025. See also the material on the Lovell name in an earlier endnote above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[48]<\/a> On the Chapel Perilous legend, see Sir Gawain and the Green Knight<\/em><\/a>at The Camelot Project, U. of Rochester. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. Why the Green Chapel is dangerous: \u201cAnd this is his custom at the Green Chapel; there may no man pass by that place, however proud his arms, but he does him to death by force of his hand, for he [the Green Knight] is a discourteous knight, and shews no mercy.\u201d What happens in this scene is also, of course, another instance in Shakespeare of the time-honored \u201cring plot\u201d or \u201cmagic ring device.\u201d See Wendy Doniger\u2019s The Ring of Truth: And Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry. <\/em>Oxford UP, 2017. ISBN-13: 978-0190267117. Aside from All\u2019s Well, <\/em>we might recall that rings are significant in The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline, <\/em>and The Comedy of Errors.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[49]<\/a> Henry\u2019s \u201cring device\u201d to benefit Archbishop Cranmer is reported as factual in Raphael Holinshed\u2019s account of that king\u2019s reign. See Boswell-Stone, Walter G. Shakespeare’s Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared<\/em>. Wentworth Press, 2019 [repr. of London: Chatto & Windus 1907 ed.]. ISBN-13: <\/strong>978-0530892863. Henry VIII. <\/em>424-507. See pg. 497.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[50]<\/a> In 1519 Henry VIII had a son out of wedlock with one of his mistresses, Elizabeth Blount; the boy was named Henry Fitzroy, and the king might have eventually succeeded in legitimizing him had a son not been born to him by Jane Seymour in 1537. But Henry Fitzroy died in 1536. See \u201cElizabeth (Bessie) <\/a>Blount <\/a>\u2026<\/a>\u201d at Unofficialroyalty.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[51]<\/a> Leaving aside nine fractious days of rule by Jane Gray in July 1553 before Mary succeeded to the throne. See “Timeline of the Fall of Lady Jane Grey<\/a>.” Royal History Extra. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[52]<\/a> Historically, since the present scene, Act 5, Scene 2, appears to represent a 1543 attempt to crush Archbishop Cranmer, the Lord Chancellor, though not named in the play, should be Thomas Audley, 1st<\/sup> Baron Audley of Walden (1488-1544).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[53]<\/a> See \u201cThe Christening of Princess Elizabeth<\/a>.\u201d The Tudor Enthusiast website. Accessed 12\/13\/2025. On childhood generally, see Amy Licence\u2019s August 22, 2013 entry \u201cWhat was it like to be a child in Tudor times?<\/a>\u201d at \u201chis story, her story.\u201d Accessed 9\/1\/2024. See also the video \u201cPlaytime in Tudor England: Toys, Games, and Childhood<\/a>.\u201d YouTube. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[54]<\/a> See Elizabeth\u2019s Golden Speech<\/a>, 1601. Nationalarchives.gov.uk. Accessed 9\/1\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[55]<\/a> A much earlier conspiracy was the Ridolfi plot, which aimed to place Mary on the throne in 1570-71; another such attempt is called the Throckmorton conspiracy, dating to 1583. See \u201cThe Ridolfi Plot<\/a>\u201d at thehistoryjar.com. Accessed 9\/1\/2024. See \u201cThe Throckmorton Conspiracy<\/a>\u201d at the same site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[56]<\/a> See the present author\u2019s introduction to the romance genre at the beginning of my commentary on The Tempest<\/em><\/a> at www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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