King Henry VIII. / William Shakespeare ; edited by R. A. Foakes.

Henry VIII is a less study of kingship and a more dramatic expression of gratitude.Henry VIII is not patriotic play in broadly popular sense.It lacks battles and triumphant oratory.It voices thanksgiving for particular ruling family.Henry VIII is,above all,the remarkable storey of Queen Elizabeth's birth .The story is certainly not without its ironies,for history unfolds in mysterious ways,and Elizabeth parents were complex persons.As history play ,Henry VIII encompasses a lot.In relating the rise and fall of Buckingham,Wolsey,Queen Katherine ,and the rest,the play touches on several weighty historical themes:the uneasy tenure of people in high places,the emergence of a powerful monarchy,the loss of authority of hte old nobility (exemplified by Buckingham ) during a time when persons of no heriditary pretensions ( such as Wolsey and Cromwell ) are coming into new prominence ,the victory of Protestantism over Catholicism ,the bitter factionalism accompanying such historical transition (which must have seemed acutely relevant to observers of King James's court in 1613) ." In" The Complete Works of Shakespeare ,edited by David Bevington.