The Life and Reign of King Henry VIII
Jonathan McGovern

The Life and Reign of King Henry VIII offers a fresh new account of England’s most (in)famous king. Thoroughly researched and referenced, it is written in a popular and accessible style. Rather than focussing solely on Henry VIII’s domestic affairs and sex life, it pays equal attention to politics, administration, military strategy and affairs of state. I have taken a disciplined approach to the narrative, endeavouring to isolate the most important issues and events, and I have kept the book as sharp as possible by refraining from painting on irrelevant detail.

The book casts new light on Henry the man. It offers a reappraisal of his character and achievements, showing that he was far more intelligent and politically subtle than is often supposed. It gives him credit where due for clever policies and bold deeds, while at the same time being alive to his flaws, weaknesses and mistakes. It provides a balanced account of the king’s virtues and vices, rather than resorting to caricature.

The book also incorporates pen-portraits of the lives and careers of Henry’s ministers, most importantly Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, and it tells the familiar stories of his wives with rich new detail and interpretation. In my view, no previous book has ever provided such a clear and compelling narrative of Henry’s reign.

New material

The book draws on a wide range of new evidence, and it also offers manifold new interpretations of existing evidence. Some of the novel material is as follows:

• Newly interpreted evidence to suggest that there was a real romantic relationship between Anne Boleyn and the poet Thomas Wyatt.
• A new hypothesis about the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, offering the audacious suggestion that he might have staged his own death.
• An astonishing contemporary pen drawing, never before published, of the king as a seventeen-year-old. This illustration is virtually unknown.
• New light on a secret papal scheme for the king’s divorce. I show that Pope Clement VII was originally on Henry’s side, and even devised a plan for him to marry Anne Boleyn first and ask for permission afterwards.
• A reconsideration of the view that Jane Seymour underwent a caesarean section before her death.
• An argument that the motto often attributed to Catherine Parr (‘To be useful in all I do’) is spurious.
• A groundbreaking identification of the earliest known source of the famous ‘Divorced, beheaded, died’ rhyme (from c. 1640).