Have a Good NEWS

Henry was given to taking a lot of advice and procrastinating; then suddenly something would provoke him and he would decide on a course of action from which he never deviated. He was not so much a loose cannon as one which, though you saw where it was pointing, you never knew when or if it would fire. His reign was resplendent with pageantry, he built great palaces, held magnificent tournaments, but this was a policy of show to mask a deep unease. He was only the second generation of a family that were little more than bandits who had taken over the country by force, killing the Plantagenet King Richard III. Throughout Henry's reign there were pretenders to the crown, some of whom, such as the colourful imposter Perkin Warbeck, were a serious threat. Henry's policy was to decrease the power of the aristocracy by concentrating patronage in his court. Anyone who dared to build bigger or throw more lavish entertainments than the king could find themselves in the Tower. A new England was beginning to emerge – mercantile, with taxes regulated and collected, and a strong central government. But if the Tudors fell England could return to the chaos of the wars of the roses. There had to be a male heir.

Tudor Rose in which one actor would play all the monarchs, Henry VII to Elizabeth. Then I remembered reading that Anne Boleyn owned a copy of Tyndale's translation of the New Testament. She also had got hold of a copy of his incendiary

James's settlement failed. The Protestant revolution that began in Henry's time exploded into the English civil wars of 1642 to 1649. What James feared came to pass: monarchy's divine power was broken forever.

TYNDALE: That is the revealed