the most charitable computation, she was an outrageous flirt. It would
seem that she was genuinely in love with Lord Percy, and that Wolsey was
ordered by the then captivated and jealous King to put an end to their
intrigue and their desire to marry. Anne is supposed never to have
forgiven Wolsey for this, and by a dramatic irony it was her former lover,
Percy, then become Earl of Northumberland, who was sent to arrest the
fallen Cardinal at York. It is said that he treated Wolsey in a brutal
manner, having his legs bound to the stirrup of his mule like a common
criminal. When Henry, in his infatuation for the attractive
Lady-in-Waiting to his Queen, as she was then, wished Wolsey to become the
aider and abettor of his love affairs, Wolsey found himself placed in the
double capacity of man of God and man of Kings. In these cases, God is apt
to go to the wall--for the time being. But it was Wolsey's vain attempt to
serve two masters that caused his fall, which the French Ambassador
attributed entirely to the ill offices of Anne Boleyn. This is another
proof that courtiers should always keep on the right side of women.
Nothing could stop Henry's passion for Anne, and she showed her wonderful
cleverness in the way she kept his love alive for years, being first
created Marchioness of Pembroke, and ultimately triumphing over every
obstacle and gaining her wish of being his Queen. This phase of her
character has been nicely touched by Shakespeare's own deft hand. She was
crowned with unparalleled splendour on Whit Sunday of 1533. At the banquet
held after the Coronation of Anne Boleyn, we read that two Countesses
stood on either side of Anne's chair and often held a "fine cloth before
the Queen's face whenever she listed to spit." "And under the table went
two gentlewomen, and sat at the Queen's feet during the dinner." The
courtier's life, like the burglar's does not appear to have been one of
unmixed happiness.
In the same year she bore Henry a child, but to everyone's disappointment,
it proved to be a girl, who was christened Elizabeth, and became the great
Queen of England. Anne's triumph was pathetically brief. Her most
important act was that of getting the publication of the Bible authorised
in England. Two years after her coronation, Sir Thomas More, who had
refused to swear fealty to the King's heir by Anne, who had been thrown
into prison and was awaiting execution, asked "How Queen Anne did?" "There
is nothing else but dancing and sporting," was the answer. "These dances
of hers," he said, "will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads
off like footballs, but it will not be long ere her head dance the like
dance." In a year's time, this prophecy came true. Her Lady-in-Waiting,
the beautiful Jane Seymour, stole the King from her who in her time had
betrayed her royal mistress.
There are two versions with regard to her last feelings towards the King.
Lord Bacon writes that just before her execution she said: "Commend me to
his Majesty and tell him he hath ever been constant in his career of
advancing me. From a private gentlewoman he made me a marchioness, from a
marchioness a Queen; and now he hath left no higher degree of honour, he
gives my innocency the crown of martyrdom." This contains a fine sting of
satire. Another chronicler gives us her words as follows: "I pray God to
save the King, and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler or more
merciful prince was there never." One cannot but think that this latter
version of her dying words may have been edited by his Grace of
Canterbury.
If it is difficult to reconcile Anne's heartlessness with her piety, it
should be remembered that cruelty is often the twin-sister of religious
fervour.
Whatever may have been her failings of character, whatever misfortunes
she may have suffered during her life, Anne will ever live in history as
one of the master mistresses of the world.
THE DIVORCE
As to the divorce, it will be well to clear away the enormous amount of
argument, of vituperation and prevarication by which the whole question is
obscured, and to seek by the magnet of common sense to find the needle of
truth in this vast bundle of hay.
The situation was complicated. In those days it was generally supposed
that no woman could succeed to the throne, and a male successor was
regarded as a political necessity. Charles V., too, was plotting to depose
Henry and to proclaim James V. as ruler of England, or Mary, who was to be
married to an English noble for this purpose.
