BOOKS.

FROVDE'S HISTORY OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.* HAVING on the appearance of the first two volumes of this re- markable work fully expressed an opinion upon Mr. Froude's new view of the reign and character of the Eighth Henry,? we have nothing more to say on that point. It must; however, be distinctly understood, that Mr. Froude's views are those of inter- pretation, not of statement, except in so far as his researches among the now more accessible and better-arranged records en- able him to produce new facts. It is not actions or events that are in question, but the interpretation to be put upon them, the conclusion to be drawn from them, the true colour and complexion of the whole reign. The chief cause of the popular opinion about Bluff Hal is und.oubtedly the mnnber of his wives, and his deal- ings with them. Yet, if we discard concomitants and traditional opinions, the odium mainly arises from accumulation. The only charge, save for number, must rest upon the first two Queens ; and a favourer may argue conscience as regards Katherine, and guilt as against Anne Boleyn. His married life with Jane Sey- mour and Katherine Parr was comfortable, indeed happy—other- wise the King most probably would have let the world know to the contrary. The guilt of Katherine Howard was beyond ques- tion, and the case of Anne of Cleves was a courteously-managed matter, a great deal more gentlemanlike than ninny a modern breach-of-promise case. Indeed, Mr. Froude doubts whether the marriage was ever consummated, and quotes the testimony of Anne upon the subject. Not satisfied with this line of defence, however, the historian stands up for the English Blue Beard as a man respectful to the ladies, of even temper under provocation from the " varium et mutabile semper," perhaps " gay" in his early youth, but irreproachable in middle life, and rather neglect- ful of the sex. He was in fact wedded to the state, and only married in compliance with the wishes of his Council and people, anxious for undoubted heirs, with the Wars of the Roses in the memory of the nation and the very experience of some people. This is the expositional summary of Mr. Froude upon Henry the Eighth and his matrimonial matters.

"The hand involuntarily pauses as it writes the words. In nine years two Queens of England had been divorced : two had been unfaithful. A single misadventure of such a kind might have been explained by accident or by moral infirmity. For such a combination of disasters some common cause must have existed, which may be or ought to be discoverable. The coarse hypothesis which has been generally offered, of brutality and profli- gacy on the part of the King, if it could be maintained, would be but an imperfect interpretation ; but, in fact, when we examine such details as re- main to us of Henry's relations with women, we discover but few traces of the second of the supposed causes, and none whatever of the first. A single intrigue in his early years, with unsubstantiated rumours of another, only heard of when there was an interest in spreading them, forms the whole case against him in the way of moral irregularity. For the three years that he was unmarried after the death of his third wife, we hear of no mistresses and no intrigues. For six months he shared the bed of Anne of Cleves, and she remained a maiden ; nor had he transferred his affections to any rival lady. • " His manner to his wives seems to have been no less kind than that of ordinary men. A few stern words to Anne Boleyn form the only approach to personal "harshness recorded against him ; and his behaviour when he first heard of the misconduct of Catherine Howard was manly, honourable, and generous. • Extraordinary circumstances, and the necessity of arriving at a just

understanding of a remarkable man, must furnish my excuse for saying a few words upon a subject 'which I would gladly have avoided, and for call- ing in question one of the largest historical misconceptions which I believe has ever been formed. It is not easy to draw out in detail the evidence on which we form our opinion of character. We judge living men not from single facts, but from a thousand trifles ; and sound estimates of historical persons are pieced together from a general study of their actions, their writ- ings, the description of friends and enemies, from those occasional allusions which we find scattered over contemporary correspondence, from materials which in the instance of Henry VIII consist of many thousand documents. Out of so large a mass, tolerable evidence would be forthcoming of vicious tendencies, if vicious tendencies had existed. We rise from the laborious perusal with the conviction, rather, that the King's disposition was naturally cold. The indolence and gayety of early years gave way, when the com- plications of his life commenced, to the sternness of a statesman engaged in incessant and arduous labours. He had no leisure, perhaps he had little inclination, to attend to the trifles out of which the cords of happy mar- riages are woven. A queen was part of the state furniture, existing to be the mother of his children ; and children he rather desired officially, than from any wish for them in themselves. Except in the single instance of Anne Boleyn, whom he evidently loved, ho entered marriage as a duty, and a duty it soon became even towards her ; while, again, he combined with much refinement and cultivation an absence of reserve on certain sub- jects, which is startling even in the midst of the plain speech of the six- teenth century. It was not that he was loose or careless in act or word ,• but there was a businesslike habit of proceeding about him which penetrated through all his words and actions, and may have made him as a husband one of the most intolerable that ever vexed and fretted the soul of woman."

