E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Deirdre Menchaca, Keith Edkins, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND Henry VIII . Introduction by W. Llewelyn Williams M.P. B.C.L. Volume One First Published 1909 * * * * * [Illuminated Frontispiece] CONSIDER HISTORY WITH THE BEGINNINGS OF IT STRETCHING DIMLY INTO THE REMOTE TIME; EMERGING DARKLY OVT OF THE MYSTERIOVS ETERNITY: THE TRVE EPIC POEM AND VNIVERSAL DIVINE SCRIPTVRE...--CARLYLE * * * * * [Illuminated Title] THE REIGN of HENRY the EIGHTH by JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE VOLUME I. London & Toronto J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. New York E.P. Dutton & Co INTRODUCTION James Anthony Froude was born at Dartington Rectory, the youngest son of the Archdeacon of Totnes, on April 23, 1818. His father was a clergyman of the old school, as much squire as parson. In the concluding chapter to his _History of England_, Froude wrote that "for a hundred and forty years after the Revolution of 1688, the Church of England was able to fulfil with moderate success the wholesome functions of a religious establishment. Theological doctrinalism passed out of fashion; and the clergy, merged as they were in the body of the nation, and no longer endeavouring to elevate themselves into a separate order, were occupied healthily in impressing on their congregations the meaning of duty and moral responsibility to God." Of this sane and orthodox, but not over-spiritual, clergy, Archdeacon Froude was an excellent and altogether wholesome type. He was a stiff Tory; his hatred of Dissent was so uncompromising that he would not have a copy of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ in the rectory. A stern, self-contained, reticent man, he never, in word of deed, confessed his affection for his youngest son. He was a good horseman, and was passionately fond of open-air exercises and especially of hunting. His one accomplishment was drawing, and his sketches in after years earned the praise of Ruskin.