ABSTRACT
So reads the character description of Henry VIII in Robert Bolt’s 1960 stage-play A Man for All Seasons. The play, which depicts the defiance and martyrdom of Saint Thomas More, began life as a radio-play that was broadcast in Britain on the BBC Home Service on 26 July 1954; but today it is better remembered in its 1966 cinematic incarnation, directed by Fred Zimmermann, and starring Paul Scofield and Robert Shaw as More and Henry VIII respectively. This important film, which won six Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture, not only made More’s life accessible to the general public, it also had a vital impact on the perception of Henry VIII in the latter part of the twentieth century. This chapter, however, will not be examining the Henry as played by Shaw, but rather the Henry of the stage-play, for it is in this incarnation that the range of influences and sources for Bolt’s monarch are most apparent.
