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Henry VIII
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A scene from Henry VIII, with Lyn Harding (right) in the title role and Willette Kershaw as Anne Bullen. William Terriss as the title character in Henry VIII, photogravure, 1892. Sir Henry Irving as Wolsey in Henry VIII Phelps, Samuel
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A scene from Henry VIII, with Lyn Harding (right) in the title role and Willette Kershaw as Anne Bullen.
A scene from Henry VIII, with Lyn Harding (right) in the title role and Willette Kershaw as Anne Bullen.

Henry VIII

work by Shakespeare
Written by
David Bevington
Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Chicago. World authority on Shakespeare. Editor of The Complete...
David Bevington
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Henry VIII, chronicle play in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 1613 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a transcript of an authorial manuscript. The primary source of the play was Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles.

As the play opens, the duke of Buckingham, having denounced Cardinal Wolsey, lord chancellor to King Henry VIII, for corruption and treason, is himself arrested, along with his son-in-law, Lord Abergavenny. Despite the king’s reservations and Queen Katharine’s entreaties for justice and truth, Buckingham is convicted as a traitor on the basis of the false testimony of a dismissed servant. As he is taken away for execution, Buckingham conveys a prophetic warning to beware of false friends.

William Terriss as the title character in Henry VIII, photogravure, 1892.
William Terriss as the title character in Henry VIII, photogravure, 1892.

Henry becomes enamoured of the beautiful Anne Bullen (Boleyn) and, concerned over his lack of a male heir, expresses doubts about the validity of his marriage to Katharine, his brother’s widow. Separately, Anne, though reluctant to supplant the queen, accepts the king’s proposal. Wolsey tries to extend his power over the king by preventing this marriage, but the lord chancellor’s machinations and long-time corruption are finally revealed to all. As he leaves the court, Wolsey encourages his servant Thomas Cromwell to offer his services to Henry, who soon promotes Cromwell to high office. Anne is married to Henry in secret and with great pomp is crowned queen. Although Katharine maintains her dignity throughout her divorce trial and subsequent exile from court, her goodness has no power in the face of political intrigues. She dies, soon after hearing that Wolsey has died a penitent.

The new lord chancellor and other court officials attempt to reassert control over the king by accusing Thomas Cranmer, Henry’s loyal archbishop of Canterbury, of heresy. The king is no longer so easily manipulated, however, and Cranmer reveals to the plotters a ring he holds as a mark of the king’s favour. Henry further asks Cranmer to baptize his newborn daughter, and the play ends with a final celebration and Cranmer’s prophecy of England’s glory under the future Queen Elizabeth I.

Henry VIII, which is widely thought to be Shakespeare’s last completed play, has had a long and interesting stage history, but since the mid-19th century a number of critics have doubted that Shakespeare was its sole author. Many scenes and splendid speeches were written in a style very similar to that of John Fletcher.

For a discussion of this play within the context of Shakespeare’s entire corpus, see William Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s plays and poems.

David Bevington