SOURCE: Hodgson, Barbara. “Uncommon Women and Others: Henry VIII's ‘Maiden Phoenix.’” In The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradictions in Shakespeare's History, pp. 212-34. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Hodgson argues that women play a crucial role in Henry VIII, noting that “only in Henry VIII do they become such spectacular sites, so to speak, for contesting and confirming royal authority.”

Come over the borne, Bessy Come over the borne, Bessy Sweet Bessy, come over to me; .....I am thy lover fair, Hath chose thee to mine heir, And my name is merry England. 

—William Birch, “Come Over the Borne, Bessy”

On 14 January 1559, the day before her coronation, Elizabeth Tudor, “richly furnished, and most honorably accompanied,” rode in an open litter from the Tower through the City of London to Westminster, witness to a resplendent pageant, one of many in which she...