"[Henry VIII, Continued] The inner source of his deterioration was the repeated frustration of his will in love and parentage. Long disappointed in his hope for a son...here was a king possessing all England but denied the domestic joys of the simplest husband in his realm. Suffering intermittent agony from an ulcer in his leg, buffeted with revolts and crises throughout his reign, forced at almost every moment to arm against invasion, betrayal, and assassination—how could such a man develop normally, or avoid degeneration into suspicion, craft, and cruelty? And how shall we, who fret at the pinpricks of private tribulation, understand a man who bore in his mind and person the storm and stress of the English Reformation, weaned his people by perilous steps from a deeply rooted loyalty, and yet must have felt in his divided soul an erosive wonder—had he freed a nation or shattered Christendom? Danger, as well as power, was the medium in which he lived. He could never tell how far his enemies would go, or when they would succeed.(p. 727-728)"
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The Story of Civilization
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