Original subtitles

[Music]

on the 9th of May 15:09 King Henry the

seventh was laid to rest in his

magnificent Memorial Chapel in

Westminster Abbey to the late medieval

mind a king should be first and foremost

a war leader and Henry Dooley have the

funeral of a warrior

[Music]

the climax of the ceremony a night rude

into the abbey clad in the late Kings

Armour monks unbuckle the armor piece by

piece and placed each intern on the

altar symbolically divested of his

Knightly attributes the king was laid to

rest still live surrounded the symbols

of the medieval warrior aristocracy but

Henry the seventh in the eyes of

contemporaries had failed to live up to

the Knightly ideal he had they said

forgotten chivalry and being corrupted

by avarice his reign to become theorem

but now a new better reign had begun and

the new young King Henry the Eighth

aspired above all to be what his father

had never been the perfect gentle knight

who would win everlasting glory by feet

of our

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

we think we know here at the end a fat

tyrant with a blood-stained attitude to

marriage but the archives hold many

documents which reveal a very different

Henry a devoted husband day by day to

her inestimable virtues more and more

shine forth flourish and increase a

brilliant sportsman and scholar King

Henry is a fine gesture speaks good

French Latin and Spanish and a holy

warrior it is to be feared that God

should take high indignation against

them exercising his terrible sword of

Correction and dreadful punishment upon

the French this is the story of the King

Henry we forgotten the chivalrous

warrior prince who had to fail and fade

before the tyrant of legend could emerge

[Music]

Henry's reign began with an outpouring

of public joy the very first description

of the young king is appear in the

praise high expectations captured in his

luminate adverse in this manuscript from

the British Library it's a little book

of Latin poems written by Henry's

boyhood friend promise more to celebrate

his coronation in it more dares to use

the language of scripture to resent

Henry as a new Messiah who will wipe the

tear from every eye and put joy in the

place of our long mourning his sword

strikes the strongest blows his Lance

its own the hardest with Eric always

finds of Todd and he's got of mind to

match what couldn't someone like that

achieve

but the first impression of young Henry

is also that he was a bit of a soft

touch the new king found himself

inundated with petitions from suitors

seeking favors lands offices and titles

partly in reaction to his father's

meanness Henry signed away at each time

he grunted what was requested henry was

having fun giving people what they

wanted too much fun perhaps and the

council which he'd largely inherited

from his father quickly moved to curb

the young Kings impetuous generosity for

Henry could only rule to his council who

control the seals which made Royal

grants official once the King had signed

the grant a copy would be made by his

secretary and sealed with the Royal

Sidney this was then passed to the Lord

privy seal who drew up and sealed a

second copy this in turn was passed to

the Lord chancellor's office which made

the third and final copies duly

authorized with the Great Seal the so

called course of the seals meant that

Henry could do little without the

agreement of his councilors the result

in effect was to create a Regency

Council behind the facade of a normally

adult maliki Henry used to doing what

his father told him acquiesced the time

being at least

but if in most matters of government

Henry was still being treated as a minor

there was one important exception within

weeks of coming to the throne the

seventeen-year-old had married his Queen

was Catherine of Aragon Catherine was

the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand

rulers of spay her lifelong Duty had

been to maintain an alliance with

England she'd married Henry's older

brother Arthur in 1501 when she was

fifteen but only a few months later she

was a widow author died but the alliance

between England and Spain lived on so

just over a year later catherine was

betrothed to henry and the treaty of

marriage magnificent illuminated still

survives in the archives of some anchors

but when cattles mother Isabella died in

1504 Catherines value as a royal bride

was greatly reduced and of a seventh who

knew the price of everything instantly

cooled on the Spanish marriage he began

to make difficulty over the huge sums of

money that would do under the terms of

the treaty he even ordered his son Henry

to repudiate the betrothal so without

telling Catherine this left Catherine

who was still living in England in legal

marital and diplomatic limbo

[Music]

