Henry The Eighth [antikvár]

FOREWORD In case the state of Europe at the opening of the sixteenth century is not fresh or clear in the reader's mind, I have provided a short summary, a kind of historical backdrop, which will be found at the beginning of the book. A word as to conversations. I have invented no dialogue. Thanks to the astonishingly full diplomatic correspondence, I could stick to the record and yet quote direct speech. Most of the records are indicated to the psycho-historian in the twenty-one volumes of 'The Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII,' prepared under the direction of the Master of the Rolls - a stupendous wealth of material filling over twenty diousand packed pages. This is by no means the only material easily accessible. A bibliography prepared for me in Paris runs to 67 type-written pages. The sources are so rich as to be almost inexhaustible-there are few episodes that do not invite further research. To be /Aew-minded, to use imagination and intuition, to suggest life-this is the task of the psycho-historian. But no vividness excuses infidelity to the facts, and I have sought to base this history entirely on the material provided by the unselfish labour of a host of scholars, who, in matters of fact, must have the last word. F. H. Co. Wicklow 1929