_The Succession_
The Duke of Buckingham was the most formidable possible heir to the
throne, were the King to die without male heirs. His execution took place
in 1521. Desperate men take desperate remedies. Now, in 1519, Henry had a
natural son by Elizabeth Blount, sister of Lord Mountjoy. This boy Henry
contemplated placing on the throne, so causing considerable uneasiness to
the Queen. In 1525 he was created Duke of Richmond. Shortly after he was
made Lord High Admiral of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It was
suggested that he should marry a royal Princess. Another suggestion was
that he should marry his half-sister, an arrangement which seems to have
commended itself to the Pope, on condition that Henry abandoned his
divorce from Queen Katharine! But this was not to be, and Mary was
betrothed to the French prince. An heir must be obtained somehow, and the
divorce, therefore, took more and more tangible shape. A marriage with
Anne Boleyn was the next move. To attain this object, Henry applied
himself with his accustomed energy. His conscience walked hand in hand
with expediency.
To Rome, Henry sent many embassies and to the Universities of Christendom
much gold, in order to persuade them to yield to the dictates of his
conscience. His passion for marriage lines in his amours was one of
Henry's most distinguishing qualities.
In 1527 an union between Francis I. and the Princess Mary was set on foot.
Here the question of Mary's legitimacy was debated, and this gave Henry
another excuse for regarding the divorce as necessary.
As the modern historian might aptly say: "Here was a pretty kettle of
fish."
There can be little doubt that as a man of God, Wolsey strongly
disapproved of the divorce, but as the King's Chancellor he felt himself
bound to urge his case to the best of his ability. He was in fact the
advocate--the devil's advocate--under protest. One cannot imagine a more
terrible position for a man of conscience to be placed in, but once even a
cardinal embarks in politics the working of his conscience is temporarily
suspended. In world politics the Ten Commandments are apt to become a
negligible quantity.
Henry's conscience was becoming more and more tender. Much may be urged in
favour of the divorce from a political point of view, and no doubt Henry
had a powerful faculty of self-persuasion--such men can grow to believe
that whatever they desire is right, that "there is nothing either good or
bad but thinking makes it so." It is a pity, however, that Henry's
scruples did not assert themselves before the marriage with Katharine took
place, for the ethical arguments against such an union were then equally
strong. Indeed, these scruples appear to have been a "family failing," for
Henry's sister Margaret, Queen of Scotland, obtained a dispensation of
divorce from Rome on far slenderer grounds. To make matters worse for
Henry, Rome was sacked--the Pope was a prisoner in the Emperor's hands. In
this state of things, the Pope was naturally disinclined to give offence
to the Emperor by divorcing his aunt (Katharine).
At all costs, the Pope must be set free--on this errand Wolsey now set out
for France. But Charles V. was no less wily than Wolsey, and dispatched
Cardinal Quignon to Rome to frustrate his endeavours, and to deprive
Wolsey of his legatine powers. A schism between Henry and Wolsey was now
asserting itself--Wolsey being opposed to the King's union with Anne
Boleyn. ("We'll no Anne Boleyns for him!") Wolsey desired that the King
should marry the French King's sister, in order to strengthen his
opposition to Charles V. of Spain.
The Cardinal was indeed in an unenviable position. If the divorce
succeeded, then his enemy, Anne Boleyn, would triumph and he would fall.
If the divorce failed, then Henry would thrust from him the agent who had
failed to secure the object of his master. And in his fall the Cardinal
would drag down the Church. It is said that Wolsey secretly opposed the
divorce. This is fully brought out in Shakespeare's play, and is indeed
the main cause of Wolsey's fall.
There was for Henry now only one way out of the dilemma into which the
power of the Pope had thrown him--that was to obtain a dispensation for a
bigamous marriage. It seems that Henry himself cancelled the proposition
before it was made. This scruple was unnecessary, for the Pope himself
secretly made a proposition "that His Majesty might be allowed two
wives."
