The artists who painted Henry VIII really did captured the coldness in his eyes.

If only he had known that the man determines the sex of the child. He was the inadequate one. It is ironic his girl child ruled England anyway.

So Henry had a mistress and framed his wife accusing her of having relations with other men. What a jerk.

I would have been absolutely delighted, extremely happy and over the moon if my sentence was commuted from being hung, drawn and quartered to just being beheaded. Especially if I was innocent. It must have felt almost like Christmas.

I am a descendant of Brereton on my mother’s side and on my father’s side, my many great times grandfather was Anne Boleyn’s uncle. So crazy!

The sketches you see were done by Hans Holbein. He did many sketches and paintings in the court of Henry VIII. Born in Augsburg, Germany he moved to Basel, Switzerland and spent two periods in England 1526-1528 and 1532-1543. An interesting fact is that Holbein painted a portrait of Anne of Cleves (Kleve) which was shown to Henry. Largely based on the portrait and Thomas Cromwell's descriptions of her beauty, Henry agreed to marry Anne (of Cleves). However on meeting her Henry found her completely unattractive ("I like her not !") and blamed Thomas Cromwell who had arranged the marriage and exaggerated Anne's beauty. No blame was ever assigned to Holbein who may have made her look more attractive. Henry's anger resulted in Cromwell's beheading on various trumped up charges. Holbein died in London (probably due to some infection) in 1543 at the age of 45.

How come Henry was never called a serial killer. He certainly fits the bill.

Henry VIII. Bit of a knob really.

“Good news, you’re not getting hung, drawn & quartered, you’re having your head chopped off” “oh” !

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

Jane was basically groomed into everything Henry liked - the “perfect wife.” Her supporters made sure she was everywhere the king went, basically, always under her eye. She was no where near as meek and mild as depicted. She learned how to play the game from watching Anne then was courteous enough to die before she could piss Henry off or before he could tire of her.

Never really realised how big of an absolute monster Henry VIII was.

Mark smeatons painting looks just like the Tudors TV series actor lol

Thomas Cromwell trumped up all the charges. Anne and all of Henry’s friends were innocent. Henry’s pride was so great that even the mere accusations hurt his manhood so......... Cromwell was saving his own neck, for a short time anyway

Imagine the time when beheading was the lesser punishment

Henry’s psychopathic ways, go deep into childhood & bad upbringing by his Father, Henry V11.

What a horrible man .. to execute his very close and intimate friends on such (He must have known) trumped up charges.

R.I.P. to Anne Boleyn & the Innocents! Good God Blessed the Innocents to a Better World/Realm! 🕯

Anne Boleyn wasn't executed. She was murdered at the connivance of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. Henry was betrothed to Jane Seymour the day after Anne was murdered and they were married 10 days later. He went from being a good king in his youth to a monster in his middle and later years.

I have to say , One of my favourite history periods is the Tudor history and yet had no idea of how bloody it was . Thanks for all the history lessons as keep the good work up . Elizabeth the 1st is my most favourite in the history of the Tudor’s

Everybody remembers Anne Boleyn but very few make mention of her young cousin Catherine Howard, Henry's 5th wife, she was only 21 when he had her beheaded - he was an absolute monster

No one talks about the men enough thank you.

Interesting side note--so many books, stories, pictures were made of Henry the eight but in fact, he was an evil monster

Henry didn't deserve any of the amazing women he married

I have binge watched all these videos. Such ana amazing channel 👌🏻

Anne Boleyn’s revenge was that her daughter Elizabeth became England’s greatest monarch. Henry was a monster. Cromwell had no problem on making up false charges against Anne and the five men. Cromwell was threatened by Anne because she knew that he was using church money for himself. Karma came to him. His beheading was botched. He deserved it.

Great video!

The Holbein drawings of Anne Boleyn and her brother George are superb, so lifelike and powerfully conveying the famous Boleyn intelligence and wit. The painting you say is Sir Henry Norris can’t be right, however, as it shows a young gentleman attired in the circular ruff of Queen Elizabeth I’s era, about 50 years later - it closely resembles depictions of Sir Francis Drake, some mistake surely?

Very good information!

A good account of the awful times back then. This evil King Henry's life was like one big murderous soap opera, the year 1547 must have come as a big relief for most...

Loving this channel! Finally the algorithm got something right :-)

Great channel love the quality of the content

This is so interesting and informative 👏

I fear history is doomed to repeat itself...

