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06/29/2024 – 5:08
On June 29, 1613, the play “Henry VIII” premiered, in which William Shakespeare staged the power struggles within the court and the love story of the English king. The marital misadventures of the English king Henry VIII were transformed into a play by William Shakespeare. The drama is based exclusively on historical events: the first divorce, the second marriage, the birth of Elizabeth I. Hence the original title: All is true. Later editions of Shakespeare’s complete works gave the play a new title: Henry VIII.
Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of Henry 8th. After 23 years of marriage and five children, four of whom died and only one girl survived, the king declared himself fed up with his wife. A new marriage, with Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting to the queen, was supposed to bring him the desired heir to the throne. But the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome refused to annul their marriage.
Without hesitation, Henry VIII broke with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. In order to carry out his divorce, he founded the Anglican Church, of which he declared himself head. However, some lay members of the court also protested against the king’s arbitrariness.
80 years later
All this had already happened exactly 80 years ago, when William Shakespeare wrote a play about the love, power and politics of King Henry VIII in 1613. Lacking his own knowledge, he sought support from other sources: the English chronicle of historian Holinshed and the biographies of Christian martyrs by John Foxe provided him with proven facts. In addition, it is quite likely that John Fletcher, a fellow writer of Shakespeare, participated as a co-author of the play.
The play is a report of a scandal in dialogic form. It was undoubtedly fascinating for Shakespeare’s contemporaries. However, it lacked the theatrical conflicts between duty and desire, between love and determination, which would have made it a play of universal validity. This is why Shakespeare’s Henry VIII has disappeared from today’s theatrical repertoires.
The play’s great final scene was, at the same time, Shakespeare’s reverence for his protector: it is the baptism of Henry VIII’s newborn daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I.
Shakespeare’s opening performance was a stunner. During the baptism scene, he ordered cannon salutes to be fired. One of the cannon salutes caused a fire in the thatched roof of the theatre, which was completely destroyed by fire. Shakespeare’s motto had come true: all the world’s a theatre.
#Premiere #Shakespeares #Henry #VIII