Product Description

First published in 1968, Jack Scarisbrick's "Henry VIII" is a book which focuses on the personality of this flamboyant and forceful monarch, exploring an impulsive interventionist king whose impact on the government, society and religion of England is felt more than four centuries on.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48969 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Customer Reviews

Still the best biography of Henry VIII
There have been a lot of books, articles and TV programmes about Henry VIII in the 4 decades since this book was written and in my view not one of them can match this work.

This is a magnificent piece of scholarship and - at times - an enthralling read. It discusses all aspects of Henry's life with a fine sense of balance and perspective so lacking in other, more 'modern' works. It reveals Henry, man and monarch: a man with flaws, of course, but also a strong and important ruler in turbulent times.

As the 500th anniversary of his reign approaches (2009) you can safely bet that there will be a lot more ill-informed and arrogant rubbish written about Henry VIII. This book is hopefully more than just a vital corrective to those unhistorical views. It is an important introduction to Henry VIII for beginners and - hopefully - a starting point for a long overdue debate on the contribution of Henry VIII to the modern world.

Henry VIII - J J Scarisbrick
It has been a while since I read this book, but this is by far the most authoritative and scholarly account of Henry VIII. It has been around a while but it remains the standard biography of the king. Scarisbrick knows his man, and while being scholarly, writes in a way which makes this work accessible to academia and layperson alike.

Scarisbrick takes the reader through a thorough exploration of the primary sources and gives us Henry's true role in the momentous events of his reign:- the divorce, break with Rome, establishment of the Church of England and the growing power of parliament (thanks to Henry's use of it to achieve his ends). Despite his break from the Pope, Scarisbrick shows Henry to be a typical ruler of the period, and basically a conservative Catholic at heart.

This current edition is a great benefit to the reader as in the foreword Scarisbrick has taken stock of new research and works on Henry VIII, and that, thanks to these new works, he has revised his opinions in some areas since originally writing this: especially in his assertion that Henry and Catherine of Aragon's marriage was invalid due to a technical flaw in the papal dispensation. The great strength of this book though is chapter 7, which is a superb study of the canonical technicalities of the divorce.

In short, this book is a must-read for anybody interested in Henry VIII, both the layperson and the scholar.

Henry VII JJ Scarisbrick
This is a weighty tome but what the Hal, just buy it.If you buy one book on Henry VIII go for this one. It is very readable and entertaining whilst maintaining the highest academic standards. He is most interesting on the relationship between Henry and Wolsey and on the minute details of Tudor court life. To bring it up to date Scarisbrick has addressed some more recent scholarsip in his introduction to the new edition. To put it Starkey (should that be starkly?) if you choose some of the more modern trendier histories around at the moment then you have missed out.