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[Music]
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foreign
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[Music]
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on Midsummer day
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1509 the 18 year old King Henry VIII had
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sat on the coronation chair here in
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Westminster Abbey to be crowned King of
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England before God he vowed to respect
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the ancient Liberties of his subjects
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and above all to preserve the
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independence of the church
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with Goodwill and devout Soul he swore
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on the gospels I shall keep the
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Privileges of holy church and I shall by
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God's grace defend you and every each of
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you Bishops and abbots throughout my
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Realm it could not have been clearer or
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more binding but 25 years later the now
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middle-aged King Henry had second
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thoughts
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[Music]
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here in the British library is a copy of
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the coronation oath
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it has been amended in Henry's own hand
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henceforth The Universal Church would be
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the Church of England its ancient
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Liberties now subordinate to the
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supremacy of the English crown
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it was the greatest par grab in the
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Thousand-Year history of the English
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Monarchy Henry was now claiming to rule
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not just his subjects bodies but their
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very Souls as well and to make good his
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claim he would remake religion remake
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England and remake the English people
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and Heaven Help anyone foolhardy enough
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to get in his way
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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this is a face that could strike men
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dumb with fear
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the face of a king who condemned
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hundreds of his subjects to lingering
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agonizing death
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[Music]
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the Monstrous tyranny of his rule Echoes
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down the centuries
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our pleasure is that Dreadful execution
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be done on a good number of the
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inhabitants of every town Village and
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Hamlet that have offended in this
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Rebellion let me be full dead air be
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dismembered I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy
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thank you
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but in Henry VII's own eyes his cruelty
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served a higher purpose
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that purpose was primarily religious
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and if we want to find The Man Behind
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the Tyrant of Legend then we have to
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understand the significance of religion
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in Henry's life and kingship
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pure in effect into his very soul
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[Music]
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is Martin
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[Music]
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as King Henry would Institute the most
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radical change in the entire history of
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English Christianity
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but as a young prince his party seems to
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have been intense and entirely
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conventional
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the evidence comes from a very rare and
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very precious personal possession from
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his childhood
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portable Aid to prayer called a bead row
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[Music]
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and this is the oshaw row I read about
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it I've seen photographs of it but I've
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never actually seen the thing itself
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it's
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extraordinary
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it begins
