The Six Wives of Henry VIII The Tudors. Henry viii - a bloodstain in the history of England
No matter how many historians write about the English King Henry VIII, interest in this truly outstanding person does not decrease.
Source: Ivonin Yu.E., Ivonina L.I. Rulers of the destinies of Europe: emperors, kings, ministers of the 16th - 18th centuries. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004.
In his actions, political and personal motives were combined in a very bizarre and at first glance contradictory way, Henry VIII was portrayed either as a king-zhuir, who did little public affairs and was constantly in a whirlwind of court entertainment (special attention is usually paid to his scandalous personal life), then cruel and a perfidious tyrant, then an extremely prudent, sober politician, indifferent to women, arranging marriages only for political reasons and maintaining a magnificent courtyard solely out of necessity, for reasons of prestige. One of his biographers believed that the behavior of Henry VIII testified to the paranoid inclinations of the English monarch. Of course, this opinion is debatable. Many assessments of the king suffer from one-sidedness. The only thing that all the authors who wrote about him unconditionally agree on is that Henry VIII was a despot. In fact, in an amazing way, he combined the features of a noble knight and a tyrant, but (p. 115) a sober calculation, aimed at strengthening his own power, prevailed.
His favorites, major statesmen of England in the 16th century, who actually laid the foundation for English absolutism, were mainly engaged in political affairs - Thomas Bulley and Thomas Cromwell. To these one could add the great English humanist Thomas More, who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1529-1532. But, firstly, the time of his ministry was short-lived, and secondly, with all his brilliant abilities, he not only did not determine the policy of the English kingdom, but simply was not a major statesman, although he was well versed in the secret springs of making important state decisions. Nevertheless, More suffered the same sad fate as Woolsey and Cromwell: all three fell into disgrace, but if Booley managed to die a natural death, avoiding inevitable execution, then More and Cromwell ended their days on the scaffold.
Both contemporaries and historians recognize Henry VIII as a tyrant. Without naming names, here are some statements by various authors: “Henry VIII was a tyrant, but a brilliant and capable sovereign”, “He definitely became a despot, but in his actions he was consistent with the will of the people”, “He had willpower and an uncompromising character, which in were able to lead him to a predetermined goal, despite the obstacles ... "One of characteristic features Henry VIII was very accurately noted by Thomas More. After the king visited the house of More in Chelsea (a suburb of London), the son-in-law of the great humanist, William Roper, expressed his admiration for the love that Henry VIII showed for More. To this More sadly remarked: "I must tell you that I have no reason to be proud of my relationship with the king, for if at the cost of my head it will be possible to get at least one fortress in France, the king will not be slow to do so." Already near death, Cardinal Wolsey, who had studied his king well, said to Sir William Kingston: "You must be sure of what you put into his head (p. 116) because you will never take it back." As the years passed, Henry VIII became even more suspicious and vengeful, destroying real and imaginary enemies with horrific cruelty.
The formation of the character of the English king was largely facilitated by the conditions in which he was brought up. It is they who allow answering the question why from an angelic youth he mature years turned into a monster. The situation of the first decades of the Tudor rule, when here and there riots of supporters of Richard S York and anti-tax protests broke out, determined the desire of Henry VII, the father of the hero of this essay, not to lose power at any cost. In addition, in the last (p. 117)
years of reign between him and his son, the future Henry VIII, there were disagreements. The prince did not want to marry Catherine of Aragon, who, after the death of her first husband, Arthur, who was the prince's older brother, lived in England, waiting for her fate to be decided. Henry VII believed that the marriage of his son, heir to the throne, and Catherine of Aragon was the best way to strengthen the alliance between England and Spain. In this case, in his opinion, the protection of England from attack by France was guaranteed. In addition, the English king was very attracted by Catherine's large dowry, which he did not want to miss. Henry VIII was known for his love of money. The young prince was forced to agree with the will of his father and obediently smile, although behind his smile there was a deep hatred for his parent. At the same time, seeing the reluctance of the Spaniards to marry his son Henry and Catherine, the old king defiantly treated his daughter-in-law, the widow of Prince Arthur, coldly. The English king wanted to force the Spaniards themselves to go (p.118) to rapprochement with London. Catherine was no longer invited to court holidays. Her table was much worse than that of the royal family, she was given little cash and, finally, she was kept in the dark about her marriage to Henry. Meanwhile, the young prince was enjoying himself with might and main, and Henry VII secretly encouraged this.
At the beginning of 1509, Henry VII, already completely ill (he, like his eldest son Arthur, died of tuberculosis), did not even mention the marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon. But on his deathbed, he told his son: "We do not want to put pressure on the prince, we want to leave him freedom of choice." And yet his last words were: "Marry Catherine."
The young king's advisers quickly brought the matter to an end, and soon the marriage was concluded. Thus, an extremely complex knot of contradictions was tied between England, Spain and the Habsburgs, since the nine-year-old grandson of Ferdinand of Aragon, Karl Habsburg, Catherine's nephew, was the only real contender for the Spanish throne.
The first years of the reign of Henry VIII passed in an atmosphere of court festivities and military adventures. The two million pounds left by the stingy Henry VII in the royal treasury were melting away at a disastrous rate. The young king enjoyed wealth and power, spending his time in non-stop entertainment. An excellently educated and versatile person, Henry VIII initially aroused hopes among people oriented towards humanistic ideals. Lord William Mountjoy in May 1509 wrote to the great humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam: “I say without hesitation, my Erasmus: when you hear that the one whom we could call our Octavian has taken the throne of your father, your melancholy will leave you in an instant ... Our king desires not gold, pearls, jewels, but virtue, glory, (p. 119) immortality!” Henry VIII himself, who was prone to writing in his younger years, in a song that he wrote and set to music, imagined his way of life and ideal like this:
I will be until the last days
Loving a cheerful circle of friends -
Envy, but don't you dare interfere
I have to please God with my
game: shoot
Sing dance -
Here is my life
Or multiply a row
I am not free to such delights?
But the biggest and indestructible passion of the second Tudor was power and glory. The splendor of the Plantagenet crown, the restoration of whose power he dreamed of, pushed him to a risky war in alliance with his father-in-law Ferdinand of Aragon against France. The income of the English king at that time did not allow him to lead such a wasteful lifestyle and large-scale politics. Although Parliament was generally obedient, but, mindful of recent anti-tax speeches, it was not very willing to allow the collection of emergency taxes. The king was poorer than all the big feudal lords put together, but he spent more than them. England did not have its own fleet - if necessary, the ships of Italian and Hanseatic merchants were used. The English kings also did not have a regular army. Under Henry VII, a detachment of arquebusiers was created, and Henry VIII formed a detachment of spearmen. There were (p. 120) permanent garrisons in several border fortresses, total number soldiers which did not exceed 3 thousand people. Although theoretically they could serve as the core for creating a standing army, but this was too little, and the Tudors could not do without foreign mercenaries.
The first twenty years of his reign, Henry VIII was occupied mainly with foreign policy issues. The ambition of the young king seemed to know no bounds, but there was no money for the implementation of grandiose plans. Unsuccessful war with France in 1512–1513 cost the British treasury 813 thousand pounds. Ally Ferdinand of Aragon, having concluded a separate peace with the French king Louis XII, actually left England face to face with France. The collection of a subsidy of £160,000 voted by Parliament in 1514 yielded less than a third of the amount required. Without the risk of triggering a wave of anti-tax protests, it was impossible to continue an active foreign policy. There was another important reason for the turn in the foreign policy of the English king. As soon as he got bogged down in the war with France, relations with Scotland immediately escalated. On August 22, 1513, the Scottish king James IV, at the head of an army of 60,000, moved to the English border. He saw France as the guarantor of Scotland's independence from England's encroachments and often acted in alliance with her. That is what happened this time as well. At a difficult moment, the French crown turned to the Scottish king for help. But on September 9, at the Battle of Flodden, the Scots, who had always fought poorly on the plain, suffered a crushing defeat, and on August 10, 1514, a peace treaty was signed between Louis XII and Henry VIII. One of the goals of the English monarch was to get the support of France in order to take over Castile. According to the English king, it was supposed to belong to the daughters of Ferdinand of Aragon, one of whom - Catherine - was his wife. Henry VIII did not give up hope of expanding his possessions. He saw the Spanish marriage as a means to enhance his international prestige. (p.121)
The successor of Louis XII on the French throne, Francis I, who actively continued the Italian policy of his predecessors, decided that the Anglo-Scottish conflicts should not draw France, which was conducting military operations in Italy, into a war against England. After the victories of Francis I in the autumn of 1515 in Lombardy and the death of Ferdinand of Aragon at the beginning of 1516, the balance of power in Western Europe changed drastically. Spain ended up under the rule of Charles V. Its foreign policy took on a clear pro-Habsburg direction, which complicated the relationship between England and the Empire.
The changes that took place were to affect Albion's position in Western European affairs. England began to return to the policy of balance of power, developed by Henry VII, which was advocated in the time of Henry VIII by the then Lord Chancellor of the kingdom and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Thomas Wolsey.