The sanction for the marriage with Anne Boleyn was obtained without great
difficulty--but it was to be subject to the divorce from Katharine being
ratified. Thus the King was faced with another obstacle. At this moment
began the struggle for supremacy at Rome between English and Spanish
influence. The Pope had to choose between the two; Charles V. was the
victor, whereupon Henry cut the Gordian knot by throwing over the
jurisdiction of Rome. Wolsey was in a position of tragic perplexity. He
was torn by his allegiance to the King, and his zeal for the preservation
of the Church. He wrote: "I cannot reflect upon it and close my eye, for I
see ruin, infamy and subversion of the whole dignity and estimation of the
See Apostolic if this course is persisted in." But Pope Clement dared not
offend the Emperor Charles, who was his best, because his most powerful
ally, and had he not proved his power by sacking Rome? The Pope, although
quite ready to grant dispensations for a marriage of Princess Mary and her
half-brother, the Duke of Richmond, though he was ready to grant
Margaret's divorce, could not afford to stultify the whole Papal dignity
by revoking the dispensation he had originally given that Henry should
marry his brother's wife. Truly an edifying embroglio! Henry was desirous
of shifting the responsibility on God through the Pope--the Pope was
sufficiently astute to wish to put the responsibility on the devil through
Henry. There was one other course open--that course the Pope took.
In 1528 he gave a Commission to Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio to try the
case themselves, and pronounce sentence. Back went the embassy to England.
Wolsey saw through the device, for the Pope was still free to revoke the
Commission. Indeed Clement's attitude towards Henry was dictated entirely
by the fluctuating fortune of Charles V., Emperor of Spain. Meanwhile,
Charles won another battle against the French, and the Pope at once gave
secret instructions to Campeggio to procrastinate, assuring Charles that
nothing would be done which should be to the detriment of Katharine. The
wily Campeggio (emissary of the Pope) at first sought to persuade Henry to
refrain from the divorce. Henry refused. Thereupon he endeavoured to
persuade Katharine voluntarily to enter a nunnery. Among all these
plotters and intriguers, Katharine, adamant in her virtue, maintained her
position as lawful wife and Queen.
When Wolsey and Campeggio visited the Queen she was doing needlework with
her maids. It appears (and this is important as showing the inwardness of
Wolsey's attitude in the matter of the divorce) that "from this interview
the Queen gained over both legates to her cause; indeed, they would never
pronounce against her, and this was the head and front of the King's
enmity to his former favourite Wolsey." In the first instance, Wolsey was
undoubtedly a party, however unwilling, to the separation of the King and
Queen, in order that Henry might marry the brilliant and high-minded
sister of Francis I., Duchess of Alencon. That lady would not listen to
such a proposal, lest it should break the heart of Queen Katharine. Wolsey
was, either from personal enmity towards Anne Boleyn or from his estimate
of her character, or from both, throughout opposed to the union with that
lady.
Subsequently the King sent to Katharine a deputation from his Council
announcing that he had, by the advice of Cranmer, obtained the opinions of
the universities of Europe concerning the divorce, and found several which
considered it expedient. He therefore entreated her, for the quieting of
his conscience, that she would refer the matter to the arbitration of four
English prelates and four nobles. The Queen received the message in her
chamber, and replied to it: "God grant my husband a quiet conscience, but
I mean to abide by no decision excepting that of Rome." This infuriated
the King.
After many delays and the appearance of a document which was declared by
one side to be a forgery, and by the other to be genuine, the case began
on May 31, 1529. In the great hall of Blackfriars both the King and Queen
appeared in person to hear the decision of the Court. The trial itself is
very faithfully rendered in Shakespeare's play. Finding the King obdurate,
Katharine protested against the jurisdiction of the Court, and appealing
finally to Rome, withdrew from Blackfriars.
Judgment was to be delivered on the 23rd of July, 1529. Campeggio rose in
the presence of the King and adjourned the Court till October. This was
the last straw, and the last meeting of the Court. Henry had lost. Charles
was once more in the ascendant. England and France had declared war on him
in 1528, but England's heart was not in the enterprise--the feeling of
hatred to Wolsey became widespread. Henry and Charles made terms of peace,
and embraced once more after a bloodless and (for England) somewhat
ignominious war. The French force was utterly defeated in battle. The Pope
and Charles signed a treaty--all was nicely arranged. The Pope's nephew
was to marry the Emperor's natural daughter; certain towns were to be
restored to the Pope, who was to crown Charles with the Imperial crown.
