Class notes Monday April 13th 2010

This post will be from notes taken from both Year 12 English classes.

In the lesson we began to look at the text 'A Man for All Seasons' by Robert Bolt.
More specifically we looked at the events leading up to the start of the play and the history of Henry VIII.

Henry VIII was the third son of Henry VII and was originally destined to a life of serving the church. This was until his brother Arthur died at the age of fifteen and Henry inherited the throne.

This caused a few dilemmas as Arthur had been married to Catherine of Aragon who was Spanish royalty. This marriage had helped to secure an alliance between Spain and England. Now that Arthur was dead this could affect the alliance between the two countries.

Spain and England both decided that it would be in the best interests of both countries if Henry were to marry Catherine. The only problem here was that both Spain and England were Christian monarchies and under Christian law it was forbidden for a man to marry his brothers widow.

Spain and England both petitioned the Pope for a special dispensation to allow the marriage to go through, this was done and Henry married Catherine and ascended to the throne as Henry VIII.

Henry and Catherine settled down to married life and started to begin a family, this caused problems as Catherine was unable to provide Henry with a male heir. The only boy that was born died soon after birth.

Now if you recall Henry was originally destined for a life in the church so he had a good understanding of Christian law, and knew that the bible specifically mentioned that it was forbidden for a man to marry his brothers widow. Henry believed that he had been cursed by God for breaking Christian law, and this was why he was unable to have a male heir.

This may have been one of the reasons that Henry decided that he would divorce Catherine as he believed that the marriage was illegal and should be nullified. Another reason also was that he had become interested in one of Catherine's ladies in waiting, Anne Boleyn. Henry and Anne believed that they would be able to produce a male heir.

This is where the play begins....