We find throughout history that there have been rulers we laugh at and rulers we respect. There are some who surprise us with their diligence and others who disappoint us because they tackle little and create less.

Then there are the rulers who make history, but not with positive deeds or a kind persona, or, even by sponsoring building techniques to improve ordinary lives or to protect wildlife and make certain that the water is clean.

I spent Easter Sunday watching “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.” Although Henry VIII remains more talked about than Caligula, Pol Pot, and even Hitler, there still are events, documents and, more than anything else, the counting of kills, that remain just out of reach.

But, who was Henry?

If you are a baby boomer, your European or world history book described Henry as the last of the medieval kings. His current title, the first of the modern kings, is more accurate. This is a side of Henry we never see dramatized, which is, the mundane signing of patents for machines that drained mines and improved water supplies. A musician himself, he signed patents for musical instruments. In other words, Henry used law to make life better. As for dramatizing his more daily chores, what is interesting about a man signing documents?

When an actor assumes the role of Henry, he is dressed with a soft hat and an open, embroidered jacket, just as Hans Holbein the Younger showed Henry as large and powerful rather than overweight and cruel.

The overweight and cruel Henry ordered that the heads of two wives were cut off. It was that Henry who killed his highest ranking yes man, Thomas Cromwell, the focus of the Wolf Hall series.

As I sat watching the last three hours of the series, I wanted to know if a violent government, a government that solves the problems of opposition by murdering those who act against the king, creates a violent society.

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Let’s stop and consider what happened during Henry’s reign, April 1509 to January 1547. The Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis in 1517, somewhat early in Henry’s reign. The Catholic Counter Reformation came close to Henry’s demise.

How many people died during the reign and who were they? Besides wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, deaths were ordered for those who opposed Henry’s religious and political ideas. Some people of royal lineage were obliterated to secure the Tudor dynasty. Ordinary subjects also were murdered.

Why was Cromwell killed? In a review of the series by The Guardian, Cromwell was described as “the man who must turn the tides of events brought about by Henry’s increasing caprice and anger.”

Caprice and anger.

Henry was 55 when he died while the death rate for ordinary citizens was 30 to 35. However, that was due to the high infant mortality rate. Was there anyone at court to say many infants die young or was there no way to tell the king? I suspect that because an infant prince was supposed to be superior to the children of peasants that the subject of infant death would cause outrage.

Jane Seymour provided Henry with his only legitimate son, Edward VI. A lady-in-waiting, Bessie Blount, birthed the illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, although there is the possibility that Henry Fitzroy was the son of Bessie’s husband.

But, I have failed to answer the question does a government that depends upon violence foster more violence. The death counts during Henry’s reign range from 57,000 to 72,000. This leaves me with a need to do more research, which, frankly, would take some time.

However, I asked another question once I learned that in 1532, Parliament deprived the clergy of its power, giving it to the king. I can imagine that once the clergy were under the royal thumb, more violence and more deaths could have been the result.

Furthermore, in early 1533, any reliance upon Rome for legal matters ended.

What is my conclusion? That governance should be a civil matter. After Henry established the English navy and annexed Wales and Ireland, power was handed to the king and parliament. A modern state was born. But, is a modern state sufficient?

Jonathan Strickland took on a general view of human violence, calling it “a combination of evolutionary, psychological and societal factors. Our primal instincts, social conditioning and environmental influences all contribute to violent behavior.”

We shall see.

Susan Wozniak has been a caseworker, a college professor and journalist. She is a mother and grandmother.