ABSTRACT
Although John Foxe’s seminal martyrology the Acts and Monuments (popularly known as Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’) includes short lives of such notable Henrician figures as Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardiner, it does not contain a similar biographical sketch of their royal master Henry VIII. Yet the depiction of Henry in the Acts and Monuments is among the most important representations of the king ever penned. In part this is due to the remarkable influence of Foxe’s stories about Henry, an influence which will be discussed later in this chapter. In part, however, the importance of Foxe’s portrait of Henry, as well as a considerable portion of its later influence, rests on the informants that the matyrologist consulted about the king and his reign. These ultimately included close relatives of two of Henry’s leading nobles, intimates of at least two of his wives and the principal secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