" Gospel li6ht first dawned from Boleyn's eyes " is not Mr. Froude's opinion. He thinks that Henry was throughout consci- entiously religious, or compelled to act as he did by the will of the people, the church, and the nobility, expressed. by a majority in Parliament. In the historian's judgment, Henry_ is not an arbi- trary theologian, now drawing an act- which ah :11. send Papists to the scaffold for denying his supremacy or some doctrine deduced from it, or catching them on some question of discipline or cere- mony to which they attached the force of an article—now contriv- ing a net that should. enmesh all Protestants unless they were pre- pared to believe exactly as his statutes declared. On the contrary, * History of Bagkassi frees the Felt of Trolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. By James Anthony Fronde, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Volumes III. and IV. Published by Parker and Son.

+ Spectator for ISM, Supplement of May 3.

the King had quite enough to do as a moderator, restraining rival religious factions from cutting each other's throats, going as far on the road of possible reform as the state of the times would permit, keeping the peace against the violence of the extreme Reformers, and defending his own throne against the treasons of the extreme Papists or the open revolt into which they led the mass of loyal but excited Catholics. The Six Articles Act was not the King's doing ; it was forced upon him by a determined Parliament,--of whose election, and the vain efforts made by Cromwell to get a majority, there is a good account. But to pass an act is one thing, to carry . it into effect is another ; and here Henry stepped in and prevented the Papists, and the "Anglicans" who were "content to separate from Rome, but only that they might bear Italian fruit more pro- fusely and luxuriantly when rooted in their own soil," from per- secuting as they intended. The act which gave the King's pro- clamations (with certain limitations) the force of law, was, the historian admits, an unconstitutional and riskful proceeding; but he seems to think it was not dangerous as a temporary measure. Historians, while pointing out the political power which Henry from his situation possessed in respect to Europe, especially to Francis the First and the Emperor, have judged that he exercised it from caprice, or vanity, or temper. Nothing of the kind, affirms Mr. Froude. The results might not be very patently obvious, but the failure, so far as it went, arose from the treachery and false- hood of Charles and Francis. Not that Henry was exactly the dupe of either Emperor or King ' • but his sense of honour and plain dealing would not allow him to depart from his undertakings even when false allies were setting him an example. A dark blot upon Henry's name is the execution of Surrey, just before his own death. But the noble poet was a traitor manifest. And Mr. Fronde' from documents in the State Papers, certainly shows that the quartering of the royal arms was apparently a mere sign of ul- terior objects ; covering, in fact, a project to seize the Regency by King's upon the Kin's death, if the scheme did not go to supersede Edward the Sixtlialtogetlier. Could we trust to any evidence where the Crown was concerned in those sad times, a darker blot than treason must rest upon the name of Surrey. The nature of the case is indicated in this passage from a series of queries, partly in the King's own hand, evidently drawn to elicit a legal opinion. The Italics in the extract are Henry's interlineations. The writing, Mr. Fronde says, " is tremulous and irregular."

" If a man compassing with himself to govern the realm do actually go about to rule the Ring, and should for that purpose advise his daughter or his sister to become his harlot, thinking thereby to bring it to pass, and so would rule both father and son, what this importeth ? "

Of the love of pleasure which has been charged upon Hen Mr. Froude's defence is perhaps the best-sustained as reg proof ; though a man may follow pleasure and business too if his constitution is strong, and destroy himself in so doing.