This politician managed to take over the reins of government at a time when Henry VI11 preferred to dance and hunt. For 15 years, Wolsey was the second political figure in England after the king. In his biography, written by George Cavendish in 1554-1558. and published only in 1641, it is said that Woolsey was born into a butcher's family in Ipswich, a town in the county of Suffolk. He early discovered a propensity for learning and was able to get higher education at Oxford University. In 1503 Wolsey became chaplain to Sir Richard Nanfan, who was Governor of Calais. The governor trusted him, and on his recommendation, the young priest was sent on a diplomatic mission to Emperor Maximilian T. A successful assignment contributed to the rapid advancement of Wolsey through the ranks. Shortly before his death, Nengfan recommended his chaplain to Henry VII himself. Having taken the same position under the king, Wolsey gained access to the court (p. 122)
However, already in November 1509 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council, and now he had permanent contacts with the young king, who needed capable and active executors of his will. When, in 1511, England heard, as it later turned out to be false, rumors about the imminent death of Pope Julius II, Wolsey quite seriously told his sovereign about how much benefit he could get if he made him a cardinal. The cardinal cap was a necessary step towards the papal tiara. Soon, Wolsey really becomes a cardinal, having removed the Archbishop of York, Cardinal Bainbridge, from his path (it is believed that Wolsey's agents in Rome poisoned him). This happened in July 1514. The death of Bainbridge opened the way for Wolsey to the rank of archbishop of York and the rank of cardinal. Then he becomes the Lord Chancellor of England and receives from
(p.123) the pope agrees to be a cardinal legate of the Roman curia in England with broad powers. Huge power is concentrated in the farts of the butcher's son. In fact, Wolsey controlled the foreign policy of England and managed the country's finances. Foreign ambassadors most often turned to him. In his house (he soon built a beautiful new palace in Lambeth - a man of modest origin was simply obsessed with a craving for luxury) there were always crowds of people looking for his support and help.
The following years could serve as an eloquent illustration of Woolsey's "balance of power" policy. On the one hand, Francis I was looking for friendship with England, on the other hand, Karl Habsburg sought, through the mediation of Wolsey, to personally meet with the English king. This became especially evident after the election last emperor Holy Roman Empire. Since a direct clash between France and the Empire was brewing, both sides were looking for an ally and sought to enlist, if not support, then at least the neutrality of England. The splendor of the meeting of the English and French kings in the valley of Ard in northern France in the spring of 1520 did not match its results. In addition to general assurances of love and friendship, the French king did not hear anything important from Henry VIII. During the meeting in the valley of Ard, a curious episode occurred. When Woolsey, in his welcoming speech, listing the titles of the English king, reached the words “Henry, King of England and France” (the claim was completely untrue, but it showed the ambitions of the English monarch), he exclaimed, laughing: “Remove this title!”
And yet the temptation to expand his possessions at the expense of France was so great that the English king decided to make an alliance with the emperor against Francis I. The war against France could cost England dearly, but this did not stop the ambitious monarch. He demanded money from Woolsey, and as much as possible. In 1522–1523 (p. 124) the Lord Chancellor raised £352,231 in forced loans, and the following year tried to replenish the treasury by a loan he called "friendly subsidy", but this venture was unsuccessful. In a number of counties the situation was fraught with armed uprisings. All this, of course, inspired alarm, nevertheless Henry VIII decided to go to war against France.
He met the news of the defeat of the French at Pavia with an exclamation: “All the enemies of England have been destroyed! Pour me more wine!” In Westminster Abbey, with the participation of Woolsey himself, a solemn mass was celebrated with the singing of “Thee, O Lord, we praise!”. The English king hurried to send a congratulatory letter to Charles V, in which he promised to help complete the Italian campaign, for which he demanded to cede part of the French lands (Brittany, Guyenne and Normandy) to England. In making these claims, he was thinking completely unrealistically. First, Charles V did not have the opportunity to develop progress made; this was hampered by the lack of finances and the outbreak of the Peasants' War in Germany. Secondly, the emperor was not going to satisfy the territorial claims of Henry VIII. It was these circumstances that influenced Karl's decision to refuse to marry Henry's daughter Mary. The emperor gave preference to a Portuguese princess with her dowry of 900,000 ducats. In addition, Princess Isabella had already reached marriageable age, and Mary was not even nine years old.
Having been refused by the emperor, Henry VIII was faced with an alternative. The continuation of the alliance with the Habsburgs threatened to put England in the position of an unequal partner. On the other hand, an alliance or at least benevolent neutrality towards France, the only country capable of withstanding the struggle against the Habsburgs, promised economic and political benefits, since the success of the French in the changed situation could strengthen the position of Henry VIII. However, the turn towards rapprochement with France did not occur immediately. Only at the end of the summer of 1525 was Wolsey able to go to France and (p. 125) there sign the agreement he had long conceived on peace and eternal friendship between the two countries.
On one of the holidays, which were arranged by the cheerful fat man Buley, who loved to show off his wealth, the king met a woman who later played a fatal role in the fate of the cardinal. For all his prudence, Henry VIII was a great womanizer and did not refuse love adventures. Bouley introduced him closer to the young lady-in-waiting to the queen, Anne Boleyn. As a girl, she accompanied Henry VIII's sister Mary, who married Louis XP, to France. From 1519 to 1522 Anne Boleyn was in the retinue of the wife of Francis I Claude and returned to England at the age of 16. In Paris, she acquired good manners, learned how to keep up a conversation, play musical instruments, and mastered several foreign languages, primarily French. Anna herself, cheerful, charming and witty, was one of the most attractive ladies at the court of the young (p. 126) king. The authors of previous years usually write that Henry VIII was captivated by her huge eyes. But in recent years, quite in the spirit of our time, more often they began to point to the pronounced sex appeal of Anne Boleyn, who was not at all reputed to be a beauty. In short, Henry VIII fell passionately in love. But the main thing was that he planned to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. When Bouley heard from the king about his intentions, he knelt before his sovereign and begged him for a long time to give up such thoughts. For the Bouleys, the issue of the divorce of Henry VIII was very important, because it affected the interests of the church.
Bouley understood that it was almost impossible to get consent to the king's divorce from the pope, since Catherine of Aragon was the emperor's aunt and much depended on the position of Charles V. Another thing is when Henry VIII took his mistresses, this was not at all forbidden; by the way, one of them bore him a son, to whom the king gave the title of Earl of Richmond, and he did it defiantly, since only daughter Maria survived from Catherine's children (the rest of the children were born dead). In the future, the younger sister of Anne Boleyn, Mary, also became the mistress of Henry VIII. Perhaps events would have taken a different turn, but the maid of honor refused to be another favorite of the king, insisting that he marry her. Henry VIII, not accustomed to resistance, sought to conquer the lady of his heart at all costs.
To understand the reason for such persistence of Anne Boleyn, let's say a few words about her origin. Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, was married to Lady Anne Plantagenet, half-sister of Henry VII. In 1509 he became the bed-keeper of Henry VIII. He was often given various diplomatic missions. Thomas Boleyn came from the London bourgeoisie, but managed to marry his sister to the Duke of Norfolk. Thus, behind the back of the new favorite stood one of the powerful leaders of the old aristocracy, who planned to make Anna a means of pressure on the king. Knowing the nature of Henry VIII, (p.127) striving to achieve the desired goal in any way, Norfolk and his supporters supported the persistence of Anne Boleyn.
The idea of a divorce from Catherine of Aragon arose a long time ago. A few years before the wedding, in a secret document dated June 27, 1505, Henry, then Prince of Wales, protested against the proposed marriage to Catherine, questioning its legality on the grounds that he himself was not yet of marriageable age. Perhaps the above-mentioned document was compiled later, but no one has been able to prove it. It seems that Henry VIII had very good political reasons for getting rid of the dictates of Spain by breaking the dynastic marriage union. In 1514, when there was a rapprochement between England and France, sealed by the marriage of the sister of the English king Mary and Louis XII, Henry VIII intended to divorce Catherine of Aragon, obviously based primarily on political reasons. But for such a divorce, very good reasons were needed. Bouley, for example, proposed as a reason to point to the absence of a male heir for the royal couple - a very significant argument from the point of view of succession to the throne. The king himself, who in his youth was preparing to accept the rank of Archbishop of Canterbury and received a good theological training, found in the Bible, in the Book of Leviticus, a phrase that said that he who is married to his brother's wife commits a great sin. Henry VIII did not fail to make this fact widely publicized. The situation was ridiculous - the king, after almost 18 years of family life, discovered that all this time he had lived in sin and his marriage, from the point of view of all Christian laws, was invalid. On June 22, 1527, Henry VIII told Catherine of Aragon that his wisest and most learned advisers were of the opinion that he and she had never been husband and wife and that Catherine should decide for herself where she should now be. The king's passion for Anne Boleyn intensified every day. He bombarded Anna with tender love letters (p. 128) but she was adamant. One of the reasons for her resistance was that the favorite had previously been in love with the young Lord Henry Percy and was about to marry him. The king, of course, did not want this, and not without the help of the Bulls, the young lord was sent to the north of England. Subsequently, Anna found out who was guilty of the collapse of her girlish hopes, and said: "If it were in my power, I would give the cardinal a lot of trouble." At the same time, she flirted with Sir Thomas Wyatt. Woolsey found himself in a difficult position. Being close to the king and at first the only person who knew about the passion of his sovereign, he should have contributed to the satisfaction of the desires of the monarch. But in the depths of his soul, Wolsey sought to implement another marriage option: realizing that a divorce from Catherine of Aragon was inevitable (he knew his king very well), the cardinal decided that the best match for Henry VIII would be a French princess.
