A Man For All Seasons, the 1966 film based on
Robert Bolt's play and starring Paul Scofield, imprinted on a generation a
glowing picture of Sir Thomas More as a
A child of the 60s, I was drawn to More the humanist when I began to
write The Queen's Lady, the first novel in what became my multi-book
Thornleigh Saga. What I discovered in my research was a complex and conflicted
man. As Henry's chancellor, More banned books and burned men at the stake. He
was a child of his time, of course, and his time - the Reformation -
terrified him.
Deeply conservative, More
loathed and feared the radicalism of the German Lutherans.
As Chancellor of England,
More was vigilant at upholding the church's authority as the supreme pillar of
the state. At that time Bibles printed in English were illegal (the church allowed
only Bibles in Latin) and More authorized raids on secret gatherings of people
who had smuggled in English Bibles. He destroyed the books and sent the
criminals, if they did not recant their heresy, to the stake to be burned.
Like complex ideologues of
our own time, More, while condemning others to death, was also a caring and
loving father. He wrote affectionate letters to his children whenever he was
away on his business for the king, and, quite unusually for the period, he
educated his daughters on an equal footing with his son.
He was so proud of his
daughter Margaret's erudition he encouraged her to correspond regularly with
his friend, the great Dutch intellectual humanist, Desiderius Erasmus.
More also had a ward, Anne Cresacre, who grew up with his children and
married his son, John. The Court of Wards was one of the Tudor crown's most
lucrative ministries. All orphans with significant property became wards of the
king, who then sold the wardships. Gentlemen bid for these sought-after prizes
since the guardian pocketed the rents and revenues of the ward's property until
the young person came of age.
Anne Cresacre's story inspired me to create another ward for More in The
Queen's Lady, Honor Larke, who grows up revering him and becomes a
lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The story
turns on Honor being forced to choose sides in the religious extremism of the
day, bringing her into conflict with her once-beloved guardian.
More was famously forced to
choose too, and a horrifying choice it was when his friend King Henry demanded
that all men swear an oath acknowledging him as supreme head of the church in
England. Henry's break with the Roman church was the result of his implacable
drive to have the Pope annul his marriage to Catherine so he could wed Anne
Boleyn.
The penalty for refusing to
take the oath was death. The vast majority of Henry's subjects complied. But
Sir Thomas More believed that no king was, or could ever be, the supreme head
of the church, and that if he swore the oath he would perjure his immortal
soul. Along with several Carthusian monks and Bishop John Fisher, More chose
death.
On the scaffold, as the
executioner stood ready with his axe, More's last words were true to his
complex nature: "I die the king's good servant, but God's first."
Barbara Kyle is the author
of the acclaimed 5-book Thornleigh Saga which follows a middle-class English
family's rise through three tumultuous Tudor reigns. The series includes Blood Between Queens, The Queen's
Gamble, The Queen's Captive, The King's Daughter, and The Queen's
Lady, all published internationally. Visit www.BarbaraKyle.com.
"Riveting, adventurous ...
superb!" Historical Novel Society
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