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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• 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 Continue reading “David Starkey – Henry VIII: the First Brexiteer” →