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Everyone has heard about "Jolly Old England." Or, is it "BLOODY Old England'? Maybe there is a chance that rather than one or the other, we have often heard BOTH of these expressions, even though they might sound a slight bit contradictory. There could be a possibility that there might be some connection between both of these stereotypical images of England during a colorful period in its past, known for both its unrestrained Epicurean indulgence and the unfathomably cruel tyranny often demonstrated by English kings of yore.

Specifically, "Jolly" and "cruel" both seem to evoke a stereotypical image of the life of one of its most famous rulers, Henry VIII. He was the king for about four decades in the heart of the fascinating Tudor period (from 1509 to 1547), named for its family, and which has made an impression on history for a number of reasons, Henry's personality at both extremes is one of them. He has been known as one of history's most over-the-top tyrants, but he was also one of its most famous Epicures. And far from being contradictory, these characteristics, in Henry VII, showed that they can often even go hand in hand.

His impressively-adorned and portly figure, cut into a large number of the portraits that he ordered of himself, is one of history's most recognizable kings. And he married six women with enough enthusiasm to motivate him to banish the Catholic church (which despite this reason he in fact loved and stayed faithful to all his life) from his kingdom. His women came and went from his stylish Tudor palaces with a frequency befitting an actual TV drama, perhaps a show called "Hampton Court Place." Bluff Hal was a king that knew how to have a good time, but his servants and wives wanted to make sure that they STAYED on that good side, or it could get pretty bloody pretty fast.

Since my parents took me to the grizzly Tower of London when I was a young child and I heard impressionable ghastly tales of his reign spun by tour guides in cockney accents and garish red uniforms, I have been intrigued by the cruelty he indulged in -even on top of all the other things he indulged in. Admittedly when state executions are allowed with a dictator's whim, they are probably never rare. But Henry's tyranny extended way past just his ordering of many lives cut short, so to speak, including one of his closest living relatives - the Duke of Buckingham - who unwisely speculated that Henry might die without male heirs (a crime of treason). And who hasn't heard

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