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here
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with a grand and Noble image of the
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Trinity but then here it gets down
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to what really I think is the heart of
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late medieval religion the actual image
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of the suffering Christ with the body
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originally in Vivid White NOW oxidized
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to black but you can still see the Deep
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Carmine splashes of the wounds the Five
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Wounds on the hands on the head in the
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side and on the feet and here Henry has
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written the injunction
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to his body's servant William Thomas
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I pray you pray for me your loving
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Master Prince Henry
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this is the world of late medieval
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Christianity in which images relics and
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above all the consecrated Bread and Wine
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of the mass had power we might say
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magical power look here say this the
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road promises and miraculously something
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good will happen to you you will escape
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death despair disease shorten the number
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of years that your soul spends in agony
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before ascending to the joys of Paradise
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The Young Prince Henry was certainly a
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believer in this power of images but how
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long would he remain so as a Reformation
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mounted its sweeping attack on the magic
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and the Mystery of holy church
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[Music]
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but it was not theology that first shook
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Henry's Faith In traditional Catholicism
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[Music]
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it was Anne Boleyn
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[Music]
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in order to marry Anne Henry had been
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forced to break with Rome and make
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himself head of the Church of England in
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so doing his allies had been those who
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wanted not just an independent English
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church but a radically reformed one as
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well including Anne herself
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[Music]
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let us go
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in 1535 Henry and Anne made a progress
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to the west of England
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ending up here at iron Acton
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[Music]
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traveling with them was Henry's leading
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Minister Thomas Cromwell
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Cromwell was now Vice gerund in
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spirituals Henry's Deputy the Supreme
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head of the church and the leading
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advocate of religious reform
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Cromwell and Anne took advantage of the
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progress to launch an attack on the
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traditional religious practices and
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bogus relics which as reform-minded
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Christians they believed had led the
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faithful astray for instance only a few
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miles from here was the monastery of
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hails its greatest treasure was a relic
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of the True Blood of Christ which made
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Hales one of the most popular and
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Wealthy places of pilgrimage in England
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but when the skeptical Anne sent her
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chaplains to investigate they reported
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back that the sacred blood far from
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being Divine or even human was nothing
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else but the blood of sun duck
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it along with many other relics such as
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fake fragments of the True Cross statues
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which seemed to move but turned out to
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be puppets and the bones and nail
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clippings of various saints were taken
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to London and consigned to a great
