Wednesday 1st May 2024

Professor Hutton’s lecture was never a defense of Henry making clear he showed every characteristic of a megalomanic right from the beginning of his reign.  His war against France, his assault on the Pope’s authority, the immediate execution of his father’s chief ministers and his ambition to be the Holy Roman Emperor all showed Henry as a King with a “chip on his shoulder” from the start of his rule.  Henry attempted to model himself on King Arthur and Henry V and was man of manic energy, enormous appetite, and impressive physical presence. The lecture posed four apparently straight forward questions about Henry and his kingship.

• Was he businesslike?
• Was he cultivated or intelligent?
• Was he a nice guy?
• Was he a good general or statesman?

 Professor Hutton presented detailed evidence for and against each question with wit and conciseness overturning many of the traditional myths about Henry’s role in English History. He was clearly a selfish monarch who discarded those he had no further use for, destroyed much of the heritage of the English Catholic church and was responsible for the death of hundreds including 330 political executions in eight years.

 Professor Hutton made three conclusions about the strengths that enabled Henry to survive for 38 years as monarch.  These were his choice of talented ministers, his ability to handle his nobility in the century after the Wars of the Roses, and his use of Parliament.  Finally, despite his faults Henry has gripped the imagination of the public, historians, and A level examiners in a way no other king of England has done.  This brilliant lecture was followed by lively and well informed questions from our audience of 167 to which Professor Hutton responded with wit and expertise until unfortunately we ran out of time.  One local teacher told us her students we still “buzzing” the next day.