but with into the seventh death all the

problems suddenly seemed to disappear

negotiations which had dragged on and on

for years

were settled within a week and Henry and

Catherine were privately married a few

days before their joint coronation why

the rush to the altar did Henry's

counsel want to seal an alliance with

Spain or was it simply that Henry wanted

Catherine perhaps this letter holds the

clue in it Henry tells his new

father-in-law Ferdinand of Aragon about

his recent marriage as for that entire

love which we bare to the most serene

Queen our consort day by day to her

inestimable virtues more and more shine

forth flourish and increase so that even

if we were still free it is she

nevertheless that we would choose for

our wife before all other Henry had

chosen a wife now he would choose his

friends he selected them from men just

like himself

young highborn high-spirited and with

them he turned his court into a new

Garden of Eden

the second Camelot life was a potential

pageant bold brilliant and colorful

Henry wrote the scripts divide the

settings on the costume and played the

leading parts itself one day he burst

into the Queen's Chamber dressed as

Robin Hood and complete with his band of

merry men another keeper ages of took

magnificently an exotic addressed and

brandishing his scimitar

in between he found time to hunt dance

and write music over though some say

that youth does rule me I trust an age

to tarry God and my right and my duty

from them shall I never vary though some

say youth rules me I pray you all that a

Jayde be how well did you your youth

carry I think some worse of each degree

there in a wager later I though some say

youth to fool me

pastime of youth some time among man can

say but necessary

I hurt no man I do no wrong I love true

where I did marry so some say youth does

rule me then soon discuss that hence we

must pray be to God and Saint Mary that

all amend and here and then thus says

the King the Apes Harry though some say

that youth doth rule me

some say the youth doth fool but did you

through did Henry himself still age

barely eighteen really rule or did

others rule on his behalf

[Music]

the crowning of a new king of England

wasn't just of interest to the English

the eyes of Europe are upon the Henry

the eighth

especially in Italy where the northern

European powers are discovered that the

Italian city-states

were rich and easy pickings in

particular Venice was in peril menaced

by French army which has crossed the

Alps and taken ill and the Venetians

when the urgent need of allies against

France this is the chamber where the

council that dealt with Foreign

Relations met to hear dispatches read

aloud from their ambassadors abroad and

to send them instructions in turn

virtually every word was recorded and

deposited in the State Archives there

they remained forgotten and undisturbed

for three-and-a-half centuries until an

English antiquarian Rawdon Lubbock Brown

rediscovered them in the nineteenth

century

he was one of the first to realize the

importance of the Republic diplomatic

correspondence and he spent 50 years

translating and transcribing with

initial archives the result the so

called calendar escape papers Venetian

is a Bible for English historians my own

copy is well thumped but I've never seen

the original documents on which it's

based

I was looking at for nothing else of the

power to bring the pasts of vividly to

life here is Rawdon brown's summary in

the venetian calendar the crucial

dispatch written on the 30th of May

15:09 that's only a month after Henry's

accession in which the Venetian Senate

instruct their ambassador in England to

play on the young Kings vanity and

incite him to make war on France

that's the calendar but this is the

original and the pleas of the Republic

with France at her throat ring through

with fresh urgency norm sensor extrema

passione not without extreme passion or

fear they write do we hear the sweeping

French conquest of our territory you

have to see the King beseech him no

longer to delay England being well

supplied with brave and able men whilst

the Kings all endowments also furnish

all the requisites for such an

enterprise Kindle and encourage him for

war

[Music]

Henry have been brought up on the values

of chivalry to believe that a prince

should be a warrior so in proposing war

against France

England's traditional enemy the

Venetians should have been pushing

against an open door but the Ambassador

soon discovered that things were not so

straightforward an end boy for the

French King he reported to the Senate

had arrived in England to flank Henry

his letter promising peace between the

two countries

but this apparently was news to Henry

and the King reacted with outrage

corrode it letter I asked peace of the

King of France who cannot look me in the

face

still let's make war on me

[Music]

Henry ya ambassador and third was not

the one in charge of Foreign Affairs

that seemed to be in the hands of his

counsel still pursuing the same peace

policy they had under Henry's father the

council was led by clergymen like Bishop

Fox and Archbishop Wareham they formed a

peace party which objected to war on

grounds of cost risk and also for moral

reasons at the opening of Parliament and

in Henry's own presence Archbishop

Wareham the Lord Chancellor preached a

powerful sermon on the benefits of peace

and against the evils of war which he

claimed could only be justified in the

most narrow of circumstances but that

was not a view shared by King Henry the

young friends in his privy chamber they

were team justice regularly displaying

and martial skills in mock combat but

what they really wanted was the real

thing

[Music]

