Hello everyone and welcome to the history of England.

Episode 245, The Prebender Is Plot.

Before I start, let me briefly remind you that I am a proud member of the Agora Podcast

Network, a smorgasbord, a smorgasbord I tell you, that independent podcasters. To find

out more, go to agorapodcastnetwork.com.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, we come to the last act of the reign of Henry

VIII, or shall I say, but kind of rounding the corner into the home straight, and a particularly

fascinating final act it is at that.

The last five years of Henry's reign are maybe not the most well-known or discussed.

That is, I must admit, a board statement with absolutely nothing to back it up. But

we no longer have those towering figures that get everybody going, the likes of Walsie

and Berlin, Thomas Cromwell. And yet it is fascinating.

You think there have been factional struggles up to now? Well, let me tell you, you ain't

seen nothing yet.

The absence of one dominant figure at court was like chucking fish-end trails into a barrel

of piranhas, the water boils, it turns red. The stench of fear and pain fills the gilded

corridors of court. And brooding overall is the vicious and suspicious figure of the

Henry of Cornelius Metzis's portrait. Bluted, balding, unhealthy, narrow-eyed, grotesque.

And around the decaying body of the lion, the children play, closer and closer daring,

until the old body stirs, a roar, the blur of claws and teeth, and a flash of red,

until the dying lion falls back, exhausted once more, leaving the corpse of the offending

subject behind him. I exaggerate for effect, of course, and we mustn't

...