It would seem that the cardinal bathed in the rays of glory, was influential and rich, but in the situation that arose he sometimes became stumped, especially since he felt Anne Boleyn's cold attitude towards her person. After losing Percy and agreeing to become the king's wife after Henry VIII's divorce, Anne saw Woolsey as one of the obstacles to her ambitious dream of becoming an English queen. She demanded that Henry VIII arrest Wolsey and threatened to leave the royal court.
Henry VIII expected to obtain permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon from the pope. But after the defeat of Rome in May 1527, the positions of Pope Clement VII weakened, and, subsequently going to reconcile with Charles, the pope did not want to anger him by agreeing to the divorce of the English king from the emperor's aunt.
Meanwhile, the international situation began to change in favor of Charles V. After most of the French army died from the plague near Naples in 1528, it became obvious that Francis I would come to an agreement with the emperor. Wolsey's sincere belief (p. 129) that an alliance with France was the only way to persuade the pope to compromise and resist the Habsburgs by diplomatic means required unconditional participation in hostilities, but this inevitably aroused the displeasure of the king and the intrigues of the feudal opposition led by Norfolk. By itself, the Anglo-French alliance did not bring benefits to the Tudor government, but its anti-Habsburg course in foreign policy did not change. This is evident primarily from the history of the divorce proceedings of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The opinion often found in the literature that divorce was the reason for the Reformation needs to be clarified, because in reality everything was more complicated. It became such an occasion only by the autumn of 1529. With the strengthening of the anti-Habsburg trend foreign policy In England, the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon not only turned out to be disadvantageous, but also extremely dangerous, since the emperor's aunt could unite around herself all the pro-Habsburg and opposition elements to Henry VIII. The implementation of a divorce and the conclusion of a new marriage with the sanction of the pope would be at the same time a compromise with the papal curia. The desire of the English king to reach an agreement with the pope was largely determined by the fact that Clement VII in the recent past was the cardinal protector of England, that is, the defender of her interests in the papal curia. When the divorce proceedings began, these tasks were carried out by Lorenzo Campeggio, who was associated with Buley for many years of cooperation. In addition, Woolsey believed that the arrival of Campeggio in England would be a means for the pope to put pressure on the emperor in Italian affairs. Therefore, the king and the lord chancellor turned to Clement VII with a request to send a commission from Rome to carry out the divorce proceedings. But when the French began to suffer defeats in Italy, and the pope learned about the emperor's negative attitude towards the idea of divorce, he hastened to instruct Campeggio "to restore peace and harmony in the family of the English king" and prevent divorce. (p.130)
Habsburg diplomats tried to bribe Wolsey with a hefty sum of money and the promise of the rank of Archbishop of Toledo, so that he would do everything possible to aggravate relations between England and France. Wolsey, who was hired to find a compromise solution to the king's family problems, found himself in a very difficult position. He repeatedly convinced Campeggio that Charles V was unlikely to use the divorce case to attack Rome or England. Meanwhile, the group that supported Anne Boleyn sought the removal of Woolsey, who, trying to prevent this, sought to strengthen his position with the help of foreign policy actions aimed at rapprochement with France.
At the trial of the cardinals, Catherine of Aragon behaved with great dignity. Her main line of defense was that she married Henry VIII as a virgin. Wolsey naturally defended the position of the king, but Campeggio did not want to decide on the satisfaction of the claim of Henry VIII. With that, the papal envoy left England. The Duke of Suffolk said this about the court of the cardinals: “Since the foundation of the world, no one from your estate has done good to England. If I were king, I would immediately order both of you to be sent into exile. The inconclusive outcome of the trial of the cardinals was a wake-up call to Wolsey. This was the beginning of his downfall.
Reformation sentiments intensified in the country, and Wolsey remained a Catholic and was a determined opponent of the Reformation. His wealth, his impunity, and his special position under the king, which he paraded in a purely medieval spirit, had long irritated court circles, which aroused hatred of the cardinal in English society. The party of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the help of Anne Boleyn, sought the resignation of Wolsey. Soon the Lord Chancellor, in full accordance with the English political traditions of the time, was accused of high treason. In October 1529 Wolsey retired and retired from political affairs to York, his archbishop's seat. (p.131) It is noteworthy that his resignation took place on the eve of the "Parliament of the Reformation" (1529-1536), which carried out major church reforms.
The intention to carry out reform measures "from above" might have seemed unexpected. Indeed, the king did not fall in love so much that, for the sake of a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he would break with the Catholic Church! In any case, it seemed so to many contemporaries, and this circumstance has influenced the opinion of historians up to the present day. After all, many knew that Henry VIII in his youth was preparing to accept the rank of Archbishop of Canterbury, was well-versed in theology and was an adherent of the Catholic faith. For the treatise "In Defense of the Seven Sacraments" directed against Luther (most of it is believed to have been written by Thomas More), Pope Leo X in 1521 bestowed on him the title "Defender of the Faith." Not without the king's knowledge, Bishop John Fisher of Rochester, his former tutor and his future victim, published a treatise On the Defense of the Catholic Faith against Luther's "Babylonian Captivity". True, in 1525, on the initiative of the former Danish king Christian II, who was expelled from his country and was trying to get the support of the German princes, an attempt was made to reconcile Henry VIII and Luther. The reformer wrote to the English king a letter of apology for the fact that in the heat of controversy, in response to Henry VIII's treatise "In Defense of the Seven Sacraments", he resorted to insults (expressions like "narrow-minded monster", "Thomist whore" were among them, perhaps, the most innocent). But Henry VIII answered very evasively - the English king continued to consider Luther the main culprit Peasants' War in Germany.
The main question of the royal Reformation was, first of all, to decide what belonged to God and what belonged to Caesar, that is, the English king. A crisis was brewing, a turn in politics was inevitable, and the fall of Wolsey became a matter of time. Obviously, this was felt by the party of Norfolk and Anne Boleyn, who were lurking on the resignation of the Lord Chancellor. “Whatever the course of this case,” wrote the ambassador of the emperor, Eustace Chapuis, “those who raised this storm will stop at nothing until they destroy the cardinal, knowing full well that if he regains his lost prestige and power, they themselves will pay head." The Duke of Norfolk even swore in private that he would rather eat Wolsey alive than allow him to rise again.
Accusing Wolsey of high treason, Henry VIII said that he was intriguing in the papal curia with the aim of subordinating the English king to the throne of Rome. But even in York, the cardinal was not left alone. Norfolk's party feared that the deposed Lord Chancellor might again be in power. After all, the actions of Henry VIII were often unpredictable, and the conspirators themselves were well aware of the absurdity and falsity of the accusations against the cardinal. A little over a year after Woolsey's resignation, he was called back to London. Tower constable Kingston came for him. It meant scaffold. But on the way to London, Woolsey, shocked by royal disfavor, became ill, and he died at Leicester Abbey on November 29, 1530. In his dying confession, Woolsey said that he vigilantly fought against the Lutheran sect, which should not strengthen in the kingdom, because heretics cause great damage churches and monasteries. Here he gave the example of Bohemia during the Hussite wars, where heretics seized the kingdom and subjugated the king and court. “It is impossible, I beg you,” Wolsey addressed the king, “so that the communities rise up against the king and the nobles of the English kingdom.” This appeal is extremely interesting. Either Wolsey really did not understand the king's intentions to rob the church, which proves the exceptional ability of Henry VIII to hide his goals, or he wanted to die in peace with the Catholic Church in this way. The behavior of Henry VIII is also interesting. Wolsey was already being taken to London to certain death, and the king, when discussing matters in the Privy Council, exclaimed: “... Every day I notice that I miss the Cardinal of York!” (p.133)
With these words, Norfolk and Suffolk could not have a feeling of fear for their lives - what if the king takes it and restores Wolsey at court. But a few days later he died. However, the words of the king could also mean that the party of Norfolk will not replace Henry VIII of the fallen chancellor, and that he himself understands this very well. By the way, Henry VIII used this technique often, while blaming those who contributed to the fall of his favorites. So it was in the case of Thomas More, and with Thomas Cromwell, and with his future wife Anne Boleyn.
During the years of Henry's reign, key positions were occupied by prominent statesmen who largely determined the policy of those years. To one degree or another, the king listened to their opinion and relied on them, but he always left the final decision to himself.
In October 1529, Thomas More, the great humanist, was appointed Lord Chancellor, the author of many writings, including theological ones, directed against Luther and the English reformers. More had once performed several diplomatic assignments admirably, but had shown no inclination towards affairs of state, as they distracted him from his scholarly pursuits. Perhaps Henry VIII hoped that the scientist, far from the affairs of state administration, would be his obedient tool and would not pursue an independent policy. Although More did not really have much influence on state affairs, he did not become an obedient tool of the king, especially where it offended his convictions of a humanist and a believing Catholic, which ultimately cost him not only the position of Lord Chancellor (in 1532, he retired), but also the head. More, refusing to take the oath to the king as the head of the Anglican Church, was accused of high treason and executed in June 1535. Henry VIII was ruthless when it came to defiance, even from the people he called his friends.
