VOL II.
THE SEVENTH BOOK
OF
THE ACTS AND MONUMENTS,
BEGINNING WITH THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.
137. INTRODUCTION TO THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.
Illustration -- Frontispiece - Portrait of Henry VIII.
Illustration -- Title Page – The Execution of Dudley Earl of Leicester
Illustration -- Henry VIII. Trampling the Pope Underfoot
And forasmuch as we are fallen into the mention of George Lily, this in him is to be found not unworthy noting, how, after the burning of Thomas Norice, above mentioned, at the city of Norwich, the same year followed such a fire in Norwich, that the whole city, well near, was therewith consumed. Like as also after the burning of the aforesaid good father in Smithfield, the same year (which was 1500) we read in the chronicle of Fabian, a great plague to fall upon the city of London, to the great destruction of the inhabitants thereof. Where again is to be noted, (as is aforesaid,) that according to the state of the church, the disposition of the commonwealth commonly is guided, either to be with adversity afflicted, or else in prosperity to flourish. But after these notes of King Henry the Seventh, now to the story of King Henry the Eighth.
This King Henry the Seventh finishing his course in the year abovesaid, which was 1509, had by Elizabeth his wife abovenamed, four men children, and of women children as many. Of whom three only survived; to wit, Prince Henry, Lady Margaret, and Lady Mary. Of whom King Henry the Eighth after his father succeeded. Lady Margaret was married to James the Fourth, king of Scots. Lady Mary was affianced to Charles, king of Castile.
Not long before the death of King Henry, Prince Arthur, his eldest son, had espoused Lady Katharine, daughter to Ferdinand, being of the age of fifteen years, and she about the age of seventeen; and shortly after his marriage, within five months, departed at Ludlow, and was buried at Worcester. After whose decease the succession of the crown fell next to King Henry the Eighth, being of the age of eighteen years, entered his reign the year of our Lord 1509, and shortly after married with the aforesaid Katharine, his late brother Prince Arthur's wife, to the end that her dowry, being great, should not be transported out of the land. In the which his marriage, being more politic than Scripture-like, he was dispensed with by Pope Julius, at the request of Ferdinand her father. The reign of this king continued with great nobleness and fame the space of thirty-eight years. During whose time and reign, great alteration of things, as well to the civil state of the realm, as especially to the state ecclesiastical, and matters of the church appertaining. For by him was exiled and abolished out of the realm, the usurped power of the bishop of Rome, idolatry and superstition somewhat repressed, images and pilgrimages defaced, abbeys and monasteries pulled down, sects of religion rooted out, Scriptures reduced to the knowledge of the vulgar tongue, and the state of the church and religion redressed. Concerning all which things, in the process of these volumes here following, we will endeavour (Christ willing) particularly and in order to discourse; after that first we shall comprehend a few matters, which within the beginning of his reign are to he noted and collected. Where, leaving off to write of Empson and Dudley, who in the time of King Henry the Seventh, being great doers in executing the penal laws over the people at that time, and purchasing thereby more malice than lands, with that which they had gotten, were shortly after the entering of this king beheaded, the one a knight, the other an esquire; leaving also to intermeddle with his wars, triumphs, and other temporal affairs, we mean in these volumes principally to bestow our travail in declaration of matters concerning most chiefly the state of the church and of religion, as well in this Church of England, as also of the whole Church of Rome.