King Henry VIII Quotes in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

King Henry VIII: [to Anne] I have torn this country apart for YOU!

King Henry VIII: [Before the hunt] With no man to hold onto how do you plan to stay on your horse?

Anne Boleyn: [She gets on her own horse] As you do Your Grace, with my thighs.

King Henry VIII: I have torn this country apart for you!

Anne Boleyn: For which you should thank me, not be angry!

King Henry VIII: Broken with Rome...

Anne Boleyn: Freed yourself, more like, from the decadence of a corrupt church

King Henry VIII: Got rid of a good woman in the queen...

Anne Boleyn: And with Spanish blood shackles you to Rome

King Henry VIII: Of which I would be excommunicated...

Anne Boleyn: And instead, become head of a new church! The Church of England!

Mary Boleyn: [in Henry's bedchamber] So, this is it?... Where the king of England sleeps?

King Henry VIII: And reads and writes. Finds a few moments each day to himself.

Mary Boleyn: [nervously] And yet you invite me here?

King Henry VIII: Because I like you and trust you.

Mary Boleyn: You hardly know me.

King Henry VIII: I have lied to a hundred times a day. Petitioned. Lobbied. One learns how to decifer a face.

[caresses Mary's face]

King Henry VIII: Yours is as the sun. One shouldn't gaze too long.

[pauses]

King Henry VIII: My flattery makes you uncomfortable?... Because compliments in your family are usually for someone else. The elder sister... That's something I understand. What it is to be the second child. Forever in the shadows... I'm making you uncomfortable again.

[Mary smiles, shaking her head as Henry leans in and kisses her]

King Henry VIII: [talking in secret] Your sister is gone as you wished. Will you give yourself to me now?

Anne Boleyn: No. When you are loyal to me above all others.

King Henry VIII: But I am.

Anne Boleyn: No. You are loyal to the queen above all others.

King Henry VIII: I barely see Katherine.

Anne Boleyn: But she sits on a throne beside you. Your right hand in matters of state.

King Henry VIII: For appearances' sake only.

Anne Boleyn: Still, she is your queen. And ever present.

[pauses]

Anne Boleyn: I feel her eyes on me. And those of her spies. Look at us. Forever reduced to meeting in secret like this. Speaking in whispers. Hardly conducive to passion.

King Henry VIII: What would you have me do, then?

Lady Elizabeth: [after the King marches in, angry] Your Grace.

King Henry VIII: Your daughter, where is she?

Lady Elizabeth: [Quietly to her servants] Leave us.

King Henry VIII: Where is she?

Lady Elizabeth: Which one?

[Stares coldly as she walks forward]

Lady Elizabeth: Your Grace, which one?

King Henry VIII: Anne, have you considered what I've asked? Is there hope?

Anne Boleyn: How could I ever trust you, when I've seen how you betray first your wife, now my sister?

King Henry VIII: Anne!

Anne Boleyn: Your Grace?

King Henry VIII: You received my gifts?

Anne Boleyn: Yes

King Henry VIII: And? Do they not please you?

Anne Boleyn: On the contrary, my lord, they please me greatly

King Henry VIII: Then why do you insult me by returning them?

Anne Boleyn: Because you insult me by sending them at all!

King Henry VIII: I would do nothing to hurt any part of you.

[a grateful Mary kneels down to him, he looks away]

King Henry VIII: Go

King Henry VIII: Why are you here for her?

Mary Boleyn: Because she is my sister, and therefore one half of me.

King Henry VIII: May God have mercy on Anne's soul.

King Henry VIII: [during a supper in the banquet hall, to Anne] What's so amusing?

Anne Boleyn: I was merely offering my thoughts on the new French king. With such great power, yet such meager authority as a man.

King Henry VIII: [intrigued] Continue.

Anne Boleyn: [slowly walking forward] His pettiness is astounding. He will bear a mortal grudge at the mildest of slights. Spoiled cub with a spike in his paw. Riveted with resentment. Unable to forgive or forget. A great king, a great man rises above such things.

