St. Martin's Griffin is proud to reissue acclaimed biographer Carolly Erickson's lives of the Tudor monarchs. In this full-scale popular biography of Henry VIII, Carolly Erickson re-creates the extravagant life and times of one of history's most complex and fascinating men. Based on voluminous records of the period, the story of Henry's life covers his troubled youth, his triumphant early reign, and his agonizing old age. Against the lively backdrop of the Tudor world, with all its splendors and squalors, Carolly Erickson gives us an unforgettable and human portrait of Henry VIII. “This historical biography reads like the liveliest fiction. Erickson's portraits of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, Cardinal. Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, and Anne Boleyn are carefully drawn-and utterly fascinating.” ― Chicago Tribune “An admirable biography, graphic, judicious, carefully researched, skillfully constructed, and full of those telling details that are an essential ingredient of the narrator's art.” ― Christopher Hibbert, The New York Times Book Review “A book of considerable literary distinction. Erickson's training as a professional historian keeps the main structure of the story firmly tied to the evidence. The result commands belief as well as respect.” ― John Kenyon, Washington Post Book World In this full-scale popular biography of Henry VIII, Carolly Erickson re-creates the extravagant life and times of one of history's most complex and fascinating men. Based on voluminous records of the period, the story of Henry's life covers his troubled youth, his triumphant early reign, and his agonizing old age. Against the lively backdrop of the Tudor world, with all its splendors and squalors, Carolly Erickson gives us an unforgettable and human portrait of Henry VIII. Distinguished historian Carolly Erickson is the author of Rival to the Queen , The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots , The First Elizabeth , The Hidden Life of Josephine , The Last Wife of Henry VIII , and many other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Tsarina’s Daughter won the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Hawaii. Great Harry By Carolly Erickson St. Martin's Press Copyright © 1980 Carolly Erickson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-312-16858-2 Contents PREFACE TO THE 1997 EDITION, PREFACE, I Young Harry, II Great Harry, III "The Man Most Full of Heart", IV "Dieu et Mon Droit", V The Mouldwarp, VI Old Harry, NOTES, SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, CHAPTER 1 Young Harry Aboffe all thynge Now lete us synge Both day and nyght, Adew mornyng, A bud is spryngynge Of the red rose and the whyght. ON the morning of June 12, 1497, Elizabeth of York hurried with her five-year-old son Henry from her mother-in-law's house Coldharbour in Thames Street to the Tower of London. Reaching the Outer Ward they entered the White Tower through Coldharbour Gate, then climbed as rapidly as they could the flight of steps that led to the entrance of the great keep. Here, within the massive walls of William the Conqueror's strong fortress, they would be safe. Outside the city was in panic. A rebel army of Cornishmen, thousands strong, was advancing on London. Armed with bows and arrows, bills and staves the rebels had marched unopposed through Devon and Somerset, to Bristol, then southeastward through Winchester and Salisbury. A general watch was set in the capital, and Londoners were fleeing the city as from a plague. At first the king, Henry VII, stayed calmly in his palace upriver at Sheen. He had sent urgent word to his captain Daubeney, who was on his way north to meet a threatened invasion on the Scots border, to bring his men south again to head off the Cornishmen. But as the rebels came closer and there was no sign of Daubeney, the king left Sheen for safer quarters, and two days later his wife and second son followed his example. On the day that the queen and prince moved to the White Tower, fifteen thousand of the rebels encamped at Farnham. The next day they were at Guildford, and then, dangerously near, at Blackheath. The little prince who spent the next uncertain days beside his mother in the Tower apartments was a chunky, round-faced child whose blond hair was bobbed to the ears and combed into long bangs across his forehead. A sketch made of him at about this time shows his alert, interested expression, his face set off by a broad hat with a large feather curled around its brim. His mother, then in her early thirties, was a tall, handsome woman with fair skin and pale gold hair. Londoners called her "the good queen Elizabeth," and Prince Henry, who was rarely alone with her, must have grown closer to her as they waited out the danger together. At last the royal army arrived, and on June 17 Daubeney and his men confronted the rebels at Blackheath. Two thousand of the Cornishmen were killed that day; the r