QUEEN ELIZABETH. By MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D., late Bishop of London. With Portrait. Crown 8vo, 5s. net. OLIVER CROMWELL. By SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER, LL.D. CHARLES II. By OSMUND AIRY, LL.D., M.A. With Photogravure Portrait. Crown 8vo, 6s. 6d. net. PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART, THE YOUNG CHEVALIER. By ANDREW LANG. With Photogravure Frontispiece. QUEEN VICTORIA, 1819-1901. By RICHARD R. HOLMES, M.V.O., F.S.A. LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.. LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA. HENRY VIII. BY A. F. POLLARD, M.A. PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON; LONDON; AUTHOR OF "A LIFE OF CRANMER," "ENGLAND UNDER NEW IMPRESSION LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA First published by Messrs. Goupil & Co. in June, 1902, with numerous illustrations. New Edition, May, 1905. Reprinted, January, 1913. PREFACE. It is perhaps a matter rather for regret than for surprise that so few attempts have been made to describe, as a whole, the life and character of Henry VIII. No ruler has left a deeper impress on the history of his country, or done work which has been the subject of more keen and lasting contention. Courts of law are still debating the intention of statutes, the tenor of which he dictated; and the moral, political, and religious, are as much in dispute as the legal, results of his reign. He is still the Great Erastian, the protagonist of laity against clergy. His policy is inextricably interwoven with the high and eternal dilemma of Church and State; and it is well-nigh impossible for one who feels keenly on these questions to treat the reign of Henry VIII. in a reasonably judicial spirit. No period illustrates more vividly the contradiction between morals and politics. In our desire to reprobate the immorality of Henry's methods, we are led to deny their success; or, in our appreciation of the greatness of the ends he achieved, we seek to excuse the means he took |