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Henry the Eighth and the Act of Succession, 1534
John McLaren Ralston
Engraver: E. Dalziel
1878
Wood engraving
Vignette: 6.6 cm high by 4.3 cm wide (2 ½ by 2 inches)
Dickens's A Child's History of England, for Chapter XXVIII.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [See below for commentary.]
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The very people who were executed for treason, the very wives and friends of the 'bluff' King, spoke of him on the scaffold as a good prince, and a gentle prince — just as serfs in similar circumstances have been known to do, under the Sultan and Bashaws of the East, or under the fierce old tyrants of Russia, who poured boiling and freezing water on them alternately, until they died. The Parliament were as bad as the rest, and gave the King whatever he wanted; among other vile accommodations, they gave him new powers of murdering, at his will and pleasure, any one whom he might choose to call a traitor. But the worst measure they passed was an Act of Six Articles, commonly called at the time 'the whip with six strings;' which punished offences against the Pope's opinions, without mercy, and enforced the very worst parts of the monkish religion. Cranmer would have modified it, if he could; but, being overborne by the Romish party, had not the power. As one of the articles declared that priests should not marry, and as he was married himself, he sent his wife and children into Germany, and began to tremble at his danger; none the less because he was, and had long been, the King's friend. This whip of six strings was made under the King's own eye. It should never be forgotten of him how cruelly he supported the worst of the Popish doctrines when there was nothing to be got by opposing them. [Chapter XXVIII, "England Under Henry the Eighth — Second Part," Chapter XXVIII, 120-21]
As Ralston's title-page vignette suggests, Henry VIII attained his political and personal goals through litigation rather than through force of arms. Although the more likely subject of the document is Henry's establishing an independent Church of England in 1534 under The Act of Succession, Dickens does not in fact mention this Protestant and nationalistic legislation; rather, in an anti-Romish fashion, he dwells upon the inherent injustice of the Act of Six Articles (1539), designed to enforce Henry's ecclesiastical and doctrinal authority in England. Undoubtedly Dickens's motivation was to demonstrate Henry's essentially anti-Protestant and punitive nature. The figure in the illustration seems directly related to Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of a proud, self-confident, fashionably dressed, and even arrogant young King Henry the Eight, although Ralston's figure does not stand with his legs apart, and rests his hand on a manuscript rather than on his dagger. Ralston captures well the spirit of the Renaissance ruler who defied both Martin Luther and the Pope as shifting alliances and religious doctrines served his turn.
From "England Under Henry the Eighth, Called Bluff King Hal and Burly King Harry," Chapters 27 and 28 in Dickens's A Child's History of England in the Household Edition.
Avery, Gillian, ed. Charles Dickens: "A Holiday Romance" and Other Writings for Children with All the Original Illustrations. Everyman edition. London: J. M. Dent, 1995.
Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England". Illustrated by John McLaren Ralston. Household Edition. London: Chapman & Hal1, 1878. XVIII.
_______. A Child's History of England in Works. Centenary Edition. 36 vols. London: Chapman and Hall; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910-12.
Created 7 March 2021