Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England's Nero

by John Matusiak

Overview

This compelling account of Henry VIII is by no means yet another history of the ‘old monster’ and his reign. The ‘monster’ displayed here is, at the very least, a newer type, more beset by anxieties and insecurities, and more tightly surrounded by those who equated loyalty with fear, self-interest and blind obedience. This ground-breaking book also demonstrates that Henry VIII’s priorities were always primarily martial rather than marital, and accepts neither the necessity of his all-consuming quest for a male heir nor his need ultimately to sever ties with Rome. As the story unfolds, Henry’s predicaments prove largely of his own making, the paths he chooses neither the only nor the best available. For Henry VIII was not only a bad man, but also a bad ruler who failed to achieve his aims and blighted the reigns of his two immediate successors.Five hundred years after he ascended the throne, the reputation of England’s best known king is being rehabilitated and subtly sanitized. Yet Tudor historian John Matusiak paints a colourful and absorbingly intimate portrait of a man wholly unfit for power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750960892
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	11/03/2014
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Matusiak is a frequent contributor to History Review and History Today, and is the author of Henry V and Wolsey.

Table of Contents

Author's Note 7

Acknowledgements 9

1 The Child Within the Man 11

2 A Prince Beyond Improvement 30

3 The Golden World of Coeur Loyall 52

4 Brought Up Out of Nought 75

5 Palace of Illusions 94

6 Defender of the Faith 115

7 Puissance and Penury 135

8 Impulse Born of Passion 157

9 The Infinite Clamour of Deadlock 177

10 Plenary, Whole and Entire Power 197

11 The Lion Learns His Strength 216

12 Who Hastes to Climb Seeks to Revert 236

13 Opinionate and Wilful 257

Epilogue 280

Source Notes and Bibliographical Information 283

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

"Excellent throughout, an acid-etched and bracingly caustic examination of Henry s reign that for once doesn t waste readers time with endless petticoat-obsessions about the infamous six wives. Matusiak has bigger fish to fry than mere serial wiving; his central contention is that Henry would still have been a deplorable ruler even if he d been as chaste as the Virgin Mary. He indicts Henry on professional grounds, as a bad king." —Steve Donoghue Writer for Open Letters Monthly and The Washington Post

From the Publisher