Age of Henry VIII

Remarkable women and men made history in Britain during the Age of Henry VIII: six wives (Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine and Katherine), faithful and far from saintly servants like Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell, and an evangelical boy destined to become Edward VI. This was an age of personal monarchy, patriarchy, and the rule of wealthy elites, but these figures travelled paths and pursued policies that changed the way every person lived. They nurtured and unleashed religious passions that divided generations and whole peoples from one another, and hundreds - eventually thousands - died at the hands of those who believed they had a monopoly on spiritual truth. This course analyzes the imperial ambitions of Henry VIII and Edward VI in Britain and Ireland, the brutal dynastic and religious politics of the period, and the all-out assault on the traditional faith in the Tudor dominions.