I saw your post abt how William Thomas reported from abroad that Henry was ‘most liberal in rewarding faithful servants’. Could you expand a bit more on why you think that was his honest opinion?

Sure, a bit–

It’s often said Henry had the “common touch ”. Almost equally often, this trait is dismissed as being mere charm or lip service.

But when we look at the Privy Purse Accounts, the generosity to the commons is real and much-recorded. I’d never say he was an egalitarian, of course– he wasn’t, he was a 16th century monarch and behaved as one– but he was more egalitarian in certain regards that one might expect.

For instance, he made the royal pardons to the commons, more accessible and less expensive than they had ever been– for non-violent crimes, that is.

Another demonstrative instance of this being more than lip service:

Thomas Fiennes, a nobleman, led a party to commit a crime (poaching land), and a servant of the owner of that land was murdered as a result.

In many other reigns, Fiennes would have been charged with a fine and released– perhaps banished from court. He pled guilty probably hoping for some sort of leniency like that.

Instead, he was executed.

And, rather than the precedent of a nobleman being afforded the dignity of a somewhat private execution, and a quicker, less painful method of death, Fiennes was hung at Tyburn.

As for William Thomas’ account of Henry being generous/liberal ‘even to his enemies’; well, sometimes (if only in the post-mortem):

“Additionally, upon Lord Dacre’s execution and attainder, his widow was left quite penniless, but no time was lost in obtaining an Act of Parliament in order to provide a dower for her from out of her late husband’s estates.”