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After 35 years in power, Henry VIII was a bloated, hideously obese, black-humoured old man, rarely seen in public. Studies of his portraits and his symptoms reported by his fearful courtiers and gossipy foreign ambassadors indicate that he was suffering from a rare hormonal disease called ‘Cushings Syndrome’ One variant turns the victim into a paranoid psychotic, suspicious of everyone around him, and subject to frequent mood swings. Henry’s symptoms and behaviour in the last years of his life fits this new diagnosis, as he ruled England with Stalinist ruthlessness.
The king had striven all his life to ensure the survival of the Tudor dynasty by siring legitimate sons, yet his only male heir was eight-year-old Prince Edward. It was increasingly obvious that when Henry died, real power in England would be exercised by a regent. The prospect of that prize spurred the rival court factions into deadly conflict as they conspired and jockeyed for power whilst the king sent the kingdom into bankruptcy.
book reviews
- Frank McLynn, Daily Express
“The scholarship of this book is meticulous… Hutchinson brilliantly conveys the atmosphere of terror…a gripping narrative… Hutchinson provides an across-the-spectrum grand-slam portrait of the second Tudor monarch. No-one writing about Henry VIII in the future will be able to ignore this magnificent book “ - Jonathan Keates, Spectator
“Hutchinson’s narrative, level-headed and carefully researched, is the more enjoyable for being so consistently unedifying” - Contemporary
Review
“This book may be called biographical history at its best and the corruption it portrays still has the power to shock.” - John Guy,
Sunday Times
“The genuinely original chapters aim to relate Henry’s character to his medical condition. These and an intriguing sequel on his failed mausoleum project are fresh and interesting.” - The Field
“This is a scholarly but racy account focussing on the final four years, 1543-47, of Henry’s long reign ”
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