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Margaret’s passing. Bishop Fisher paid tribute to her virtues in an oration preached at her funeral at Westminster Abbey, and Erasmus, a friend of Fisher, wrote her epitaph.
    Having attained his majority, Henry VIII now began ruling his kingdom.

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    â€œA Prince of Splendour and Generosity”
    In 1509, with remarkable prescience, a Venetian wrote of Henry VIII, “for the future, the whole world will talk of him.” 1 In an age when monarchs ruled as well as reigned, a king’s personality could have a profound effect upon the land he governed, and few sovereigns have left a more indelible imprint on national institutions and the national consciousness than Henry. He inspired in his contemporaries “a pleasant and terrible reverence.” 2
    Sovereigns in the sixteenth century were perceived as semidivine beings; a king was not just a normal man but also the Lord’s Anointed, His deputy on earth, called “by divine right” to hold dominion over his subjects. Since mediaeval times, the King had been seen as two bodies in one: a mortal entity and “the King’s person,” representing unending royal authority; monarchs therefore referred to themselves in the plural form as “we.” A king was thus set apart from his people, 3 and was invested with an insight into the subtle mysteries of state denied mere mortals. “Kings of England,” Henry told his judges, “never had any superior but God.” 4
    So sacrosanct was the institution of monarchy that it was seen as near-sacrilege for a subject to question or criticise the acts of his sovereign. “Princes ought to be obeyed by the commandment of God; yea, and to be obeyed without question,” wrote Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. 5 A king was entitled to expect the same devotion and obedience from his people as he himself rendered to God, for there was a presumption that the King’s law was God’s law. 6 The royal prerogative was the will of God working through the will of the King, and the King could do no wrong. This explains why treason was regarded as the most serious of crimes, and why it was punished so harshly.
    The normal penalty for treason was hanging, disembowelling, and quartering, although the King usually commuted the sentence to beheading for peers of the realm. Traitors, as Henry declared, had to be punished severely “for the example and terror of others.” 7 In 1541, the King angrily censured his councillors for not committing to the Tower some felons who had robbed Windsor Castle, “as though you made no difference between the enterprise of robbing His Majesty and the attempting of the same towards any mean subject.” 8 The thieves were forthwith sent to the Tower.
    Since he governed “by the grace of God,” the King bore a weighty moral responsibility towards his subjects, of which Henry VIII was well aware, “being in the room that I am in.” 9 Henry saw God as his ally; early on, he told a Venetian ambassador that no one kept faith in the world save him, “and therefore God Almighty, who knows this, prospers my affairs.” 10 Kings were guaranteed a special place in Heaven, and were therefore expected to set a good example. The King’s chief duties, enshrined in his coronation oath, were to defend his realm, uphold the Church, and administer justice fairly. The King was also the fount of honour and, in times of war, the military leader of his armies.
    Although they were not, strictly speaking, absolute monarchs, the Tudor sovereigns bore the entire responsibility for the government of the kingdom. Parliament, the Privy Council, the officers of state, judges, sheriffs, and mayors all exercised authority in the King’s name. Royal power was therefore the unifying force within the realm.
    The Tudors elevated the English monarchy to unprecedented heights while extending the royal authority. Their prestige was enhanced by the