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England`s Nero is a new biography of Henry VIII that vigorously challenges old assumptions and new interpretations alike. Starting from the premise that Henry`s priorities were always primarily martial rather than marital, it weights its coverage accordingly and also denies the necessity of the king`s all-consuming quest for a male heir as well as his need ultimately to sever ties with Rome. Moreover, at a time when the reputation of England`s most famous king is being rehabilitated and subtly sanitised by an emphasis upon ideas and processes rather than people, England`s Nero depicts a deeply flawed man, wholly unfit for power: his personality, his beliefs, his relationships, his follies, his bitter, ironic disappointments. Meanwhile, in laying bare the individual, the book also attempts to capture the ethos of a particularly dramatic period in English history by examining the broader range of human experiences that lay at the heart of its tempestuous course. Henry`s story is, after all, no less the tale of his accomplices and victims: high and low, sung and unsung, innocent and otherwise.
Nevertheless, any `monster` emerging is by no means merely the old familiar one. At the very least, he is a newer model, more beset by anxieties and insecurities than previous versions, more confused and frustrated by circumstances he could not rise above, egged on more by light companions and self-seekers, and surrounded more tightly by those who equated loyalty with blind obedience. Had he not become an incorrigibly vain and indiscriminate breaker of men and women, his case might even evoke pity.
In advancing these claims, the book demonstrates a number of other distinctive features. It provides, for instance, an extensive exploration of the king’s childhood and youth, as well as attempting to set his rule in a more explicitly European context. Equally, it challenges recent suggestions that his religious views were energetically Protestant and places new emphasis upon the irrational and outrightly superstitious aspects of his thinking. There are also a variety of fresh perspectives on well known figures, such as Wolsey, Cromwell, More and Cranmer, while others somewhat less familiar, such as Charles Brandon, feature more prominently than usual.
The overall objective is popular history with a serious edge: a trenchant and lively biography, which is, at one and the same time, accessible, challenging and different.
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