Free Republic

Every time I go to London, I visit the Tower of London and sit in the little room below grade level, where Thomas More spent his last months. I am reminded often these days of Thomas More and King Henry VIII and the kerfuffle over Anne Boleyn. More, you see, would not sign the oath and proclaim the legitimacy of the marriage of the king to Boleyn because of the inconvenient matter of Henry’s divorce from Catherine. More, good lawyer that he was, determined that his safety resided in him saying nothing — keeping his mouth shut. For a time,...

An amateur treasure hunter struck gold — literally. Kevin Duckett was hunting for treasure with his metal detector in a field near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire, England, when he unearthed a solid gold figurine that experts believe is part of a long-lost part of the crown of Henry VIII. “At first I wondered if it was a crumpled foil dish from a 1970s Mr. Kipling product, or even a gold milk bottle top,” Duckett told the Sun. “I got a very loud positive signal from my detector and started to dig down before spotting something … It was lodged in the...

istory is the account of vast social movements and cultural changes. To be sure, individuals play their part. But they are usually understood to be products of their times. The Reformation, though, whose five-hundredth anniversary we observe this year and whose impact on not only the church but the world has been monumental, was largely precipitated by one man: Martin Luther. Yes, vast social movements and cultural changes were at work in sixteenth-century Europe. But Luther caused many of them, such as the educational explosion that would lead to universal literacy, the rise of the middle class, and eventually democratic...

In King Henry VIII’s pleasure palace, Hampton Court, there was no escaping class—not even in the loo. The King, of course, had a luxurious place to squat. According to the Hampton Court Palace website, he and other royals sat atop a padded chair "covered in sheepskin, black velvet, and ribbons" lofted above a pewter chamber pot. This toilet was private, located in a so-called "stool room" that was attended to by a high-ranking courtier known as the Groom of the Stool. It was a privileged, well-respected gig to handle the monarch's waste. (Apparently the groom would even take notes on...

They spent nearly 500 years in a watery grave with no record of who they were, but now the crew of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s ill fated flagship, could finally be identified. Scientists have begun work to extract DNA from the bones that were found on board the Tudor warship when it was raised from the bottom of The Solent 30 years ago. They hope to use the genetic information to identify the men who perished on the vessel when it sank and perhaps even trace their living relatives. It comes as a new £23 million museum built around...