Naturally, Thomas More could not solve divorce cases. But the English king was stubborn in his (p. 134) desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon. In June 1530 an address was sent to the pope in the name of all the English people, signed by seventy ecclesiastical and secular lords and eleven members of the House of Commons, who expressed their misgivings about the absence of an heir to the throne in England. The message indicated that if the pope persisted in his unwillingness to grant permission for the divorce, the English government would find other means to remove the obstacle. Even earlier, the congress of the English clergy decided that the marriage of Catherine of Aragon with Henry VIII was contrary to divine laws. Now it remained to find a person who could become an instrument of the king in the divorce case. They became the previously unknown Thomas Krenmer, one of the most mysterious and curious figures of that time. Perhaps we would never have known about him if it were not for the divorce of the king, which was widely discussed in various circles of the English population. Krenmer suggested the need to collect the opinions of theological faculties of European universities in favor of divorce. Krenmer's proposal was reported to Henry VIII, and from then on his rise began. Indeed, many universities were on the side of the king, and only the Sorbonne spoke out, albeit in a very evasive manner, against divorce. Success in solving this case contributed to the further promotion of Krenmer through the ranks. This outwardly attractive, elegant, physically strong (up to the age of 66 he rode excellently), insinuating and prudent man after the death in 1532 of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham becomes primate, i.e. the head of the Catholic Church in England. Owing to his elevation to the king, he soon gives permission for the Divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon, and then crowns the monarch with Anne Boleyn, who by this time was already pregnant with the future Queen Elizabeth. Since then, Krenmer has become a faithful servant of Henry VIII. He will outlive not only the king himself, but also his son Edward VI (1547–1553). In 1556, during the reign (p. 135) of Mary the Bloody Krenmer will become a victim of repression against the Protestants - he will be burned at the stake.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was a consistent Protestant, but very flexible and cautious. Where he saw the decisive resistance of the king, he retreated. Crenmer was a supporter of the secularization of monasteries, but, unlike Thomas Cromwell, was in no hurry to implement it. He pleaded for Anne Boleyn when the king was about to execute her, but he did it carefully, with caution: he always had a loophole for retreat. Henry VIII fully appreciated these qualities of Krenmer, and although the fate of the latter hung in the balance several times due to the intrigues of Norfolk and his supporters, he still managed to maintain his position. The archbishop looked modest and humble, did not participate in the robbery of monasteries, and this saved him from the attacks of Henry VIII.
But the most important statesman of England in the reign of Henry VIII was undoubtedly Thomas Cromwell. His portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger gives an excellent idea of the character of this man. Small in stature, stout, with a strong-willed double chin, small green eyes, a short neck, very mobile, he was the embodiment of power, energy and business activity. Cromwell was distinguished by cunning, he knew how to get close to exactly the people he needed, and to hide his moods and thoughts. A lowly man (he was the son of a blacksmith), Cromwell began his career as a mercenary soldier in Italy, then went into the service of Wolsey, was his sales agent, and later became a confidant. He favorably married the daughter of a wealthy London merchant and soon became a Member of Parliament. When Wolsey fell, Cromwell became very alarmed. In any case, he behaved very cautiously towards his former patron and soon tried to dissociate himself from him. In the parliament of 1529, Cromwell received a seat already thanks to the Duke of Norfolk, who then enjoyed the favor of the king. The patronage of Norfolk opened the doors of the royal court wide to the ambitious young man. When the "Parliament of the Reformation" began to work, meeting from November 3, 1529 to April 4, 1536, Cromwell began to consider his program, the purpose of which was to simultaneously strengthen the royal power in England and his own elevation in the ranks. There is a legend that tells how Cromwell fell into favor with Henry VIII. It was known that the king liked to walk alone in the morning hours in the garden of Westminster Abbey. Knowing this, Cromwell, wrapped in a black cloak, hid behind one of the trees. As soon as the king caught up with him, Cromwell stepped out from behind a tree, revealed himself to him and outlined his plan, which consisted of three important points: the implementation of a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the secularization of church and monastery lands, and the implementation of a policy of balance between France and the Empire. Henry VIII liked this program very much, and soon he began to quickly promote Cromwell in his service, as a result of which former agent Wolsey became the king's first favorite.
Cromwell's administrative career is indicative: in 1533 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1534 - Secretary of State, which corresponds to the modern Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1535 - Vicar General, i.e. the manager of the affairs of the church, in 1536 - Lord Privy Seal, in 1539 - Lord Chief Ruler of England, in 1540 he complains of the title of Earl of Essex. In the hands of Cromwell were almost all the threads of government - finance, church, foreign policy. He did not even need the position of Lord Chancellor, which since 1532 was held by the insignificant and not playing any serious Role, Sir Thomas Audley. The main events of the Royal Reformation in England, starting with the Canterbury Clergy Pardon Act (1532) and ending with the secularization of church and monastic lands, are associated primarily with the name of Thomas Cromwell. (p.137)
In matters of faith, Cromwell was above all a practical politician: he cannot be considered a consistent Protestant, since he viewed the Reformation as a means of strengthening the state and royal power. The subjugation of the clergy and the establishment of royal supremacy over the church were the main goals of Cromwell's religious policy. However, his financial arrangements weren't successful. As a result of secularization, most of the former monastic and church lands ended up not in the hands of the king, but first in the ownership of the nobility and then, as a result of speculation and resale, in the hands of numerous medium and small nobles (gentry). The matter came to curiosities. For example, for a deliciously prepared pudding, the king granted one court lady the land of the largest Glastonbury Abbey. It was a typically feudal gesture. In any case, the king needed to show his generosity. Although the "price revolution" had just begun, as a result of unfavorable trade conditions, lean years and food shortages, prices began to rise, the costs of maintaining the army, the state apparatus and the court, and strengthening the borders increased. Therefore, the government received practically nothing.
In the 30s. the teaching and organization of the Anglican Church was formed, the head of which was the English king. Despite all the fluctuations either in the direction of Protestantism, or in the direction of Catholicism, with the direct participation of Cromwell, a pragmatic middle course was developed between Rome and Wittenberg - a path that suited primarily the English monarchy, which sought to strengthen its power over the church and plunder it, and least of all prone to any significant changes in doctrine and creed. Under Cromwell, the Bible was allowed to be published in English. This Bible was allowed (p. 138) to be read only by gentlemen and wealthy merchants. Cromwell himself did not make visible deviations from orthodox doctrine, for example, he characterized the writings and judgments of the radical reformer Tyndall in a letter to his friend, the famous diplomat and merchant Stephen Vaughan, as erroneous. The king, relying on the obedient Parliament and the state apparatus led by Cromwell, could afford to be indifferent to all the anathemas and excommunications coming from the Roman Curia.
Simultaneously with the main anti-church measures, Cromwell began the reorganization of the state apparatus. The new favorite of Henry VIII sought to strengthen a rigid centralized, almost despotic system of government, completely subordinate to the king, and not to parliament. The administrative reforms of Thomas Cromwell played a huge role in creating such a management system.
However, all of them were carried out spontaneously, as needed, according to precedent, and most importantly, the piling up of posts and reliance on the mercy of the king suggests that there were quite a few typical medieval features in Cromwell's policy. He did not have a real concrete plan for reforming the state apparatus and clear theoretical views. One of the last Plantagenets, Reginald Pohl, who became Cardinal of the Roman Curia in 1536, even before his final departure for Italy, talked with Cromwell and was shocked to hear from him that Plato exists only for scholarly disputes, and therefore saw him as an all-powerful favorite " messenger of Satan”, who seduced the king and destroyed the Field family (in 1538, the 72-year-old mother of Reginald Paul Matilda was executed). Of course, one cannot ignore the intensification of repression under Cromwell - in 1532 alone, 1445 people were executed on charges of treason. The peak of persecution came in 1536-1537. By numerous executions, carried out more at the initiative of the king himself than of his faithful servant, Cromwell earned himself the hatred of many segments of the population of England. (p.139)
Cromwell was most directly involved in the marriage affairs of Henry VIII. In early January 1536, Anne Boleyn was relieved of the burden dead child(it was a boy). The king complained to one of his confidants that God again denied him a son. He, Henry, was allegedly seduced by the power of witchcraft and therefore entered into marriage with Anna, and if so, this marriage should be annulled, and the king should take a new wife. By the spring of 1536, Anne Boleyn's position was shaken. Her relationship with her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, became distinctly hostile. Her influence on the king at the time of her marriage was greatly reduced. In the spring of 1536, Henry VIII began to attract Jane Seymour, who, in general, did not stand out in anything special. The attitude of the king towards this girl began to be talked about at court, even ballads were composed, because of which (p. 140) she, her brother Earl of Hertford (the future Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector under Edward VI) and his wife were removed to their estates. The ambassador of Charles V, Eustace Chapuis, ceased to accompany the king and Anna after mass to the refectory. This was already a bad sign. Anna realized that she had lost her political importance in the eyes of the emperor. The news of Henry VIII's penchant for Jane Seymour was met with mixed reviews at European courts. The new favorite was a relative of the London Bishop Stokesley, one of the supporters of the Catholic opposition. The French king Francis I began to think that this could have bad consequences for the Franco-English alliance, and Charles V suggested that Henry, having divorced Anna, would go to reconciliation with him and with the Roman Curia.
But Henry VIII not only divorced Anne Boleyn, but also executed her. First, she was accused of adultery (Cromwell's agents played a prominent role in preparing the charge), and after this charge turned out to be untenable, of an attempt on the king's life. According to the concepts of that time, this was tantamount to high treason. On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed and Henry VIII immediately married Jane Seymour. It is curious that after some time the English king reproached Cromwell for having slandered his second wife. One can imagine how the heart sank in the chest of the all-powerful minister. But marriage to Jane Seymour did not change anything in the religious policy of Henry VIII. When Jane tried to convince him of the need to rebuild the monasteries, the king reminded her of Anne Boleyn's sad experience of meddling in public affairs.