Henry would have liked to join them but

Gauss ting was dangerous from the

council like his father in the past and

forbidden him to take part so one day

Henry decided chastened his guise

alongside one of his closest personal

servants only a few attend with Intimus

have got wind of the plan and all went

well until the promisee relates one of

the anonymous knights was flung heavily

from his horse and knocked unconscious

one person there was a new the King

cried the king

with that all the people who are

astonished and the king had to uncover

himself to the great comfort of all the

people it was now open knowledge that

the young king began to rebelled against

his counselors where they must have

thought would it all end

fortunately counsellors Fox and Wareham

had their own man inside the Kings Privy

chamber a chaplain called

Thomas Wolsey Wolsey was just the man

for Henry he was no Stern unbending

clergyman

but enjoyed fun and games just as much

as Henry and his young companions he was

lowborn but hugely intelligent but being

a stellar student here at maudlin

College Oxford above all he was a fine

teacher with a teacher's ability to read

a student and Henry was to be his last

and greatest pupil fo'c'sle wareham

intended that Wolsey should act like a

good schoolmaster as a brake on Henry's

war lust but would he at first

Wolsey seems to have acted his patrons

wished in 1511 he wrote warning that

Edward Howard one of the leading

jousters seemed to be pushing the king

towards war with Scotland

Everett Howard marvelously and sends a

king against the Scots by whose wanton

means his grace spends much money and is

more disposed to war than peace but

Wolsey finally achieved human relations

he was quickly realize that Henry's war

must wasn't just the result of pressure

with young hot headed companions war was

something that the king himself wanted

and passed

bullsááá quickly decided that the

future his future lay not in trying to

bridle Henry but instead in liberating

him from his counselors the counselors

power over Henry lay in the fact that

they alone controlled the seals which

made his decisions official but was this

or a way to break the so-called course

of the seals the requirement for every

royal grant to pass each of the three

seals was a matter of convention not law

and it couldn't withstand a direct royal

command to the Chancellor so far however

Henry who rather disliked direct

confrontation had lacked the backbone to

challenge his counsel head-on

now Wolsey supplied the backbone for him

this is the document with which Wolsey

began to free Henry for the fall of his

councilors it's a sign bill granting a

lincolnshire rectory in itself it's

nothing the devil is in the rubric which

instructs the Chancellor to make the

grant of the authority and the Kings

signature alone with no need for

authentication by the course of the

seals this was to undermine the whole

basis of the council's control of royal

patronage and Wareham objected but

Wolsey who presented the document in

person smoothly responded that such was

the Kings will this was unanswerable and

all that Wareham could do was to add an

acid little note here right at the

bottom of the document Oh

as they await big toast dominoes Wolsey

so said the aforementioned master Wolsey

allsey had now shown that he could get

Henry what Henry wanted and what Henry

wanted was war

with Wolsey supplying the means or in

liked with the opportunity

[Music]

it soon came when pope julius ii who can

lure the 12th of france went to war over

the italian states ruled by the papacy

invoking the spiritual weapons of the

church julius excommunicated louis and

formed holy leaves and pathetic

countries to wage a crusade against

infidel france to entice england into

the lead he sent Henry

barrels of Italian wine a golden rose

and a hundred parmesan cheeses Henry was

now on the point of fulfilling his

boyhood dreams of war he would do so

under the banner of Holy Mother Church

[Music]

