History Enrichment – Henry VIII, the Saddam of the Tudor court

There is a  piece of comparative  / journalistic history in The Independent here. In it Professor Kevin Dutton argues that “Henry scores 174 on a “psychopathic spectrum” which starts at 168 (the “average” male scores 112). In The Wisdom of Psychopaths, out in paperback this autumn, Dutton looks at 10 historical figures, including Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin. The Tudor king is his only “bona fide” example: Henry scores highly for emotional detachment and cold-blooded ruthlessness, which Dutton says are characteristics of “dangerous psychopaths”.