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bonfire of the profanities
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foreign
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[Music]
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and as Cromwell and his agents began to
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tot up the land and endowments of
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monasteries like hails it became clear
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that here was a vast store of wealth
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which now fell temptingly under the
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jurisdiction of the crown
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the whole fabric of traditional religion
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now seemed to be under threat for many
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it wasn't just shrines and Abbas that
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were at stake but their Immortal Souls
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and to save those men were prepared to
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fight and to die
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[Music]
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but then less than a year later in May
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1536 and Berlin was executed on Tower
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green
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[Music]
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Anne was responsible for the divorce she
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was also a religious radical who would
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Bewitched the king and fermented
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Revolution
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or so many believed
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[Music]
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on the other hand the wife who replaced
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her Jane Seymour was conventional in her
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piety
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actually now the nightmare was over
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surely his new Queen would persuade the
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king to return to the old religion
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but Henry was tired of interfering wives
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increasing age of the royal supremacies
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Relentless elevation of the monarchy was
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making him ever more intolerant of
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contradiction and disagreement what he
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required of Jane was simply a son and
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submission so when she begged him on her
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knees to restore the abbies Henry's
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response was brutal get up
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do not presume to meddle in my affairs
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remember Anne
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this was enough to cow Jane and she
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never dared to raise the subject again
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from his wife Henry could command
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obedience prompt absolute unconditional
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but could he expect the same from his
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people
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by his sweeping assault on traditional
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religion the King was courting rebellion
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and in the Autumn of 1536 Rebellion came
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starting in Lincolnshire and spreading
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to the whole of the north of England a
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huge popular Rising officer by local
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Gentry and Nobles often recruited by
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their own tenants at the point of a
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pitchfork
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and here in Durham Cathedral the rebels
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raises their standard a potent religious
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symbol the banner of the Five Wounds of
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Christ under which they would March
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South to confront King Henry
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miraculously one of the rebels badges
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with this same device still survives at
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Arundel Castle in Sussex
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Henry would have recognized it
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immediately the nails and the hands and
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feet
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the heart
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pierced with the wound of the coup de
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grass of the Centurion spear
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same Badge of the Five Wounds of Christ
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found in the beedro before which the
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Young Prince Henry had once knelt in
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prayer as such it encapsulates perfectly
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what the Revolt was about Henry might
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have abandoned many of the beliefs of
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his youth but vast numbers of his