But soon Henry VIII became a widower. Jane Seymour Died during the birth of the future King Edward VI on October 12, 1537. By the way, this circumstance gave rise to the hope in the soul of Emperor Charles V that, with the help of various options, it would be possible to arrange the marriage of the widowed English king with any of the relatives of the Habsburg house. In particular, Henry VIII was offered as a wife the 16-year-old (p. 141) widow of the Duke of Milan. In parallel, negotiations were underway for the marriage of the Portuguese Prince Louis and Mary Tudor. These negotiations continued throughout the first half of 1538. But the Habsburg diplomats, instead of the initially promised 100,000 dowry crowns for the Duchess of Milan, finally called the ridiculous amount of 15,000. It seems that the Habsburg diplomacy deliberately played for time, trying to prevent the successful completion of the ongoing negotiations between London and Paris and the Protestant princes of Germany.
Negotiations with them took special place in the diplomacy of Henry VIII. With the help of an alliance with the German princes and France, he and Cromwell hoped to create a powerful counterbalance to the Habsburgs. In general, Thomas Cromwell was extremely active in negotiations with the Germans, since, not without reason, he saw in uniting with them a means to strengthen the foreign policy positions of the English monarchy. However, there were significant obstacles in the way of creating this union. According to the Nuremberg religious world 1532, Protestant princes could conclude political agreements only with those states that recognize the exposition of the principles of the "Augsburg Confession" of 1530, i.e. Lutheranism, or at least Zwinglianism. Of course, Catholic France was immediately out of the game. Some hope was given to the princes by the Reformation in England, but it was, as already mentioned, far from being in the Lutheran spirit.
Henry VIII did not at all strive for religious unity with the German Protestants. Guided by domestic political considerations, he did not want to allow the deepening of reform processes in the country if Lutheranism was recognized as an official dogma. As for the foreign policy aspect, the English crown was, at first glance, in a rather favorable situation, since France, the Empire and the Protestant principalities of Germany were simultaneously seeking an alliance with it. At the beginning of the summer of 1538, the English king was waiting for the results of negotiations in Nice. It was clear that the emperor (p. 142) sought to achieve a long truce in order to once again try to subordinate the Lutheran princes to her power. But such a turn of affairs would inevitably have an impact on the policy of both England and the Schmalkaldic League and, perhaps, even contribute to their rapprochement. The demonstration of Franco-imperial rapprochement in the form of maneuvers of the combined fleet at the mouth of the Scheldt, which followed eight months after the conclusion of the ten-year truce in Nice, alerted Henry VIII, although the hope of resuming the policy of "balance of power" did not fade away. Meanwhile, the situation in Western Europe escalated.
The threat of an anti-English expedition became more and more tangible. On February 21, 1539, all English ships in the Dutch ports were under arrest, the French and Spanish ambassadors were recalled from London. The Royal Navy was put on alert, the fortifications on the south coast were urgently preparing to repel the enemy landings. But soon the incident was over. The fleet of Charles V in Antwerp was disbanded, and the ambassadors returned to London. Obviously, no one was going to seriously attack England, especially the French king. It also played a role that both Charles V and Francis I were counting on allied relations with Henry VIII in the future, realizing that the conflict between the Empire and France could soon resume with renewed vigor.
Conclusions were drawn from the events that took place in London. Cromwell convinced Henry VII! strengthen the alliance with the Protestant princes by taking a wife from some German princely house. Perhaps the minister showed here excessive impatience, which later cost him dearly. But to a certain extent it can be understood. Cromwell was tired of waiting for the French crown or the imperial authorities to finally agree to the participation of England in their affairs, and so that the country would not be in political isolation, he decided to turn again to the German Protestants. (p.143)
In this situation, the “Cleves” option finally took shape, which was based on the idea of concluding dynastic marriages between the Tudors and the Dukes of Jülich-Cleve, the owners of a small but strategically important duchy located in the lower reaches of the Rhine. Protestant leaders would hardly have been able in the future to protect the young Duke Wilhelm from the claims of Charles V, who threatened to take Gelderland from Jülich-Kleve. Therefore, they made an attempt to interest the English crown with the prospect of marrying Princess Mary to William, and his older sister Anna to Henry VIII himself. This gave hope for the acquisition of two allies at once, i.e., the Schmalkalden League and Jülich-Kleve, without reaching a religious compromise.
Cromwell liked the idea very much, because now it was not necessary to bring the theologians to agreement, England became an ally of Julich-Cleve by virtue of dynastic marriages, and since this duchy, in turn, was an ally of the Protestant princes of Germany, this meant the actual political rapprochement of England with the Schmalkalden Union . Foreign policy success, as Cromwell hoped, would allow him to crack down on the opposition. The minister unequivocally pointed out to the king: in the ongoing negotiations, nothing interferes with the English government, its demands are not rejected, because the Schmalkaldians do not want to suffer defeat from the emperor and the pope; in addition, the representatives of Charles V have not yet given an answer whether he agrees to England playing the role of mediator in relations between France and the Empire. Wouldn't it be better to enlist the support of the German princes in time than to suddenly find yourself face to face with the combined forces of France and the Empire!
The king, convinced by the logic and onslaught of Cromwell, relented, and the minister began to rush his agents so that they would receive a positive response from the representatives of the Schmalkaldic League as soon as possible. Yet Cromwell was not entirely sure that he had finally (p. 144) convinced Henry VIII. The stakes in this political game were too high!
As it turned out, Cromwell was clearly in a hurry. He was frightened by the unlikely threat of a joint action between the Empire and France against Albion (for the latter, this would be tantamount to recognizing political dependence on Charles V) and therefore took the wrong step. At that time, he was very worried about rumors about the emperor's preparations for war. The king, who already had a great deal of experience both in breaking marriage ties and in breaking political agreements, was always able to refuse an alliance with the Protestant princes if new options for political combinations with France and the Habsburgs arose. Moreover, the actual union was not sealed by a formal agreement.
In October 1539, an agreement was concluded on the marriage of Henry VIII and Anna of Cleves. Of course, the solution to the question of marriage was purely political in nature. But the English king, already fairly plump and flabby for his 48 years, and also suffering from a fistula in his leg, was still not indifferent to female charms. Before marrying Anna, he wanted to see her life-size portrait. Such a hastily painted portrait famous artist Hans Holbein the Younger, brought to London. The English diplomat Wallop proved to the king that Anna was pretty and a model of all virtues, but the portrait testified otherwise: although the famous artist flattered the original a little, he still could not hide the many flaws in the bride's appearance. According to the concepts of that time, Anna of Klevskaya was an overripe girl of 24 years old, not well brought up, tall (Henry VIII loved women of graceful build), with large, ugly features. When the English king saw this portrait, he uttered the famous phrase: "It's a Westphalian horse!" Nevertheless, there was nowhere to retreat, and on January 6, 1540, Anna of Cleves arrived in London. Henry VIII tenderly kissed her, they were married, and in the evening he confessed to one of his courtiers that he (p. 145) survived almost the most disgusting day of his reign. This was already a bad sign for Cromwell. Soon after the marriage, Henry VIII began to insist on a divorce from Anna of Cleves on the pretext that before him she had a relationship with the son of the Duke of Lorraine, however, such statements were unfounded. Cromwell was able to temporarily slow down the implementation of the plans of the king.
Henry VIII sent the Duke of Norfolk to Paris on a diplomatic mission, whose task was to obtain France's consent to participate in a new anti-imperial alliance. Norfolk soon reported to London that Francis I could hardly start a war against the emperor, for he was now bargaining with him because of the Duchy of Milan and hoping for concessions.
Naturally, without the help of France, military operations against Charles V would have been simply unthinkable for England. As a result, the alliance with the German Protestants became completely unnecessary for the English (p. 146) king. But there was a desire to get closer to the Habsburgs. The king's irritation with a major foreign policy failure and marriage with Anna of Cleves, which he, according to his assurances, never touched, turned against Cromwell. Soon Henry VIII secretly sanctioned the arrest of his favorite. The fall of Cromwell was not only the result of failures in the international arena, but also the result of a short-term strengthening of the feudal Catholic opposition, which took advantage of his mistakes. He also aroused dissatisfaction with the fact that he appropriated a considerable part of the secularized monastic property. According to not entirely accurate data, he got wealth in the amount of about 100 thousand pounds. Krenmer, not without malice, wrote to the king: “I am sure that others have received the best lands not Your Majesty."
On June 10, 1540, at a meeting of the Privy Council, the all-powerful until that time favorite was accused of high treason and arrested. It happened like this. About three o'clock in the afternoon, Cromwell joined the other members of the Council to begin the afternoon session. He found them standing around a table, to which Cromwell walked to take his seat. "You're in a hurry, gentlemen, let's get started," he said. In response, the leader of the opposition, Norfolk, said in a loud voice: “Cromwell, you must not sit here. Traitors don't sit with gentlemen." Norfolk's words were a conventional sign by which the officers of the guard came out from behind the drapery. Cromwell was arrested and taken to the Tower. One of the main charges brought against him was patronage of Protestants. In the Tower, Cromwell, deciding that his fall was caused by a return to Catholicism, began to beg the king for forgiveness, then proudly declare that he was ready to die in the Catholic faith. Henry VIII was such a secretive, cunning and unpredictable person that even Cromwell, who knew him well and almost always knew how to guess the mood of the king, did not understand that the royal Reformation in England, carried out on the initiative and at the behest of Henry himself, was not accidental, but was quite (p. 147) a natural phenomenon, only apparently retaining the appearance of a toy that can be pulled at the whim of the lord first in one direction, then in the other.