on the 20th of June 1513 King Henry and

Queen Catherine arrived at Dover Castle

before King Henry crossed the channel

the following day to make war on lure

the 12th the moment that both of them

felt they'd been bald for Henry and

Catherine spent the night together here

in the castle keep it was a fond

farewell but there were no tears Henry

at last was fulfilling what history and

custom insisted was the right the meet

the glorious role of an English King and

leading his Nobles and people to war in

France within a few days

Henry was finally where he wanted to be

leading an army besieging the French

town of

kaolin

he was busy with his men so Katherine

kept in touch through the indispensable

Wolsey I was troubled to hear the king

was so near the siege of Terre one until

you let there showed me of the heat he

takes to avoid all manner of dangers

with his heads and life nothing can come

a nice to him Katherine's anxieties were

naturally a wife but behind them lay the

higher concerns of the dynast the Henry

had departed for the front in France

without leaving behind an heir in

England Katherine had become pregnant

could clear after the marriage but she

miscarried then in 1511 she gave birth

to a son and hair but the boy died

within a few weeks that was a tragedy

but Henry's energies were quickly

diverted by the dash to war and

catherine pugh a no less enthusiastic

war mode

[Music]

Henry and place great trust from his

wife by making her his regent in England

even though it was clear that the Scots

would take advantage of Henders absence

to invade so catherine ii would have a

water fight

you are so busy with the war in Teheran

as I am encumbered by it in England we

are all here very glad to be busy with

the Scots we take it for a pastime my

heart is very good to it and I'm

horribly busy making standard Spanish

sandwiches meanwhile in France the city

of Cairo an was close to being starved

into surrender to save it

the French sent up a detachment of

cavalry the cream of their army to

rebuild the city by throwing sides of

bacon over the city wall but they

miscalculated badly under withering fire

from the English archers the French

Knights were forced to beat a hasty

retreat shedding arms and armor as they

spurred their horses into headlong

flight

it was out rapped made worse by the

English mockingly naming the action the

battle

Henry was ecstatic and sent his wife the

captured plans but Catherine had an even

greater the could celebrate under the

command of the Earl of Surrey the

English had destroyed the Scots army and

killed their king

she wrote to congratulate Henry for

taking Tara on

to my thinking this battle has been to

your grace

the greatest honor that could be the

king will not forget to thank God for it

I am sending a piece of the King of

Scots coat in this your grace will see

how I can keep my promise

sending you for your banners a king's

coat I thought to send his body unto you

but our English men's hearts witness

after a news of Henry and Catherine's

victories spread round Europe England

was a great power again Henry even

boasted that it was he who had liberated

Italy from the French oppressor if I

choose he proclaimed louisa 12th will

cross the Alps and if i choose he will

not cross

it was the fulfillment of all Henry's

dreams

he was now a warrior king to rival his

great medieval predecessors Henry the

tip and Edward the third

and Catherine his royal queen was

pregnant once again soon surely he would

have a son and heir

the jewel of Henry's French conquests

was to lay a rich city in its own right

it was also the key to Flanders the

wealthiest region of northern Europe in

the Middle Ages England that had an

empire in France now in tournay Henry

said about laying the foundations the

new English

continental Empire until I saw it to

myself I'd never realized the scale of

Henry's ambition good amazing this

really is Henry V aids Domus and Paul's

it's built for strength it's a fortress

but it's also strange way a thing of

beauty it's stone and brick the way in

which the ribs of stone contrast with

the beautifully cut and pointed red

brick now this was originally one of

four corner towers of a great fortress

that Henry built to hold tournay it was

strong enough to withstand the most

ferocious attack but it's also built to

impress and to last torneio says will be

English for ever but would it Henry's

former mentor and correspondent the

great Dutch scholar Erasmus who's living

in Queens College Cambridge war with

France had cut off his supply of wine he

contracted a stone which he attributed

to drinking ale he had nothing above

sarcasm these are the first fruits of

what we should take us the famous war