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subjects still clung passionately to the
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old ways they wanted cromwell's reform
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stopped and they wanted The Minister's
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head as well
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the rebels found a charismatic leader in
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a minor Yorkshire landowner and lawyer
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Robert ask who drew up an uncompromising
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Manifesto
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to go to London on pilgrimage to the
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king to have all the vile blood put from
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his counsel and Noble blood set up again
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to have the Faith of Christ and all
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God's laws kept
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and to have restitution for the wrongs
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done to the church
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he also gave the Rebellion a ceremonious
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title for pilgrimage of Grace
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ask indeed saw the Enterprise as a
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religious act but it also deployed
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impressive physical force mustering over
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40 000 men the rebels far outnumbered
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the little army that Henry had sent
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North under the Duke of Norfolk faced
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with overwhelming odds Norfolk wrote an
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alarm to Henry that the rebels were far
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too strong to be stopped by mere Force
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of Arms
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was the gravest threat to his throne
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that Henry had ever faced
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foreign
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the letters he wrote in response can
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still be found in the British national
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archives
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Henry agreed that it was necessary to
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buy time and authorize Norfolk to
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negotiate
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Henry also decided to write to the
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rebels himself responding to their
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demands Point by point
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first
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as touching on the maintenance of the
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face
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we declare and protest ourselves to be
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he that always do and have minded to die
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and live in the purity of the same
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marveling not a little that ignorant
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people will take upon them to instruct
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us
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which something have been noted to be
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learned what the right Faith should be
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concerning choosing of counselors
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I never have read heard nor known that a
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princess counselors and prelates should
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be appointed by Rude and ignorant common
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people
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but after the blusters and threats the
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king offered a carrot
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wherefore we let you wit ye our subjects
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of Yorkshire
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to the intent that you all shall know
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that our princely heart rather embraceth
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pity and compassion of his offending
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subjects than will to be revenged for
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their naughty Deeds that we are
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contented
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if we may see in you all a sorrowfulness
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for your offenses and will henceforth to
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do no more so to Grant unto you all our
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letters patent of Pardon for this
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Rebellion
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the offer of a free pardon and the
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promise of special Parliament to settle
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all demands was enough to persuade the
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rebels to disband and return home
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Norfolk and Henry between them had
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diffused the immediate crisis by
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persuasion and negotiation
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or was it by duplicity
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and guile
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[Music]
