Henry VIII and His Afterlives

This interesting volume of essays explores the ways in which Henry VIII has dominated the historical imagination for the five centuries since his accession in 1509. The collection ‘reconsiders the evolution of Henry VIII as a political and cultural icon’. It advances the view that the king has become ‘an icon without a cult’. The editors provide a lucid introduction, explaining that the essays in their different ways ‘grapple with the dichotomy of how Henry saw himself versus how others saw him’. The first three essays, by Peter Happé, John N. King and Dale Hoak, consider the presentation of the king in his own lifetime using four theatrical interludes, the images of Henry and his own record as king. The three authors demonstrate a clear contemporary perception (including self-perception) of Henry as a powerful monarch who conformed to ideals of princely rule and the particular virtue of ‘magnificence’. Debates during Henry’s lifetime centred on the consequences of this magnificence, on counselling the king and on the ultimate origins and consequences of his authority after the break with Rome

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