Moral of the story: keep a low profile and don't mingle with powerful people.

Will you ever do a video about the Stanhope plot where my ancestor sir Thomas Gray was executed for trying to overthrow Henry the fifth?

I think Kim Jong un is a modern day Henry.

Cromwell detested Anne and worried about her relationship and influence with Henry.

He maybe the most violent and interesting kings but your voice makes it sound like a shopping list

I don't think these men have been "forgotten" by history as they are mentioned often when the execution of Anne Boleyn is brought up. They are atleast well known to people who are interested in the Tudors. But they are eclipsed by Anne as she was the Queen.

thank God we won the revolutionary war and didnt have to endure people like henry

Very interesting video from NZ thank you

I am a descendant of Sir William Brereton thank you for telling his story . His father was Sir Randle Brereton IV., of Malpas. He was so knighted for brilliant bravery at Terouenne, and at Tourney, in France, by Henry VIII. The knight bachelor always carried a penon or pointed flag ; the knight banneret had his penon cut off square by the king. He was a knight banneret.

"After the death of Henry's first wife" WHAT!!!??? Didn't Henry's first wife die in a convent at 50 years old?

From study it's believed Henry had a hereditary blood disease that permitted only the first child to be healthy. Somewhat like RH factor. So, lack of son's was most likely Henry's fault. Also, the unpredictable nature and rages of Henry's behaviour is believed to be from Traumatic Brain Injury from his jousting accidents. Also, he was probably a narcissist. Getting a DNA sample would be fascinating and revealing. Of course to late for his poor wives and the innocent men involved.

I think that the rest of the king's court should have resigned in protest to these unjust executions !

No one seems to understand Anne Boleyn earned her own demise by destroying the previous queen. She got what she paid for.

Some of the latest thinking is that the head injury Henry got, when he was unconscious after a jousting accident, changed his personality and made him more cruel and temperamental.

I feel the worst for all of these innocent men who were tortured and killed just to get rid of his wife.

Good Job , very good history , hope we can be friends

Thomas More was a friend and servant of KH VIII and lost his head. So also all these were servants, and some friends, of the same Henry, and lost their heads. I think Thom More spoke best as to how Henry valued his friends: (this is a near paraphrase) "Yes, I am friend to the King, but if my head could win him a castle in France -- make no mistake -- it should not fail to be off in a flash ." Fittingly, Thomas Cromwell lost his head.

Very informative and interesting.. Good effort. What happened to boylens dad ?? Wasnt he related to the house of treason the Norfolks ??

My understanding was that according to a contemporary witness, Mark Smeaton confessed while under house arrest at Friar's House (Cromwell's residence) after around 24 hours of interrogation.

