Title: Henry: Virtuous Prince
Genre: Biography
Year: 2008
Pages: 390
Origin: a tried and trusted library book
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5
‘Henry and I go back a long way’Starkey’s comment is very true; his career has been based around the Tudors and, in particular, the “big guy” of the batch: Henry VIII. This monarch served as the primary focus in Starkey’s doctorial dissertation and resulting books in both academia and popular culture; ranging from print to the TV screen. This book – Henry: Virtuous Prince – is a biography of Henry in his younger years: the duke of York who unexpectedly became Prince of Wales, before events unfolded to raise him to status of King of England before his eighteenth birthday.
David Starkey
So, fans of the older, fatter, evil Henry depicted in most fiction and histories are to be disappointed. The severing of wives heads is not to be found; however, Starkey is keen to point out the interesting contrast between young prince and old king:
‘This book is about the other Henry: the young, handsome prince, slim, athletic, musical and learned as no English ruler had been for centuries. This Henry loved his mother and – most unusually for a boy at the time – was brought up with his sisters, with all that implies about the civilizing and softening impact of female company. He was conventionally pious: he prostrated himself before images, went on pilgrimages and showed himself profoundly respectful of the pope as head of the church….he modelled himself on Henry V, the greatest and noblest of his predecessors. Or he would be a new Arthur with a court that put Camelot in the shade. At the least, he determined that his reign, which began when he was only seventeen and ten months old, should be a fresh start.’Focus, then, is dedicated to his young life in – what could be described – as formulaic fashion for Starkey: the reader gets the back-story of the parents, the education and educators of Henry, the obligatory chapter on religion, as well as the influential people around him that range from his mother and sisters to the charismatic Archduke Phillip of Habsburg.
As with many of Starkey’s recent books, the research and writing has gone in tandem with a documentary television series. The writing – breezy and conversational – has all the hallmarks of a cinematic style; further shown in his willingness to shower the reader with anecdotes in the book’s introduction, and in the somewhat annoying and pointless use of extremely short sections in the book (some comprising a mere few lines). Interestingly, in the book’s end section interview, Starkey is keen to point out how he believes his writing has developed after freeing himself from academic life; as well as stating how he ‘abominate(s) the dialogue between text and footnote.’
However, Starkey’s foregoing of some of his analytical gifts appears to have done the ending of this book an injustice. The concluding chapter is one entitled ‘Wolsey’, with little coverage given – beside one paragraph - to Wolsey’s future role in defining the reign of Henry VIII. In fact, it is not an ending in the orthodox sense, considering that – like the accompanying television series – a further book is published dealing with the older Henry. Such a break may well work in the world of TV, but in the form of larger books - in which more time from the reader is usually invested – a resounding conclusion is in order.
Like the majority of Starkey’s work, the book was written under the influence of his own Tudor-brand of “beer goggles”: Starkey is keen for superlatives to flourish and to comment on his astounded wonder of this world that he has created. And, that is what it is: a Starkey creation, rather than a real grounded history. The Sunday Times remarked that this book ‘is Starkey’s masterpiece’. It certainly isn’t; and if one does exist, then perhaps Starkey’s earlier – scorned – work could be its natural home.
The reader might suspect the Worm’s hostility against Starkey; it would be foolish to deny its existence. However, the Worm has also been vocal in promoting the merits of Starkey’s work: as seen in the reading of four Starkey books in the past four years (putting him into the realm of the Big Nodders). Furthermore, Starkey’s focus on Henry’s early years is commendable; hopefully, more historians will trod this path in the future to attempt to give reasons as to the man that Henry VIII eventually became. However, as with Starkey’s other works, although the text is readable, the substance is seemingly minimal. The Worm continues his quest to find Starkey’s “masterpiece”. That is, of course, if it exists at all.
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