Henry VIII (All Is True)
The last of the history plays, Henry VIII (also known as All Is True) is a pageant-like drama co-written with John Fletcher that focuses on the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the divorce of Katherine of Aragon, and the birth of the future Elizabeth I — played largely as spectacular stage event rather than psychological drama.
At a Glance
- Genre: History (also Romance in spirit)
- Approximate date: c. 1613 (co-written with John Fletcher)
- Setting: England; the Globe Theatre notoriously burned during a performance in 1613
- Source: Holinshed's Chronicles; John Foxe's Acts and Monuments
- Acts: 5
Dramatis Personæ
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| KING HENRY THE EIGHTH | Magnificent; manipulated partly by Wolsey; decisive when aroused |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Henry's chief minister; proud; ambitious; falls spectacularly |
| CROMWELL | Wolsey's loyal servant; later serves Henry directly |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Papal legate for the divorce trial |
| GARDINER | Bishop of Winchester; becomes Henry's secretary; later Cranmer's enemy |
| CRANMER | Archbishop of Canterbury; promoted by Henry; survives an attempt to destroy him |
| DUKE OF NORFOLK | Wolsey's enemy; aristocratic faction |
| DUKE OF SUFFOLK | Wolsey's enemy |
| DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM | Condemned and executed; the play opens with his fall |
| LORD ABERGAVENNY | Buckingham's son-in-law |
| EARL OF SURREY | Buckingham's son-in-law |
| SIR NICHOLAS VAUX | |
| SURVEYOR TO BUCKINGHAM | |
| BRANDON | Sergeant-at-Arms |
| LORD CHAMBERLAIN | |
| LORD SANDYS | |
| SIR THOMAS LOVELL | |
| SIR HENRY GUILDFORD | |
| BISHOP OF LINCOLN | |
| LORD CHANCELLOR | |
| SIR ANTHONY DENNY | |
| DOCTOR BUTTS | Henry's physician |
| GARTER KING-OF-ARMS | |
| QUEEN KATHERINE | Henry's first queen; dignified in her trial; divorced; dies |
| GRIFFITH | Queen Katherine's gentleman usher |
| PATIENCE | Queen Katherine's attendant |
| ANNE BULLEN | Katherine's maid of honour; becomes Queen; mother of Elizabeth |
| AN OLD LADY | Friend to Anne |
| CAPUTIUS | Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V |
| A PORTER and HIS MAN | Comic figures; try to control the crowd at Elizabeth's christening |
Plot Summary
Act I: Prologue promises a true history. The Duke of Buckingham is arrested for treason; Wolsey's hand is suspected. The King meets Anne Bullen at a masquerade; he is attracted to her. Buckingham is tried and condemned.
Act II: Buckingham goes to his execution with dignity. The King decides to divorce Katherine (claiming moral scruple about marrying his dead brother's wife). Katherine is summoned before a court; she refuses to be tried in England and appeals to Rome. The King makes Wolsey investigate, but Wolsey favors a French marriage for the King, not Anne Bullen.
Act III: Katherine, abandoned by the court, receives the Cardinals (Wolsey and Campeius). She is eloquent and dignified. Henry and Anne continue their relationship. Wolsey's ambition is exposed: a letter intended for Rome falls into the King's hands, revealing Wolsey's opposition to the marriage and his secret wealth. Henry strip's Wolsey of all his offices. Wolsey, stripped of power, reflects on the vanity of worldly ambition.
Act IV: Katherine, now called the Princess Dowager, receives a vision of six dancing angels. She receives Capucius, the Emperor's ambassador; she dies. Anne is crowned.
Act V: The Archbishop Cranmer is summoned before the Council and nearly convicted; Henry intervenes and protects him. The birth of the future Elizabeth I is celebrated. Archbishop Cranmer prophesies Elizabeth's great reign and then that of James I. Epilogue.
Key Themes
- The fall of the great — Buckingham, Wolsey, Katherine all fall; each fall is treated with sympathy
- Wolsey's pride — his rise and fall is the play's moral backbone
- The providential Tudor myth — Elizabeth's birth is presented as divine blessing
- Spectacle — masques, processions, trials, coronations; the play is one of Shakespeare's most visually elaborate
Notable Quotations
"Had I but served my God with half the zeal / I served my king, he would not in mine age / Have left me naked to mine enemies." *(Wolsey, III.ii)*
"She had all the royal makings of a queen." *(Norfolk, on Anne, IV.i)*
LibriVox Recording
Henry VIII audiobook on LibriVox — Free public domain recording.
Cross-references
- Histories — genre context; the last history play
- Romances — the elegiac tone and providential resolution align with the late plays
- Richard III — the other Tudor-culminating history
- King Lear — Katherine's trial as another study in powerful innocence wronged