The story of the deaths of these innocent men is indeed tragic. As for Anne Boleyn herself, she was no doubt innocent of adultery, but it has to be pointed out that she was no saint. By all accounts she was an extremely arrogant and spiteful woman. She wasn't satisfied with replacing Catherine - she gloated in the fact that Mary had been made illegitimate by Henry and went out of her way to humiliate her. Mary was forced to wait on the infant Elizabeth. Anne also told people in Elizabeth's house hold that if Mary were to say she was a princess, that they should 'slap her face for the accursed bastard that she is'. Anne had no sympathy for Catherine either, and said she would 'rather see her hang' than acknowledge her as queen. For all her reformist convictions, Anne had a catholic confession before her execution, in which she stated her innocence on the charges of adultery (which no doubt she was). She also hoped that Henry would show mercy to her and rather than have her executed, that she be allowed to retire to a nunnery. Nuns are - yes, you guessed it - Catholics! Clearly her life was more important to her than her religious convictions. Yet she did not care when others lost their lives because of their religious convictions when Henry broke from Rome on her account. Anne Boleyn encouraged Henry to be ruthless when getting rid of Catherine, breaking with Rome, the execution of Fisher and Moore and the dissolution of the monasteries and the execution of monks. The monasteries had been places where the poor could turn to for help. They were robbed of their wealth but this ended up in the hands of Henry. When people peacefully protested in the form of The Pilgrimage Of Grace, Henry had them executed. Anne Boleyn chose as her motto 'people may grumble but that is the way it is'. It is ironic that Anne ended up in exactly the same position as the woman she replaced - she failed to produce a male heir. Catherine's marriage had been annulled because she was accused of having lost her virginity to the kings brother, her former husband, when they were married. Anne was accused of adultery with not just one man but numerous men, including her own brother. As no man wants to admit to being a cuckold, Anne had to be made to look like she was some sort of nymphomaniac that no man could satisfy her. For all her intelligence, Anne failed to see that if Henry could get rid of Catherine and others, he could also get rid of her as well. Henry also fell in love with one of her ladies in waiting - as she had been a lady in waiting when Henry fell in love with her. So the machinery Anne created to destroy others and make her Queen Of England then turned on her. In my opinion she got her just deserts. When Anne was awaiting execution and was told that her marriage had been declared invalid and Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, she expressed regret for the way she had treated Mary and asked her forgiveness. She also asked Jane Seymour to be kind to Elizabeth. What is interesting here is that Thomas Cromwell, once her supporter, turned on her and became instrumental in her downfall when the tide turned. Fisher had been a staunch supporter of Catherine and had faced execution because he did not recognize Henry's marriage to Anne. Moore was also executed when he did not recognize Henry as the head of the church of England. When it came down to it, for all their protestant convictions, neither Cromwell nor Cranmer were prepared to put their lives on the line in defence of Anne (they both later faced execution).Another interesting point is that Anne was either innocent or guilty. If she was innocent then that means that Henry ordered her execution on false charges to suit his own agenda (rid himself of Anne, marry Jane Seymour and produce a male heir). Yet he was the King of England and head of the church of England. When Henry declared that his marriage to Anne had been invalid in that he was tricked into the marriage by witchcraft, the fact that if she had not been his wife she could not have been guilty of adultery was ignored. If she had been guilty, then she could not have been such a good protestant if she was committing adultery with half a dozen men behind her husband's back. That is what Henry, head of the Church of England, would have us believe.

QuenAnne told her brother that Henry was impotent. The other men knew. Henry was mortified because they knew he was having problems. The musician over heard. It was all because of that.

It's interesting to note that another man was accused but later released at the bidding of Cromwell. This was Sir Thomas Wyatt. His father Henry Wyatt was a close friend of Cromwell having served under Henry VII. Thomas was added to the accused because of poems he wrote that clearly showed that he had an attraction to Anne Boleyn before she married King Henry. Of all the men facing accusations, he was the only one that could have had more convincing evidence against him. Yet his relationship to Cromwell got him off. This is clear evidence that it was Cromwell who set up the false allegations of the others.

Looking back at this particular history, it's amazing this guy was allowed to do what he did. Of course stuff like this hastened the end of nobility rule in any event.

Great video thank you. Would have liked to have seen some mention of Thomas Wyatt. Also I thought the men were beheaded by French sword and not English axe?

Geez, chop chop! This era sounds pretty bloody and paranoid.

I'm a direct descendant of William Brereton and I found this video very educational, thank you.

😎 I came. I saw. I liked... and SUBBED!

I want to transport Henry VIII to the present day using a time machine.. .. And give him a TASTE of his own medicine!

There was an attempt on Henry"s life in July 1544, known as the July Plot. One of his aides smuggled explosives into a meeting which went off but Henry was saved by a stout oak table.

Why are so many public buildings named after king Henry VIII in many former British colonies if he was so bad? We have the Henry VIII Hospital here in Durban, South Africa for years and thereafter it was changed.

King Henry was a disgusting excuse for human life.

Executing the mother of one of your children, simply because you could not produce a boy, that is simply barbaric.

Not much has changed in terms of corruption difference is nowadays they screw the working class in different ways.

Some who visit the Tower of London, as well as staff working there, claim to see a woman haunting the tower, opening and closing the door through which she entered, then exited toward her unjust execution. If this is so, it would rightly be the spirit of the wrongly accused *Anne Boelyn.* To think, that beautiful lady wanted nothing to do with the mad king, but forced into a death sentence marriage to the psychopathic Henry VIII.

Times don,t really change,do they lady Di

Henry was an evil hypocrite

And yet the monarch still exist👹👹👹

Henry VIII was a tyranical misogynist!

This is good stuff but you gotta SLOW DOWN! I have keep hitting the back button to hear it again.

That’s not an artist’s impression of mark smeaton, that’s a picture of the guy who played him in The Tudors tv show

This information needs to be updated due to very recent findings by Tracy Borman (joint chief curator of our Royal historic palaces) that are based on documented facts.

His father Henry V11...was in no way entitled to the throne of England !

