The Law of Civilization and Decay by Brooks Adams

Author:Brooks Adams
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014-12-05T05:00:00+00:00

"There are still two English gentlemen detained on her account, and it is suspected that there will be many more, because the king has said he believed that more than 100 had to do with her. You never saw prince or man who made greater show of his horns or bore them more pleasantly."

His manners, like those of Cromwell and Norfolk, lacked the courtesy which distinguished men, even of his own generation, like Sir Thomas More. He was gluttonous and self-indulgent, and, toward the end of his life, so bloated as to be helpless. His habits were well understood at Court, and suitors tried to approach him in the afternoon, when he was tipsy. Marillac thought his gormandizing would kill him: —

"There has been little doubt about the king, not so much for the fever as for the trouble with the leg which he has had which trouble seizes him very often because he is very gross, and marvellously excessive in eating and drinking, so that you often find him of a different purpose and opinion in the morning from what you do after dinner." *

On May 14, 1538, Castillon wrote: —

"Furthermore the king has had one of the fistulas on his legs closed, and since ten or twelve days the humors, which have no vent, have taken to stifling him, so much so, that he has been some of the time speechless, the face all black, and in great danger."'

The most marked characteristic of the feudal aristocracy had been personal courage; but as centralv.ition advan. ed and a paid police removed the necessity of -clf-detonce, bravery ceased to be essential to success; Henry apparently was not courageous — certainly was not courageous in regard to disease. When most infatuated with Anne Boleyn ,he fell ill of the sweating sickness; he fled at once, and wrote from a distance to beg her to fear nothing, as "few or no women . . . have died of it."1 Maribac declared roundly that, in such matters, the king was "the most timid person one could know."

On the other hand, he was habitually so overbearing as to be brutal to the weak. Lambert was a poor sectary, of whom he determined to make an example. He therefore prepared a solemn function, at which he presided, assisted by the bishops and the other dignitaries of the realm. The accused, when brought before this tribunal, apparently showed some confusion, and Foxc has left a striking description of how Henry tried to heighten this terror. Henry was dressed "all in white," probably emblematic of his purity as the head of the Church, and his " look, his cruel countenance, and his brows bent into severity, did not a little augment this terror; plainly declaring a mind full of indignation, far unworthy such a prince, especially in such a matter, and against so humble and obedient a subject."

Gifted with such qualities, Henry could not have failed to be a great religious reformer at the opening of a great economic age.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.