King Henry VIII: And what would you know of great men?

Anne Boleyn: [never taking her eyes from Henry's] I've read enough books and heard enough talk to believe I'd know one if he were before me.

King Henry VIII: Then look about you. I am curious. Do you see one here?

Anne Boleyn: [approaches him, still not looking away] Looking my lord... still looking, my lord.

[pauses in front of the King]

Anne Boleyn: Ah! There. Found one.

King Henry VIII: [laughs to himself as the subjects in the room start to laugh]

King Henry VIII: [Refering to Anne] I need to be certain, can I trust her?

Mary Boleyn: Why would you not?

King Henry VIII: Usually my instincts are sharp, but with your sister, she has a power over me.

King Henry VIII: [to Mary] I'm asking you because I trust you. And because I believe, perhaps mistakenly, that you care for me, and that you would put a matter of this importance before family ambition.

King Henry VIII: Thomas. I chose the right man for chancellor!

Sir Thomas More: I should in fairness add that my taste in music is reputedly deplorable.

King Henry VIII: Your taste in music is excellent. It exactly coincides with my own!

[Sir Thomas and the King are discussing the King's wish for a divorce from Katherine of Aragon, his brother's widow]

King Henry VIII: Oh, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas! Does a man need a Pope to tell him where he's sinned? It was a sin. God's punished me. I have no son. Son after son she's borne me - all dead at birth or dead within the month. Never saw the hand of God so clear in anything. It's my bounden duty to put away the Queen and all the popes back to Peter shall not come between me and my duty! How is it that you cannot see? Everyone else does.

Sir Thomas More: Then why does your Grace need my poor support?

King Henry VIII: Because you're honest... and what is more to the purpose, you're KNOWN to be honest. There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown; and those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I'm their tiger; there's a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves. And then there's you...

Sir Thomas More: I am sick to think how much I must displease your Grace.

King Henry VIII: No, Thomas, I respect your sincerity. But respect... man, that's water in the desert.

King Henry VIII: [shouting angrily] I have no queen! Catherine's not my wife! No priest can make her so! They that say she is my wife are not only liars, but traitors! Yes, traitors that I will not brook now! Treachery... treachery... treachery I will not brook! It maddens me! It is a deadly canker in the body politic, and I will have it out!

King Henry VIII: Nan, is it true?

Anne: Have you stepped into your own trap, my lord? Any evidence you have against me, you yourself bought and paid for. Do you now begin to believe it?

King Henry VIII: Anny, the court is still in session to decide your... verdict. I don't want to hear your guilt from them, I want to hear it from your lips.

Anne: That I was unfaithful to you?

King Henry VIII: Yes, just that. Were you unfaithful to me whilst I still loved you? Of course, I'll never know. Whether you say aye or no, I shall never know.

Anne: You come here to make sure whether there was truly adultery, because that would touch your manhood or your pride. And even so, my heart and my eyes are glad of you. Fool of all women that I am, I'm glad of you here. Go, then. Keep your pride of manhood, you know about me now.

King Henry VIII: Nan, is it true that you're glad to see me?

Anne: Yes, it's true.

King Henry VIII: Then, Anne, lets do all gently for old times sake. I have no wish to harm you, and your words have moved me deeply. I must be free to have a son, and the son must be free to rule England when I die.

Anne: Why must you leave a king to follow you, Henry? Why not a queen?

King Henry VIII: This country has never been ruled by a queen. I know it never could be. We can never have a son now, God has spoken. I must have a son elsewhere. And it's getting late. I'm not as young as I was.

Anne: What do you want of me?

King Henry VIII: Agree to annul the marriage and give up all rights. You shall go abroad and take Elizabeth with you. You will be well cared for. Please set me free.

Anne: To marry Seymour and make our child a bastard? No. No. No.

King Henry VIII: Nan... Nan, you leave me no choice!

