Talk at Whitley Bay Playhouse on 6th May 2018
- The first Brexit was the Break with Rome
- England was a pariah state – an enemy of Europe
- Henry VIII fortified the coastline which was the largest scheme of fortification
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Henry VIII by Hans Holbein 1540 - Cartography and maps became important
- Holbein’s image – the Whitehall mural shows Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Jane Seymour
- When Jane Seymour died it was the “smartest career move in history”
- Anne Boleyn was “brilliant as a mistress but catastrophic as a wife”
- The words in the middle of the Whitehall mural say that Henry VII was a good king ending decades of civil war but Henry VIII was better as he released England from papal bondage
- The mural was displayed in Henry VIII’s private rooms
- Appetite for fame
- Importance of Erasmus and education “virtue, glory, immorality”
- Foreign influence – Henry VIII’s astronomer was French, his painter was German and his armour came from Italy
- France = sex and sophistication, Anne Boleyn raised there
- Media revolution – printing, books, Caxton’s printing press
- In the early 16th century typography was introduced
- Representational painting explains why we are so interested in the Tudors – we knew what they looked like
- Images make things real
- Henry VIII is at the centre of England’s history – England different after Henry VIII
- The Reformation was the greatest change between the Norman conquest and the present day, Reformation partly undoes the conquest
- English Channel not a barrier but a means of communication
- Easy to invade England with her natural harbours
- Henry VII sailed from Honfleur in 1485 – French invasion with tactics, ships, money and army
- Was Henry VIII a great revolutionary? Least expected
- Nothing suggested he would do anything revolutionary
- The reformation began in Germany in 1517 with Luther and the 95 theses
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Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1528. - God absorbed in human life
- Printing and painting – everyone knew what Luther looked like. He is the only non-royal everyone knew what he looked like
- “Legitimate use of the present to make us think of the past”
- Religion is a central element in the 16th century
- More and Cromwell were fundamentally the same with a religious difference
- Hilary Mantel takes her Cromwell and More from G.R. Elton
- Salvation = this world is short and unimportant, what matters is eternity
- Purgatory – purged of sins – money could buy you out
- St Peter’s Basilica was paid for out of indulgences, no biblical foundation
- Luther spreads the word – vernacular bible and destruction of cities
- Henry VIII horrified by Luther at first, brought up as a traditional Catholic
- 1513 war was a crusade – Louis XII of France got divorced and broke with Rome
- Tunstall at the diet of worms
- Luther wants to print in the vernacular and denies the 7 sacraments
- Assertio Septem Sacramentorum – Henry VIII writes his own book, named ‘Fidei Defensor’ (defender of the faith)
- Wolsey completes Henry VIII’s education = trained in theology
- Anne Boleyn and the divorce 1527
- “War of Henry’s willy” – love letters undated
- Katherine of Aragon had no sons – knew she wouldn’t have a son for a decade
- Woman in charge in a love affair, only changes in marriage
- Henry VIII thought the Pope would grant his divorce, until the sack of Rome when the pope moves to Orvieto in 1527
- Charles V is Katherine’s nephew
- Henry VIII spends 2 years arguing with Europe using money and jurisdiction
- Divorce requires the break with Rome
- Henry VIII creates a think tank and reforms the royal library
- Supreme head of the church = Henry VIII uses the same techniques as Luther, based on the Bible, no reference to Pope or clergy
- 1530 got ideas and parliament won’t do what he wants
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Anne Boleyn Hever Castle Portrait - 1533 marries Anne Boleyn and breaks with Rome
- WATERSHED
- Propaganda, re-inventing England, imperialism
- “Profoundly absolutely divisive”
- Pilgrimage of Grace 1536 – dissolution of the monasteries, Medieval art destroyed
- Thomas More executed 1535
- Unity of Christianity lost
- More condemned on false evidence – act of parliament illegal, act of parliament can’t declare Henry head of the church
- Parliamentary sovereignty invented under Henry VIII to break with Rome
- Resonate with Brexit – unconventional
- Head of the church “only under Christ”
- Quality and force of argument more explored in the 16th century than in the current Brexit referendum
- Break with Rome wouldn’t have happened without Anne Boleyn