But why should a church be rich and hold the power of life & death , and death was ur punishment if u defied the church . We know royalty was corrupt in Europe but so was the church and it begins at the top .

Wonder who’s worse? Father or daughter? Bloody Henry? Or Bloody Mary? I REALLY REALLY enjoy that his daughter became queen and ruled a looong time. Would have LOOOOVED to hear his tantrums on that!!!

Well you know Henry VIII is rotting in hell.

And the vorpal blade went snicker-snack.

A tragic story...the executions of the innocent men.When this story about A. Boleyn comes up...I always have to think of these poor souls. Dignified that they are mentioned here...I don't like to imagine how they must have felt....

Virginials!!!!!!! It’s vir gin als. Interesting video. Some of the historical ‘facts’ are a little erroneous but on the whole I enjoyed it. And Cromwell wasn’t the monster many people believe him to have been. Read the biography ‘Thomas Cromwell, The Untold Story of Henry V111s Most Faithful Servant’ by Tracy Borman. A fascinating and very well researched book. Cromwell is one of my favourite historical characters.

I can't believe that Henry and Anne were "overjoyed" at the death of Katherine of Aragon. I read they both wore yellow and celebrated at court on KOA's passing. That's pretty sick.

Brutal times.

Literally I love Anne boleyn so much❤️ she was always my favorite queen 👸 she didn’t deserve Henry😡 she deserved so much more 🥺

Sir Henry Norris was my 14x great grandfather. My OTHER 14x great grandfather whose descendants married Henry Norris' descendents to make my family line was Sir Edward Seymour First Duke of Somerset. (My family was Seymour for generations, then they married a York and were York all the way to my great grandmother Armeldia) Both beheaded by the Tudors. 😅 So... I find the fact that BOTH of my 14x great grandfathers ended up that way quite ironic.

This is a pretty old version of events. Most modern historians currently believe that the whole chain of events was actually kicked off by Elizabeth Countess of Worcester (one of Ann's ladies-in-waiting). Sir Antony Browne (her brother) had apparently summoned her to admonish her for her alleged promiscuous reputation in court to which she responded her behavior was "no worse than what the Queen gets up to." Shocked, Sir Antony quizzed her further and she pointed the finger at Smeaton and the Queen's brother. Sir Anthony reported this to Cromwell who summoned Smeaton to his office after which Smeaton signed a written confession that he had been with the Queen 3 times. Nobody else was in this office but Cromwell and Smeaton for the entirety of this meeting so we can't say for sure that what happened in there. However, torture is extremely unlikely. 1. It was in Cromwell's office - if the intent was torture, Cromwell would have most likely had him brought somewhere else (like the tower dungeon which actually had the tools for it) rather than his office in the middle of Westminster. 2. Cromwell was an old bureaucrat, he's not going to be trying to overpower a much younger man himself w/o summoning guards to assist if torture was on the cards and none were. Now later confessions when he named the other 4 were made under duress, but there is no proof either way that the first one regarding just himself was. So while the other 4 were likely bogus, Smeaton (and Ann's) guilt is a bit less clear cut.

Can't believe such a brutal king established a chuch that million still follow

His beard looks smooth though, I won't lie.

What fascinates me, is that tyrrants like Henry become leaders even in modern times : Hitler, Mussolini, Ceaucescu, Honecker, Hussein, Amin, Jong-Un etc etc, and that the same principle applies in industry, and within families. I worked for two companies, the CEO of which were tyrranical psychopaths who, if they had been in Henry VIII’s shoes, would in all probability acted with the same brutality as Henry did. I have also experienced tyrrany and brutality at domestic level by family “leaders”. In short, history has shown us that tyrrants become leaders, whether we are speaking about a monarchy, an industry, or a family : some get the punishment due to them, like Ceaucescu, while others just die a natural death, like Henry - possibly the one who most deserved justice.

George Boleyn and the other men (accused with Catherine Howard) arguably had worse executions - at least Anne and Catherine didn't have mobs screaming at them

Certainly had a lust for blood in those days. Who could you trust?.

How did they get rid of bed bugs in the Palace?

Yeah it's a dangerous game like

10:33 it’s Dame Judy Dench 🤣

For sure, circa Regna tonat.

"The evidence was rather dubious"... You mean there wasn't any?

Seems at that time many people died around forty.

It is just horrible, what some poor people had to go through because of some bloody "Royalties"!

So much for Magna Carta