Anne: Once I told you any children we had would not be bastards. You promised marriage and the crown. Now you try to dance out of your promise. Well, I won't have it! We are man and wife together. King and Queen. I keep that. Take it from me as best you can.

King Henry VIII: Then you have decided, and so have I!

Anne: Before you go, perhaps you should hear one thing. I lied to you. I said "I love you", but I lied. I was untrue. Untrue with many.

King Henry VIII: That is a lie.

Anne: It is true. I was unfaithful to you with all of them. With half your court. With soldiers of your guard, with grooms, with stablehands. Look for the rest of your life at every man that ever knew me and wonder if I didn't find him a better man than you!

King Henry VIII: You whore!

King Henry VIII: If some young man wrote this song for you, Anne, what would you say to him?

Anne: I would ask him if his wife liked it, Your Grace.

King Henry VIII: I think nothing but you. Of you and me playing dog and bitch, of you and me playing horse and mare. Of you and me in every way. I want to fill you up night after night. I want to fill you up with sons.

Anne: Bastards! They would be bastards!

King Henry VIII: I never married Katherine - England married Spain!

King Henry VIII: Mistress Anne, will you teach the king of England how they dance in the French court?

Anne: There is nothing that France can teach England, your majesty.

King Henry VIII: Well said. Well said.

Anne: Won't you kiss your daughter?

King Henry VIII: I will kiss her when she's older - and when she has a brother!

Queen Katherine of Aragon: She's new...

King Henry VIII: The Boleyn's youngest daughter, newly returned from the French court. Do you like her, Kate? Shall I keep her here at court to cheer you?

Queen Katherine of Aragon: Whatever you command, my lord.

King Henry VIII: Suppose I command you to give me a son?

Queen Katherine of Aragon: Were it to God I could, Henry.

King Henry VIII: Amen, but you cannot - because our marriage is a curse in heaven and hell, madam!

King Henry VIII: I am accursed! A live daughter and a dead son! Did I accept excommunication for this? Did I send More and Houghton and Fisher to their deaths for this? She cannot give me a living son! Very well then, if she cannot give me a male heir, I shall rid myself of her.

[first lines]

King Henry VIII: What is the verdict?

Thomas Cromwell: Guilty - Your Grace.

King Henry VIII: All of them?

Thomas Cromwell: Guilty.

King Henry VIII: Any man who marries when he can be free is a fool!

Thomas Cromwell: Cardinal Wolsey, through skilful manipulation, has seen to it that the monasteries of England are richer than the goldmines of the New World. If, as you should be, you become Head of the Church, those riches are yours.

King Henry VIII: You're a man without scruple, lawyer.

Thomas Cromwell: Entirely without scruple. I learned my trade under Cardinal Wolsey, Your Grace.

King Henry VIII: I studied under a real master; my father. Whatever villainy was lacking when Henry the Seventh came into this world, he invented before he left it.

King Henry VIII: Away my lords!

Brereton: Where to, your grace?

King Henry VIII: To Mistress Seymour's!

[Henry's fourth wedding night]

King Henry VIII: My wife? Huh... not yet.

Anne of Cleves: Poor mother told me... first he says the marriage is no good, and then he cuts off the head with an ax chopper!

King Henry VIII: That is an exaggeration, madam.

Anne of Cleves: Then why do you say I am not yet your wife?

King Henry VIII: Well, madam, uh, a marriage ceremony doesn't make us one.

Anne of Cleves: Mmm?

[shows her ring]

King Henry VIII: Oh, yes, yes, yes, 's all right, but you, uh, have to, umm, I have to...

Anne of Cleves: What?

King Henry VIII: Did your mother not talk to you about...

Anne of Cleves: What?

King Henry VIII: Oh Lord. Ohhhh, well, uh, madam, all that stuff about children being found under gooseberry bushes... that's not true...

[last lines]

King Henry VIII: Six wives, and the best of them's the worst.

Katherine Howard: Who's there?

King Henry VIII: Henry.

Katherine Howard: Henry who?

King Henry VIII: The King.

