Lord Acton's quote, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," perfectly describes the affects that complete control has over someone. Historically, one of the best examples of this is the early 16th century English monarch, King Henry VIII. Henry VIII is historically known for having six wives: Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine, and Catherine. He ended the marriage with his first wife because of her inability to give him a male heir. Arguably his most notorious wife, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded. Regardless of her charges of adultery, incest, and high treason, her inability to give the king a son was the primary reason for her beheading. Jane, his third wife, died giving birth to the King's first and only son Edward. Fairly enough, at the end of his life Jane was the wife he was buried next to. His fourth marriage, Anne of Cleves, was annulled because Henry found her too unattractive for his own taste to think of sexual relations with her, hence the inability of giving the king another male heir. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was beheaded because she was discovered to be having a relationship with one of the king's men. Regardless of the fact that this made the marriage null and void to begin with, Henry carried on with the execution. His last wife caused no digressions for she was the standing wife through his final dissent into madness and his subsequent death. Henry even reformed the religion of England from Roman Catholic to the Church of England, now known as Episcopalian, because the Pope refused the annulment of Henry with his first wife. His desire for a male heir was so great he changed the religion so he could divorce his first wife without having to follow the pope's strict order that his marriage was completely and entirely valid. The point of this? Henry's complete power and control over his country and populous of England led to the the destruction of most of his marriages and even an entire church reform. His absolute power created a corrupt leader who could not bear to rule the people without showing his dominating rule over them by providing a male heir to rule the dynasty once he had died. Ironically Henry the VIII did leave England with arguably the greatest ruler in the history of England, Elizabeth I.
The quote, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," is also present in Antigone. At the end of Oedipus Rex, Creon promises that he has no desire to obtain absolute power over the people once Oedipus is vanquished because he claims that he already holds enough power. Ironically, Creon does assume the power of King and is King throughout the entirety of Antigone. His corruption is so great, he "buries alive" his son's wife to be because she wanted to bury her brother's body. This results in both his eventual daughter-in-law's suicide, his son's suicide, and the suicide of Creon's wife, Eurydice. As the chorus states in the end of the play although the gods punish the proud, that punishment eventually brings great wisdom. Creon was punished because he constantly needed to show his people that he was unwavering and always right, which led to him performing drastic measures to keep this image.
-CAR
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