Henry VIII

Play

Writers: William Shakespeare John Fletcher

Context

Like many of the history plays of the era, Henry VIII is largely based on Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, the first narrative history of England’s kings. The play’s greatest notoriety is the Globe Theatre fire; during one of Henry VIII’s earliest performances on June 29, 1613, a cannon spark ignited the thatch roof, and the theatre burned to the ground. The play was perhaps a part of the marriage celebrations for Princess Elizabeth (King James I’s daughter). No one was killed in the fire, but the building was completely destroyed and not rebuilt until 1614.

Some scholars speculate that

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Henry VIII guide sections