The Reoccurrence of Centuries Old
Politics
Nowadays the Netherlands is a democracy and so are many other countries all over
the world. Earlier this month there were elections in America and there were a lot of
political tactics used by both parties to win this election “war”. In the time when the
novel Wolf Hall takes place, five centuries ago, there is no such thing as democracy.
England is a monarchy with as king Henry VIII. He rules England between 1509 and
1547 and uses some specific political strategies to gain and keep power. It seems
that the political strategies used in both time periods are extremely different, but they
are much more alike than you might guess. King Henry VIII used similar political
strategies in the book Wolf Hall as Donald Trump uses in 2020 to gain and keep
power.
The firstly, the fact that in the book Wolf Hall king Henry VIII appoints people who
agree with his views, but when they are of no use to him anymore, he somehow gets
rid of them. King Henry VIII had many advisers to keep the kingdom together for him.
Those people were very powerful in the kingdom and had much influence on the
king, but when they disagreed with the king too much he would find a way to get rid
of them. A great example for this is Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey was the person who
practically ruled the kingdom and who did everything in his power to get what the
king wanted. When he failed to annul the marriage between king Henry and Queen
Catherine his role was taken from him.
“They arrived on a Sunday, two vengeful grandees: the Duke of Norfolk a
bright-eyed hawk, the Duke of Suffolk just as keen. They told the cardinal he
was dismissed as Lord Chancellor, and demanded he hand over the Great
Seal of England.” (p.1, Mantel, 2009).
This quote shows how easily one of the most influential people of the entire kingdom
is stripped from his role when the king wants to do so. Something similar happened
with Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. As told in the article from BBC News (2020)
Steve Bannon was in 2017 the Chief Strategist and Senior Counsellor of Donald
Trump, but when he left critical comments about Trump and his family he
immediately lost his job and got discredited. This shows that Trump, just like Henry
VIII, does not really care if someone is capable of ruling a country as long as they are
loyal to him.
Henry VIII had many problems he had to deal with, but with most of them he didn’t
deal himself. He let his advisors deal with important, but also less important manners.
First the kings most important advisor was Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey spent a lot of
time trying to annul the marriage between Henry and Catherine.
Politics
Nowadays the Netherlands is a democracy and so are many other countries all over
the world. Earlier this month there were elections in America and there were a lot of
political tactics used by both parties to win this election “war”. In the time when the
novel Wolf Hall takes place, five centuries ago, there is no such thing as democracy.
England is a monarchy with as king Henry VIII. He rules England between 1509 and
1547 and uses some specific political strategies to gain and keep power. It seems
that the political strategies used in both time periods are extremely different, but they
are much more alike than you might guess. King Henry VIII used similar political
strategies in the book Wolf Hall as Donald Trump uses in 2020 to gain and keep
power.
The firstly, the fact that in the book Wolf Hall king Henry VIII appoints people who
agree with his views, but when they are of no use to him anymore, he somehow gets
rid of them. King Henry VIII had many advisers to keep the kingdom together for him.
Those people were very powerful in the kingdom and had much influence on the
king, but when they disagreed with the king too much he would find a way to get rid
of them. A great example for this is Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey was the person who
practically ruled the kingdom and who did everything in his power to get what the
king wanted. When he failed to annul the marriage between king Henry and Queen
Catherine his role was taken from him.
“They arrived on a Sunday, two vengeful grandees: the Duke of Norfolk a
bright-eyed hawk, the Duke of Suffolk just as keen. They told the cardinal he
was dismissed as Lord Chancellor, and demanded he hand over the Great
Seal of England.” (p.1, Mantel, 2009).
This quote shows how easily one of the most influential people of the entire kingdom
is stripped from his role when the king wants to do so. Something similar happened
with Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. As told in the article from BBC News (2020)
Steve Bannon was in 2017 the Chief Strategist and Senior Counsellor of Donald
Trump, but when he left critical comments about Trump and his family he
immediately lost his job and got discredited. This shows that Trump, just like Henry
VIII, does not really care if someone is capable of ruling a country as long as they are
loyal to him.
Henry VIII had many problems he had to deal with, but with most of them he didn’t
deal himself. He let his advisors deal with important, but also less important manners.
First the kings most important advisor was Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey spent a lot of
time trying to annul the marriage between Henry and Catherine.