The participators in the sacking of Rome were to be absolved from sin; the
proceedings against the Emperor's aunt, Katharine, were to be null and
void. If Katharine could not obtain justice in England, Henry should not
have his justice in Rome. The Pope and the Emperor kissed again, and Henry
finally cut himself adrift from Rome. It was the failure of the divorce
that made England a Protestant country.
Henry now openly defied the Pope, by whom he was excommunicated, and so
"deprived of the solace of the rites of religion; when he died he must lie
without burial, and in hell suffer torment for ever." The mind shrinks
from contemplating the tortures to which the soul of His Majesty might
have been subjected but for the timely intervention of his Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
So far from Henry suffering in a temporal sense, he continued to defy the
opinion and the power of the world. He showed his greatness by looking
public opinion unflinchingly in the face; by ignoring, he conquered it.
Amid the thunderous roarings of the Papal bull, Henry stood--as we see him
in his picture--smiling and indifferent. "I never saw the King merrier
than now," wrote a contemporary in 1533. Henry always had good cards--now
he held the ace of public opinion up his sleeve.
Wolsey, although averse to the Queen's divorce and the marriage of Anne
Boleyn, expressed himself in terms of the strongest opposition to the
overbearing Pope. A few days before the Papal revocation arrived, the
Cardinal wrote thus: "If the King be cited to appear at Rome in person or
by proxy, and his prerogative be interfered with, none of his subjects
will tolerate it. If he appears in Italy, it will be at the head of a
formidable army." Opposed as they were to the divorce, the English people
were of one mind with Wolsey in this attitude.
Henry was not slow to avail himself of the new development, and he made
the divorce become in the eyes of the people but a secondary consideration
to the pride of England. He drew the red herring of the Reformation across
the trail of the divorce. The King and his Parliament held that the Church
should not meddle with temporal affairs. The Church was the curer of
souls, not the curer of the body politic.
Katharine's cause sank into the background. The voice of justice was
drowned by the birth shrieks of the Reformation.
[Illustration: _Photo: Emery Walker_
KATHARINE OF ARAGON
From the Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery]
THE REFORMATION
We must remind ourselves that the divorce was merely the irritation which
brought the discontent with Rome to a head. Religious affairs were in a
very turbulent state. The monasteries were corrupt. The rule of Rome had
become political, not spiritual. Luther had worked at shattering the
pretensions of the Pope in Europe. Wolsey had prepared the English to
acquiesce in Henry's religious supremacy by his long tenure of the whole
Papal authority within the realm and the consequent suspension of appeals
to Rome. Translations of the New Testament were being secretly read
throughout the country--a most dangerous innovation--and Anne Boleyn, who
had no cause to love the Pope or his power, held complete sway over the
King.
She and her father were said to be "more Lutheran than Luther himself."
Though Henry was anti-Papal, he was never anti-Catholic, but, as the
representative of God, as head of his own Church, he claimed to take
precedence of the Pope. Moreover, the spoliation of the Church was not an
unprofitable business.
Rome declared the divorce illegal. Henry, with the support of his
Parliament, abolished all forms of tribute to Rome, arranged that the
election of Bishops should take place without the interference of the
Pope, and declared that if he did not consent to the King's wishes within
three months, the whole of his authority in England should be transferred
to the Crown. This conditional abolition of the Papal authority was in due
course made absolute, and the King assumed the title of Head of the
Church.
"The breach with Rome" was effected with a cold and calculated cunning,
which the most adept disciple of Machiavelli could not have
excelled."--(Pollard.)
With an adroitness amounting to genius, Henry now used the moral suasion
(not to use an uglier word) of threats towards the Church to induce the
Pope to relent and to assent to the divorce. One by one, in this deadly
battle, did the Pope's prerogatives vanish, until the sacerdotal
foundations of Rome, so far as England was concerned, had been levelled to
the ground.
After many further political troubles and intrigues Henry prevailed on
Cranmer, now Archbishop of Canterbury, as head of the Church, to declare
the marriage between himself and Katharine to be null and void, and five
days later Cranmer declared that Henry and Anne Boleyn were lawfully
married. On the 1st of June, 1533, the Archbishop crowned Anne as Queen in
Westminster Abbey. Shortly after she gave birth to a daughter, who was
christened Elizabeth, and became Queen of England.
