Henry the Eighth (London: Jonathan Cape 1929), 543pp., with index.

Contents: The Background; Bk 1: Henry’s Boyhood; Book II: Henry and Catherine; Book III: Anne Boleyn; Book IV: Jane Seymour: Book V: Anne of Cleves; Book VI: Katheryn Howard; Book VII: Katherine Parr.

‘[...] if Henry was anointed with holier oil than Rocerkefeller-Morgan orn Inchcape-Leverhulme, he pursued power in a manner no less typical and no less instinctive. He was [12] a magnate before he was a king. Hence, to make him intellible, he has to be seen in the complicationed throes of those rivaliries that create his personal drama and gice it such tremendous character. He has to be seen, particularly, in the Europe of 1500-1550, and in the company of Francis and Charles. / in the year 1500 itself, Henry and Francis and Charles were three small dukes . Within fifteen years they would come to power [...]’. ALSO, ‘[...] Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard look at us silently and enigmatically across four hundred years. Thomas’s picture was drawn by Holbein after he had become Earl of Wilsthire and Ormond. Holbein, one of the most veracious of historians, shows us a man still fresh and upstanding, dressed and barbered so beautifully as to proclaim the ambassador-earl. It is a cold face. The eyes,a little weary, have a direct but stoony exression. They look towards a master. Under s moustache that has been much storked and silkened, the mouth is that of a weakish and even a meanish man. A massive nose shows that this creature proposes to survive, but his low brow suggest that the survival will be prudent rather than brilliant. And yet it is not a bad face. The man is not sympathetic, but he is dapper and stylish; he is limited but he is reasonable. Such men are as necessary as door-knobs are to doors. They must [225] be sauve, smooth, hard and solid. They must fit the palm of their master. A soul in such a man would be needed if he had to mould policies, but for one who is essentially a subaltern it would be incongruous. [226]