The life and times of Henry VIII
Robert Lacey

The accession of Henry VIII was greeted with rapture by his subjects; young, handsome and open-handed, the new king seemed the antithesis of his careful and suspicious father and he lost no time in making his court the most colourful and extravagant in Europe. Yet this glamorous exterior only partly disguised the unpredictable and savagely ruthless nature of the King, and, as his reign developed, these traits were to become increasingly evident. Henry’s desperate efforts to father a legitimate male heir for his kingdom led him to marry six times, tomato himself Supreme Head of the English Church as well as absolute ruler of the state, and to cut sown or cast aside all those who stood in his way, or who failed to carry out his wishes.