Henry VIII and J. Edgar Hoover: A Morality Tale for Modern Times

On June 11^th, in 1509 King Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon.  This was his first marriage but Catherine’s second, as she had first been married to Henry’s older brother Arthur.  Catherine (daughter of King Ferdinand and the redoubtable Isabella of Spain) had been betrothed to Arthur at age 3 and married at age 16.  Unfortunately, Arthur was 15, sickly and—according to Catherine—unable to consummate the marriage.  He died shortly thereafter.  This put Arthur’s brother, Henry, in line for the throne.   Henry was six years younger than Catherine, but, in the politics of the 16^th century that made both of them prime brokers in the high stakes game of, “alliance by marriage.”  So Catherine was told to stay in England until Henry was of age.

            Catherine married Henry because (1) her parents told her to and she trusted them; (2) the English king told her it would be a good match for her and she trusted him; (3) his son, Henry VIII, told her he loved her and she would be his queen and she trusted him.  She and Henry were actually quite happy for some time.  They were married for over 20 years but had only one child, Mary, who lived to adulthood.   But Catherine died a spurned, lonely and divorced woman.  Her problem was her inability to produce the much vaunted male heir. 

            Would Catherine have trusted Henry had she known of his intense mandate for a male heir?  And that her failure to produce same would be a deal breaker for him?  Of course she would!  That was the thinking of the times.  She was simply gambling that she could produce the required son and earn Henry’s allegiance.  She lost that bet.

            Now, following my typical mental habit of seeing patterns in people and history, let us leap forward to 20^th century America.  In 1924, America was awash in civic unrest, unbridled violence and under the influence of radical ideas from abroad (sounds familiar doesn’t it?).  In the midst of this disquietude J. Edgar Hoover (an erstwhile librarian) was selected as the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He put an almost anal passion for files, order and meticulous record keeping to the task of crime fighting and found success.

            Unfortunately, his controlling, megalomaniacal tendencies also led him to exceed both the legal and ethical constraints of his office.  He spied on the people he was to protect and used blackmail to coerce his superiors into giving him free rein in both what he did and how he did it.  He was absolutely corrupted by the power he wielded.   How did Hoover come to create what Harry S. Truman described as a private secret police force?  How did someone tasked with rooting out organized crime, subversives and assassins come to spy on any American he thought might threaten his power?  How did the driving force behind modern criminal forensics come to use the same technology to threaten anyone he disliked? How?  Because we let him.  And we let him because, like Catherine and Henry VIII, we trusted him.  We gambled on human nature to stop at the brink of decency.  We gambled on morality to win over ambition.  We gambled on justice to triumph over deceit.  We lost that bet.

            Each age and era has standards of conduct that they assume will be broadcast throughout the population.  Each civilization meets its problems with choices and decisions that they feel are uniform, just and right.  But each generation also must decide whom they can and can not trust.  

            Choose wisely and keep the faith.