the Lord God, and departing from evil. He was a simple man, without any
crook of craft or untruth, as is plain to all. With none did he deal
craftily, nor ever would say an untrue word to any, but framed his
speech always to speak truth.
He was both upright and just, always keeping to the straight line of
justice in his acts. Upon none would he wittingly inflict any injustice.
To God and the Almighty he rendered most faithfully that which was His,
for he took pains to pay in full the tithes and offerings due to God and
the church: and this he accompanied with most sedulous devotion, so that
even when decked with the kingly ornaments and crowned with the royal
diadem he made it a duty to bow before the Lord as deep in prayer as any
young monk might have done.
_The fear of the Lord was in him._
And that this prince cherished a son's fear towards the Lord is plain
from many an act and devotion of his. In the first place, a certain
reverend prelate of England used to relate that for ten years he held
the office of confessor to King Henry: but he declared that never
throughout that long time had any blemish of mortal sin touched his
soul.
O what great watchfulness, O what care to please God was found in this
creature so high-placed and so young! Consider it, all ye kings and
princes, young men and maidens, and all peoples, and praise the Lord in
His saints. Imitate, too, this king in virtue, who could have done ill
and did it not, but utterly eschewed, to his power, while he lived, in
view of the displeasure of God, all evil and injury of this sort.
_He was a diligent worshipper of God._
A diligent and sincere worshipper of God was this king, more given to
God and to devout prayer than to handling worldly and temporal things,
or practising vain sports and pursuits: these he despised as trifling,
and was continually occupied either in prayer or the reading of the
scriptures or of chronicles, whence he drew not a few wise utterances to
the spiritual comfort of himself and others. So to every sort and
condition and age of men he was a diligent exhorter and adviser,
counselling the young to leave vice and follow the path of virtue; and
admonishing men of mature age and elders (_or_ priests) to attain the
perfection of virtue and lay hold on the prize of eternal life, with
those words of the Psalm 'Go from strength to strength[47]; hence shall
the God of gods be beheld in Sion.'
_His devout habit in church._
In church or chapel he was never pleased to sit upon a seat or to walk
to and fro as do men of the world; but always with bared head, at least
while the divine office was being celebrated, and hardly ever raising
his royal person, kneeling one may say continuously before his book,
with eyes and hands upturned, he was at pains to utter with the
celebrant (but with the inward voice) the mass-prayers, epistles, and
gospels. To some clerics also he used to address letters of exhortation
full of heavenly mysteries and most salutary advice, to the great wonder
of many.
Moreover, wherever this king was, he always showed himself a venerator
and most devout adorer of the Holy Cross and of other symbols and holy
things of the Christian religion. When engaged in such devotion he went
always with bared head, even when riding on a journey: so that many
times he would let his royal cap drop to the ground even from his
horse's back, unless it were quickly caught by his servants. So too he
preferred a row of signs of the Holy Cross to be set in his royal crown
rather than any likenesses of flowers or leaves, according to that word
of the wise: 'A crown of gold _was_ upon his head marked with the sign
of holiness.' He would be at the divine office quite early, nay at the
very beginning: nor did he ever grow weary at the lengthy prolonging of
it, even though it were continued until after noonday.
Moreover he would never suffer hawks, swords, or daggers to be brought
into church, or business agreements or conferences to be carried on
there: even his great men and nobles he enjoined to give themselves
frequently to prayer, according to the word of the Saviour 'My house is
a house of prayer': and they obeyed him devoutly.
_His chastity._
This king Henry was chaste and pure from the beginning of his days. He
eschewed all licentiousness in word or deed while he was young; until he
was of marriageable age, when he espoused the most noble lady, Lady
Margaret, daughter of the King of Sicily, by whom he begat but one only
son, the most noble and virtuous prince Edward; and with her and toward
her he kept his marriage vow wholly and sincerely, even in the absences
of the lady, which were sometimes very long: never dealing unchastely
with any other woman. Neither when they lived together did he use his
wife unseemly, but with all honesty and gravity.
_Example._
It is an argument of his watch upon his modesty that he was wont utterly
to avoid the unguarded sight of naked persons, lest like David he should
be snared by unlawful desire, for David's eyes, as we read, made havoc
of his soul. Therefore this prince made a covenant with his eyes that
they should never look unchastely upon any woman.
_Another example._
Hence it happened once, that at Christmas time a certain great lord
brought before him a dance or show of young ladies with bared bosoms who
were to dance in that guise before the king, perhaps to prove him, or to
entice his youthful mind. But the king was not blind to it, nor unaware
of the devilish wile, and spurned the delusion, and very angrily averted
his eyes, turned his back upon them, and went out to his chamber,
saying:
Fy, fy, for shame, forsothe ye be to blame.
