by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Two noblemen, the Dukes Norfolk and Buckingham, met in the palace to converse. Norfolk was angered by the audacity of Henry VIII, who had signed a peace treaty with Francis I of France - a treaty financed by Cardinal Wolsey of York. Norfolk warned his friend of Wolsey's equal hatred for Buckingham: "Like it your grace, the state takes notice of the private difference betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you ... that you read the cardinal's malice and his potency together: to consider further, that, what his high hatred would effect wants not a minister in his power."
Just then Wolsey entered the palace and, after exchanging disdainful glances with Buckingham, headed towards the king's chamber. "I read in's looks matter against me," Buckingham whispered. "And his eye reviled me as his abject object .... He's gone to th'king!" Taking note of Buckingham's alarm and anger, Norfolk advised him to act prudently. Still, shortly thereafter, Buckingham was arrested for treason.
Meanwhile, in the throne room, Queen Katherine chided her husband about the heavy tax burden that Wolsey had ostensibly levied on the people. "Your subjects are in great grievance," she said, " and almost appear in loud rebellion." Unknown to King Henry, Norfolk had in actuality instituted a tax, in an effort to stir up Henry's subjects against the cardinal. The king demanded to know what she meant: "Taxation? Wherein? and what taxation? My lord Cardinal ... know you of this taxation?" When Wolsey denied an y knowledge of the affair, Henry immediately had the collections stopped.
Katherine later inquired about the Duke of Buckingham. Why had he been arrested? Henry and Wolsey brought forth their witness to Buckingham's treason. This man claimed to have heard Buckingham say, in effect, that if the king should die without male posterity then he would make the throne his own. Wolsey also stepped forward and further testified that Buckingham had suggested he would go so far as to kill the king in order to gain the scepter. Henry was convinced: "By day and night, he's traitor to the height."
That week, at a party given by Cardinal Wolsey, Henry met Anne Bullen. He was taken by her beauty and impulsively kissed her. And, on the following day, Henry sent Lord Chamberlain to bestow upon Anne the title of "Marchioness of Pembroke; to which ... a thousand pounds a year, annual support, out of his grace he adds." Hours later, Buckingham was declared guilty of treason and condemned to die.
Now Henry, in the same way that he was accustomed to executing slanderous dukes, was prone also to divorcing his wives. With King Henry's infatuation with Anne, prompt separation from Queen Katherine was inevitable. A court of divorce was convened, in which Katherine, kneeling at Henry's feet, pled her case: , Alas, sir, in what have I offended you?... I have been to you a true and humble wife, at all times to your will conformable ... When was the hour, I ever contradicted your desire, Or made it not mine too?" Then Katherine directed her ire toward Wolsey: "I do believe ... that you are mine enemy; and make my challenge, you shall not be my judge." But Wolsey refused to step down from the judge's seat, and Katherine, realizing that she had already lost her cause to Henry's whims, retired. "The queen of earthly queens," Henry lamented at her departure. Nevertheless, addressing the court, he stated his reasons for petitioning for divorce: Katherine had not produced a male heir, and "I weighed the danger which my realms stood in by this my issue's fail . . . " But one of his councillors cautioned him that Katherine had likely gone to appeal her case to the pope. To this potential challenge, the king replied, "I abhor this dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome."
Soon, Katherine was visited by Wolsey and another cardinal in an attitude of friendship and reconciliation, but she was not duped...... Ye wish for my ruin," she charged, vowing to fight them and to restore herself to her former place of dignity, or die.
Back at the king's court, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and Chamberlain all warily watched the cardinal's rapid rise to power. Chamberlain warned the others of Wolsey's influence over Henry: "I much fear. If you cannot bar his access to th'king, never attempt anything on him; for be hath a witchcraft over th'king's tongue." Suffolk, though, was unafraid. He knew that the letters the cardinal had sent to the pope had "miscarried and came to th'eye o' the king." These letters, intercepted by Henry, disclosed Wolsey's disloyalty. They urged the pope to stay the divorce because the King was "tangled in affection to ... Lady Anne Bullen." King Henry hid his ire at this, Wolsey's devious act, and immediately married Anne, in defiance of the church.
