From Ancient Documents to Modern England: The Power of Papers
Lucy Worsley’s “Royal History’s Biggest Fibs” examines the English Reformation in its first episode, challenging the conventional narrative centered on Henry VIII’s personal life. The series aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of key historical events, and the Reformation is presented as a case study in how political motivations and the strategic deployment of historical claims shaped this period.
We were delighted to see Harvington Hall feature so prominently!
Harvington Hall
It also gives us an opportunity to talk about the Ecclesiastical Appeals Act of 1532, because it serves as a focal point, illustrating how legal documents, explicitly taking their authority from historical narratives were instrumental in establishing royal supremacy and redefining England’s relationship with both the papacy and its own past.
This Act, with its invocation of figures like Brutus of Troy, highlights the use of historical precedent to legitimize significant political and religious change.
The episode suggests that the Reformation was not simply a consequence of Henry’s desire for a new wife, but a complex process which deployed the calculated use of historical rhetoric, as we can see from the statue the programme took the viewers to:
“WHERE by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed, that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same, unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms, and by names of spiritualty and temporalty, be bounden and ought to bear, next to God, a natural and humble obedience”
– Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532 (24 Hen. 8. c. 12) (also known as the Statute in Restraint of Appeals, the Act of Appeals, and the Act of Restraints in Appeals)(emphasis added)
The Ecclesiastical Appeals Act of 1532 (24 Hen. 8. c. 12), passed by the Parliament of England in early April 1533, is considered a key legal foundation of the English Reformation. Drafted by Thomas Cromwell for King Henry VIII, the Act forbade all appeals to the Pope in Rome on religious or other matters. This established the King as the final legal authority in England, Wales, and other English possessions.
Brutus of Troy, the legendary founder and first king of Britain according to medieval myth, was a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas.
The justification for this act rested on the assertion that England was an “Empire” with an “Imperial Crown,” a claim supported by a lineage traced back to Brutus and the fall of Troy. This act is discussed at some lenght in the new Lucy Worsley’s “Royal History’s Biggest Fibs” considers the English Reformation in its first episode, dismantling the popular narrative of Henry VIII’s pursuit of a new wife and male heir.
Aeneas fleeing from Troy, by Pompeo Batoni (c. 1750).
The focus on the preamble of the 1532 Act is significant, particularly when viewed through the lens of Soulton and its connection to figures like Sir Rowland Hill. Hill’s known interest in ancient documents, and the Tudor state’s use of rhetoric, becomes especially relevant here. The preamble’s reference to England’s descent from Brutus isn’t just a historical footnote; it’s linked to publications from the Rowland Hill press. These kinds of documents could be deployed rhetorically to establish either an ancient, independent English church separate from Rome, or a long-standing, distinct identity for the English state itself. This antiquity, whether ecclesiastical or political, could then be used to justify and bolster a new, fundamentally different understanding of England compared to its pre-Reformation past.
The episode argues that this simplified version obscures the true significance of the event. The Reformation, Worsley contends, was not solely about Henry’s marital circumstances. His divorce from Catherine of Aragon was part of a profound religious and political rupture between England and continental Europe, a division with lasting consequences still felt today.
This break also contributed significantly to the development of Britain’s modern constitutional framework and its subsequent imperial power.
A key point of the episode is the position taken on Henry VIII as a Protestant reformer: the real advocates for Protestantism, she argues, were Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell, whose influence on the movement has often been downplayed.
Portrait of Henry VIII of England (Holbein)
Worsley’s presentation claims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the Reformation, moving beyond the well-worn story of a king’s personal desires. The episode highlights the complex political and religious forces at play, emphasizing the long-term impact of this pivotal period in British history.
