It's had me thinking ever since.
>> flipping through second hand paperbacks, I found one titled “The Tudor Police State.” <<
I read a history of the Tudors a few years ago, just after having read about Stalin’s purges. It seemed to me that the ruthlessness of Henry the 8th resembled that of Stalin more than it resembled the characteristics of any other recent tyrant.
People were killed by Henry VIII, when he died his catholic daughter by Catherine of Aragon, retaliated killing a lot of people (hence the name “Bloody Mary”), Elizabeth killed some too, but not nearly as many.