The Reign of Henry the Eighth

The Reign of Henry the Eighth

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume
1 (of
3), by James Anthony Froude, et al
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3)
Author: James Anthony Froude
Release Date: April 4, 2005 [eBook #15537]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE REIGN
OF HENRY THE EIGHTH, VOLUME 1 (OF 3)***
E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Deirdre Menchaca, Keith
Edkins, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
Team

FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Henry VIII · Introduction by W. Llewelyn Williams M.P. B.C.L.
Volume One
First Published 1909
* * * * *
[Illuminated Frontispiece]
CONSIDER HISTORY WITH THE BEGINNINGS OF IT
STRETCHING DIMLY INTO THE REMOTE TIME; EMERGING
DARKLY OVT OF THE MYSTERIOVS ETERNITY: THE TRVE
EPIC POEM AND VNIVERSAL DIVINE

SCRIPTVRE...--CARLYLE
* * * * *
[Illuminated Title]
THE REIGN of HENRY the EIGHTH
by
JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
VOLUME I.
London & Toronto J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. New York E.P. Dutton & Co

INTRODUCTION
James Anthony Froude was born at Dartington Rectory, the youngest
son of the Archdeacon of Totnes, on April 23, 1818. His father was a
clergyman of the old school, as much squire as parson. In the
concluding chapter to his History of England, Froude wrote that "for a
hundred and forty years after the Revolution of 1688, the Church of
England was able to fulfil with moderate success the wholesome
functions of a religious establishment. Theological doctrinalism passed
out of fashion; and the clergy, merged as they were in the body of the
nation, and no longer endeavouring to elevate themselves into a
separate order, were occupied healthily in impressing on their
congregations the meaning of duty and moral responsibility to God."
Of this sane and orthodox, but not over-spiritual, clergy, Archdeacon
Froude was an excellent and altogether wholesome type. He was a stiff
Tory; his hatred of Dissent was so uncompromising that he would not
have a copy of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ in the rectory. A stern,
self-contained, reticent man, he never, in word of deed, confessed his
affection for his youngest son. He was a good horseman, and was
passionately fond of open-air exercises and especially of hunting. His
one accomplishment was drawing, and his sketches in after years
earned the praise of Ruskin.
Cast in the same mould, but fashioned by different circumstances, the
archdeacon's eldest son, Richard Hurrell Froude, was a man of greater
intellectual brilliance and even more masterful character. He was one of
the pioneers of the Oxford Movement, and it was only his early death
that deposed him from his place of equality with Newman and Keble
and Pusey. Anthony was a sickly child, and from his earliest years
lacked the loving care of a mother. He was brought up with Spartan

severity by his father and his aunt. The most venial self-indulgence was
regarded as criminal. From the age of three he was inured to hardship
by being ducked every morning in a trough of ice-cold water. Hurrell
Froude felt no tenderness for the ailing lad. Once, in order to rouse a
manly spirit in his little brother, he took him by the heels, plunged him
like another Achilles into a stream, and stirred with his head the mud at
the bottom. Froude has been accused, and not without justice, of not
feeling a proper aversion to acts of cruelty. The horrible Boiling Act of
Henry VIII. excites neither disgust nor hatred in him; and he makes
smooth excuses for the illegal tortures of the rack and the screw which
were inflicted on prisoners by Elizabeth and her ministers. He had
himself been reared in a hardy school; he had been trained to be
indifferent to pain. It may well be that his callousness in speaking of
Tudor cruelties is to be traced to the influences that surrounded his
loveless childhood and youth.
Hurrell Froude was the idol of his younger brothers. He was a man of
brilliant parts, and a born leader of men. His hatred of Radicals and
Dissenters transcended even his father's dislike of them. His conception
of the Church differed widely from that in which the archdeacon had
been reared. To him a clergyman was a priest who belonged to a
sacerdotal caste, and who ought not "to merge himself in the body of
the nation." To him the Reformation was an infamous crime, and Henry
VIII. was worse than the Bluebeard of the nursery. His hero