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​By Mark Holinshed

Dedicated to the reign of Henry VIII, all the incidents and accidents, and raising a few questions along the way

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Wolf Hall - A Fake Romance
‘Nothing happens in Wiltshire,’ said Edward Seymour to his sister in Alison Weir’s novel Jane Seymour The Haunted Queen.
In the real 1535 Wiltshire was the wealthiest and most influential county in the country. ‘In the early 16th century Wiltshire was one of the chief industrial centres of England, with a flourishing cloth trade, mainly in the west of the shire but extending south-east to Salisbury and Wilton.’
Thornbury to Acton Court - Behind the Facade
The journey from Thornbury Castle to Acton Court was six miles.
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The host there was young twenty-three year old Sir Nicholas Poyntz, knighted during the visit, who was married to Joan, daughter of Thomas Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley. Poyntz had spent the previous nine months – so the story goes] – building a new east wing for a visit in August 1535
​Berkeley Castle to Thornbury​ - Was the King Ever There?
The King is still on the confines of Wales, [the Welsh Marches] hunting and traversing the country to gain the people. It is said many of the peasants where he has passed, hearing the preachers who follow the Court, are so much abused as to believe that God has inspired the King to separate himself from the wife of his brother; but these are mere "idiotes," who will soon return to the truth when there is any appearance of remedy.
​T​ewkesbury to Berkeley Castle – Echoes of Thomas Cromwell's Wife
​Leaving Tewkesbury, the royal progress made its way to Gloucester and hunting in the company of Sir William Kingston.
The Anarchy.
A Wykes detour and a conundrum at Leonard Stanley, Tyndale Country and on to Berkeley Castle. Anne de Boulogne had few friends and in the Severn Vale her enemies were advanced in their planning for her downfall.
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​Langley, Oxfordshire to Tewkesbury – Becket and a Tribute to King John
​The royal train arrives in the Cotswolds, rolling hills, magnificent churches, resplendent merchant’s houses, and the telling of the story about the man who struck Thomas Becket dead. At Winchcombe, there was an angry abbot. And for the wholly French Anne de Boulogne an excursion, should she wish to go along, to the tomb of King John at Worcester who died trying to save his kingdom from a previous French incursion.
​Reading to King John's Palace, Langley
​Onward west from Reading, the vast royal entourage wound its way through Berkshire and into Oxfordshire. The monastic commissioners are never far away and sending reports back to Thomas Cromwell about the state of England’s abbeys, convents and priories. This was no romantic jaunt. The incoming Cromwell – Seymour regime meant business, and this was the opening phase of a period of history that changed the face of the kingdom forever – The Dissolution of the Monasteries. 
​​ 1535 Royal Progress – Bound for Bristol and the West of England
The first leg – Windsor to Reading Abbey
In March 1533, Henry promised that he would repair the insult to Kings Henry II and John, who had been tricked into offering the realm in tribute to the Holy See. He was also determined to reunite the crown with the goods churchmen had appropriated from it.In early July 1535, Henry set out from Windsor on the summer tour, the royal progress, to do just that.
 Anne Boleyn The Beginning of the Road to the End – The Third Part
At the End of The Second Part
The figurehead of the group was Thomas Cromwell, and that of the other was Anne de Boulogne. One group was in steep ascendancy and the other in sharp decline.
The de Boulognes were floundering and needed a lifeline, so again, this time in desperation, the de Boulogne family turned to France.  ​
  Anne Boleyn The Beginning of the Road to the End – The Second Part
​At the end of the first part, Anne had visited Boulogne on a royal visit with Henry VIII. During the ostentatious meeting of the sovereigns, the King of France, Francis I, had given his blessing for Anne and Henry to marry. The King of France also pledged, ‘as a brother’, to Henry that he would persuade Pope Clement to give his blessing to their union when he met him in Marseilles at the forthcoming marriage of his second son Henri to the pontiff’s niece, Catherine de Medici.
Marguerite of Angoulême is Fab 4…
One of the most influential people in post-medieval English history was Marguerite of Angoulême - or as she was also known, Marguerite de Navarre.
Yes, she was French. Her brother was Francis I, King of France but she and a group of reformers known as the Circle of Meaux began to reform the Catholic Church in France from within. That is to say, she was not part of the more radical Lutheran movement.
Anne Boleyn - The Beginning of the Road to the End - The First Part
Anne was a wholly French woman, she was educated in France, frequented the royal court in France, she was mentored by the French king's sister Marguerite of Angoulême, and groomed by Cardinal Wolsey as a ‘French’ replacement for Catherine of Aragon. 
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When she needed help she turned to the French.
