The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason, and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant

Contemporary Review, July, 2005

The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant. Robert Hutchinson. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 367 pages. ISBN 0-297-84611-6. This is a close study of the last five years of Henry VIII's rule, from 1543 to 1547. Henry was a 'psychotic and ruthless ruler' and in these years, 'an aggressive, vengeful, cunning and pain-racked king ...

a true bully'. Mr Hutchinson is concerned with the king himself, his courtiers and ministers and with his illness which had a deleterious affect on his mind. It is a 'sad, violent story'. It is also an extraordinary story of the corrupting nature of absolute power in the final years of a dictator, reminiscent of Stalin's last days. The author has done an amazing amount of research and has marvellously recreated both the closed world which surrounded the king in his final years and the very atmosphere it produced. This book may be called biographical history at its best and the corruption it portrays still has the power to shock. (E.B.)