against the French Italy has been

cleared of the French only to be ruled

by another potentate and is now worse

than before

Erasmus or nothing moral about the

Pope's so-called holy war and he mocked

both julius ii and Henry in his biting

satire Julius excuse us

which could be loosely translated as

shock horror Pope locked out of heaven

in the Fatah Erasmus makes julius boost

of his powers of persuasion such is the

magic of His Holiness the Pope claims

but he can entice all nations into war

the English and Henry in particular are

a soft target

they were cocky and almost riotous

because of their newfound Liberty which

they had finally acquired at the death

of the most severe of Kings so that they

could laugh easily be incited to any

madness and to what I most wanted also

to my advantage was this very young King

boy rather who had recently acquired the

royal power and was of a fierce and

lively and thoroughly youthful temper

that is restless and belligerent to

Erasmus the glorious Henry was just the

dupe of the scheming bellicose Italian

priest did Henry see the Julius

exclusives if so it would have made

painful reading

but Henry's more pressing problem was

financial the ward costs somewhere

between one and two million pounds

consuming his entire inheritance from

his father and more still worse the bill

continued to mount with the garrison

here at Tornai proving ruinously

expensive to maintain to add the Henry's

frustration when Katherine at last gave

birth to a healthy child it was a girl

not a boy

[Music]

meanwhile the aging King Louie of France

died and his heir was the youthful and

aggressive Francis the first who quickly

called Henry's blood

Frances invaded Italy and forced the

poop to come to terms with him with no

money to mount another war Henry could

no longer posed at the arbiter of Europe

when Henry had a clear go he could be

all actions but when the way forward was

unclear he tended to lose interest after

all there was so much else to do like

hunting cows ting and reveling and he

was so good at all of them

in short Henry for all his intelligence

and ability especially at this stage of

his life was something of a butterfly as

an acid adjusting yarn II noticed Henry

the warrior king had turned back into

Henry the playboy Prince King Henry is

much handsomer than the King of France

he's very calm list and a good musician

composes well is a capital horseman and

a fine gesture speaks good French Latin

and Spanish he is formed of hunting and

tennis he devotes himself to

accomplishments and amusements day and

night he is intent on nothing else

leaving business to the Cardinal of York

[Music]

the cordon was Thomas Wolsey Cardin

Archbishop of York thanks to Henry's

favor Wolsey had climbed up the ranks of

church and state at dizzying speed as

Cardinal Leggett he was the Pope's

representative in England as Lord

Chancellor he was head of the Kings

government just in yani reported

wonderingly on Moses arrogance in the

exercise of this double universal

authority in England Wolsey rules both

the king and the entire kingdom

am i first arriving in the kingdom he

used to say His Majesty will do so and

so subsequently by degree he said we

shall do so and so then he reads such a

pitch that he said I shall do so and so

Ruthie was arrogant but he never forgot

but his power depended on giving Henry

the fame and glory that he craved war

had proved too expensive amines and

beyond

England's resources but could peace be

made equally glamorous and prestigious

rosy with his genius at presentation saw

how if Henry couldn't beat his enemies

he could join them together in a Treaty

of universal peace Henry the erstwhile

warrior caned would find fame at last as

the great peacemaker

so Henry gave tournay back to France in

1520 the peace process climaxed in the

most famous Summit Conference in

European history the field of cloth of

gold celebrated in this painting in the

Royal Collection at Hampton Court the

meeting took place in a windswept

no-man's land between the English

possession of Calais and France here a

whole Empress City was erected complete

with tents of cloth of gold fountains

that flowed with wine until jar for the

inevitable jaws and the PS the lazy

Stars the temporary English palace

painted to look like brick and with

crystalline windows that knocked the

French efforts of magnificence into a

cocked hat and here we see Henry with

Wolsey beside him arriving to renew the

treaty perpetual peace with the old

enemy Francis the first of France

but how long would perpetual peace last

the Venetian ambassador to circle these

sovereigns are not at peace they hate

each other cordially

[Music]

