But he was also a wilful, headstrong, arbitrary man, spoiled from his cradle by flatterers, and determined to have his own way.

Froude saw the absurdity of the Blue-beard delusion, and did immense service in exposing it.

He would have given no handle to his Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic enemies if he had acknowledged that there was an explanation of the error.

He was sometimes carried away by his own eloquence, and his convictions grew stronger as he expressed them, until the facts on the other side looked so small that they were ignored.
History deals, and can only deal, with consequences and results.
Motives and Intentions, however interesting, belong to another sphere.

Henry and Cromwell, Mary and Pole, Elizabeth and Cecil, are tried in Froude's pages by the simple test of what they did, or failed to do, for England.