My Son,
As you will undoubtedly know at this time I am playing the part of Henry VIII with the house of Tudor guild at several of the local events. He is an imposing character but it has been important to me to understand him so I can understand who he was so I can get into his head and play it well, this is what I know.
Who was Henry VIII as I see him?
If I could nail down one thing that ran throughout his life I would say that Henry VIII was insecure about many things and as such went over the top to avoid the things he was scared of. His reign was never secure, he was always worried that someone else may have more power than he, and if that happened, we was worried about loosing everything that his father had fought for. He had acquaintances but never close friends short of his wives and even then perhaps not so much. Yes he was an imposing figure but in many ways he was also a sad one.
Henry was never supposed to be king. His brother Arthur was to take over for his father Henry VII. He was 11 when his brother died but all of that time he had not been ready for being king. His father died not long before he turned 18. After he was crowned king of England that he had 2 of his fathers advisers killed who may or may not have been embezzling funds from taxes. Why would he do that? Some point to it just being the beginning of a bloody reign where thousands were killed. I think he did it to keep good face to his people and show them that he was willing to right the wrongs of his father in order to do what was right for the country. It is also said that he did not run the country early on as much as he left much of it to his advisers. This makes sense to me in a way as he was 18 and did not want to be bogged down with running the country King or not, he wanted to do the fun parts of being king like having feasts, festivals, and playing sport and jousting.
Catherine of Aragon and the great matter: Henry needed to have a male heir. When his father came to the throne after Richard III died his claim to the throne was shakey at best. Henry was then the second son of a King who there may have still been doubt that he should have been in power in the first place. There were countless people in court and away from it who could claim that they had just as legitimate claim to the throne. Henry had to have a male heir because if he died without one it was questionable if his family would keep power of the throne. He was married to Catherine of Aragon for 16 years before he decides that he could not be anymore. In many ways Anne Boleyn was claimed to be the reason he pushed for it, but it had to be in his mind in some way that he NEEDED to have a male heir if the reign of his family was going to be secure. He felt as though he had been patient but he had somehow done wrong either by God, or there was something wrong with her as he had fathered another male child before this time through a mistress.
Henry did not like being told that he could not do something, so when the pope said he could not, he took matters into his own hands. There was a time in the history of Europe that it was not the kings and queens who really ran things but the Catholic church. This was a step back from ecclesiastical rule and into the rule of a nation being able to choose for itself what was right for them. The first crusades for example had nothing to do with the countries but had to do with the Catholic church essentially creating an army for themselves made up of knights from different countries to "reclaim the Holy Land" Henry was pushing back some of that when he left the church to create his own church. I am not convinced that he ever felt in his heart that leaving was the right thing to do, but it allowed him to shape the church in England moving forward and I am sure he loved that.
Anne Boleyn: I am sure that he loved her, but his patience was gone waiting for a male heir so he gave he much less time before looking for a new wife. I am sure that he had a spot in his heart for her, but she could not be his queen and he was worried that if he divorced her she would still wield power in court and that was not something he could handle. This is why so many people were killed for treason, they could not simply be removed from office and their lands and titles removed, or they could rise again and begin a revolution against him. If he was going to reign he had to keep control of things so he did not loose that power. This was also at the time when he had the last major jousting accident and being told that he could not continue was a huge blow to him.
Jane Seymour: I am sure that he loved her as well, perhaps not as much at first but definitely when she bore him his son. When she died just after giving birth the depression hit him hard. He finally had the son and the succession was finally secured but in so having he lost the wife who gave him that son and despite having Mary and Elizabeth the male heir was what he felt he needed to secure that.
After Jane, as I understand it was when he started eating so much. and his health got much worse. He was depressed, and when you are always worried about people trying to take your throne or plotting to do things against you it is hard to have friends and confidants with whom you can talk. He had that with his wives so far and sometimes with some of his advisers but in this case he was very alone and to that end he strove to fill the void with food and drink. Where once there had been sport to fill the time and could eat much as he was staying active, now thing began to pack on. That in addition with is leg wounds that never really healed he was a sad character indeed.
As for his other wives: Anne of Cleves was a political marriage that was just not what he hoped it would have been though it turned into a friendship. Catherine Howard was an attempt to capture some of his youth and vitality, but she was young and that proved to be her downfall.Catherine Parr was a reaching out for someone who could help care for him and be at his side. He may have loved her but so late in his life he was in such bad shape emotionally and physically that she was a friend to him, and could help in his care, but she was not his companion in the same way some of the others were.
All in all I think of Henry as a tragic figure. One who through bad circumstances ended up dying essentially alone. This was in some ways his own doing and in some ways a function of his inability to let people into his life or else be worried that they would work against him and bring his reign to an end. Some would and do call him a tyrant, but anyone in power wants to stay there, I do not agree with it all but he did what he felt he had to in order to keep in control. He died in pain, and I am not sure that at the end of his life his heart was in the split from the church but he had made his bed and now it was his to lay in. He presents some challenges to playing the part but I do what I can to understand him so I can do what makes sense for his character. It is not easy, but I do my best.
-Dad
