On the 21st April 1509, following the death of his father, Henry VII, seventeen-year-old Henry VIII became king. His accession was greeted with joy. The Spanish envoy Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida wrote that "The people are very happy and few tears are being shed for Henry VII. Instead, people are as joyful as if they had been released from prison" and William, Lord Mountjoy, wrote to Desiderius Erasmus, the renowned humanist and scholar, saying:
"I have no fear, my Erasmus, but when you heard that our Prince, now Henry the Eighth, whom we may well call our Octavius, had succeeded to his father’s throne, all your melancholy left you at once. For what may you not promise yourself from a Prince, with whose extraordinary and almost divine character you are well acquainted, and to whom you are not only known but intimate, having received from him (as few others have) a letter traced with his own fingers? But when you know what a hero he now shows himself, how wisely he behaves, what a lover he is of justice and goodness, what affection he bears to the learned, I will venture to swear that you will need no wings to make you fly to behold this new and auspicious star.
Oh, my Erasmus, if you could see how all the world here is rejoicing in the possession of so great a Prince, how his life is all their desire, you could not contain your tears for joy. The heavens laugh, the earth exults, all things are full of milk, of honey and of nectar! Avarice is expelled the country. Liberality scatters wealth with bounteous hand. Our King does not desire gold or gems or precious metals, but virtue, glory, immortality […]"
There were great hopes for this Renaissance prince!
Here are links to further reading and resources on Henry VIII:
- Henry VIII e-book
- Henry VIII Primary Sources
- The Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII
- 23 June 1509 – Coronation procession of King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon
- December Expert – Gareth Russell – Henry VIII as a military leader
- Expert Talk: Kyra Kramer on Henry VIII’s Health
- Henry VIII: Fit, Fat, Fiction by Kyra Kramer
- Video – Henry VIII: Renaissance Prince
- Video – Henry VIII: Tyrant Part 1
- Video – Henry VIII: Tyrant Part 2
- 18 January 1510 – Henry VIII dresses up
- 1510 - Henry VIII's first joust as king
- Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who’s the Most Renaissance of Them All? Part III: Henry VIII of England
- Henry VIII Defender of the Faith
- Was Sir John Perrot Henry VIII’s son?
- Henry VIII’s 1541 Royal Progress Video
- 30 December 1546 – Henry VIII signs his will
- Henry VIII Quiz 1
- Henry VIII Quiz 2
- Henry VIII and the Carthusian Monks
- Expert Talk – Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII and the Fall of Anne Boleyn
- Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant videos
- Natalie Grueninger Expert Talk – On Tudor Progress
- Did Chapuys call Henry VIII a tyrant?
- Video – The Annulment of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s Marriage
- Expert Talk: Sandra Vasoli on the Love Letters of Henry VIII
Leave a Reply