At another time, riding by Bath, where are warm baths in which they say
the men of that country customably refresh and wash themselves, the
king, looking into the baths, saw in them men wholly naked with every
garment cast off. At which he was displeased, and went away quickly,
abhorring such nudity as a great offence, and not unmindful of that
sentence of Francis Petrarch 'the nakedness of a beast is in men
unpleasing, but the decency of raiment makes for modesty.'
Besides, he took great precautions to secure not only his own chastity
but that of his servants. For before he was married, being as a youth a
pupil of chastity, he would keep careful watch through hidden windows of
his chamber, lest any foolish impertinence of women coming into the
house should grow to a head, and cause the fall of any of his household.
And like pains did he apply in the case of his two half-brothers, the
Lords Jasper and Edmund, in their boyhood and youth: providing for them
most strict and safe guardianship, putting them under the care of
virtuous and worthy priests, both for teaching and for right living and
conversation, lest the untamed practices of youth should grow rank if
they lacked any to prune them. Not less diligence did he use, I am told,
towards others dependent on him, advising them to eschew vice and avoid
the talk of the vicious and dissolute, and to lay hold on virtue.
_Against avarice._
_His liberality._
Against that pest of avarice with which so many are infected and
diseased, even princes of the earth, this king Henry of whom we speak
was most wary and alert. For neither by the splendid presents given to
him nor by the ample wealth which he owned was he ever entrapped into
the unlawful love of them, but was most liberal to the poor in
lightening their wants; and enriched very many others with great gifts
or offices, or at least put all neediness far from them. Never did he
oppress his subjects with unreasonable exactions as do other rulers and
princes, but behaving himself among them like a kind father, relieved
them from his own resources in a most comely sort, and contenting
himself with what he had, preferred to live uprightly among them, rather
than that they should pine in poverty, trodden down by his harshness.
Now that he was content with his own substance and in no way coveted
that of others is shown by many true instances. Among them is this: a
certain great lord offered the said king a precious coverlet for the
bed in his chamber, which was all over set with gold nobles in great
number, and then he said: 'Be you careful of these and their like.' But
the mind of the king thirsting rather for heavenly and spiritual things
and making the things of earth of less account, regarded lightly the
gift.
At another time when the executors of his uncle, the most reverend lord
cardinal the bishop of Winchester came to the king with a very great
sum, namely L2000 of gold to pay him, for his own uses, and to relieve
the burdens and necessities of the realm, he utterly refused the gift,
nor would receive it by any manner of means, saying: 'He was a very dear
uncle to me and most liberal in his lifetime. The Lord reward him. Do ye
with his goods as ye are bound: we will receive none of them.' The
executors were amazed at this his saying, and entreated the king's
majesty that he would at least accept that gift at their hands for the
endowment of his two colleges which he had then newly founded, at
Cambridge and Eton. This petition and gift the king gladly accepted, and
ordered them to make the gift to the said colleges for the relief of the
soul of his said uncle; and they fulfilled the king's command with all
speed.
Moreover to show the liberality for which with other virtues he was
distinguished, to the confusion of avarice he was very bountiful in his
gifts, as his former servants bore witness. For to one of his chaplains
he gave, on hearing that he was busy repairing his priestly vestments,
more than ten changes of chasubles of his own silk for the saying of
masses in the church which that priest then held.
At another time, hearing that one of his servants had lost much of his
substance by theft, the king sent him in compensation for his loss
twenty nobles, advising him at the same time to be henceforth more
careful in keeping his stuff, and not to take the law of the thief. See
how mercy and truth met together, how righteousness and peace kissed
each other, in the person of our earthly prince. O what loving pity and
pitiful love to be found in a man!
The same prince when in the end he lost both the realms, England and
France, which he had ruled before, along with all his wealth and goods,
endured it with no broken spirit but with a calm mind, making light of
all temporal things, if he might but gain Christ and things eternal.
Not only in the distribution of secular goods was he bountiful, but also
in conferring ecclesiastical and spiritual benefices he was very wary,
thoughtful, and discreet, lest he should give them to unworthy persons,
or, as touched himself, in an unworthy, I mean a simoniacal, way, as was
proved in those whom he did promote. From simony he was always free.
Having his eyes always fixed on virtue, he was wholly concerned to
prefer virtuous men, and to these he was greatly attached.
But most strongly was the said king Henry moved by the passion of
enkindled affection when he said to Master William Waynflete, the
successor of the most renowned cardinal of Winchester: 'Receive the
enthronement of Winchester, so to be there as was the custom of the
bishops before you. Be your days long in the land, and grow and go
forward in the path of virtue.'
With like bounty did he prefer the bishops of Worcester and of
Chichester together, and many others also, as is sufficiently known.
