Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

Richard Burton: King Henry VIII

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Quotes 

• King Henry VIII : You whore!

  Anne : But Elizabeth was yours. Watch her as she grows; she's yours. She's a Tudor! Get yourself a son off of that sweet, pale girl if you can - and hope that it will live! But Elizabeth shall reign *after* you. Yes! Elizabeth - child of Anne the Whore and Henry the Blood-Stained Lecher - shall be Queen!

  King Henry VIII : You've asked for death and you shall have it.

  Anne : So be it. Only what I take to my grave, you take to yours. And think of this, Henry: Elizabeth shall be a greater Queen than any King of yours. She shall rule a greater England than you could ever have built! Yes - *my* Elizabeth shall be Queen. And my blood will have been well spent!

• 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 : 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!

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

• 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.

• 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 : Away my lords!

  Brereton : Where to, your grace?

  King Henry VIII : To Mistress Seymour's!

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

• King Henry VIII : Divorce is like killing. After the first time, it doesn't seem difficult.

• 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 : Where is Jane Seymour? Cromwell tells me when the dance was ended, she was sent away under guard.

  Anne : She's on her way to Northumberland. As far away as I could send her, since we don't own Scotland. She has the face of a simpering sheep. And the manners. But not the morals. I don't want her near me.

• King Henry VIII : Nan, it's a cruel thing to be near a woman day after day, to touch her when you wanted to, to have her company when you asked it, and to have no response. To burn with love as I do for you and be denied any pleasure in your cool company. It is a cruel thing, Nan, to be denied love.

  Anne Boleyn : The same cruel thing has happened to me. I've fallen in love.

  King Henry VIII : Nan!

  Anne Boleyn : But not with you.

  King Henry VIII : My God. I got it right in the face that time. Percy, is it?

  Anne Boleyn : You know. You had Wolsey send him away.

  King Henry VIII : Love with that blundering...

  Anne Boleyn : I mean to marry him.

  King Henry VIII : Never!

  Anne Boleyn : But not as my sister is married. He won't be a complacent husband, and I shall not be accessible to you.

  King Henry VIII : All wives are accessible. Any husband can be placated. Even a Percy of Northumberland.

  Anne Boleyn : Well, then you have nothing to fear, your grace. Let me marry him.

  King Henry VIII : No! No! I want you all to myself!

  [Anne turns to leave, Henry stops her] 

  King Henry VIII : Nan. Nan. If you give yourself to me this whole kingdom will turn around you. Whatever you wanted for anyone. Knighthoods, revenues, you shall dispose of them exactly as you please.

  Anne Boleyn : And be thrown out in the end? What great revenues does my sister dispose of?

  King Henry VIII : Well, Mary asked for nothing. I won't bargain with you. Ask for what you want.

  Anne Boleyn : My freedom. To marry whom I love.

  King Henry VIII : Never.

  Anne Boleyn : I've heard what your courtiers say and I've seen what you are. You're spoiled and vengeful and bloody. Your poetry is sour and your music is worse. You make love as you eat, with a good deal of noise and no subtlety.

  King Henry VIII : This is not safe.

  Anne Boleyn : Yes, I've been told it's not safe for any of us to say no to our King. That put on, kindly, hail-fellow-well-met of yours. My father's house will be pulled down, and Northumberland's too, they tell me. Well, pull them down, Your Majesty, you are what I said.

  King Henry VIII : There is no better way to make an end than to raise anger in me. I thank you for that. You made a fool of me! And I'm well out of it!

  [walks away] 

  Anne Boleyn : Your Grace! You will not harm Harry Percy?

  [Henry gets on his horse] 

  King Henry VIII : I'll try not. Vengeful and bloody as I am, I'll try not!

  [rides away] 

• King Henry VIII : I've condemned men before, nobles and peasants, why not a Queen? She struck down a few herself or driven me to do it for her.

• Thomas Cromwell : I care only that the King rules absolutely. The Queen despised her marriage and indulged her carnal lust.

  King Henry VIII : Betrayed me? Did she, Cromwell? Did she?

  Thomas Cromwell : Your Grace, the Queen betrayed you and stands condemned. The warrant is before you.

  King Henry VIII : If she betrayed me, she must die. If I am to rule, keep my sanity, and hold England off the rocks, and as you say, God would not allow me to condemn unjustly. If I question that, I question my whole life and all I've done. At times, I do question it.

