that we
should understand; I mean Henry VIII. himself, and the lady whom he had
selected to fill the place from which Catherine of Arragon was to be
deposed.

If Henry VIII. had died previous to the first agitation of the divorce, his
loss would have been deplored as one of the heaviest misfortunes which had
ever befallen the country; and he would have left a name which would have
taken its place in history by the side of that of the Black Prince or of
the conqueror of Agincourt. Left at the most trying age, with his character
unformed, with the means at his disposal of gratifying every inclination,
and married by his ministers when a boy to an unattractive woman far his
senior, he had lived for thirty-six years almost without blame, and bore
through England the reputation of an upright and virtuous king. Nature had
been prodigal to him of her rarest gifts. In person he is said to have
resembled his grandfather, Edward IV., who was the handsomest man in
Europe. His form and bearing were princely; and amidst the easy freedom of
his address, his manner remained majestic. No knight in England could match
him in the tournament except the Duke of Suffolk: he drew with ease as
strong a bow as was borne by any yeoman of his guard; and these powers were
sustained in unfailing vigour by a temperate habit and by constant
exercise. Of his intellectual ability we are not left to judge from the
suspicious panegyrics of his contemporaries. His state papers and letters
may be placed by the side of those of Wolsey or of Cromwell, and they lose
nothing in the comparison. Though they are broadly different, the
perception is equally clear, the expression equally powerful, and they
breathe throughout an irresistible vigour of purpose. In addition to this
he had a fine musical taste, carefully cultivated; he spoke and wrote in
four languages; and his knowledge of a multitude of other subjects, with
which his versatile ability made him conversant, would have formed the
reputation of any ordinary man. He was among the best physicians of his
age; he was his own engineer, inventing improvements in artillery, and new
constructions in ship-building; and this not with the condescending
incapacity of a royal amateur, but with thorough workmanlike understanding.
His reading was vast, especially in theology, which has been ridiculously
ascribed by Lord Herbert to his father's intention of educating him for the
Archbishopric of Canterbury; as if the s