​Dissolution of the Monasteries - Why it happened, and how it happened – Part 3
An army of about forty thousand stood ready to march south when at Doncaster in early December the rebels accepted an offer for the king to visit the north in person and hold a parliament at York to air the rebel’s grievances and debate their demands.
The leader of the insurgents, Robert Aske, was invited to spend Christmas with Henry VIII, and the Pilgrims as they have been called since, agreed to a compromise. However, they failed to extract any form of guarantee. 
Dissolution of the Monasteries - Why it happened, and how it happened – Part 2
​The war against the clergy thus far had been one-sided, and the spirituals had largely buckled under pressure. The overt dominance of Roman Catholicism in England had been all but broken–but now there were problems within the ranks of those who had broken it.
 
Dissolution of the Monasteries - Why it happened, and how it happened – Part 1
​In 1529, for only the second time in fifteen years, there was a sitting of parliament, and it began to reform the power exercised by the church in England. By 1540, of the eight hundred and fifty monasteries that previously existed, there were none left. 
Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII - A Blinkered View ​
It is something of an achievement for a historian to secure broadcasting time on one of the major UK TV channels. It is quite remarkable to secure two hours on a major TV channel on a Saturday night between 8 and 9 pm.
Historian Doctor Suzannah Lipscomb ought to be applauded for just that.
The programme; Anne Boleyn: Queen for a Thousand Days was broadcast on Channel 5 last Saturday.
​Seasons Greetings from Henry VIII 
                                                             – But No One Paid a Blind Bit of Notice
​He began with love and thanks – thanks for the approval into law by Parliament of the Chantries Bill. Like the monasteries, chantries had been an important part of religious life in England for centuries, and may be defined thus;
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“Chantry is the term for the establishment of an institutional chapel on...
Roots of the Reformation
Here is some fake News from the BBC
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“By breaking with Rome in 1534 when the pope refused to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, Henry created the sovereign English nation, living under its own laws and guarded by its own ships. Parliament became his junior partner in this venture, and in the dissolution of the monasteries.”
Henry VIII, the Reign in XV Minutes - Part Three of Three
The third five of the fifteen-minute reign. The Seymour family secure the Strait of Dover from the French, then oust the Howards, execute the son and lock up the father. Now ready to claim Henry VIII’s throne, the kings expressed will for the future of the kingdom is binned, and Edward Seymour assumes the sovereign’s power in the name of the teenage nephew Edward VI.
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What of the man’s legacy?
​Henry VIII, the Reign in XV Minutes - Part Two of Three
The second part of a fifteen-minute summary (three bite-size blog posts) includes the rise and fall of the ruling Boleyn faction which after a coup in 1536 led to the introduction of the evangelist Cromwell - Seymour party. Thomas Cromwell famously arranged the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves - a wedding ring too far for Cromwell, and he befell the consequences. This is a continuing theme advocating that historians have devoted too much attention to the man that was Henry VIII to the detriment of our understanding of events and the neglect of other more influential figures of the time. ​
​Henry VIII, the Reign in XV Minutes - Part One of Three
​A new look at the reign of Henry VIII. This is part one of a fifteen-minute summary (three bite-size blog posts) includes the influence of Thomas Wolsey in the lead up to the Reformation. As academia returns over the coming weeks, it is part of a continuing theme advocating that historians have devoted too much attention to the man that was Henry VIII to the detriment of our understanding of events and other more influential figures of the time.
The Pilgrim's Rebellion
​Bessie Blount was once Henry VIII's lover and is the mother of his son Henry Fitzroy.

​After the birth of their child back in 1519, Cardinal Wolsey banished her to Lincolnshire, and now she lives among those who began the Pilgrimage of Grace.
​The year is 1536, and the king’s men have arrived to close monastic houses plunder their possessions and seize the buildings for the king. Henry VIII’ religious changes are ripping the heart out of England.
Anne Boleyn – Henry’s Retribution in Boulogne
​A Melancholic and Hapless King. In early 1543 England and the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by Charles V of Spain, signed a treaty to wage war on France within two years. Henry VIII had re-joined the Habsburg – Valois war that had dogged Christendom for decades...did he use it for retribution?
Anne Boleyn – The Executioner is Sharpening His Blade
​At the beginning of August in 1535 Anne Boleyn and the great royal entourage that was the royal progress, after a month of slow-moving travel from London, was in Gloucestershire.She had less than a year to live. Those that surrounded her would see to that. This journey to the west of England had been devised, with malice, to seal her fate.