" Something, too, ought to be said of his individual exertions in the details of state administration. In his earlier life, though active and assiduous, he found leisure for elegant accomplishments, for splendid amuse- ments, for relaxations careless, extravagant, sometimes questionable. As his life drew onwards his lighter tastes disappeared, and the whole energy of his intellect was pressed into the business of the commonwealth. Those who have examined the printed State Papers may form some impression of his industry from the documents which are his own composition, and the letters which he wrote and received ; but only persons who have seen the original manuscripts, who have observed the traces of his pen in side-notes and corrections, and the handwritings of his secretaries in diplomatic com- missions, in drafts of acts of Parliament, in expositions and formularies, in articles of faith, in proclamations, in the countless multitude of documents of all sorts, secular or ecclesiastical, which contain the real history of this extraordinary reign, only they can realize the extent of labour to which he sacrificed himself, and which brought his life to a premature close. His personal faults were great, and he shared, besides them, in the errors of his age ; but far deeper blemishes would be but as scars upon the features of a sovereign who in trying times sustained nobly the honour of the English name, and carried the commonwealth securely through the hardest crisis in its history."

Mr. Fronde's conclusions as to the reign and character of Henry the Eighth may be paradoxical ; the style and treatment displayed in his work are original ; the research on which the work is founded displays infinite labour, directed by acute judgment in a new field. If it were sought by a single term to characterize the entire work, freshness would be the word to use. The me- thod is narrative, but it is not the stately unimpeded march of the epic mode of writing history, which occupies itself with great events and great men, only occasionally condescending to some very remarkable individual episode as an artistic relief. Every- thing is handled naturally and without constraint by Mr. Froude. The man is not sunk in the monarch ; the doings or characters of obscure men are touched upon in the text or exhibited in the notes, if they throw any light upon the manners or opinions of

the age ; and the popular feelings and notions are brt,ught before the reader, so far as materials remain for doing it. Occasionally

there may be something of over-detail ; but the effect of this is in a great measure prevented by the arrangement, a chapter dealing with a subject as if it were a dramatic act. The manner of the

historian, moreover, facilitates detailed treatment, partaking as it does of the nature of discourse—" I will tell you all about it" ; but he seldom drops below the level of his theme, or falls into the unduly familiar. The mere literary merit of this work is very great. The style is one of simple and living power ; forcible without any strain- ing after force, varying with the nature of the theme or as the

author is affected by it, and sustained without epigrammatic point or artificial brilliancy. The living spirit alluded topervades the

whole, and sometimes rises into poetry. Here is an example, in- troductory to an imaginative picture of Convocation. The ori- ginal suggestion is given by Wordsworth ; though the poet's in- terlocutor, being a clergyman, draws his imagery from the graves of the churchyard, not, like the historian, from the industry and promise of the field.

