I think now that Henry the Eighth has been over-abused, and that most of us, if we had been situated as he was, domestically, would not have been able to get along with as limited a graveyard as he forced himself to put up with.

I feel now that he was one of the nicest men in history.

Personal contact with a king is more effective in removing baleful prejudices than is any amount of argument drawn from tales and histories.

If I had a child I would name it Henry the Eighth, regardless of sex.
Do you remember Charles the First ?--and his broad slouch with the plume in it?
and his slender, tall figure?
and his body clothed in velvet doublet with lace sleeves, and his legs in leather, with long rapier at his side and his spurs on his heels?
I encountered him at the next corner, and knew him in a moment--knew him as perfectly and as vividly as I should know the Grand Chain in the Mississippi if I should see it from the pilot-house after all these years.

He bent his body and gave his hat a sweep that fetched its plume within an inch of the ground, and gave me a welcome that went to my heart.