164 Hobbes, Thomas trouble with infections nearly killing him He rallied at the prospect of invading France, which he did in July 1544, capturing the city of Boulogne at a high cost of men and supplies War with France continued till 1546, when a treaty was signed between Henry and Francis I By this time, Henry could no longer walk or stand without assistance (though he could still be lifted onto a horse and enjoy a hunt) Later in 1546, Henry realized he had not long to live and set about eliminating opponents to the succession of his heirs, most notably the duke of Norfolk and his son, the earl of Surrey, who were convicted on charges of treason just before Henry’s own death Henry died on January 28, 1547 He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI See also Tudor dynasty Further reading: Bowle, John Henry VIII: A Study of Power in Action New York: Dorset, 1990; Erickson, Carolly Great Harry New York: Summit Books, 1980; Ridley, Jasper Henry VIII New York: Viking, 1985; Weir, Alison Henry VIII: The King and His Court Westminster, MD: Ballantine Books, 2001; ——— The Six Wives of Henry VIII Westminster, MD: Ballantine Books, 1993; Williams, Neville Henry VIII and His Court New York: Macmillan, 1971 Bruce Franson Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, natural philosopher, was born to a local vicar and his wife on April 5, 1588, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England Aspects of his early family history remain obscure, but his uncle, Francis Hobbes, a successful merchant, took over his upbringing and early education Hobbes, a talented and serious student, entered Magdalen College, Oxford, at age 14 and graduated with his B.A in 1608 Following his graduation, Hobbes became tutor and then secretary to William Cavendish, who would become the second earl of Devonshire This connection would mark a lifelong association with the Cavendish family The position also allowed Hobbes a return to study Following William’s death, Hobbes took employment as a tutor to the son of Sir Gervase Clinton of Nottinghamshire from 1628 to 1631 In the midst of this period, he published his translation of Thucydides and began at age 40 a vigorous study of mathematics He returned to the Cavendish family as tutor to the third earl of Devonshire in 1631 and spent time on the Continent meeting important scholars such as Galileo Galilei in 1636 as well as other intellectuals during his travels with Cavendish political and religious strife Hobbes’s life intersected with an era of turbulent political and religious divides, and as a committed Royalist, Hobbes left for Paris in fear for his life when the Civil War erupted in 1640 Here he challenged René Descartes’s Meditations, studied optics, and published De cive in 1642, which examined the roles of the church and state Hobbes also in these exile years tutored the prince of Wales from 1646 to 1648 In 1651, he completed his most famous work, the Leviathan, and returned to England Hobbes tempered his Royalist views, angering some Royalists along the way, and seemingly accepted the Puritan government, which had triumphed in the Civil War The Leviathan established Hobbes’s lasting reputation and marked him as an important transitional thinker from medieval to modern thought As the age seemed to confirm, Hobbes had an essentially dark view of human nature and mankind’s selfish appetites Humans left to their own devices allowed evil impulses to flourish Because of these traits and conditions, mankind must create a state, or Leviathan, for protection For Hobbes, the best ruler the state could produce was a monarch Other issues such as freedom, property rights, justice, law, and morality were social creations without natural meaning It was the existence of the power of the state alone that prevented war and chaos The natural state of nature was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” To escape from his base and animal nature, mankind enters into a contract, giving up individual interests for a covenant of security and peace, which the state provides The sovereign, through its arbitrary power, guarantees these freedoms by the exercise of absolute authority In this way, citizens are given their liberty Mankind can follow his/her will without interference, yet this falls far short of the concept of free will in a religious sense Hobbes’s examination of human society and human nature introduced a mechanistic and materialist worldview and stressed the importance of rationalist thought in understanding man and society He also wrote in English, which allowed philosophical thought to be expressed in a common voice not dependent upon classical thinkers