Also to enlarge the house of God and His worship, in the time when he
bore rule he founded the two noble colleges before mentioned, which he
endowed with large lands and revenues, for the maintenance of poor
scholars not a few; wherein not only are the divine offices celebrated
daily in the most devout manner, to the praise of Almighty God, but also
scholastic teaching and the other arts pertaining thereto are constantly
carried on, to the increase of knowledge. And for the beginning and
foundation of these two colleges he sought out everywhere the best
living stones, that is, boys excellently equipped with virtue and
knowledge, and priests to bear rule over the rest as teachers and
tutors: and as concerned the getting of priests the king said to him
whom he employed in that behalf: 'I would rather have them somewhat weak
in music than defective in knowledge of the scriptures.' And with regard
to the boys or youths who were brought to him to be put to school, the
king's wish was that they should be thoroughly educated and nourished up
both in virtue and in the sciences. So it was that whenever he met any
of them at times in the castle of Windsor, whither they sometimes
repaired to visit servants of the king who were known to them, and when
he ascertained that they were of his boys, he would advise them
concerning the following of the path of virtue and, with his words,
would also give them money to attract them, saying: 'Be you good boys,
gentle and teachable, and servants of the Lord.' And if he discovered
that any of them visited his court, he sometimes restrained them with a
rebuke, bidding them not do so again, lest his young lambs should come
to relish the corrupt deeds and habits of his courtiers, or lose partly
or altogether their own good characters, like lambs or sheep, which, if
they feed among briars and thorns, tear their fleeces and oftentimes
wholly lose them.
_The humility of the king._
When I speak of the great humility of this king, I would have you know
that he was most eminent for that virtue of humility. This pious prince
was not ashamed to be a diligent server to a priest celebrating in his
presence, and to make the responses at the mass, as _Amen_, _Sed libera
nos_, and the rest. He did so commonly even to me, a poor priest. At
table even when he took a slight refection, he would (like a professed
religious) rise quickly, observe silence, and devoutly give thanks to
God standing on every occasion. Also on the testimony of Master Doctor
Towne, he made a rule that a certain dish which represented the five
wounds of Christ as it were red with blood, should be set on his table
by his almoner before any other course, when he was to take refreshment:
and contemplating these images with great fervour he thanked God
marvellous devoutly.
Again, once when riding in a street which lay outside the graveyard to
the east of a certain church, wherein the pyx that hung over the altar
did not contain the sacrament of the Eucharist, he on that account did
not bare his head, as he was wont always at other times to do most
reverently in honour of the sacrament; and when many of his lords and
nobles wondered thereat, he gave them his reason, saying: 'I know that
my Lord Jesus Christ is not there for me to do so in His honour.' And it
was found to be so as he had said. Nay, those who were his privy
servants say that the king often saw our Lord Jesus presenting Himself
in human form in the sacrament of the altar in the hands of the priest.
It was also his custom of his very great humility and devotion to bear
in his own hands a great taper on the eve and at the season of the
Lord's resurrection for his reverence and belief in the same.
_The humility of the king._
Further of his humility in his bearing, in his clothes and other apparel
of his body, in his speech and many other parts of his outward
behaviour;--it is well known that from his youth up he always wore
round-toed shoes and boots like a farmer's. He also customarily wore a
long gown with a rolled hood like a townsman, and a full coat reaching
below his knees, with shoes, boots and foot-gear wholly black, rejecting
expressly all curious fashion of clothing.
Also at the principal feasts of the year, but especially at those when
of custom he wore his crown, he would always have put on his bare body a
rough hair shirt, that by its roughness his body might be restrained
from excess, or more truly that all pride and vain glory, such as is apt
to be engendered by pomp, might be repressed.
_His work and pursuits._
As concerning the employments of the king and how well he passed his
days and his time, it is well known to many yet alive that he used
wholly to devote the high days and Sundays to hearing the divine office
and to devout prayer on his own behalf and his people's, lest his
enemies should scorn his sabbaths; and he was earnest in trying to
induce others to do the like. So that some who were once attendant on
him declare that his whole joy and pleasure was in the due and right
performance of the praise of God and of divine service. The other days
of less solemnity he passed not in sloth or vanities, not in banquetings
or drunkenness, not in vain talk or other mischievous speech or chatter
(all such he ever avoided in his lifetime and indeed used but very brief
speech, of words tending to edification or profitable to others), but
such days he passed not less diligently either in treating of the
business of the realm with his council as need might require, or in
reading of the scriptures or of authors and chronicles. Such witness of
him was borne by an honourable knight who was once his most trusty
chamberlain, Sir Richard Tunstall, who gave this testimony of him both
in speech and in writing: 'His delight was in the law of the Lord by day
and by night.' And to prove this, the Lord King himself complained
heavily to me in his chamber at Eltham, when I was alone there with him
employed together with him upon his holy books, and giving ear to his
wholesome advice and the sighs of his most deep devotion. There came all
at once a knock at the king's door from a certain mighty duke of the
realm, and the king said: 'They do so interrupt me that by day or night
I can hardly snatch a moment to be refreshed by reading of any holy
teaching without disturbance.'