Not yet deprived of all his titles and positions, Cromwell, right in the Tower, sanctioned the divorce of Henry VIII from Anna of Cleves, who was immediately declared a queen widow with her husband alive. (However, this was already the second queen widow; the first was Catherine of Aragon, who died on January 8, 1536) It is curious that Anna of Cleves remained in England: she was given a decent allowance and a palace in which she lived the rest of her life, completely invisible no one needs.
On June 28, 1540, the execution of the former favorite took place. A day later, six more people were executed - three Protestants accused of heresy, and three Catholics accused of treason. By this, Henry VIII, as it were, showed that he did not at all intend to revise his church policy, adhering to a middle course between Rome and Wittenberg.
After some time, either indulging in memories, or really appreciating the administrative abilities of Cromwell, Henry VIII once declared at a meeting of the Privy Council that he would never again have such a servant as Cromwell. However, with these words, he, as it were, warned the leaders of the feudal opposition that the sad fate of the disgraced minister could await them.
In the last years of his reign, Henry VIII no longer relied on the help of favorites. Wolsey and Cromwell belonged to the realm of the shadows, while Norfolk and Gardiner were brilliant courtiers and clever schemers, but by no means statesmen large scale. By the way, their fate was also unenviable. Rarely did anyone of any significant figures at the court (p. 148) of Henry VIII manage to avoid prison or execution. Shortly before his death, the king accused Norfolk and his son the Earl of Surrey, then a well-known poet, of plotting against him, and therefore of treason. Surrey was executed, and Norfolk was saved from the scaffold only by the death of the despot king. He spent all the years of the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) in the Tower - they simply forgot about him - only the accession to the throne of the Catholic Mary Tudor (in the Protestant tradition - Bloody Mary) saved him from inevitable death in prison. He left the Tower a very feeble old man and no longer played any role in political affairs. Gardiner also had to spend some time in captivity in the Tower under the young Edward VI, for whom the protectors Somerset and Northumberland, supporters of Protestantism, ruled. During the reign of Mary (1533-1558) he served as Lord Chancellor, pursuing a very cautious and cunning policy, but he did not stay long in this post.
In the last years of his life, the suspiciousness and suspicion of Henry VIII increased dramatically. Everywhere he seemed to see conspiracies, attempts on his life and on the throne. Suspicions that tormented the king led him to strike at his real and imaginary enemies before they could do anything. The best illustration of this is the execution of Surrey and the imprisonment of Norfolk. Prince Edward grew up a weak and sickly boy, and in an effort to secure the throne for the Tudor dynasty, the king redid the will several times. In the latter version, the order of succession to the throne was as follows: Edward, in the event of his death - Mary, also sickly and weak-willed, and after her, in the event of her death, her daughter from her marriage to Anne Boleyn Elizabeth.
From February 1545, Henry VIII again began to establish relations with the Protestant princes of Germany, who feared that Charles V would soon start a war against them. In the end, between Francis I and Henry VIII on June 7, 1546, a peace treaty was concluded, which could be an important step in creating a new anti-Habsburg coalition. But the English king himself was already clearly weakening. (p.149)
During the peace ceremony with France, eyewitnesses wrote, he constantly leaned on the shoulder of Krenmer. At the same time, Henry VIII made concessions to the Protestants in England itself. Crenmer was allowed to translate the main prayers and psalms into English. Parliament, in order to put an end to disputes over the succession to the throne (since Edward was weak and sickly, the Catholics insisted on recognizing Mary as the legitimate heir, and the Protestants - Elizabeth), issued a decree granting the king the exclusive right to transfer the crown to anyone by means of a special charter or will. On the basis of this decree, in November 1546, a will was drawn up, which has already been mentioned above.
In the 40s. the old king married twice more. At first he liked the twenty-year-old niece of the Duke of Norfolk, Catherine Howard. Uncle did his best to make her queen. But soon Henry VIII discovered that Catherine Howard was unfaithful to him, most importantly, he was afraid of the increased influence of Norfolk. Catherine was accused of adultery and executed. The king then married Lord Latimer's widow, Catherine Parr, who had already survived three husbands before this marriage. She did not interfere in political affairs, which, however, did not prevent Henry VIII from trying to bring her to justice, but the death of the king, which followed on January 26, 1547, saved Catherine Parr from the scaffold that threatened her. She outlived her fourth husband.
When Henry VIII died, the courtiers did not immediately dare to believe it. They thought that the bloody king only pretended to be asleep and listened to what they were saying about him in order to get out of bed to take revenge on them for their insolence and rebelliousness. And only when the first signs of decomposition of the body appeared, it became clear that the tyrant would no longer get up.
What is remarkable about the reign and politics of this king? It seems to me, first of all, that during the years of his reign the foundation stones (p. 150) of the English absolute monarchy were laid and the main principles of the “balance of power” policy in international affairs were developed, which distinguished England for many subsequent centuries. But all this was created by extremely despotic methods. The insidious, suspicious and cruel king was ruthless not only in relation to his real enemies, but also to those who built the building of English absolutism (Wolsey, Cromwell), and to those who made up the world glory of England of those years (Thomas More).
In the policy of Henry VIII, one could feel both the legacy of the Middle Ages and the germs of the national policy of subsequent eras.
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1 Richard III of York is the last king of the York dynasty. The War of the Scarlet and White Roses (1455-1485) between the supporters of the Yorks and the Lancasters ended in victory for the latter, and Henry Tudor, a relative of the Lancasters, ascended the throne.
2 This refers to Octavian Augustus, from 27 BC. e. to 14 AD princeps of the Roman state, and in fact the emperor (hence the name of his reign - the principate of Augustus). He patronized writers and historians.
3 The dynasty that ruled England from 1154 to 1399. As a result of the marriage of the English queen Matilda, daughter of the English king Henry 1 (1100-1135), and Count of Anjou Geoffroy Plantagenet, a huge power was formed, which, in addition to England, included Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou. Its first ruler was the son from this marriage, King Henry 11 (1154-1189), who married Countess Allenore of Aquitaine (her first husband was the French King Louis VII). As a result of this dynastic union, the south-west of France came under the rule of the English king.
4 A chaplain is a priest who serves at a chapel, a small private church.
5 The Privy Council is the highest advisory body under the English kings, which included the most important dignitaries.
6 Tiara is a headdress worn by popes at solemn ceremonies.
7 A cardinal legate is a representative of the Pope in a country.
8 "Thomist" from "Thomism" - the teachings of Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274), as well as the philosophical and theological system developed by him, officially recognized by the Catholic Church.
9 Secularization is the conversion of monastic and church property into state property.
10 "Price Revolution" - what happened in Western Europe in the 16th century. a sharp rise in prices (on average 4-5 times) due to the depreciation of gold and silver due to an increase in its import from the American colonies of Spain, the growth of the urban population and the transfer of the main trade routes from the Mediterranean and the Baltic to the Atlantic.
11 The Schmalkaldic Union is a religious and political union of the Protestant sovereigns of Germany, created in December 1530 and directed against the Catholic princes and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The colorful figure of the English King Henry VIII Tudor (1491-1547) has long attracted the attention of not only educated readers, professional historians and writers, but also psychiatrists and doctors. The task of unraveling this most colorful personality of the 16th century is too attractive. Perhaps science has finally come close to revealing the secrets of the English monarch, who became famous for his polygamy and the Reformation, which ended in a quarrel with the pope and the proclamation of Henry as the head of the Anglican Church.
Henry VIII Tudor
In 1993, Oxford historian Vivian Hubert Howard Green published Mad Kings, where in the chapter on Henry (Big Harry) there is the following conclusion: "While, obviously, it would be ridiculous argue that the personality of Henry VIII shows the disturbed genes of the insane French king, it shows signs of mental and emotional imbalance. The author implies that Big Harry was the great-great-grandson of the French schizophrenic King Charles VI. So, maybe the whole short time is not in the genes, but in the blood? As Goethe rightly noted, "blood is a juice of a very special quality."
Eighteen years later, his colleagues published in the Cambridge Historical Gazette historical journal the results of your research. Bioarchaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley, a graduate student at Southern Methodical University (USA), and anthropologist Kyra Kramer argue that the repeated miscarriages that occurred in the king's wives could be due to the fact that the king has in the blood Kell antigen was present.
Let me remind you that Kell antigens (or Kell factors) are proteins found on the surface of red blood cells. There are about 24 of them, but two are most common - K and k. Moreover, the latter is present in almost all people, but the former is less common. Accordingly, depending on the presence or absence of it, people can be divided into three blood groups: Kell-positive (KK), Kell-neutral (Kk) and Kell-negative (kk). Among Europeans, representatives of the latter group are more common, but neutral and positive "Kellovites" are extremely rare (according to some sources, there are only nine percent of them).
