I know we’re all feeling a little giddy after the inauguration, but let us remember to put not our trust in princes. I’m thinking here of In Laudem Henrici Octavi Regis Anglie, Thomas More’s (he of the chopped off head) royal panegyric written to celebrate the coronation of Henry VIII in 1509 – a lavish cloth-of-gold occasion, attended by all of society with feasting that lasted for days. Thomas More, erstwhile Henrician fan boy hailed that England, like America today, was entering a new “Golden Age”. Six-foot three Henry with his pinkish complexion, glowing auburn hair and a face so soft “that it would become a pretty woman”, according to a visiting Venetian, had set continental humanist hopes ablaze with excitement about his new More-approved policy direction.
Similarly in June 1509, Desiderus Erasmus (he of the EU scholarship) received an excitable letter from his English chum Lord Mountjoy who was convinced that when Erasmus heard Prince Henry had become King, “every particle of gloom left your heart”. Mountjoy went on in the fervent fever of a modern day conservative Substacker:
And if you knew how courageously and wisely he is now acting, and with what a passion he has for justice and honesty, and how warmly he is attached to men of letters, then I should go so far as to swear upon my own head that with or without wings you would fly to us here to look at the new and lucky star. Oh, Erasmus, if you could only see how happily excited everyone is here, and how all are congratulating themselves on their Prince’s greatness, and how they pray above all for his long life, you would be bound to weep for joy! Heaven smiles, earth rejoices; all is milk and honey and nectar.
Erasmus galloped hastily from Rome to England to be part of this great new movement.
How ugly things got, between Henry, Thomas More and the rest of the humanists, not to mention recusants and Protestants, will I’m sure have been covered on a Rest is History episode somewhere. But for now, let us consider America’s new Prince with hope mingled with caution. Trump may well overturn the world order, as did Henry VIII and his energetic band of reforming bros. But will all of them remain with their heads and necks intact? And what does this ‘Golden Age’ mean for us? A liberation from corrupt authority or the figurative devastation of Fountains Abbey? We hope for the former. But only time will tell.
Oh, how annoying, I forgot. Sir Keir Starmer is our Prime Minister, none of this applies.
Joanna Gray is a writer and confidence mentor.
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The stresses Henry VIII lived through were enough to test anyone. He left us almost complketely free of the Continental power structures, somethinbg the Tories failed to do in the 8 years after the Brexit deal.
Trump has achieved more natrional independence, influence and authority in so few days than Biden gave away in 4 years, although to be fair, it was probably Obama running the government at the=at time because it is certain Joe wasn’t.
He may have become ‘our’ Prime Minister but “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them”. Thrust upon him by the vagaries of our political system perhaps?
I acknowledge the need for caution, but I’m finding the sudden rush of anti-Trump pieces to be less than helpful.
I think we need to focus on the positives, rather than the negatives at the moment. As it is, there are few enough of the latter, and not nearly enough of the former.
My own feeling is one of some euphoria at the moment, and more hope for the future than I have had in some time, but I am also cognisant that we should beware false prophets, and take everything and everyone with a healthy pinch of salt. The man is far from perfect, but all he had to do to get where he is now was be better than the alternative, and that was one heck of a low bar. Time will tell.
Trump is a President, not a King, and there all comparisons are ended. What it is though is someone not used to be made to look a fool like the ‘Deep State’ managed to do in his last four years and then the stolen election. Its plain he’s had teams working on a policy platform since 2021, and he isn’t messing about. There will be challenges ahead, but he understands what a disaster Globalisation has been, and this is the one chance not to fight it, but to end it. Of course that gives a lift to anyone around the world who shares that view, but so does Millei and the other leaders who are finally pushing out the socialists. They are the ‘green shoots of recovery’ as Norman Lamont once (falsely) said, and I am happy to see them..
Henry VIII was there for life regardless of his abilities and his actions (unless he’d been bumped off or there was a resumption of Civil War).
Trump’s got 4 years and has to govern in accordance with the American Constitution.
No comparison.
“…but let us remember to put not our trust in princes.”
But if we are to do so, and it’s a stretch comparing D J Trump with past English monarchs, perhaps as far as “Golden Age” is concerned, Elizabeth I would be a better example.
Among other things, she did far more than Henry to unite the Country, establishing one Protestant religion to prevent the faction fighting dividing society, and defying and triumphing over the menace of Continental powers, for example.