Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
David Starkey gave this lecture on 2 June 2009, one of three in connection with the British Library's exhibition 'Henry VIII - Man and Monarch' upon the quincentenary of his accession to the throne. Starkey was the guest curator. This second lecture looks at the change in Henry VIII: from his pursuit of glory and an enhanced status for England through war and peace, his very conventional defence of the Pope and the established religion, through to his determination to set on a course of marrying Anne Boleyn, in pursuit of which Rome’s authority would be rejected, the ideology of caesaropapism brought to the fore and willingness to follow him in all this became a test of survival for those around him.
David Starkey gave this lecture on 2 June 2009, one of three in connection with the British Library's exhibition 'Henry VIII - Man and Monarch' upon the quincentenary of his accession to the throne. Starkey was the guest curator. This second lecture looks at the change in Henry VIII: from his pursuit of glory and an enhanced status for England through war and peace, his very conventional defence of the Pope and the established religion, through to his determination to set on a course of marrying Anne Boleyn, in pursuit of which Rome’s authority would be rejected, the ideology of caesaropapism brought to the fore and willingness to follow him in all this became a test of survival for those around him.