• King Henry VIII : No politics tonight, Wolsey. No documents. Go and commune with the devil while I dance.

• King Henry VIII : Send the Boleyns, father, mother, son and eldest daughter, back to their castle in Kent. And send Anne with them, tonight. away from the court.

  Cardinal Wolsey : Yes, Sir.

  King Henry VIII : I'm bored, Wolsey. I'm bored with the court. Bored with my Spanish cow. I shall go hunting - in the beautiful country of Kent.

• King Henry VIII : How is the Vicar of Hell this chilly morning?

  Cardinal Wolsey : Oh, warm enough, Your Majesty. To be active on the King's business generates a certain heat.

  King Henry VIII : Yes, I'm sure, with your feet on the devil's fender and your buttocks toasting at God's altar.

• King Henry VIII : There is always a temptation for a man in my position to regard the nation as his own trough and to eat from one end to the other.

• King Henry VIII : When may I smell this pretty posy of yours?

  Thomas Boleyn : If you mean Anne, Sir, she is still at her mirror. A new dress, nervous fingers. If you could give her half an hour, perhaps?

  King Henry VIII : We have this whole day, Thomas.

• King Henry VIII : Your two daughters, Thomas, are they friends?

  Thomas Boleyn : Yes.

  King Henry VIII : And do they exchange confidences, do you think? Do they whisper together at night secrets about me, perhaps?

  Thomas Boleyn : Who knows, Your Grace? The one you have had, the other you desire.

• King Henry VIII : Next to the haunch of a virgin, there's nothing like a haunch of venison.

• King Henry VIII : I'll earn your love and then your bed.

• King Henry VIII : In time, Nan, you'll grow to love me.

  Anne : Anything is possible.

  King Henry VIII : With us everything is possible.

• Norris : Dare I ask, has Your Grace ever been refused by a wench?

  King Henry VIII : Who? I? Refused? Why, never. When I've wanted them, I've had them. When I've had a wench, I'm cured.

• King Henry VIII : Now walk with me, talk with me. I love your sweet voice, your company and your bold spirit. Tell me, dare I ask it? Is there anything about me that you love?

  Anne : No.

• King Henry VIII : Women give love to the King like paying taxes. I wish to be loved for myself.

• King Henry VIII : Damn all entertainment and damn all women! Why must I want the one woman who doesn't want me?

• King Henry VIII : It's like a new age. Wildfire in the air and in the blood.

• King Henry VIII : I will marry Anne!

  Cardinal Wolsey : It could mean war. It could mean the loss of your kingdom.

  King Henry VIII : I will marry Anne if it breaks the Earth in two and flings the two halves into the void!

• King Henry VIII : Keep your heart, then! Preserve your special chastity. I'm too old to suffer the longings, passions and frenzy of a stupid boy! Writing poems in the night to the cold-hearted bitch that I love and tearing them up. Pacing up and down in my room, unable to sleep. Sons you have promised me when you are Queen, and sons I will have! Sons without love if I must.

• King Henry VIII : I think we shall dance well together. If I lead strongly, will you - softly follow?

  Jane Seymour : I hope so, Your Grace.

• Anne : Would you rape a pregnant woman?

  King Henry VIII : Oh, Nan. God, forgive me.

  Anne : You great royal fool!

• Anne : Touch her and I'll have her sent from court.

  King Henry VIII : Who?

  Anne : That half-witted Seymour who is always so tongue-tied and blushing and adoring whenever you enter my chamber.

• King Henry VIII : I rob, murder and commit sacrilege - at your command.

  Anne : You do what you wish and call the deed mine. I hate you. I hate your desire and mine!

• King Henry VIII : I'm not young. I'm not true. I'm bitter. I'm envious. I'm dangerous. I'm malicious!

• King Henry VIII : You! You tied me to her! Now you find a way to get rid of her!

• King Henry VIII : It's your misfortune that you love me now that I no longer love you. And yet, at this moment I want you because of the anger in your face and the spark of blood in your cheek.

• King Henry VIII : What has love got to do with begetting of a King?

• King Henry VIII : One daughter is much like another. I care not who's named bastard when I'm dead.

• King Henry VIII : Anne? A lover? I, a cuckold? Why, you're mad.