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the rebel leader Robert asked was
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invited to spend Christmas with Henry at
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Greenwich
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he found himself lionized by the court
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[Music]
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and gave him a jacket of crimson satin
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and the assurance that the promised
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Parliament would be held in York for the
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for the first time in 200 years it was a
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consummate performance an Ask fell for
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it
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before the festivities were ended ass
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carried North to spread the good news
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which had the desired effect of
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disarming and dividing opposition
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so when in February a few die-hards
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launched a new Revolt most of ask's
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followers refused to join them
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now Henry was able easily to crush the
00:18:14
Rebellion
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Henry summoned asked to London ask went
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willingly enough but Henry now felt
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himself absolved from all his promises
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ask was arrested tried and condemned
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desperately he wrote to Henry with a
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last request
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to be spared the full horror of
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execution for treason
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let me be full dead air I be dismembered
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Henry agreed instead with his
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connoisseur's taste in executions he had
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asked Tangled alive in Chains probably
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as he twisted in agony for hour after
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endless hour ask wished for the Swift to
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death
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of the knife
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and ask was only one of hundreds to die
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[Music]
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our pleasure is that Dreadful execution
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be done on a good number of the
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inhabitants of every town
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Village and Hamlet
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that have offended in this Rebellion
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as well as by the hanging of them up on
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trees
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as by the quartering of them and the
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setting of their heads and quarters in
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every town Great and Small
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and all other such places as they may be
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a fearful spectacle to all other
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Hereafter that would practice any like
00:19:50
matter
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which we require you to do
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Without Pity
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or respect
00:20:11
[Music]
00:20:16
the scars of Henry's terrible Vengeance
00:20:19
are still visible
00:20:26
[Music]
00:20:28
hitherto the great monastic foundations
00:20:31
of the North had escaped destruction
00:20:35
but now seen as complicit in the revoked
00:20:39
they were ruthlessly suppressed
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foreign
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[Music]
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dominating presence in the land for
00:21:02
centuries their monks that tilled the
00:21:04
soil tended the Sheep collected the
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rents sung the services now one by one
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their Cloisters fell silent
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deserted
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ruined
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it was the most visible dramatic rupture
00:21:21
in English history since the Norman
00:21:23
conquest and it was Henry's work
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and the changes brought by Henry were
00:21:31
just beginning
00:21:32
[Music]
00:21:33
the wealth taken from the Abbas and the
00:21:36
Very Stones themselves would now be used
00:21:38
by the king to remake and reinvent
00:21:42
England itself
00:21:44
[Music]
00:21:50
[Music]
00:21:54
for the country now stood alone against
00:21:58
the combined might of Catholic Europe
00:22:03
who did by Henry's assault on the church
00:22:05
the pope brought France and the empire
00:22:08
into a Grand Alliance to invade England
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depose Henry and restore his people to
00:22:15
the true Catholic faith
00:22:28
the threat was real and Urgent Henry's
00:22:31
response matched it in scale and
00:22:34
Imagination he would survey the entire
00:22:37
English Coastline from Milford Haven to
00:22:40
the wash and Beyond identify and behaven
00:22:43
where potential Invader could land
00:22:46
and then
00:22:48
he would fortify it
00:22:53
[Music]
00:22:54
from his special map room d IP in the
00:22:57
heart of Whitehall Palace Henry
