Straightforward account of life of Henry VIII
Jasper Ridley?s Henry VIII is a straightforward account of the life of Henry VIII. As Henry so dominated the period of his reign (1509-1547) it is also a blow-by-blow account of English political history during this period.
Ridley?s interpretation of Henry is that he was a monarch who, although he dedicated enormous amounts of time to hunting, hawking, eating, drinking and pursuing women, was fully in control of political events and of his counsellors throughout the whole of his reign, and was personally responsible for every policy and every major decision. Ridley shows how Henry, by systematically destroying friends and enemies alike, was able by the end of his reign to hold more absolute power than any English sovereign before or since. In the 1530s, for example, Parliament gave Henry the right to issue proclamations which would have the force of an Act of Parliament, a power which no other English sovereign has wielded.
Ridely?s account is a useful corrective to the lazy view that Henry, by breaking with Rome, ushered in the Reformation. In fact Henry, by breaking with Rome and dissolving the monasteries, ushered in a period of absolute monarchy characterised by orthodox Catholic doctrine (minus the monasteries, shrines and the authority of the Pope). By breaking with Rome and simultaneously reining in Cranmer and other Reformers, Henry was able to control all factions in the country; a one point he was burning ?Catholics? (supporters of Papal authority) and Lutherans side by side. However in the final purge amongst his advisors which saw the Duke of Norfolk in the Tower and his son (the Earl of Surrey) executed, Henry, on his deathbed, favoured the Reformers, so clearly he saw his break with Rome as his greatest achievement and one likely to be perpetuated only by the Reform faction.
Ridely?s account is not an economic or social history of the first half of the C16 in England, and so leaves unexplained the social changes that made Henry?s absolute monarchy possible. Nor does it explain the economic changes which saw Henry at the beginning of his reign as one of the richest princes in Europe, wearing doublets encrusted with jewels worth 40,000 ducats, and at the end of his reign, despite all the wealth of the monasteries and chantries, as well as other confiscated estates, that had flowed into the royal exchequer, as practically bankrupt. However, there is evidence presented in this book which can help readers with these questions and this work itself remains a very readable introduction to the period.