King Henry of England and King Francis

of France didn't have the European stage

to themselves belong however the new

third player arrived he was charged with

it sons of Henry's boyhood hero Philip

the fair duke of burgundy at first it

looked as though Charles would be the

poor relation in contrast to the

Magnificent kings of England and France

he was shy Gorky ugly keenan but it was

also heir to the greatest inheritance in

europe through his father or strip the

Lu countries most of Italy as well as

but not yet empty title of Holy Roman

immigrants

to his mother one who was Catherine of

Aragon sisters Spade and its enormous

impasse in the new world but could

Charles take possession of his vast

inheritance in Spain in particular he

was heated as a foreigner his accession

sparked rebellion Castillo de la mota in

Medina del Campo still bears the scars

the ferocious bombardment Spaniards in

revolt against their new king Carleton

felt didn't have the resources to put

the revolt down instead he turned for

help

the Henry is uncle by marriage and his

father's friend him his help was

essential to Charles

he lent the emperor money and just as

important he kept the channel opens -

Charles's ships

preserving the lines of communication

between Charles's tattered kingdoms once

Charles were secured Henry quite

naturally expected a quid pro quo aid

for this new European great power

against Francis the first of France in a

renewed war for Catherine to alliance

with her nephew Charles off of the hope

of fulfilling at last the dynastic logic

of her marriage to Henry

she'd been unable to deliver Henry the

longed-for son and heir to the throne of

England now

perhaps through Charles she could

deliver the still greater prize of the

throne France

in 1522 the new alliance was sealed with

the Treaty which betrothed Charles the

fifth to Henry and Catherine

six-year-old daughter Princess Mary it

signaled the start an ambitious plan to

attack Francis from all sides first an

English army under the Earl of Surrey

launched a lightning strike on France

storming as far south as Agincourt but

they were let down by Charles's

Burgundian troops the advantage was

thrown away and the army returned home

Henry was understandably furious with

Charles but the Emperor promised that in

the next campaigning season he would

commit significant forces next year the

English army on the tolls random you

could Suffolk Victor of the Battle of

the Spurs a ganker Swade who more than

fries evil getting within striking

distance at Paris itself but once again

Charles is nothing the end of 1524

Charles yet again on his hand with that

next year things would be different but

the Spanish ambassador reported a

hardened moody England elegant walls he

went on enumerate in the many

infractions of the existing treaty which

he alleged had been committed by the

Emperor such as money borrowed and not

paid in due time the pensions and so

forth

adding the king my master would have

more reason to complain since after so

much expenditure and trouble he gets

such a room

so Henry decided that this campaigning

season he would sit things out it proved

to be a costly mistake on the 9th of

March 1525 Henry was awakened early by

the arrival of a messenger come from

Charles's army in Italy Charles had won

a great victory at a beer and King

Francis himself with his prisoner

exalted Henry told the messenger you

were like Saint Gabriel who announced

the coming of Christ then he sent his

ambassador two jars with instructions to

arrange the final destruction a

dismemberment of France it is to be

feared that God should take high

indignation against them exercising his

terrible sword of Correction and

dreadful punishment upon the French as

for Francis his line and succession

ought to be abolished removed and

utterly extinct

for centuries the kings of England had

also styled themselves King of France

for a moment it seemed that Henry was

about to make good that ancient claim

and wind have a lasting glory but

Charles already had what he wanted and

he saw no advantage in making England a

great continental power Charles Henry's

Earths while Protege had learned to

stand on his own feet and play the

brutal game of power politics as a

master so coolly Charles challenged

Henry to raise an army to share in the

conquest of France and when Henry failed

because his subjects

weary of financing unsuccessful Wars

threatened to rebel rather than pay the

necessary taxation Charles through Henry

over restored Francis the first and

jilted Mary it was a humiliation for

Henry but a disaster for Catherine

[Music]

her marriage to Henry

Hadfield uses some or a lasting

allowance

it was known for dynastic and a personal

failure she wrote in anguish to Charles

I'm sure I deserve not this treatment

for such a my affection and readiness

for your Highnesses service that I

deserve a better reward

the aftermath of the Battle of Revere

made everything cruelly clear for

childhood sis and Francis the first the

real action was here in Italy each was

eager to recruit Henry's support in the

eternal Wars to control the Italian

peninsula but they were most reluctant

to allow England a share of the Spoils

and Henry wasn't strong enough to compel

them Henry would never be the warrior

king he dreamed the time of chivalry it

seemed was long past if Henry had died

of the sweating sickness which struck

England in the late the King twenties

would scarce to remember him he would be

just another english king who tried and

failed to emulate the great medieval

conquerors of france ed of the 3rd and

Henry the fifth

but he bents were about to take a wholly

unexpected course henry food launched

his own seizure role he would fight with

the pairing not with the saw and he

would win the immortality that he craved

not as a warrior but as a man who would

remake this world the next all for love

[Music]

[Music]

you