00:22:59
coordinated the greatest construction
00:23:01
project the country had ever seen to
00:23:05
make England into an island Fortress
00:23:08
[Music]
00:23:10
under his direct supervision Coastal
00:23:13
Maps were marked up with the location of
00:23:16
new fortifications
00:23:19
then the engineers set to work armed
00:23:22
with cash and building materials often
00:23:25
taken from the dissolved Abyss much of
00:23:28
what they built can still be seen as
00:23:31
here at Falmouth Bay
00:23:36
[Music]
00:23:39
applications of a highly distinctive
00:23:41
plan
00:23:42
which may well be Henry's own design
00:23:48
the fortits and Moors in Cornwall
00:23:51
there's a Latin inscription invoking the
00:23:54
spirit of King Henry
00:23:56
[Music]
00:24:04
but the force was simply one line of
00:24:08
defense out to sea were newly built
00:24:11
ships
00:24:13
armed for the first time with effective
00:24:16
Heavy Artillery their mission was to
00:24:18
intercept any invading Force
00:24:22
Henry was founding the Royal Navy with
00:24:26
its doctrine of control of the narrow
00:24:29
Seas
00:24:30
[Music]
00:24:33
all this amounted to a change in English
00:24:36
national identity and direction
00:24:43
once the channel had been a great
00:24:45
highway to the continent
00:24:47
[Music]
00:24:48
now it became a defensive moat
00:24:54
England was separating itself from
00:24:57
Europe turning away to chart a different
00:25:00
independent course
00:25:04
one she would follow for four centuries
00:25:09
some indeed of Henry's Force were still
00:25:12
mounting guns in the Second World War
00:25:17
[Music]
00:25:20
but these aren't just fortifications
00:25:22
each one is also a massive footprint
00:25:26
planted by Henry on the rocks and soil
00:25:29
of
00:25:30
and in its history semper vivet anima
00:25:35
Regis Enrique
00:25:37
say the spirit of King Henry VII live
00:25:40
forever
00:25:42
[Music]
00:25:49
Henry VII is brutal but effective
00:25:51
response to dissent at home and threats
00:25:55
from abroad was changing England
00:25:59
and as he aged the king himself was
00:26:03
changing too
00:26:09
one of the greatest treasures of the
00:26:11
British library is a book which reveals
00:26:14
much about Henry's State of Mind in
00:26:17
these latter years of his reign
00:26:19
the Kings personal Book of Psalms his
00:26:23
psalter
00:26:24
this illustration shows Henry as the
00:26:27
model scholar King diligently reading in
00:26:30
his bed chamber
00:26:32
a few years before this scene was
00:26:33
painted Henry had had a bad fall from
00:26:36
his horse the resulting injury to his
00:26:39
leg meant that he spent less time
00:26:41
hunting and he never jousted again
00:26:43
instead the prodigious energies that had
00:26:47
been devoted to sport were now directed
00:26:49
almost single-mindedly to the government
00:26:52
of his kingdom
00:26:54
the central task of that government was
00:26:57
to settle the doctrines of the newly
00:26:59
independent English church
00:27:02
to put an end to the religious conflict
00:27:04
that threatened to tear the country
00:27:06
apart
00:27:08
as the illustrations in Henry's Salter
00:27:10
show Henry saw himself as an English
00:27:13
King David David and slain the Giant
00:27:17
Goliath Henry had struck down the no
00:27:20
less monstrous power of the paper scene
00:27:22
both Kings had destroyed idols and
00:27:25
restored True Religion but what exactly
00:27:28
was true religion was it the kind of
00:27:31
radical reform once espoused by Thomas
00:27:34
Cromwell and Ann Berlin
00:27:36
or something else
00:27:44
Henry saw it as his responsibility and
00:27:48
his alone to answer that question
00:27:51
what he sought was a middle way between
00:27:54
the radicals who wanted a church free of
00:27:57
rituals and Relics and the conservatives
00:28:00
who yearned for the old ways of Rome
00:28:04
both sides tried to sway the king as his
00:28:08
Minister Cromwell explained to a radical
00:28:11
who had sent Henry his book
00:28:13
the king who is the most active and
00:28:16
Vigilant Observer is weren't to hand
00:28:19
over books of this kind which he has not
00:28:22
the patience to read himself to one of
00:28:24
his Lords in waiting for perusal from
00:28:26
whom he may afterwards learn their
00:28:28
contents
00:28:30
he then takes the book back and
00:28:32
presently gives it to be examined by
00:28:34
someone else of an entirely opposite way
00:28:36
of thinking to the former party
00:28:39
when he has thus made himself master of
00:28:42
their opinions and sufficiently
00:28:43
ascertained both what they commend and
00:28:46
what they find fault with
00:28:47
length openly declares his own judgment
00:28:51
respecting the same points
00:28:54
the king's theological learning
00:28:57
culminated in these the six articles of
00:29:00
the Church of England which laid down
00:29:02
the religious doctrines to which the
00:29:04
king's subjects were now required to
00:29:07
adhere on pain of death
00:29:09
the Articles repeatedly and heavily
00:29:12
corrected by Henry in his own hand a
00:29:15
conservative
00:29:16
they're firm the miracle of the mass and
00:29:19
the need for confession in the
00:29:21
traditional catholic manner but at the
00:29:24
same time Henry balanced these doctrines
00:29:26
with an important concession to the
00:29:28
reformers the use of the Bible not in
00:29:31
Latin but in English and so every Parish
00:29:37
church was required to buy a copy of
00:29:40
this Henry's great Bible in English
00:29:44
[Music]
00:29:53
the Magnificent title page shows Henry
00:29:57
as he wished to be seen
00:29:59
at the top a rather small deity hands
00:30:03
his teachings directly to a much larger
00:30:06
and more Central Henry
00:30:08
who then passes them to his grateful
00:30:11
people
00:30:12
was shown here praising not God but
00:30:15
Henry
00:30:17
over in the corner is a hint of the
00:30:21
unpleasant fate of anyone who would
00:30:23
think of deviating one shot from the
00:30:26
king's middle way
00:30:31
[Music]
00:30:36
those who challenge the supremacy and
00:30:39
called for the restoration of papal
00:30:41
Authority were guilty of treason
00:30:43
unliable to be hanged drawn and
00:30:46
quartered
00:30:48
while those who advocated full-blown
00:30:51
protestantism would find themselves
00:30:54
condemned as Heretics
00:30:56
burned
00:31:08
and it wasn't just religious enthusiasts
00:31:11
whether Protestant or Catholic who fell
00:31:14
foul of the law
00:31:15
relatively few of Henry's leading
00:31:17
courtiers or councilors agreed precisely
00:31:21
with the pace of the king's religious
00:31:23