Katherine Howard: Oh, the King, not the man.

King Henry VIII: Unlock the door.

Katherine Howard: Isn't it rather late for a maid to unlock her door to a... man?

King Henry VIII: On, come on, unlock the door.

Katherine Howard: Is that a command?

King Henry VIII: Yes.

Katherine Howard: To the King, then, not the man.

[lets him in and kneels]

King Henry VIII: Don't do that. I'm leaving me crown outside.

Katherine Howard: You've left it outside with my reputation, sire.

King Henry VIII: No one saw me, Katherine, I swear. Can't you forget the King and forget the crown, forget everything... you told me once I was a man, uh? What do you say if I'm not the King?

Katherine Howard: Get out of my room!

King Henry VIII: What? Whyyy...

Katherine Howard: That's what I *would* say, if you were not the King. Since you are the King, I expect your command.

King Henry VIII: Command? It's a poor thing to command in love.

Katherine Howard: Love? Who is in love?

King Henry VIII: I am, with you.

Katherine Howard: Love eternal, since yesterday afternoon, until tomorrow morning?

King Henry VIII: When I say love, I mean love.

[Henry's fourth wedding night]

King Henry VIII: [shouting] Ah, what am I, what am I going to do with you!

Anne of Cleves: Chop my head?

King Henry VIII: Probably.

Anne of Cleves: You daren't.

King Henry VIII: Why not?

Anne of Cleves: Because in Europe I will make such a scandal as you never heard. Not the first time you have chopped the head. Henry the wife-butcher, that's what they will call you!

King Henry VIII: I don't care what they say, I'm not going to live with you!

Anne of Cleves: Well, why don't you divorce me, like a gentleman?

King Henry VIII: You would consent to a divorce?

Anne of Cleves: I would consent to a divorce.

King Henry VIII: You are a very reasonable woman. What are your terms?

King Henry VIII: Diplomacy? Diplomacy, my foot! I'm an Englishman - I can't say one thing and mean another. What I can do is to build ships, ships, and then more ships!

Thomas Cromwell: You mean, double the fleet?

King Henry VIII: Treble it! Fortify Dover! Rule the sea!

Thomas Cromwell: To do this will cost us money, sire.

King Henry VIII: To leave it undone will cost us England!

Thomas Cromwell: Sire, we need more heirs.

King Henry VIII: I have given you three, two daughters and a son! I grant you, the daughters show little promise; Mary may grow to wisdom, but Elizabeth'll never learn to rule so much as a kitchen. Ah, but the boy is my second self.

King Henry VIII: No, Thomas, not clever, thanks be to heaven. My first wife was clever, my second was ambitious, but my third... Thomas, if you want to be happy, marry a girl like my sweet little Jane. Marry a stupid woman! Ha ha ha...

King Henry VIII: You know, the Germans offered me half of France if I'd join 'em... heh... and the French offered me Flanders. Heh heh heh. They're very generous with each other's territory, heh heh heh. In my youth, in Wolsey's time, I'd have accepted one offer or the other, but what's the use of new territories and wars, wars, wars again?

King Henry VIII: [gobbling down chicken and then casually tossing the legs off to one side as Cromwell looks on disgustedly] There's no delicacy nowadays. No consideration for others. Refinement's a thing of the past! Manners are dead!

King Henry VIII: [on being told a son has been born] It's a boy! A boy!

Anne Boleyn: [referring to her involvement in little Elizabeth's birth] But Henry, didn't I have a hand in it?

King Henry VIII: Of course.

[smiles wickedly at Anne]

King Henry VIII: But I gave you the idea.

[laughter from Anne and the courtiers]

King Henry VIII: Her figure's all right. What about her face?

Thomas Cromwell: I am assured, sire, it is the fairest in all Normandy.

King Henry VIII: What about her...

[indicates hourglass figure]

Thomas Cromwell: The fullest in all Normandy.

King Henry VIII: Has she been chaste?

Thomas Cromwell: All over Normandy.