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Henry VIII recounts the fall of three figures in King Henry VIII’s court and the near fall of a fourth character. The traditional Elizabethan image of the “wheel of fortune” is at work here, indicating how that which rises must inevitably come down. Unlike in Shakespeare’s early history plays, these ups and downs of fate do not concern the monarch and his rivals but instead concern the successive demise of the lesser court figures of the duke of Buckingham, Queen Katherine, Cardinal Wolsey, and, nearly, Archbishop Cranmer. Each character has a trial of sorts and a chance to speak, and each downfall plays out in a scene of pageantry and courtly drama.
The prologue begins by evoking themes of pity and charity, and the play extends them by emphasizing acquiescence in defeat, forgiveness of foes, and understanding that the fall from power is a natural pattern of life. All three characters who are subject to a fall reflect these themes. When Buckingham is arrested, he goes to the Tower without a fight, and when he is unable to save himself, he publicly forgives those who accused him then goes to his execution with his head held high. When Wolsey is accused of his various wrongdoings, even the lords reading the charges against him forgive him, and in the end, he reflects on his faults and shows contrition. As for Katherine, she fiercely contests her divorce, and she is slow to forgive Wolsey for his role in the matter, but when he dies a tragic death, she softens toward him and accepts the separation from Henry. Cranmer, meanwhile, avoids the trap set for him, but even he embraces those who would have sent him to the Tower, forgiving them immediately after his trial before the Privy Court.
In addition to acceptance and forgiveness, providence plays a significant role in the fall of these various characters. We can see the work of providence in the way the action of the play is oriented toward the eventual birth and baptism of Elizabeth, the future queen of England. It’s as though the play is constructed entirely in anticipation of the ending, which is not the eventual fall of Henry, as in many of the history plays, but the birth of his heir. By this logic, in which the play’s action is driven by its end goal, anyone who stands in the way of Elizabeth’s arrival is a problem and must therefore be eliminated.
The first character who stands in the way is Buckingham, who is accused of having designs on the throne. If true, he threatens the succession of Henry’s heir—who, as we know, will be Elizabeth. To prevent this from happening, he’s charged, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death in act 1. Act 2 shifts the focus to Katherine, who has given birth to many children. However, only one child has survived, and the surviving child is a girl. At the time the play takes place, England had never had a female sovereign, so the pressure to produce a male heir was high. Katherine must therefore be cast aside so that Henry can marry the younger woman who will eventually give birth to Elizabeth. Finally, the scheming Cardinal Wolsey wants to prevent Henry from marrying Anne. Preferring a more politically (and personally) advantageous marriage for the king, he intervenes with the pope. But again, by the goal-oriented logic of the play, if he’d gotten his way, then Anne would never have delivered Elizabeth. Thus, Wolsey must fall. When Henry finds out about Wolsey’s scheme to delay his divorce in act 3, he strips the cardinal of his title and his possessions.
Act 4 marks a turning point in the action. Now that the legal, political, and personal red tape has all been cut, Henry can finally marry Anne, and his new queen can be crowned with all the celebratory pomp and circumstance such an event requires. Yet with Anne’s rise comes the final stage of Katherine’s downfall. Thus, while the first half of act 4 centers the new queen and her coronation, the second half centers the disgraced dowager, who, now sick and weak, accepts her defeat and prepares for death. With the queens now swapped, the play begins its final shift from tragedy to triumph.
But the shift won’t be complete until two more issues have been resolved; only then will the play reach a truly triumphant conclusion. The first issue relates to a scheme against the newly installed archbishop of Canterbury, who stands charged of bringing Protestant ideas into the church. However, because Archbishop Cranmer has played a major role in facilitating Henry’s divorce and thereby enabling his marriage to the future mother of Elizabeth, by the logic of the play, he doesn’t need to be eliminated. Thus, Henry, who assumed a passive position during the trials of acts 1–3, now directly intervenes and saves Cranmer from punishment.
The second issue that must be overcome in act 5 is the difficulty of Anne’s grueling labor, which takes place in parallel to Cranmer’s trial before the Privy Council. But just as Cranmer is saved, so too does Anne pull through, and her child is delivered safely. Of course, the child to which she gives birth is, like Katherine’s sole surviving child, a girl. Curiously, though Henry clearly and explicitly desires a son, he never laments the sex of his newborn. In fact, in the play’s final act he will proudly declare her birth to be his greatest achievement in life: “Never before / This happy child did I get anything” (5.4.74–75).
The fact that Elizabeth’s sex is minimally problematic in the play affirms the idea that her arrival is the goal toward which all the action has been directed. Further confirmation comes when Archbishop Cranmer offers a prophetic speech in the closing scene, foretelling of the child’s luminous future reign, the greatness of which will be continued in the reign of her successor—that is, King James I, England’s king at the time of the play’s original composition and performance. From this vantage, the play’s main concern is not to render the full scope of historical fact. If that were the case, then Shakespeare would have directly portrayed Henry’s break with Rome and his excommunication. Shakespeare would also likely have been more explicit about foreshadowing the executions of Anne as well as Cromwell and others. But the point here is, again, not to emphasize the troubles of Henry’s reign. Rather, the point is to anticipate and celebrate both the great Virgin Queen and the currently sitting sovereign.