Catherine Howard and the King's Broken Heart
​Thomas Culpeper was a wealthy man who in 1541 held a privileged position as a member of Henry VIII’s Privy Chamber. A year before, the disastrous ‘blind’ marriage of Henry VIII to the German, Princess Anne of Cleves, had brought about the downfall of first minister Thomas Cromwell, and now he would claim history for his part in another disastrous marriage.
Mark Holinshed
Royal Progress and the Execution of Sir Thomas More
In March 1533, Henry promised that he would repair the insult to Kings Henry II and John, who had been tricked into offering the realm in tribute to the Holy See. He was also determined to reunite the crown with the goods churchmen had appropriated from it.In early July 1535, probably the 9th, Henry set out from Windsor on the summer tour, the royal progress, to do just that.The Boleyn faction at court was on the cusp of losing its hold over the malleable king, the Seymour Cromwell regime was in the ascendancy.
Collectanea satis copiosa
​In plain English ‘How can that be?’ ​One of the foundation stones of the English Reformation was the publication of the Bible in English.The Bible had for centuries been the preserve of the clerics, written in Hebrew, Greek or more often Latin to be interpreted by the officers of the church to the people.The people, those uneducated in the ancient languages, the ‘common people’, were unable to corroborate what they were told by the churchmen.
​Accepted in Lieu. The Taxman Commeth
When putting together the article ‘Holbein and Mallard’, I came across an Arts Council brochure titled Acceptance in Lieu Report which included some detail on Holbein’s preparatory, so-called, cartoon for the Whitehall mural,
​Prisoner Puppet Pope
​Here a look at the impossible situation in which Henry VIII found himself while trying to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. Whatever the legal arguments, the king was heading down a cul de sac.
A New Look – Holbein and Mallard
The man on the left needs no introduction, he is also the man on the right. I am sceptical when it comes to the history that has come down to us about Henry VIII.Most of the material, written and broadcast, about the reign of Henry VIII is fronted with an image derived from a work by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the Papa of Christendom (Part 2)
​​Previously, in part one, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the Papa of Christendom, while playing the part of arbiter between King Francis I of France and Charles Holy Roman Emperor, far from being an honest, and neutral broker had entered into a secret pact, the Treaty of Bruges, with Charles, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain to ally against France.
​Some Affection for Catherine of Aragon
There seems to be quite some affection for Catherine of Aragon, justifiably so, and even testified to by her husband during the trial of their marriage in 1529.Said Henry VIII of Catherine. ‘ I will in her absence declare unto you all my lords here presently assembled she hath been to me as true obedient, and comfortable wife as I could in my fancy wish or desire,’ 
Church Buildings - Use them differently or lose them
I have reason to use the M50 motorway quite frequently. The M50 is the two-lane motorway that runs from near Strensham Services in Worcestershire to Ross on Wye.Just north of the motorway; just yards in fact, near the Strensham end, is a church – all on its own.
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Catherine of Aragon's Tirade at Cardinal Wolsey
The day after the anniversary of the execution of Anne Boleyn it may be appropriate to recall the plight of Henry VIII ‘s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England, who Anne ousted.Catherine believed that Cardinal Wolsey Archbishop of York was responsible for her matrimonial breakdown.
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Anne Boleyn - Execution Anniversary, Some Thoughts
Henry VIII, the Reign would not be Henry VIII, the Reign if there were not some mention of 19 May, the date of Anne Boleyn’s execution.Anne Boleyn, Bullen to some, the Concubine to others or my own preference, de Boulogne. She, the much-vaunted short-lived, Queen of England.
Eustace Chapuys; His First Meeting with Henry VIII
Arrival in England In late summer 1529, Eustace Chapuys the new Imperial Ambassador arrived in London to take up his post as the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V’s representative in England. His two predecessors had endured a torrid time during Cardinal Wolsey’s tenure as ruler of England. 
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the Papa of Christendom
His Maritime Spectacular. At the beginning of 1519 Christendom was dominated by four secular powers; Maximilian Holy Roman Emperor over the Low Countries and the Germanic States, Francis I King of France, Charles V King of Spain and Henry VIII, King of England. But when the aged Maximilian died, leaving three young rulers in charge of the continent, England's Cardinal Thomas Wolsey fancied that he could run the lot
To Quote Sir Geoffrey Elton - Briefly
​“…The Howards yoked him to his second Catherine as surely as Cromwell more openly,forced his second Anne upon  him.
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All this is not intended in the least to deny Henry’s very real abilities, but only to suggest that we surely cannot accept an argument unsupported by evidence which ascribes to him alone the mastery of events, the making of policy and the detailed and specific government of the country.”
Henry VIII, the Reign.
Henry VIII, the Reign.