In principle, a woman with only a negative Kell antigen in her blood can give birth to a healthy child from a man with a positive Kell antigen. However, during the first pregnancy, her body produces antibodies that, during subsequent pregnancies, pass into the placenta and attack the fetus with a positive Kell antigen. As a result, babies may suffer from excess fluid in the tissues, anemia, jaundice, an enlarged spleen, or heart failure, often leading to miscarriage between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. So much for the "blue blood" of the monarch!
Catherine of Aragon was five years older than her husband. Their firstborn, a daughter, was born dead. The second child, Henry, Prince of Wales, born in 1511, lived for seven weeks. The remaining four children were either stillborn or died immediately after birth. The only surviving child was Maria, born in 1516. She became Queen of England in 1553 and went down in history as the Bloody.
They tried to explain the premature birth as a mental shock caused by the deterioration of relations between Henry and the queen's father. Allegedly, the monarch endlessly reproached Catherine for the betrayal of King Ferdinand of Aragon and "vented his discontent on her."
In 1518, one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, Elizabeth Blount, bore him a son, later the Duke of Richmond. She was replaced by Mary Boleyn, and then her sister Anna, a sophisticated and well-read lady, "radiating sex." It was the marriage with Anne Boleyn that became the reason for the "divorce" from the throne of St. Peter. The Pope did not allow a lustful English autocrat to divorce a legitimate Spanish princess. As a stronghold of Catholicism, Henry personally wrote strong objections to Luther's teachings. The English monarch rebelled against the dictates of Rome only after the refusal of the pontiff to sanction his second marriage.
On January 29, 1536, Anna suffered a miscarriage of a male infant. It was even suggested that the fetus was probably a freak. Heinrich allowed himself to be convinced that Anna had bewitched him in order to marry him. Boleyn, in turn, attributed the miscarriage to the shock she experienced when she received the news of Henry's fall in a jousting tournament. Anna was worried not only for her husband's life, but also because her husband did not love her, but his new passion - Jane Seymour.
If Henry was also ill with Macleod's syndrome, then this is the reason for the cardinal physical and psychological changes in the physical and moral appearance of Henry VIII. McLeod syndrome is a genetic disease characteristic of people with a positive Kell antigen, reflected on the X chromosome. The disease is typical for men and manifests itself from the age of 40. Accompanied by symptoms such as heart disease, movement disorders, and major psychological symptoms, including paranoia and mental impairment.
There is no information in written sources about other symptoms that would correspond to MacLeod's syndrome. There is no evidence of prolonged muscle contractions (tics, spasms, or convulsions) or abnormal increases in muscle activity (hyperfunction). However, scientists believe that significant psychological metamorphoses also speak in favor of their diagnosis: Heinrich's mental and emotional instability increased significantly in the years before his death. Researchers tend to diagnose it as psychosis.
In the first years of his reign (Henry was anointed king in 1509), the second of the Tudors on the throne was distinguished by his beautiful appearance, great energy and endowed with charisma. Humanists had high hopes for this versatile educated person, a brilliant athlete and player, as well as a gifted musician. Heinrich's later illness was explained malnutrition, as a result of which he developed scurvy and mourning. In the 1540s, the king had already gained so much weight that he could not go up and down the stairs and had to be lifted and lowered with the help of special devices.
“He ate too much meat, often with spices or pickles in winter, too little fruit and fresh vegetables, and therefore suffered from an acute lack of ascorbic acid or vitamin C,” Vivian Green stated. “It seems that the features of his illness quite correspond to the characteristic symptoms of scurvy : ulceration of the leg with rapidly spreading tumors, pain and wounds, halitosis, fatigue, difficulty walking, shortness of breath, edematous tumors, red complexion, irritability and depression. due to malnutrition."
It was also assumed that Henry VIII had diabetes, syphilis and extensive gout. However, all these diagnoses are unproven. Neither he nor his children showed signs of syphilis, and there is no mention in the records of the use of the then drugs against it. venereal disease, for example, mercury.
As soon as the general public had time to get acquainted with the results of a study of two American women, criticism against them was not long in coming. Retha Warnicke of Arizona State University, author of The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Trial of Henry VIII, said that without genetic analysis, there is hardly any chance of finding out the truth.
A large number of miscarriages in the family of the English monarch can be explained by other factors. Up to late XIX for centuries, midwives had no idea about elementary hygiene. For this reason, in the time of Henry VIII, up to half of all children died before reaching adolescence. Cardinal changes in the personality of the king can be explained by hypodynamia - a lack of movement, a frantic appetite, which led to obesity and related diseases.
In general, a remarkable surge of scientific thought (the conjecture about blood) is again extinguished by traditionalists with "mossy" ideas about the sovereign's mental disorder.
Tudor and his 6 wives for almost 550 years has been of interest not only to historians, but also to people of art. And this is not surprising, since even without any adjustments it is in no way inferior to the plots of the most popular soap operas.
Many books have been written and dozens of films have been made on the topic of the monarch's numerous marriages. However, not all of them are true, so it will certainly be interesting for you to read documented facts that shed light on the relationship between Henry VIII Tudor, his wives and heirs, and why the king could not find a woman who could make him become an exemplary family man.
First marriage
Henry VIII ascended the English throne after the death of his father at the age of 17. He entered into his first marriage shortly before that. Moreover, this marriage was not only not out of love, but even its expediency from the point of view of strengthening England's position in Europe was questionable both by the father of the young king and his advisers.
The wife of the future king was Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish infanta, who, moreover, was the widow of Henry's older brother, Arthur. She was older than her husband and opposed their marriage. Catholic Church considering them to be close relatives. In order to get permission from the pope, Catherine even had to take an oath that she, despite being married to the Prince of Wales, remained a virgin. Based on these testimonies, the Spanish Infanta's first matrimonial union was declared invalid.
Absence of an heir
Having become king, young Henry completely obeyed his wife in matters of foreign policy. At the same time, the queen was most concerned about the interests of her native Spain. At the same time, everyone expected the birth of an heir from Catherine, but she only gave birth to dead children, or they died immediately after birth.
Finally, in 1516, 7 years after the wedding, the queen became the mother of a healthy girl, who was named Mary. According to the marriage contract of Catherine and Henry, in the absence of a couple of sons, the throne was to pass to the daughter. However, the king was afraid even of the thought that a woman would be on the throne of England. He continued to hope that Catherine would give him a son, but the next and last pregnancy of the queen ended in the birth of another dead boy, which made the threat of a dynastic crisis real.
Extramarital affairs
While the queen unsuccessfully tried to become the mother of the heir to the throne and was constantly pregnant or moving away from a difficult birth, Henry sought solace on the side. His most famous mistresses at that time were Bessie Blount, who gave birth to the king's son Fitzroy, and
Interestingly, in 1925, the first boy was given the title of Duke of Richmond and His Majesty did not even hide that he was the father of this child, while he did not recognize children from his second mistress, although everyone was sure that they were not born without his participation.
Ann Bolein
According to historians, all the wives of Henry 8 Tudor to one degree or another loved this extraordinary person. However, he did not idolize any of them, and subsequently hated them as much as Anne Boleyn.
The girl was the younger sister of his mistress Maria, but she was distinguished by exceptional ambition. She received an excellent education in Brussels and Paris and shone at court. Noticing signs of attention from the king, she met with him with pleasure for intellectual conversations, but was in no hurry to accept his courtship.
Perhaps the reason for her impregnability was the fate of her sister, who became Henry's concubine, and then was rejected and forgotten by him. The refusal only kindled the king's love ardor. To achieve her favor, he offered Anna the role of the wife of Henry 8 Tudor, although he already had a legal wife.
Divorce
Anna Klevskaya
Although England already had an heir to the throne, after the death of Joan Seymour, ambassadors were sent to many European capitals. They were instructed to find candidates for the role of the wife of Henry 8 Tudor. Portraits of girls from royal families had to be brought to London so that the king would choose his bride. As it turned out, no one was eager to give their daughter as a wife to a man who had two annulled marriages behind him and who executed the mother of his child.
With great difficulty, the ambassadors managed to persuade Duke Wilhelm of Cleves to marry his sister Anna to Heinrich. At the end of 1539, the princess arrived in Calais, where she met her fiancé. The king was disappointed, as the bride did not look at all like the girl from the portrait that had been sent to him. He returned to London in a rage and unleashed his anger on the courtiers, who betrothed him a "Flemish mare."
Nevertheless, he had to marry, but he declared publicly that he did not touch his wife. Despite this, Anna of Cleves won universal love at court and became a good stepmother for the three children of the king. Henry soon decided to cancel the barque. The queen did not resist, especially since her husband invited her to live in the palace as his "beloved sister".
Catherine Howard
By 1540, King Henry VIII Tudor of England and his wives were all over Europe. He could no longer hope to find a wife among the girls from the most august families, so he turned his eyes to the ladies-in-waiting of the fourth wife. Among them, he especially liked whom he married.
The marriage at first seemed happy, and Henry seemed to be 20 years younger. But the young wife was an anemone, and soon young people appeared in her retinue, with whom she was friendly before she became queen. Upon learning of his wife's infidelity, Henry ordered her to be executed in front of the crowd.
Catherine Parr
This woman happened to write the last chapter of the novel "Henry VIII and his six wives." At the time when the king proposed to her, she had already become a widow twice, and she was 31 years old. The king was over 50, and he told Lady Catherine that he hoped that she would be his comfort in old age. The new wife of Heinrich became friends with her husband's daughter Elizabeth and took up the education of his son Edward. The marriage lasted 4 years and ended with the death of the monarch.
