CWN members and guests had a most enjoyable, informative and thought-provoking evening at the British Library’s magnificently comprehensive exhibition of letters, legal documents, maps, books, bibles and paintings relating to the life of Henry VIII. Marking the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne of England in 1509, it was everything a Tudor fan could wish for. The exhibition not only had letters and documents relating to the famous divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and the affair and then marriage to Anne Boleyn, but also love letters written between Henry and Anne. The British Library has the largest collection of these. There was also one love letter from Henry to Anne, lent by the Vatican (who acquired it as evidence against Henry during the divorce) and not seen in England since the 16th century.

 

There were portraits of every Tudor monarch and their relatives, including Henry’s older brother Arthur who died before his father Henry VII and so changed history by making younger brother Prince Henry the heir to the throne and subsequently Henry VIII. There were also all the aristocrats, archbishops and bishops who served in Henry VIII’s government, of whom very few died in their beds.

 

Our group had our own British Library guide who highlighted the significance of the legal documents relating to the divorce, the Reformation, and the Dissolution of the monasteries. All immensely important historical events in the history of England as it moved out of the Middle Ages and onto the world stage.

 

This movement towards the modern world was also, as our guide pointed out to us, demonstrated by the stilted Medieval style of the early Tudor portraits of Henry VII, his wife, Elizabeth of York, and their sons, Arthur and Henry, which soon gave way to the more modern facially realistic style of portraits like those of Erasmus, Cranmer and Warham. You can really see the character and power in their faces.

 

However, they lived in a world where great men and women could be stripped of all their goods, houses and lands, and were often executed when they fell out of the king’s favour. The exhibition ended with a long list of all the important people executed in Henry VIII’s reign. Our guide told us that a further 70,000 ordinary English people were executed for more petty crimes. And this out of a population of only three million. Truly the past is another country and they really did do things differently there.