" There are many scenes in human life which, as a great poet teaches us, are either sad or beautiful, cheerless or refreshing, according to the di- motion from which we approach them. If, on a morning in spring, we be- hold the ridges of a fresh-turned ploughed field from their Northern side, our eyes catching only the shadowed slopes of the successive furrows, see an expanse of white, the unmelted remains of the night's hail-storm or the boar-frost of the dawn. We make a circuit, or we cross over and look behind us, and on the very same ground there is nothing to be seen but the rich brown soil swelling in the sunshine, warm with promise, and chequered perhaps here and there with a green blade bursting through the surface. Both images are true to the facts of nature. Both pictures are created by real objects really existing. The pleasant certainty, however' remains with us, that the winter is passing away and summer is coming ; the promise of the future is not with the ice and the sleet, but with the sunshine, with gladness, and hope. " Reginald Pole has shown us the form in which England appeared to him, and to the Catholic world beyond its shores, bound under an iron yoke, and sinking down in despair and desolation. To us who have seen the golden harvests waving over her fields, his loud raving has a sound of delirium we perceive only the happy symptoms of lengthening daylight, bringing with it once more the season of life and health and fertility. But there is a third aspect—and it is this which we must now endeavour to present to ourselves—of England as it appeared to its own toiling children in the hours of their trial, with its lights and shadows, its frozen prejudices and sunny gleams of faith ; when day followed day, and brought no certain change, and men knew not whether night would prevail or day, or which of the two was most divine—night, with its starry firmament of saints and ceremonies, or day, with the single lustre of the Gospel sun. It is idle to try to reproduce such a time in any single shape or uniform colour. The reader must call his imagination to his aid, and endeavour, if he can, to see the same object in many shapes and many colours, and sympathize succes- sively with those to whom the Reformation was a terror ,• with those to whom it was the dearest hope ;. and those others—the multitude—whose minds could give them no certain answer, and shifted from day to day as the impulse of the moment swayed them. " When Parliament met in June 1536, Convocation as usual assembled with it. On Sunday, the 9th of the month, the two Houses of the clergy were gathered for the opening of their session in the aisles of St. Paul's— high and low, hot and cold, brave and cowardly. The great question of the day, the Reformation of the Church, was one in which they, the spiritualty of 'England, might be expected to bear some useful part. They had as yet borne no part but a part of obstruction. They had been compelled to sit impatiently, with tied hands, while the lay Legislature prescribed their duties and shaped their laws for them. Whether they would assume a more becoming posture was the problem which they were now met to solve. Gardiner was there, and Bonner, Tunstall, and Hilsey, and Lee, Latimer, and Cramer; mitred abbots, meditating the treason for which, before many months were past, their quartered trunks would be rotting by the highways ; earnest sacramentaries, making ready for the stake ; the spirits of the two ages, the past and the future, were meeting there in fierce col- lidon ; and above them all, in his Vicar-General's chair, sat Cromwell, the angry waters lashing round him, but proud and powerful, lording over the storm. The present hour was his. _ His enemies turn in due time would come also.

" The mass had been sung, the roll of the organ had died away : it was the time for the sermon, and Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, rose into the pulpit. Nine-tenths of all those eyes which were then fixed on hint would have glistened with delight could they have looked instead upon his burning. The whole crowd of passionate men were compelled by a changed world to listen quietly while he shot his bitter arrows among them.

" Our glimpses into these scenes fall but fitfully. The sermon has reached us ; but the audience, the five hundred fierce vindictive men who suffered under the preacher's irony—what they thought of it—with what feelings on that summer day the heated crowd scattered out of the cathe- dral, dispersing to their dinners among the taverns in Fleet Street and Cheapside—all this is gone, gone without a sound. Here no friendly in- former comes to help us ; no penitent malcontent breaks confidence or lifts the curtain. All is silent."

The novel view which Mr. Fronde takes of the character of Henry the Eighth is not to be attributed to love of paradox, or to placing too implicit a faith in the preamble and body of acts of Parliament as truly avowing the motives of their concocters ; in- deed, he has extended his original plan, and makes as much use of records as of acts, if not more. The favourable judgment he passes upon Henry is in part attributable to his logical nature, chary of roundly condemning any one if the facts will bear a different construction. When narrating the conduct of the Em- peror in the war against France, which ended on his part in the peace of Cressy and on Henry's in the capture of Boulogne, the historian will not come to a positive conclusion against the Em- peror. Again, in the well-known case of Anne Askew's torture, he sees, and with reason, cause for a lenient view ; and so on.

The manners, characters, and proceedings of ministers, especially of diplomatists in their negotiations, are treated with greater fulness than is usual in history. But for these and many other things the reader must have recourse to the volumes. Apart from what is held to be the great historical heresy of Mr. Froude, there are various points on which readers may differ with him, but he has undoubtedly thrown a newer and a fuller light on the cha- racter of Henry the Eighth and his times. In the ensuing Tudor reigns it is probable that there will be less in his general view to shock the conclusions of the public, while he may be able to ex- hibit the times and the people in a yet more distinct light.