Exploring the Tudors
The English royal dynasty that Henry VIII is desperately trying to sustain in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
The England in Lantern Theater Company’s production of A Man for All Seasons — live on stage March 10 through April 9, 2022 — is in a period of relative stability and peace. But just a few decades earlier, England was at war with itself, and the violence sprang from anxieties around the throne. The characters in A Man for All Seasons know exactly how important it is for Henry VIII to have an heir to maintain this fragile peace.
To understand the Tudors, rewind 75 years before the play begins to the War of the Roses. Over the course of these wars and the fragile peace that followed, there were many changes in leadership, legal and illegal, highlighting the need for a clear line of succession.
The War of the Roses, or the Yorkist Wars, were actually three civil wars between opposing royal factions of the course of 32 years, with each house hoping to win and hold the English throne.
In 1455, Henry VI, a Lancaster, ruled England, but his inadequacies angered the noble York family. Richard of York, who had ties to the throne through his great-grandfather, Edward III, attacked and eventually captured Henry VI on the battlefield and claimed the throne. A compromise was eventually struck, allowing Henry VI to remain king with Richard as his heir, but Queen Margaret would not submit to disinheriting their son. Fighting began again, and when the Yorks won a decisive victory, Edward IV took the throne.
In 1469, there was renewed fighting between the two houses, resulting in short power swings between them before the Yorks again prevailed. Henry VI was likely executed, and Edward IV retook the throne for the rest of his life.
After Edward IV died, his brother Richard schemed to prevent the new king — Edward’s 12-year-old son — from keeping the throne. While awaiting his official coronation, Edward V and his brother disappeared in the Tower of London, and Richard III took the throne. But he was a controversial ruler, and the York faction was split over his apparent usurpation. Henry Tudor, an exile with a distant claim to the throne on the Lancaster side, exploited that division with a third war, which he won on the battlefield, becoming Henry VII. He married one of the last surviving York princesses to unite the feuding houses and became king as a Tudor.
Henry VII’s claim was not strong; he was installed by combat, not heredity, and there was always the danger of others making stronger blood claims to the throne. So Henry VII set about solidifying and legitimizing his reign through propaganda and great public spectacle. Growing up during his father’s reign, the future King Henry VIII was acutely aware of how fragile dynasties and peace can be. Without a clear and indisputable heir, England could be plunged back into the war of succession it had just escaped.
The Tudors learned on a very personal level how fragile this young dynasty could be — in fact, Henry VIII was never meant to be king. Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth had an older son whom they named Arthur, purposefully calling to mind the legendary English king. Henry VII arranged a politically advantageous marriage for Arthur to Princess Catherine of Aragon. Arthur’s childhood was spent learning the ways of royalty and the duties of a king.
As the second son, Henry watched his brother prepare to rule while he himself was able to devote his energies to art, socializing, and sports. But he also saw how quickly destinies might change — Arthur died very suddenly at age 15, probably of the “sweating sickness,” now believed to be caused by a hantavirus. Henry was suddenly heir to the throne. When he himself rose to the kingship, he felt a great deal of pressure to have a clear male successor to avoid losing everything his father fought for. There had never yet been a queen who ruled in her own right; male heirs would be seen as essential for continuing the newly established dynasty.
At the center of this drama of succession was Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. She and Arthur were married at age 15 to cement an alliance between the new Tudor rulers and Spain. When she arrived in England and was married, she spoke little English, but Arthur’s letters spoke of his desire to be a good husband. Her arrival in England and their wedding involved great public ceremony as a way of cementing the Tudors’ claim to the throne. But when Arthur died suddenly five months later, Catherine asserted that they had never consummated the marriage. This claim would prove crucial seven years later when Henry VIII sought permission from the pope to be allowed marry his brother’s widow shortly after becoming king.
Henry and Catherine were happily married for many years, and he spoke openly of his love for his wife. But over the course of a decade, she was pregnant between six and nine times, and all but one of those pregnancies ended in miscarriage, stillbirth, or an infant who died within days. At least three of the losses were male babies, including one who lived just long enough for the national festivities celebrating the birth of a male heir to begin before being unceremoniously cancelled.
The pressure on Catherine to produce a living male heir was immense. Henry was initially caring and sympathetic, but eventually he began to blame her. There was also the added pressure of national attention: her pregnancies and losses were “considered in this country a great calamity,” a potential source of either “surety and universal comfort to the realm” or “great vexation to everybody,” according to various correspondence of the time. These repeated losses would lead directly to Henry VIII seeking a divorce and eventually splitting the Church of England from the Catholic Church.
The Henry we meet in A Man for All Seasons is at a turning point. He is no longer the good-natured friend and loving husband of his early reign; two decades of disappointment at home and constant flattery and deference at court had changed him. But he is also a man in love with Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine’s former lady-in-waiting, and he believes that she will give him a male heir. What this Henry does not know is that Anne would have one surviving daughter and three miscarriages, at least two of which were likely sons. He will have Anne executed just a few years after their wedding, and he will marry four more times. He will have just one living and legitimate son. And his greatest fear will come to pass: after his death in 1547, his son will rule for only a few years before his own early death, setting off a period of succession instability and religious upheaval. Peace will return only when his daughter Elizabeth, Anne’s only child, ascends to the throne in 1558.
More on Lantern Searchlight: The Life of Sir Thomas More: The writer, public servant, saint, and complex historical figure behind A Man for All Seasons
Lantern Theater Company’s production of A Man for All Seasons is onstage March 10 through April 9, 2022, at Plays & Players Theatre. Visit our website for tickets and information.