Beyond this incident, with which the strange eventful history of
Shakespeare's play ends, it is not proposed to travel in these notes,
which are but intended as a brief chronicle that may guide the play-goer
of to-day (sometimes a hasty reader) to realize the conditions of Henry's
reign.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
In the days of Henry VIII., the ways of society differed from our own more
in observance than in spirit. Though the gay world danced and gambled very
late, they rose very early. Their conversation was coarse and lacked
reserve. The ladies cursed freely. Outward show and ceremony were
considered of the utmost importance. Hats were worn by the men in church
and at meals, and only removed in the presence of the King and Cardinal.
Kissing was far more prevalent as a mode of salutation. The Court society
spent the greater part of their income on clothes. To those in the King's
set, a thousand pounds was nothing out of the way to spend on a suit of
clothes. The predominant colours at Court were crimson and green; the
Tudor colours were green and white. It was an age of magnificent plate,
and the possession and display of masses of gold and silver plate was
considered as a sign of power. Later on in Shakespeare's time, not only
the nobles, but also the better class citizens boasted collections of
plate.
A quaint instance of the recognition of distinctions of rank is afforded
by certain "Ordinances" that went forth as the "Bouche of Court." Thus a
Duke or Duchess was allowed in the morning one chet loaf, one manchet and
a gallon of ale; in the afternoon one manchet and one gallon of ale; and
for after supper one chet loaf, one manchet, one gallon of ale and a
pitcher of wine, besides torches, etc. A Countess, however, was allowed
nothing at all after supper, and a gentleman usher had no allowance for
morning or afternoon. These class distinctions must have weighed heavily
upon humbler beings, such as Countesses; but perhaps they consumed more at
table to make up for these after-meal deficiencies.
Table manners were a luxury as yet undreamed of. The use of the fork was a
new fashion just being introduced from France and Spain.
A NOTE ON THE PRODUCTION OF HENRY VIII. AT HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE
From the descriptions which have appeared in these pages, it will be seen
that the period of Henry VIII. was characterized by great sumptuousness;
indeed, the daily life of the Court consisted largely of revels, masques
and displays of splendour.
Henry VIII. is largely a pageant play. As such it was conceived and
written, as such we shall endeavour to present it to the public. Indeed,
it is obvious that it would be far better not to produce the play at all
than to do so without those adjuncts, by which alone the action of the
play can be illustrated. Of course, it is not possible to do more than
indicate on the stage the sumptuousness of the period of history covered
by the play; but it is hoped that an impression will be conveyed to our
own time of Henry in his habit as he lived, of his people, of the
architecture, and of the manners and customs of that great age.
_The Text_
It has been thought desirable to omit almost in their entirety those
portions of the play which deal with the Reformation, being as they are
practically devoid of dramatic interest and calculated, as they are, to
weary an audience. In taking this course, I feel the less hesitation as
there can be no doubt that all these passages were from the first omitted
in Shakespeare's own representations of the play.
We have incontrovertible evidence that in Shakespeare's time, Henry VIII.
was played in "two short hours."
"... Those that come to see
Only a show or two and so agree
The play may pass. If they be still and willing
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours."
These words, addressed to the audience in the prologue, make it quite
clear that a considerable portion of the play was considered by the
author to be superfluous to the dramatic action--and so it is. Acted
without any waits whatsoever, Henry VIII., as it is written, would take at
least three hours and a half in the playing. Although we are not able to
compass the performance within the prescribed "two short hours," for we
show a greater respect for the preservation of the text than did
Shakespeare himself, an attempt will be made to confine the absolute
spoken words as nearly as possible within the time prescribed in the
prologue.
In the dramatic presentation of the play, there are many passages of
intensely moving interest, the action and characters are drawn with a
remarkable fidelity to the actualities. As has been suggested, however,
the play depends more largely than do most of Shakespeare's works on those
outward displays which an attempt will be made to realize on the stage.
_Shakespeare as Stage Manager_