changes instead they wanted to go either
00:31:26
faster or more slowly than the king
00:31:30
providing they kept their views to
00:31:32
themselves they were safe but if they
00:31:35
strayed too far and too publicly from
00:31:37
the straight and narrow of the king's
00:31:39
middle way then they too were at risk of
00:31:42
treason or heresy
00:31:46
and closeness to the King was no
00:31:48
protection as Cromwell himself would
00:31:51
discover
00:31:57
in October 1537 Henry's third Queen Jane
00:32:01
Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward the
00:32:04
son Henry had longed for for so long
00:32:10
but then Joy turned to grief when Jane
00:32:13
herself died a few days later
00:32:18
for once Henry didn't have another wife
00:32:21
lined up but everyone took it for
00:32:23
granted that the king would marry again
00:32:26
including Thomas Cromwell who thought
00:32:29
that he had just the bride for him Anne
00:32:33
of Cleves
00:32:35
from the point of view of foreign policy
00:32:37
the Cleves marriage made excellent sense
00:32:40
Anne's brother the Duke ruled an
00:32:43
important agglomeration of territories
00:32:45
in Northwestern Germany strategically
00:32:48
cited between France and Henry's enemy
00:32:51
the Catholic Emperor Charles V
00:32:55
unfortunately for Cromwell however
00:32:57
Henry's priorities in marriage were
00:33:00
personal rather than political he wanted
00:33:02
a pretty young girl that he could love
00:33:05
or imagine that he loved in view of this
00:33:09
Cromwell and his followers a talked up
00:33:12
Anne as a great Beauty
00:33:15
but when she arrived in England as his
00:33:18
bride
00:33:20
Henry was a poor
00:33:24
she is nothing so well as she was spoken
00:33:27
of
00:33:29
if it were not for fear of making a
00:33:31
ruffle in the world that is to be the
00:33:33
means to drive her brother into the
00:33:35
hands of the emperor I would never have
00:33:37
married her
00:33:39
the wedding night was a disaster as
00:33:43
Henry complained to Cromwell from such
00:33:45
physical contact as they'd had he
00:33:48
strongly suspected that Anne wasn't a
00:33:51
virgin
00:33:55
surely you know I liked her before not
00:33:58
well but now I like her much worse
00:34:02
for I have felt her belly and her
00:34:04
breasts and thereby I can judge she be
00:34:07
no maid
00:34:09
the witch thought struck me so to the
00:34:12
heart that I had neither will nor
00:34:14
courage to proceed any further in other
00:34:17
matters
00:34:23
Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves was
00:34:26
soon dissolved on grounds of
00:34:28
non-consummation
00:34:32
it was embarrassing for Henry fatal for
00:34:35
his Minister deprived of the protection
00:34:37
of the king's favor Cromwell fell victim
00:34:40
to the conservative faction at court
00:34:42
that he'd terrorized for so long he was
00:34:46
arrested and condemned for treason and
00:34:48
heresy
00:34:50
like Robert asked before him he wrote to
00:34:54
Henry in desperation from the tower
00:34:57
[Music]
00:34:58
most gracious Prince
00:35:01
I cry for Mercy Mercy
00:35:04
let's see
00:35:09
[Music]
00:35:12
but Cromwell with his radical reforming
00:35:15
views was now an obstacle to the
00:35:18
religious unity that Henry craved and on
00:35:22
the 20th of July 1540 he too was
00:35:25
beheaded
00:35:27
three days later to vindicate his middle
00:35:29
way Henry had three Catholics hanged
00:35:33
drawn and quartered as traitors and at
00:35:36
the same time three Protestants burned
00:35:39
at the stake as Heretics this was Terror
00:35:41
dealt with an impartial and unsparing
00:35:44
hand
00:35:45
but from now on the hand will be long
00:35:48
not to the minister but to King Henry
00:35:52
himself
00:35:54
[Music]
00:36:04
in the castle of cementus where the
00:36:07
state archives of Spain have been kept
00:36:09
since time of the emperor Charles V
00:36:11
there's a tower room that helps us
00:36:14
understand what sort of ruler Henry had
00:36:17
become
00:36:19
foreign
00:36:28
this is where their papers were kept
00:36:34
and they moved from here
00:36:38
into this little cell here and they sat
00:36:41
and they rent them and they took the
00:36:44
decisions and the world changed
00:36:46
[Music]
00:36:48
we know Henry VII had rooms exactly like
00:36:51
this in French it's called the cabinet
00:36:54
in 16th century English it's called a
00:36:57
closet it's very much like of course the
00:37:00
private oratories which Kings had also
00:37:03
had indeed still had but this is a kind
00:37:06
of new form of worship this is the
00:37:08
worship of power on paper as opposed to
00:37:11
the worship of a god
00:37:14
and in the British national archives
00:37:17
there's evidence of how Henry created
00:37:20
and wielded this new form of power
00:37:24
this is the first volume of the acts of
00:37:27
the privy Council the council was
00:37:30
reorganized by Henry within days of
00:37:33
cromwell's execution
00:37:34
the background was the royal Supremacy
00:37:37
which made the principal business of
00:37:39
government the imposition of religious
00:37:42
uniformity always and everywhere thus
00:37:46
for the first time in English History
00:37:47
the council needed to meet every day and
00:37:51
to concern itself potentially with the
00:37:54
Affairs of every village
00:37:56
the Revolution was the work of Henry but
00:37:59
it's also the beginning of government by
00:38:02
committee or as we say cabinet we are
00:38:06
governed in the same way to this day and
00:38:09
from pretty much the same place since
00:38:12
the usual meeting room of the privy
00:38:14
Council in Whitehall was only yards from
00:38:17
the present-day site of number 10
00:38:19
Downing Street
00:38:27
during The unseasonably Damp summer of
00:38:30
1541 the piece of execution slackened at
00:38:34
last
00:38:37
Henry was finally embarked on the
00:38:40
progress to the north which he promised
00:38:42
Robert asked five years previously
00:38:45
the aim was reconciliation and with him
00:38:49
was his fifth Queen Catherine Howard
00:38:52
Catherine was young pretty and
00:38:55
delightfully accommodating Henry was
00:38:58
infatuated and there were none of the
00:39:00
sexual problems he'd had with Anne of
00:39:02
Cleves it was his Indian Summer of Love
00:39:06
But like most Indian summers it was
00:39:09
short
00:39:10
foreign
00:39:11
[Music]
00:39:17
day 1541 Henry came to hear mass in the
00:39:22
chapel Royal
00:39:24
find a letter by his seat
00:39:28
was from Archbishop kranma and it made
00:39:31
The Sensational claim that Queen
00:39:33
Catherine was a young woman with a past
00:39:35