Days later, at the castle, Henry sought out Wolsey. "What piles of wealth hath he accumulated to his own portion.. . " he stormed. "It may well be, there is a mutiny in's mind." Finally finding the cardinal, the king laid out the selfwritten evidence convicting him of disloyalty. As Wolsey looked over his own letters, filled with defamation toward his monarch, he cried, "I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, and from that full meridian of my glory I haste now to my setting."
The other nobles exulted in Wolsey's misfortune. Surrey gloated openly to Wolsey: "Thy ambition (thou scarlet sin) robbed this bewailing land ... The king's further pleasure is ... that therefore such a writ be sued against you, to forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements, chattels, and whatsoever." Then, their verbal barrage ended, the noblemen left Wolsey in his misery. As he bewailed his "fallen" state, Cromwell entered and informed him that Sir Thomas More had just been chosen Lord Chancellor in his place. "Farewell the hopes of court; my hopes in heaven do dwell," Wolsey cried.
That same day, the Coronation of Queen Anne Bullen was celebrated amid much pomp and splendor.
Now living in exile, Katherine discussed the recent news from London with her gentleman usher, Griffith. Griffith told her that Wolsey had taken ill as he was being transported to the tower of London after his arrest, and had died "full of repentance, continued meditations, tears and sorrows; he gave his honors to the world again . . . and slept in peace." Saddened, Katherine fell asleep herself, and as she slumbered, had a vision of six personages clad in white robes, who "promised me eternal happiness and brought me garlands," as she told Griffith when she awoke. Griffith noticed how weak and pale Katherine appeared; "She is going," he whispered. Soon, a messenger arrived from King Henry expressing his grief over Katherine's illness. "That comfort comes too late," the former queen replied. "Tis like a pardon after execution." She then asked the messenger, "Remember me in all humility unto his highness: Say, his long trouble now is passing out of this world; tell him, in death, I blessed him .... I was a chaste wife to my grave. . . "
Some time later, it was whispered in court that Queen Anne was in labor with child and "that her suff'rance made almost pang a death." An old sorceress visited the king to report Anne's labors. Henry begged the woman to tell him that he had a son, but she brought other tidings. "'Tis a girl," she told him. Nevertheless, before she departed she promised him a future male heir.
While Henry went to see his wife and newborn child, his councillors held an assembly in secret. Their intent was to seize power by imprisoning the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, for "heresies." But just then the king unexpectedly entered the chamber and prevented the arrest. He reprimanded the nobles for their disrespect toward the Archbishop, and then turned to Cranmer and humbly asked, "Lord of Canterbury, I have a suit which you must not deny me; that is, a fair young maid that yet wants baptism, you must be godfather and answer for her."
Again royalty gathered in grandeur, with trumpets blaring, to witness the baptism of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth. Archbishop Cranmer pronounced that "this royal infant ... though still in her cradle, yet now promises upon this land a thousand thousand blessings." He further prophesied that Elizabeth "shall be, to the happiness of England, an aged princess ... but she must die ... yet a virgin, a most unspotted lily she shall pass to the ground, and all the world shall mourn her."
King Henry smiled: "This oracle of comfort has so pleas'd me, that, when I am in heaven, I shall desire to see what this child does. . .
From the start, this play seemed scourged. It closed after its debut because a fire burned down the theater where it was being performed. Critics have lambasted Henry VIII for its lack of action and rather anticlimactic ending. But the play was designed more as a display piece for its rich and elaborate staging and costumes than for its action or intrigue.
Another criticism leveled at the drama was its avoidance of the issues of the Protestant Reformation in England. Shakespeare was careful not to imply that the events of the play Henry's divorce of Katherine and his subsequent marriage to Anne - had led in any way to England's still smoldering break with the Church in Rome. By limiting himself to a more subdued plot, Shakespeare tactfully avoided insulting the ruling House of Tudor. On the other hand, the drama does explore the type of political intrigue that may have actually taken place in the court of this flamboyant and controversial monarch.
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