A like thing to this happened once at Windsor when I was there.
Further, to confirm his notable devotion to God, many who yet survive
and were once of his household say that he was wont almost at every
moment to raise his eyes heavenward like a denizen of heaven or one
rapt, being for the time not conscious of himself or of those about him,
as if he were a man in a trance or on the verge of heaven: having his
conversation in heaven, according to that word of the apostle: 'Our
conversation is in heaven.'
_His oath._
Also he would never use any other oath to confirm his own truthful
speech than the uttering of these words: 'Forsothe and forsothe,' to
certify those to whom he spoke of what he said. So also he restrained
many both gentle and simple from hard swearing either by mild admonition
or harsh reproof; for a swearer was his abomination.
When he heard a great lord who was his chamberlain suddenly break out
and swear bitterly, he sternly rebuked him, saying: 'Alas! you, that are
lord of a great household, when you utter oaths like this contrary to
God's commandment, give a most evil example to your servants and those
that are under you, for you provoke them to do the like.'
_His pitifulness and patience._
Of the patience of this king and his most kind compassion which he
showed throughout his life to them that sinned against him, while he was
in power, many things may be related with all truth.
First; once when he was coming down from St Albans to London through
Cripplegate, he saw over the gate there the quarter of a man on a tall
stake, and asked what it was. And when his lords made answer that it was
the quarter of a traitor of his, who had been false to the king's
majesty, he said: 'Take it away. I will not have any Christian man so
cruelly handled for my sake.' And the quarter was removed immediately.
He that saw it bears witness.
Again, four nobles of high birth were convicted of treason and of the
crime of lese-majeste and were legally condemned therefor by the judges
to suffer a shameful death. These he compassionately released, and
delivered from that bitter death, sending the writ of his pardon for
their delivery to the place of execution by a swift messenger.
To other three great lords of the realm who conspired the death of this
king (_or_ conspired in the king's troubles) and assembled an
innumerable host of armed men, aiming ambitiously to secure the kingly
power, as manifestly appeared afterwards, the king showed no less mercy:
for he forgave all, both the leaders and the men under them, what they
had maliciously designed against him, provided they submitted themselves
to him.
Like compassion he showed to many others, and especially to two who were
compassing his death; one of whom gave him a severe wound in the neck,
and would have brained him, or cut off his head; but the king took it
most patiently, saying: 'Forsothe and forsothe, ye do fouly to smyte a
kynge enoynted so.' The other smote him in the side with a dagger when
he was held prisoner in the Tower, and after the deed, believing that he
had killed the king with his wicked blow, and fearing to be taken, fled
with all speed; but was caught and brought before him, when the king,
now recovered, and set free from that prison, and once more by the
favour and act of God raised to the kingly dignity without a battle
after a long course of exile and imprisonment, pardoned him of his great
clemency, as he did also his aforesaid persecutor.
So the former servants of this king declare that he never would that any
person, however injurious to him, should ever be punished: and this is
plain in the case of many to whom he was exceeding gracious and
merciful; for he was become an imitator of Him who saith, 'I will have
mercy' and 'I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he should
turn and live,' who also, as the apostle saith, 'desired the salvation
of all men.' Nor is this to be wondered at: for in his soul there was
not even that vain satisfaction which hunters take in capturing
beasts,--a misplaced pleasure: he did not care to see the creature, when
taken, cruelly defiled with slaughter, nor would he ever take part in
the killing of an innocent beast.
But what need of more? It is certain that the men among whom and towards
whom the king was so kind and merciful proved at the last wholly
ungrateful to him, as the Jews to Christ. For whereas God's right hand
had raised him to so glorious a place, these [murderous ones], as has
been said, conspiring together with savage rage, deprived even this most
merciful king of his royal power, and drove him from his realm and
governance; and after a long time spent in hiding in secret places
wherein for safety's sake he was forced to keep close, he was found and
taken, brought as a traitor and criminal to London, and imprisoned in
the Tower there; where, like a true follower of Christ, he patiently
endured hunger, thirst, mockings, derisions, abuse, and many other
hardships, and finally suffered a violent death of the body that others
might, as was then the expectation, peaceably possess the kingdom. But
his soul, as we piously believe upon the evidence of the long series of
miracles done in the place where his body is buried, liveth with God in
the heavenly places, where after the troubles of this world he rejoiceth
with the just in the eternal contemplation of God and in the stead of
this earthly and transitory kingdom whereof he patiently bore the loss,
he now possesseth one that endureth for ever.
_The revelations shown to him._
Furthermore I think it not well to pass over the heavenly mysteries
which were shown to this king.