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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