who slept with at least two men before
00:39:38
she'd married Henry
00:39:40
Henry's initial reaction was confident
00:39:43
disbelief but when an investigation
00:39:46
confirmed the truth of Grandma's charges
00:39:49
he was devastated
00:39:51
he even broke down and wept openly
00:39:54
before his counselors
00:39:58
but worse was to follow for it soon
00:40:00
became apparent that Catherine had also
00:40:03
had secret assignations after she was
00:40:06
Queen in fact during the progress to the
00:40:09
north
00:40:10
this is the record of the confession of
00:40:13
the young man in question Thomas
00:40:15
Culpepper
00:40:16
at First Sight it's almost illegible but
00:40:19
with time it's possible to make out what
00:40:22
it says and it tells a tale straight out
00:40:25
of romantic fiction
00:40:27
castle and Culpepper admit talk
00:40:30
throughout the night they'd pledged
00:40:31
their love to each other but they'd done
00:40:34
nothing more nevertheless towards the
00:40:37
end of his interrogation Culpepper made
00:40:39
the Fatal admission that he intended and
00:40:43
meant to do ill with the queen and that
00:40:46
in likewise the queen so minded to do
00:40:50
with him
00:40:53
it was enough to condemn them both
00:40:56
Culpepper went to the scaffold on the
00:40:59
10th of December Catherine two months
00:41:02
later
00:41:05
at about this time in his Bible Henry
00:41:09
marked a passage from proverbs
00:41:13
for the Lips of an harlot
00:41:15
are a dropping honeycomb
00:41:18
and her throat softer than ale
00:41:22
but at the last she is as bitter as
00:41:24
wormwood
00:41:26
and a sharp
00:41:28
as a two-edged sword
00:41:30
[Music]
00:41:35
Culpepper's confession contains one
00:41:38
other fascinating revelation
00:41:40
that Queen Catherine had warned him
00:41:42
against speaking of their Affair when
00:41:45
confessing his sins
00:41:47
she the queen made him beware
00:41:49
that when so ever he went to confession
00:41:51
he should never shrive him of any such
00:41:54
things as should pass betwixt her and
00:41:57
him
00:41:59
for if he did
00:42:01
surely the king being the Supreme head
00:42:03
of the church
00:42:04
should have knowledge of it
00:42:08
what was Catherine afraid of that the
00:42:11
priest might break the seal of the
00:42:13
confessional and inform her husband of
00:42:15
her infidelity or did she think that the
00:42:19
Royal Supremacy came equipped with
00:42:21
Supernatural powers and that when
00:42:24
Henry's subject spoke to God Henry is
00:42:27
God's adjutant was actually listening in
00:42:30
in short did Catherine think that she'd
00:42:33
actually married someone who was more
00:42:35
than merely immortal did others too if
00:42:39
so it's a striking sign of just what the
00:42:42
Royal Supremacy meant in an age
00:42:45
dominated by religious belief
00:42:48
[Music]
00:42:51
Henry had impressed himself and the
00:42:54
hearts and minds of his people as a
00:42:56
figure of almost Divine Authority
00:43:02
but behind the image was an aging man in
00:43:06
increasing pain
00:43:12
when he'd Fallen badly from his horse a
00:43:14
few years previously it seems likely
00:43:17
he'd fractured his shin
00:43:19
it healed but a fragment of bone
00:43:23
remained lodged in the calf muscle
00:43:27
this caused chronic ulceration
00:43:30
tremendous pain and swelling
00:43:34
after a while the swelling would burst
00:43:36
discharging stinking pus
00:43:39
this afforded temporary relief then the
00:43:43
cycle would start again
00:43:45
as time went on Henry found walking
00:43:48
increasingly difficult he had to behold
00:43:51
upstairs in a Tudor stairlift and
00:43:54
trolled it along the endless galleries
00:43:56
of his palaces in a wheelchair known as
00:43:59
a tram
00:44:05
[Music]
00:44:16
even so Henry retained his tremendous
00:44:19
physical stamina and despite the
00:44:23
sometimes prostrating pain from his leg
00:44:25
he wouldn't marry one more wife and
00:44:29
fight one more war
00:44:31
but finally even Henry's Constitution
00:44:35
gave out and on the night of the 28th of
00:44:38
January 1547 he succumbed to septicemia
00:44:43
he was 55 years old and he died
00:44:47
confident of Salvation from the god with
00:44:50
whom he was on such intimate terms
00:44:56
[Music]
00:45:10
Henry had planned for himself a great
00:45:13
Monument to outdo even his father's tomb
00:45:17
a metal Effigy and magnificent
00:45:20
candlesticks were cast
00:45:22
[Music]
00:45:23
and a great marble sarcophagus fashioned
00:45:27
to receive Henry's body
00:45:30
was to have been placed here in Saint
00:45:33
George's Chapel Windsor which it would
00:45:35
have dominated
00:45:37
but fatally for Henry's Ambitions he
00:45:40
died leaving his tomb unfinished
00:45:43
under his son Edward VI the Royal
00:45:46
Supremacy took a turn towards radical
00:45:49
protestantism and church monuments were
00:45:52
being torn down not put up under his
00:45:55
daughter Mary England repudiated the
00:45:58
supremacy returned albeit briefly to
00:46:01
Rome and Henry became an inconvenient
00:46:05
memory
00:46:06
the final blow came under the Republican
00:46:09
Oliver Cromwell then Henry's Effigy was
00:46:13
melted down and the great candelabra
00:46:16
sold abroad so all that Henry Supreme
00:46:19
head on Earth of the Church of England
00:46:22
has is a simple marble floor slab
00:46:28
[Music]
00:46:42
all right
00:46:44
Henry wanted to be remembered as a great
00:46:47
religious reformer
00:46:49
but the fate of his Monument mirrors the
00:46:52
fate of the supremacy itself
00:46:55
four in the end Henry's Legacy was
00:46:59
centuries of religious conflict that
00:47:01
would all but destroy the monarchy
00:47:05
but yet for all that Henry did create
00:47:09
something that lasted
00:47:12
his sarcophagus survived and still sits
00:47:16
in the Crypt beneath Paul's Cathedral
00:47:18
but it contains Remains Not of Henry but
00:47:23
of that other great Englishman Admiral
00:47:27
Lord Nelson
00:47:31
foreign
00:47:37
ly appropriate for when Henry broke with
00:47:40
Rome he began to forge a new sense of
00:47:44
national identity of England as a
00:47:46
country unafraid to stand apart from
00:47:49
Europe
00:47:50
bloody minded perhaps xenophobic evil
00:47:53
yet self-confidently different
00:47:56
a country that built this great church
00:48:00
and Nelson's greater Navy
00:48:04
that Nation reflected Henry's own
00:48:07
character
00:48:09
a bit of it survives
00:48:11
and to the extent that it does we're all
00:48:15
still made
00:48:17
in Henry's image
00:48:19
[Music]
00:48:45
foreign
00:48:46
[Music]
00:49:16
foreign
00:49:17
[Music]