Now you know some Interesting Facts about events in which the main characters were the English king Henry VIII and his six wives. Fortunately, today everyone is free to marry as many times as they wish, and for this it is not at all necessary to cut off heads or plunge the whole country into the abyss of religious and civil wars.
Henry VIII (1491-1547), English king (since 1509) from the Tudor dynasty.
Born June 28, 1491 in Greenwich. Son and heir of Henry VII. The main content of the policy of Henry VIII was the strengthening of the absolute monarchy in England. At the same time, the king sought to rely on the support, on the one hand, of the townspeople and their representatives in parliament and local authorities, on the other, the constantly growing bureaucracy.
Heinrich continued the reprisals against the baronial opposition begun by his father, and from the 30s. 15th century went on the offensive against the Roman Catholic Church. He divorced his wife, Catherine of Aragon, aunt of Charles V of Habsburg, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, in order to marry the humble Anne Boleyn. Parliament, obedient to the king, approved the divorce, not approved by the Pope.
In 1534, the Pope demanded that Henry renounce the divorce and threatened to excommunicate him from the Church. In response, Henry declared himself the head of the Anglican Church, breaking all relations with the papacy and the empire. In England, the “Royal Reformation” took place, which led to the emergence of the Protestant Anglican Church.
The reform of the Church was carried out with extreme cruelty, there were mass executions of "papists", the confession of Catholicism was actually banned.
In 1536-1539. by order of the king, English monasteries were destroyed, their property was completely confiscated in favor of the crown. The most powerful of the states that had fallen away from the Roman Catholic Church, England quickly became the center and pillar of the European Reformation.
Since the time of Henry VIII, she was in fact in a state of constant war with the Habsburgs.
From now on, the English kings actively supported the reform movement on the continent, intervened in the affairs of Germany, France and other European countries.
Domestically, Henry VIII became famous as a "bloody" king, whose repressions turned not only against the feudal nobility. Forbidding the barons to seize arable land for pastures, he at the same time fiercely persecuted the peasants who turned out to be vagabonds. All able-bodied vagabonds who were caught begging three times were subject to the death penalty.
In 1535, the Lord Chancellor, famous thinker and writer T. More was executed for resisting the Reformation. As a result, Anne Boleyn also became a victim of royal "justice", Henry's marriage to whom was once the reason for the Reformation.
At the same time, it was Henry VIII, the creator of English absolutism, who consolidated the unity of the country, laid the foundations for its independent foreign policy, the new political role of England in Europe.
The throne was inherited by the son of Henry and Jane, Edward IV (1537-1553). A responsible and well-read young man would have made a good monarch, but Edward was in poor health and died at the age of 15. At the instigation of the nobleman John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Edward bequeathed the crown to his cousin Lady Jane Gray (Dudley married her son in time). Against her wishes, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen, but nine days later she was overthrown by the legitimate heiress Mary Tudor (1516-1558). Under Mary, the Reformation in England turned 180 degrees: a devout Catholic made every effort to restore Catholicism in her state. Since Protestantism had not yet taken root, the English took the return of the Latin Mass calmly. But the intention of Mary to marry the Spanish Prince Philip alerted them. The queen was fascinated by Philip, but the twenty-seven-year-old Spaniard was not attracted by the withered virgin (38 years old by those standards - already a respectable age).
Pretty soon, he began to hang around for her ladies-in-waiting, and then completely left his wife, returning to his native Spain. Suffering from loneliness and the inability to get pregnant, Mary took revenge on heretics. For 4 years, about 300 Protestants were burned. The Anglican Bishop Latimer was right when he proclaimed from the scaffold; "Today we will light a candle that will never go out." With her atrocities, Mary earned the nickname "Bloody", and her subjects finally hated Catholicism - you won't be forced to be nice. The end of Mary's reign was overshadowed both by the loss of Calais, England's last possession on French soil, and by a personal drama: the ailment that she took for a long-awaited pregnancy turned out to be uterine cancer. "Bloody Mary" was inherited by her half-sister Elizabeth, whose reign the British call century." That was the era of poets and playwrights (Shakespeare's star rose), far-sighted politicians and brave pirates. In childhood and adolescence, Elizabeth suffered many hardships - the death of her mother on the chopping block, her father's decision to recognize her as illegitimate, the execution of her stepfather Thomas Seymour, the fourth husband of Catherine Parr.
In 1554, suspicious Mary kept her younger sister for a couple of months, and then exiled her to Oxfordshire. The death of Mary was a gift of fate for Elizabeth. The new queen was not at all like a closed sister, exhausting herself with fasting and vigil. Elizabeth turned out to be an active, wise and insightful woman, an inflexible politician and a witty interlocutor. She knew French, Italian, Ancient Greek and Latin, she was excellent in the saddle, she loved grandiose balls, but at the same time she was distinguished by economy. Only one feature of the queen caused concern - she was in no hurry to get married. Perhaps the trauma received at the court of Henry VIII affected. Death from childbirth or on the scaffold, the situation of a thing that is brought to the bride and sent away as unnecessary - this is the fate of a married woman. Elizabeth wanted to be in control of her own destiny. In the end, the British accepted her choice and even admired the Virgin Queen, married to her state. Poets compared her to the chaste Diana, goddess of the hunt, and sailors named the American colony of Virginia after her. The queen bathed in the rays of popular love. Although Scotland also converted to Protestantism and became much closer to England than to her longtime ally France, Elizabeth did not trust the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart (1542-1587). She remained faithful to Catholicism and considered herself the rightful heir to the English throne. In 1567, Mary was deposed and fled to England in search of protection, but the presence of a high-born Catholic is too great a temptation for the English "papists." Elizabeth considered it reasonable to put Mary under arrest, and in 1587 she signed her death warrant. England's main enemy remained Spain, the stronghold of Catholicism and the mistress of the seas. The Spaniards reacted nervously to the development of the English fleet, especially since England supported Francis Drake and other pirates who robbed Spanish ships. In 1588, a serious threat loomed over England: the "Invincible Armada", 130 heavy ships, sailed to its shores. But the English ships, albeit not numerous, were distinguished by maneuverability and well beaten up the clumsy Spanish ships It seemed that nature itself protected Britain: a powerful wind carried the Spanish ships north, away from the English coast.
The remnants of the Armada had to go around Scotland and Ireland, losing ships in storms and wrecks. The English, on the other hand, were convinced of God's protection and the power of their state. As soon as Elizabeth breathed her last, the messengers galloped at full speed to Scotland, where King James VI (1566-1625) was waiting for news. Ironically, the son of Mary Stuart, who was executed by her, became Elizabeth's successor: the Scottish king ascended the English throne under the name of James I. Opinions about the new monarch were divided. On the one hand, the British had difficulty understanding his accent, mocking his untidy manners and unsightly appearance. In addition, Yakov showed homosexual inclinations. George Villiers (1592-1628), the first Duke of Buckingham, became his favorite, and the whole country rejoiced when in 1628 the royal favorite fell victim to an assassination attempt (Alexandre Dumas very freely described this episode in The Three Musketeers), On the other hand, Jacob maintained stability at home and abroad. One of the greatest achievements of his reign was the translation of the Bible into English, which was used by everyone for several centuries in a row. English-speaking countries. From the pious king, both the witches (wedding trials flourished under him) and the Catholics got it. In 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered to blow up parliament and kill the king. In memory of the miraculous rescue of the monarch, every November 5, the British burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, one of the participants in the conspiracy.
Defending the "divine right" of kings, James I quarreled with parliament, and his son Charles I (1600-1649) brought the conflict to a qualitative level. new level. Timid and withdrawn, Charles did not get along well with those around him, with the exception of Buckingham, who managed to lose several important battles to the French. The British were even more upset by the marriage of Charles to the French Catholic Henrietta Maria. Several times parliamentarians expressed their indignation to the monarch, until in 1629, tired of complaints, he dissolved parliament. The next 11 years the king ruled alone, but in 1639 and 1640. was forced to convene advisers again. The crown needed funds for the war with Scotland, where a serious conflict flared up due to the introduction of Anglican worship there (the Scots belonged to an even stricter branch of Protestantism - Presbyterianism). Taught by bitter experience, the parliamentarians were in no hurry to disperse. The "Long Parliament" began, the majority of which belonged to the Puritans, ardent opponents of any Catholic vestiges (including such cute customs as Christmas pudding and May Day festivities). In 1642, the confrontation between the king and parliament turned into a civil war (in Soviet historiography it was called the "English bourgeois revolution").
The war split the country: the west sided with the king, while the east, including London, supported the "roundheads" (the soldiers of Parliament received such a nickname for short haircuts). The leader of the rebels was the landowner from Cambridge Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), a brilliant military leader and adamant politician. After the defeat at Marstonmoor, the king lost the north, and in 1646 surrendered to the Scots, who a year later handed him over to the parliamentarians. In January 1649, Charles appeared before the court on charges of crimes against the fatherland. Although the king denied to the last that mere mortals could judge him, the anointed of God, this did not prevent parliament from signing his death warrant. On a frosty day in January, the king went to Whitehall Palace for the last time. In order not to shiver from the cold, he put on two undershirts in case onlookers would decide that the monarch was shaking with fear. After his execution, England was proclaimed a republic, and in 1653 Cromwell was granted the title of Lord Protector.
